Jack Sharry: Hello, everyone. Welcome to this year-end special edition of WealthTech on Deck. Thanks for joining us. Our WealthTech on Deck podcast has been successful beyond our wildest dreams, we must say. We’ve had more than 10,000 downloads and 5,000 listeners since we started in March of 2021. We are closing in on having interviewed 100 industry executives on our show, nearly 100 industry executives over the past 20 months and we’ve heard a lot of interesting ideas, strategies, and important advances from leaders across the financial services industry. For this special edition year in review podcast, I’m going to share my perspective and lessons learned in our, from our favorite shows in 2022. I’ll have my colleague and producer of our show, Matt Nollman, take over the host here in just a moment, and I’ll sit in as guest. So Matt, let’s get to it.

Matt Nollman: Thanks, Jack. Excited to be in the opposite side of the aisle for a little bit.

Jack Sharry: Yeah, cool.

Matt Nollman: Yeah, let’s get into it. So I have reaped the benefits of you talking with so many industry executives and people every day. I hear a lot about these conversations. And I’m blessed to. And I always look forward to hearing what you hear from these people. I mean, a lot of these discussions are around trends and disruptions and what they’re doing behind the scenes and what’s going on. And I definitely find that I get better at my job and learn a lot more about the industry by hearing what you have to say. So, over the past year, I’m sure you’ve learned a lot about that. Being a practitioner of active listening, you’ve probably taken a lot in.

Jack Sharry: Yep.

Matt Nollman: And I think our audience would find a lot of it both interesting and useful. So why don’t we first start by unpacking your favorite guests and the shows that we’ve had after going through all nearly 100 of them. And then we’ll go into why over the course of this conversation today.

Jack Sharry: Terrific, terrific. So as our listeners know, those who listen each week or from time to time, we talked a lot this year about the dominant trend I now see under, well underway, and that is disrupting our industry for the good of consumers, advisors, and firms. Most of the large firms in our industry are actively building, what we call comprehensive advice platforms, or comprehensive wealth management ecosystems, there’s a few different variations on the name. But the guests I find to be the most interesting are working on this key trend. It’s all consuming frankly, there’s a lot to it. And it’s all around building a highly coordinated system that supports comprehensive advice and better outcomes for all so it’s, it’s all good for everybody really. So I’ve categorized the top shows from the 50 or so we did in 2022 as follows. So, and I made all these categories up, but they all made sense to me and hopefully to our guests. So our best and brightest category. I’ll talk about my conversations with Ben Huneke and Jed Finn, two senior executives for Morgan Stanley. I’ll also talk about Rose Palazzo, formerly of Morgan Stanley now group head at Envestnet MoneyGuide. Then we will talk about a newcomer, Amanda Lott from JP Morgan. Another group I’ll discuss, this is what I’m calling sage implementers, Frank McAleer from Raymond James is a wise and able pro. We’ll talk about Frank and the good work he’s doing there. We’ll also talk about the conversation we had with Deep Srivastav of Franklin Templeton AdvisorEngine and Martin Cowley of LifeYield. We had many wise observers and consultants on our podcast, that’s another category, wise observers and consultants. And I will highlight conversations with Chip Rome, who’s the founder and managing partner of Tiburon Strategic Advisors and Tiburon CEO Summits. We also talked to Nalika Nanayakkara, who is the EY America’s wealth and asset management consulting leader. In fact, she became that just shortly before we had her on our show, was elevated. And Jackie Reardon, who shared important research Franklin Templeton conducted with the Harris Poll on the voice of the American worker, and how consumers are redefining retirement.

Matt Nollman: So I know how hard it was for us to go through all 100 of these and choose, you know, certain certain episodes. I was part of the decision making and it was a difficult process, because we really had so many interesting guests this year. But I know for us, one of the ones that came to the top of the list really quickly, for both of us, was Morgan Stanley. So what I’d like to do here is get your thoughts on what they shared from both of the people we had, with Jed and Ben, but also you know, what you’ve noticed them influencing across our industry because I think that our listeners would really like to hear both of those sides of the story.

