Fintech Impact

Jason talks to Manu Smadja, CEO and Co-Founder of MPower Financing. MPower Financing is a company that specialises in lending loan to international students because they have their own specific challenges that are encountered by many people who come to a foreign country.Episode Highlights:02:30: Manu elaborates on his realization about the ongoing challenges faced by international students, citing personal experiences, and the turning point a decade ago when a student approached him for financial help, sparking the idea for MPower.03:13: Manu shares the pivotal moment when a student was on the verge of dropping out due to a small financial shortfall. This event led him to question why no one was addressing this issue and motivated him to establish Empower in April 2014.05:40: Jason discusses the challenges of issuing loans to young people with no credit history or assets, and Manu emphasizes the need for alternative data sources.07:11: Manu discusses the complexity of acquiring customers overseas and the chal

Jason talks to Ian McKenna, founder of advisersoftware.com. Ian is a guru of advisor technology in the UK and has a great lens on both the UK and technology around the world. He is here to capture his and Jason’s casual and informative discussions about the industry's past, present, and future, offering listeners a valuable perspective on the fintech landscape.Episode Highlights:02:08: Ian introduces advisorsoftware.com, initially focused on UK advice technology but evolving into a global platform to address the international nature of financial planning.03:48: Jason and Ian plan to delve into various topics, starting with the evolution of software in the UK and then expanding to a global perspective.05:16: Ian envisions a future where Fintech seamlessly integrates into everyday digital life globally, making it the norm rather than a separate entity.11:57: Jason and Ian explore the irony that tougher regulation, especially in consumer protection, has proven beneficial for financial advisors' success.13:29: Ja

Jason talks to Shalicia Harris, founder and CEO of In Charge; a platform designed to empower financial advisors in growing their businesses and fostering stronger relationships with clients. The focus is on personalized financial literacy, aiming to empower clients in making informed decisions about their money. The platform enables advisors to seamlessly create tailored campaigns, emphasizing transparency and education to eliminate negative experiences in client-advisor interactions.Episode Highlights:02:03: Shalicia discusses the solution, emphasizing the need for personalized financial literacy to empower clients in making informed decisions about their money.06:37: Shalicia emphasizes the deeper and more personalized customer journey created through market surveys. She mentions the inclusion of market surveys in the insurance world, allowing for a more personalized customer journey.07:00: Shalicia emphasizes the creation of transparency and education as the primary goals. She discusses the importance of m

Jason talks to Kareem Hamady, Co-Founder and CEO of AltExchange. The company is a platform that helps advisors better manage all the complexity around the issuance, management, and stewardship of alternative investments in the marketplace. Kareem provides an overview of AltExchange, a company focused on aggregation and automation technology for alternative investments (alts). The company retrieves data from various platforms, including PDFs and spreadsheets, and uses machine reading technology to make sense of the data.Episode Highlights:03:10: Kareem details the challenges in private capital markets, emphasizing the absence of standardized identifiers, varied reporting metrics, and the need to structure non-structured data.05:37: Kareem explains AltExchange's involvement in the post-investment phase, focusing on tracking actions and workflows after the investment is made. The process includes receiving quarterly reports, annual tax documents, capital calls, and distributions.09:25: Kareem describes the norma

Jason talks to Andrew Butt, Co-Founder and CEO of Enable. Enable is a platform for managing B2B rebates a problem that exists at scale. Andrew describes Enable as a cloud-based platform fostering collaboration among supply chain stakeholders, including manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, focusing on trading agreements.Episode Highlights:01:03 Andrew shares the history of Enable, rooted in his background of building software. He recounts encountering the complex rebate management issue at a fast-growing UK distributor, where manual Excel spreadsheets were used due to ERP limitations.04:30 Andrew adds the loyalty element to rebate programs, drawing parallels with consumer loyalty programs like air miles or coffee shop rewards. The discussion emphasizes the role of rebates in fostering loyalty and influencing consumer behaviour.07:23 Andrew and Jason discuss the reconciliation challenges in traditional systems, including conflicts, different data sets, and timing issues. This conversation underscores the

