Concepts discussed included AI in financial planning and retirement savings, automated tax solutions and next generation client communications technology.
Sachar said that many of the trends discussed pertained to "gig” employees and freelancers. Others addressed the persistent retirement “crisis” presented by the low levels of saving among U.S. workers.
“One idea focused on maximizing retirement contributions for people who needed assistance to realize what increasing their contributions could mean for their long-term goals, and it tapped into unconventional ways to generate additional contributions,” said Sachar. “One method was harnessing retail affiliate networks, rather than getting cash back referrals, participants would instead get a contribution to their 401(k).”
The conversations also included engaging millennials with new technology
Advisors and fintech developers then discussed the ideas presented to them and engaged in collaborative brainstorming sessions.
The collaboration is something that Ladenburg hopes to extend into the future, so that advisors grow their practices around new technologies, and new technologies are developed to specifically suit the needs of advisors.
“It was really open-ended, but certainly the start-ups were learning from us,” said Sachar. “We were bringing up topics like compliance, the ideas sounded amazing, but were they thinking about all these issues that advisors have to think about every day. In most cases, they’ve worked out the kinks, but we still like to have startups aware of these issues.”