Jack Sharry: Terrific. So it’s interesting. Morgan Stanley really is the leader. There’s no doubt about it and I hear that wherever I go, I don’t prompt it. It just what comes back at me from my various conversations, people are really catching on this comprehensive advice thing is not a passing trend, it’s a real sea change. Pardon the cliche there, but it’s true. So in talking with about Morgan Stanley and what they’re doing, I should really start with Rose, our friend Rose Palazzo. So if I had to pick one of the many important influencers on this growing phenomenon around comprehensive advice, I would say Rose is the one person who’s at the top and got this whole thing started. So a little background. Ten years ago as Morgan Stanley’s head of financial planning, we were in conversations with Rose and others there, but Rose went to her boss and her boss’s boss and on up the line and ultimately convinced Jed Finn, who then and now is the COO of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. Rose made the argument that the future of advice and planning had to include dealing with a coordinated effort around financial planning, risk and tax management, and implementation across all accounts and holdings and a household portfolio. Up to that time, the idea of coordinating all that was a pipe dream, it just wasn’t possible to do all that. And Rose persuaded Morgan Stanley’s management to invest billions of dollars, real money, on a comprehensive advice approach that went far deeper and further than anything before it, and frankly, anything anticipated at that time. Rose has been on our show a few different times over the past two years, and clearly has a lot to offer with each visit. On the show we did in November, it was her one year anniversary at Envestnet MoneyGuide. We talked about some of the work she did at Morgan Stanley as well as the advances she’s making at MoneyGuide. So on our recent show, Rose shared with us the key ingredients and some of the challenges of building a comprehensive approach. Most, most importantly, this includes marrying financial planning with implementation that considers a host of critical issues like tax and risk management models, multi account income generation, as well as maximizing Social Security, and how best to incorporate annuities into the mix. And now many top firms have come to Rose and MGP and to us at LifeYield, and have asked us to work together to share what we’ve learned about how to incorporate and coordinate the key ingredients of a comprehensive ecosystem built for the future. And simply that is a function of combining household level financial planning and household level tax management. Those are the two keys.

Matt Nollman: Very interesting. I mean, I’ve listened to all of our shows and podcasts, it’s very clear that Rose understands from front to back, everything that goes into it and how to build one of these platforms. Now, it was also very clear when we talked to Jed Finn and Ben Huneke there that they know a thing or two as well, as they continue to make these pretty drastic advances combining all of their capabilities in wealth management, workplace retirement, E-Trade, Eaton Vance, Parametric, so I’m sure our audience would also love to hear what stands out to you about Jen and Ben, who are now leading the charge there with all this technology.

Jack Sharry: Sure. Well, first of all, Jen and Ben are two the smartest people I know in the business. I have a real, it’s a real privilege to be able to talk to them from time to time about what they’re doing. It will come as no surprise to our listeners that I’m a strategy geek. Ben and Jed are two ex-McKinsey folks who know strategy as well as anyone. And the Morgan Stanley strategy is rock solid. So what we were talking about at Morgan Stanley reminds me of one of the great TV advertisements of all time, the old EF Hutton ads. By the way, Matt, pardon me, but this is well before you were born, but these old EF Hutton ads were just classic. And then what they said was when EF Hutton talks, people listen. And then there was a group of people, I think they were supposed to be advisors, called brokers, up the rear as, as they all went silent, and they stayed quiet for what seemed like an eternity in the ad. They were listening. And that was the whole point. Morgan Stanley strategy works well because they’ve listened to their clients, to what they want, more than their clients, consumers at large. And they’ve expanded their capabilities to serve all parts of the marketplace. They’ve historically been known as, as a high net worth firm, but really, with all that they’re doing as, and as Ben and Jen both talk about it, they want to meet where, investors where they live. And what they’re looking to provide are better financial outcomes, and that are easy to understand and achieve across all of their holdings. So whenever I talk with folks across the industry, people are listening and watching Morgan Stanley very closely as they should. And of course, strategy without implementation is just a strategy. And both Jed and Ben execute thoughtfully, deliberately, and they get things done in a very smart way. So building and coordinating all the elements of these platforms is very hard work. Legacy systems, more systems coming through all the time as they acquire more. Culture issues, lots of different software vendors, data sources and capabilities. Courting and stuff is not easy. The interview I did with Jed for the Next Chapter Rockin’ Retirement Conference was the most succinct and powerful rendition of Morgan Stanley’s strategy I’ve heard. And in the podcast I did with Ben, who oversees all products and platform on the wealth management side and will increasingly I believe serve to support the institutional side, like E-Trade and Morgan Stanley at Work and so on. He articulated their wealth management strategy very clearly and talked about how they are focused and executing in a very disciplined way. So, for our listeners who want to understand how strategy and execution are done at a high level, I recommend listening to Ben and Jed multiple times. I, frankly, have done that. They really know what they’re talking about. And I think it’d be very worthwhile for our listeners to tune in again.