Jason talks to Zach Conway, co-founder and CEO of Seeds. It is a platform that allows advisers to better assess investors and personalize their portfolios in order to create a better engagement with them. Zach highlights the traditional mechanical investing process with Seeds' approach, which aims to make investing more meaningful and engaging for both the investor and the advisor.Episode Highlights 02:07: Zach stresses the importance of understanding your client deeply. By asking the right questions, one can understand their needs, desires, and values. This is essential for delivering a personalized experience.05:13: Zach emphasizes the difference in their approach. Instead of explaining the money management strategy, they take clients through a digital assessment to unpack their personal investment mindset and behaviors.08:19: Zach speaks about side-by-side analysis of the current and proposed portfolios. He highlights the platform's capabilities, from portfolio construction to implementation and manag

Jason talks to Joel Bruckenstein known as the "godfather of advisor technology" in the US. Joel is the President of Technology Tool, a well-known consultant and writer in the financial advisory technology space. Joel is the President of Technology Tool, a well-known consultant and writer in the financial advisory technology space. The episode focuses on Joel's journey and how technology for financial advisors has evolved over time.Episode Highlights 01:26: Joel shares that he spends a significant amount of time consulting, evaluating new products, and engaging with advisors.04:13: When Joel began his journey, the wire houses, and many independent broker-dealers (IBDs) predominantly used proprietary technology solutions. Independent advisors had limited options in terms of technology.09:41: The cost of financial products, such as mutual funds, was much higher 30 years ago, and ETFs were not yet available.11:56: Jason shares a common observation that many outsiders, including technologists and engineers, o

On today’s episode of Fintech Impact, we have a repeated guest Aaron Klein, the co-founder and CEO of Nitrogen Wealth formerly Riskalyze. Aaron was back in April of 2019, and he has been up to quite a lot. Aaron introduces the concept of behavioral science, alluding to how clients react to financial decisions. He shares an anecdote about an advisor who realized that he was anchoring his clients' portfolios based on his own risk tolerance which led to a misalignment in clients' expectations and actual investment outcomes.Episode Highlights 00:52: Aaron discusses the evolution of their company, originally named Riskalyze, reflecting on its 12 1/2-year journey since its foundation and the launch of their initial product for advisors.03:26: Jason expresses a desire to discuss the client's journey with Aaron, mentioning the need for better structures and processes in the industry.09:20: Jason acknowledges that while there are solutions for SEO and content marketing to attract leads, the real challenge lies in

Jason talks to Chris Shuba, Founder and CEO of Helios Quantitative. It is an "in-source CIO," offering a unique solution for financial institutions. They provide all the functions of an investment department without the associated costs and hassles. Helios Quantitative simplifies and streamlines the operations of an advisory practice.Episode Highlights 01.52: Chris notes that while models were initially a primary focus, Helios has expanded its services and technology to become an all-encompassing in-source CIO, moving beyond a sole emphasis on modelling.02.23: Chris outlines the core goals of most advisors, which include looking impressive to clients, spending more time on their strengths, achieving scalability, and ultimately being profitable.09.42: Jason emphasizes that Helios Quantitative covers the entire vertical funnel for advisors, from ideation to implementation to communication and maintenance, providing a comprehensive value proposition throughout the process.11.47: Chris mentions their prefere

Jason talks to Rafael Loureiro, CEO of Wealth.com. The company besides having the most incredible URL for a fintech firm is an estate planning platform that allows for advisors and clients to collaborative work on estate plans and produce like legal estate documents and make it part of the entire continuing advisors by proposition.Episode Highlights 00:53: Rafael describes Wealth.com as a tech-driven estate planning platform designed for financial advisors. The platform helps advisors set up high-quality estate plans for their clients, offering legal estate documents that are applicable in 51 jurisdictions.03.09: Rafael and his team decided to create Wealth.com as an intelligent platform to help financial advisors maintain up-to-date estate planning. Their goal is to ensure estate planning evolves with changes in assets and beneficiaries, emphasizing the importance of keeping it current.05.56: Rafael notes that the platform's dashboard can integrate with the advisor's preferred CRM, such as Salesforce or