Matt Nollman: Very interesting. So, another episode, Jack, that really stood out to me this year was Amanda Lott of JP Morgan. You mentioned a best and brightest category, and based on what I heard, I would undoubtedly put her in that category as well. So why don’t you tell us a little bit about what you learned and heard in her episode, because this one to me really opened my eyes to what is possible and what things that some of the best leading firms in our industry are working on.

Jack Sharry: Well, Matt, as you know, and others that know me around the industry, I love working with people that are new and younger in the business that show a lot of promise and Amanda Lott is all of that. She reminds me a lot of, of Rose Palazzo actually, just a few years younger. So, Amanda heads up wealth planning strategy at JP Morgan private bank. She works with advisors, not only developing wealth plans, but how to implement them. She also understands the, all the dynamics and the fundamental importance of taxes. That’s a recurring theme here because it’s just such a big and important impact on platforms. On our podcasts, she talks with great insight and passion about the inextricable dynamics of financial planning, implementation, and taxes. Amanda also has played an important leadership role at JP Morgan in developing what appears to me to be the top advisor training program in the industry around marrying planning and implementation. She’s definitely one to watch. Not only now, but in the years ahead and worth a listen to on our podcast.

Matt Nollman: No doubt, no doubt. So let’s keep moving along on our list here. So another group that you identified here, you called sage implementers. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about this definition and who falls under this category to you.

Jack Sharry: So I had a little fun with that name, and it has lot to do with my friend Frank McAleer, who’s at Raymond James. Frank is a very experienced and accomplished pro. And he joins me in having the honor of qualifying to be a member of the OG club. I get to hang out with people like you, Matt, that are of a younger generation. And for those of you who don’t know what an OG is, that’s people like me and Frank, it’s old guy. So we proudly wear that label, Frank will get a kick out of this when he hears it. So I’ve known Frank for decades. In my estimation, Raymond James has the most robust and comprehensive set of planning offerings and advisor client support in the industry. And Frank heads up all those planning and guidance offerings for the Raymond James broker dealers and RIAs. And as Frank and I have discussed on the podcast, he has 60 or so folks who work with advisors on any and all cases, especially the important ones to their advisors. They want to get it right, they go to Frank’s crew. And that includes everything you can imagine that a client might need help on. So whether the client is selling a business, trying to figure out how to do that transition, or is a retiring executive, or wants to do an in depth financial and estate plan, any kind of longevity planning, address healthcare issues and solutions. The list goes on. Frank discusses this on our podcast and the importance of what they do to help advisors and how they do it. Frank also understands not only a lot of stuff, but he especially gets the more complex and sophisticated situations and he understands the stresses and strains of the advisor and wants to help clients get the most out of the assets they’ve accumulated and need help with, with, on all the complexities that come with it. So Frank is always looking ahead and, as to what’s next. And so, I see just give a listen to our podcast discussion on the good work he and his team are doing a Raymond James now, and also some things they’re working on for the future.

Matt Nollman: Very interesting. I definitely remember a lot about that episode. And Frank opened my eyes to a few things for sure. But let’s keep pulling on the thread of the sage implementers. So I know we identified Deep Srivastav of Franklin Templeton and AdvisorEngine who definitely had a lot to share on an episode coming out, yet to come out as of recording, but will be out by the time that we publish this episode. But another person on the same episode that I have really learned as much as anyone from in the industry is Martin Cowley of LifeYield, one of our most prestigious colleagues, we could say. So what was it about that conversation that you liked so much, and that you really took from it is like a key takeaway for people that are listening?