Jason talks to Elliott Limb, founder and CEO of Cubed. It is a company assisting fintech companies scale, while mitigating the high failure rates commonly faced by startups.Episode Highlights 00:21 Elliott discusses Cubed's mission, which is to help fintech companies overcome high failure rates. Cubed serves as growth partners, actively involved in running and growing fintech businesses.06:45: Elliott acknowledges that the cultural divide between traditional finance and fintech is a common issue. He mentions that this divide is gradually improving, but it has been a significant challenge in the past.09:37: Jason seeks advice from Elliott on how to prevent the challenge of knowing when to decline potential sales and engage in the difficult conversations with clients who demand hyper-specific, non-scalable solutions that offer significant financial incentives for custom development work.10.25: Companies should take a more strategic approach rather than jumping straight into execution, even if it means walk

Jason talks to John Lenker, founder and Chief Vision Officer of the marketing firm and Kevin deLaplante Partner & Chief Knowledge Officer. Lenker is a growth consulting firm that specializes in assisting early-stage startups in achieving product-market fit and establishing a recognizable brand before their launch. They emphasize on the challenges startups encounter, including a lack of market analysis and a tendency to prioritize technical development over other critical aspects of their business. Linker aims to help startups navigate these challenges and achieve their growth goals.Episode Highlights 05:19: Kevin mentions that some startups exhibit what he refers to as "pathological behavior," which involves making decisions that are not in their long-term rational self-interest, such as burning through limited funds or making poor decisions.06:02: Some startups, especially those with an engineering perspective, focus solely on building their technology because they believe it will revolutionize the

Jason interviews Julie Littlechild, the founder and CEO of Absolute Engagement. Julie is a renowned speaker and expert in client engagement within the financial advisory sector. She has recently launched the Absolute Engagement Engine, which brings her ideas on client engagement to life.Episode Highlights 00:58: Absolute Engine is designed to help financial advisors connect more deeply with their prospects and clients efficiently and consistently.06:31: Many advisors have recognized the importance of aspects such as Confidence, Concerns, Outlook, and Preferences; structuring the conversation in the format of a questionnaire can be a challenge, says Julie. 10:04: Julie explains that opportunities to uncover engagement and growth emerge for several reasons. These opportunities can arise based on how a client presents themselves at a given point in time, such as their confidence level during a review or introductory meeting.15:02: Jason emphasizes the importance of delving deeper to understand clients

Jason talks to Steven Wasick, Founder of infoSentience, an automation company specializing in using artificial intelligence to enhance data analytics and communication in financial markets. infoSentience’s software can analyze any data set, identify key insights, and communicate them effectively, similar to a human analyst or journalist. This episode explores the innovative technology and applications that infoSentience brings to the world of finance.Episode Highlights 01:16: infoSentience’s key product extends beyond finance and into the sports industry. They provide fantasy sports reports for CBS Sports and cover sports leagues like the NBA and NFL.06:54: infoSentience’s approach leverages the power of conceptual understanding to efficiently process and communicate complex information, making it valuable not only in the sports industry but also in various other domains.08:02: Unlike template-based approaches where you simply fill predefined slots, infoSentience’s system accounts for the complexity of r

Jason talks to Stephen Chen, founder, and CEO of New Retirement. It is an online platform that facilitates financial institutions in offering DIY financial planning experiences to their existing or potential customers. The platform is designed to enhance and complement their existing financial services. Stephen describes New Retirement as essentially creating a "TurboTax for financial planning." Initially, the company began as a consumer-facing platform before transitioning into its current role of supporting financial institutions in providing comprehensive financial planning solutions.Episode Highlights 03:25: Jason acknowledges that Stephen Chen's approach with New Retirement is a much better approach compared to some other concepts he has encountered.04:07: Stephen talks about the evolution of New Retirement's business model. Initially, the company was bootstrapped and started as a subscription service for consumers. However, it became evident that this model wasn't inherently scalable for venture ca

Jason talks to Owen Winkelmolen, Founder/CEO of Adviice, a financial planning tool in Canada. It is a client-facing financial planning platform designed to support fee-for-service advisors and all advisors in general. It enables clients and advisors to collaborate in building a financial plan. The origin of Adviice, can be traced back to Owen's financial planning practice, Plan Easy, which he founded in 2018. The discussion touches upon the challenges faced by those in the financial planning space, especially when it comes to handling payments, subscriptions, and client retention.Episode Highlights 0.41: Adviice is a platform that manages the entire client engagement process, including onboarding, payment processing, discovery, document uploads, planning, recommendations, implementation, and tracking, all within a single platform.6.25: Owen explains that the onboarding process in Advice is designed to be user-friendly and efficient, with yes-no questions and multiple-choice questions that are easy for cl

In this episode of Fintech Impact, host Jason welcomes back repeat guest Trevor Greenway, the founder of interVal. Trevor discusses how interVal's software platform assists financial advisors, accountants, and other professionals in valuing businesses. The platform provides estimates of business value, guides clients in the right direction, and helps them optimize their largest asset.Episode Highlights 02:36: Jason inquires about the process of business valuation for financial advisors and others who want to help clients determine their business's worth.03:57: The conversation highlights the crucial aspects of raising awareness among business owners, enabling advisors to add value, and ultimately working together to create a well-planned and cohesive future. interVal's automated discovery process plays a pivotal role in achieving these goals.04:19: Jason emphasizes that conveying the value of something is one aspect, but explaining the reasons behind its value and providing strategies for improvement is

Jason talks to Jud Mackrill, co-founder of Milemarker & Mammoth, who has been on the show before. The discussion centers around the challenges related to data and data management in the industry. For the past 15 years, many conferences have complained about the quality of data, its location, and how it's often siloed. Jud is working on a solution to address these issues.Episode Highlights 0:56: The company's main goal is to address issues related to connectivity, integration, and operational efficiency for firms that may not have the resources to specialize in these areas due to their focus on taking care of their clients' needs.01:40: Jason and Jud discuss the challenges faced by average RAs (Risk Analysis) depending on their size.06:27: Jud emphasizes that Milemarker's goal is not to compete with internal teams but to assist and augment their efforts.08:30: Milemarker helps integrate data and information so that when the Home Office receives requests from the field, they are intelligent and specifi

Jason talks to Philipp Hecker, CEO of Bento Engine. It is a cutting-edge content and conversation system designed for financial advisors. The system's primary goal is to assist financial advisors in cultivating stronger client relationships and expanding their businesses.Episode Highlights 0.49: Bento Engine aims to help advisors focus on crucial moments in their clients' and prospects' lives. It operates as a B2B SaaS solution, integrating with widely used CRM systems through APIs.2.05: During his time at JP Morgan's Wealth Planning and Advice unit, Phil witnessed the power of comprehensive advice in action. This unit included various financial planning teams across JP Morgan's private bank, broker-dealer business, and TRACE network.5:30: As per Jason, some advisors opt to limit the number of households, they serve to provide high-level service, which may restrict their income potential. This approach often leaves the bottom end of their client base underserved.13.41: Bento Engine triggers opportunities

Jason talks to Jacob McGraw from Sikka.ai, a fintech company specializing in API platform services for dental support organizations (DSOs). DSOs are large firms that operate numerous dental practices. Jacob discusses Sikka.ai’s innovative underwriting methodology for insurance companies and explains the company's value proposition. Episode Highlights 01:00: Jacob explains the operations of Sikka.ai The company collects data from dental practices to underwrite life insurance applicants. 03:13: The company's API platform integrates with over 92% of the practice management systems used by these dental clinics, making it easier for DSOs to manage their operations.04:45: Jacob highlights the power of taking data from oral health practitioners since oral health often serves as an indicator of other medical issues.07:12: The current reliance on self-reported information in traditional underwriting can lead to inaccuracies and misclassifications. With Sikka.ai’s dental data integration, these issues ca