Jack Sharry: Sure. So as we’ve discussed on this episode, and I’m a strategy geek, and one of the strategies that I admire most is what Jenny Johnson, who’s the CEO at Franklin Templeton and her team have put together. Franklin Templeton has bought merged and innovated product. Legg Mason and O’Shaughnessy are recent examples. And there’s a whole lot more. They’ve invested in and partnered on tech capabilities, AdvisorEngine, they’ve partnered with us at LifeYield. And many more. Not only have they devised the super smart strategy, they execute, and Deep is very much part of that execution. And so when he and Martin came on, it was really a pleasure to hear, talk about what they’ve done together. And we’ll talk some more about that in just a second. So, Deep heads up digital innovation at Franklin Templeton. On our podcast, he talked about something he built and, along with his team, the award-winning Goals Optimization Engine, they call it GOE. It’s probably the most advanced financial planning implementation tool in the industry. It’s very sophisticated. It’s very dynamic. It’s also available on the AdvisorEngine platform, now owned by Franklin Templeton. We’ve had Rich Cancro, who’s the CEO of AdvisorEngine on our show before, he’s talked about what they do at AdvisorEngine. And now Rich and his team had already built a state of the art platform for RIAs and after Franklin Templeton purchased Rich’s firm, the GOE system, Goals Optimization Engine system was integrated into the AdvisorEngine platform. So this is the classic one plus one plus one equals 10 scenario. Joining Deep in describing GOE was our colleague, Martin Cowley, for the podcast. Martin has been involved in building, integrating, and coordinating more comprehensive wealth management ecosystems than anyone in the industry. Martin and his team, Deep and his team, and Rich Cancro and his team all collaborated to create a state of the art wealth management platform, the state of the art, in my opinion, wealth management platform in the industry. What I’m describing will be out early next year, they discuss the progress of what will be made available early on. It’s a next gen version of GOE and AdvisorEngine that will roll out hopefully in the first quarter as things progress.

Matt Nollman: Very interesting. I mean, definitely on the leading edge of what they’re putting together as a financial services technology offering, period. I know that a lot of people are going to benefit from what they’re putting together. So I personally, am excited for what they’re coming out with. But we got to keep rolling here on this show. And another category that you identified here, which casts a little bit of a wide net, but we found two really, really intelligent people to put in this category of observers and consultants. So tell us about a couple of your favorite observers and consultants, which is a little bit of a different perspective than we usually have on our show.

Jack Sharry: So first is Chip Roame. He’s the founder and managing partner at Tiburon Strategic Advisors and Tiburon CEO Summits. Chip is one of the most incisive observers I know of our industry and its trends. Every time I’m with Chip, I learn something new. I have the privilege of attending the Tiburon CEO Summit with 300 or so executives each spring and fall, they do it twice a year. Hands down, these sessions are the most important industry events I attend each year. If you want to learn from the stage, especially Chip’s keynote, which is killer, and maybe even more importantly, what I learned in the hallway conversations, I find my time at Tiburon to be enormously valuable. So we invited Chip to be on our podcast prior to the Tiburon Conference that was held this past April in New York City. Chip gave us the five key takeaways that he was going to share at the conference and later did and explain why they matter. So no surprise, he was spot on, as he always is. He expanded on those ideas this past November again, I was able to attend the Tiburon CEO Summit in Chicago this time. Definitely worth a listen to the podcast from back in April. Just to give you a heads up, we’re going to have Chip back on the show early next year, to give us an update on way what he’s seeing. We’re going to have him, have a steady diet of Chip and his perspective, it’s always useful.

Matt Nollman: No doubt, Jack. But another one of my favorite episodes this year in the same vein as Chip was Nalika Nanayakkara of EY, who was recently promoted to be the leader of America’s wealth and asset management consulting. So personally, I took a ton away from that message, she was extremely eloquent in outlining her strategy and how she works with some of the different firms around the industry. And I know you also found her insights and observations to be extremely illuminating. So why don’t you unpack that one a little bit.

Jack Sharry: Sure. So Nalika oversees all of wealth and asset management in the Americas for EY. It’s a huge job. She works on a daily basis with C suite leaders at the largest financial services firms in the world on both strategy and implementation, especially around highly sophisticated and coordinated ecosystems. She’s a bonafide rock star as far as I’m concerned. So I enjoyed our conversation around what we call the confluence of digital and human advice. And as firms build their platforms, they look to Nalika and the EY team to figure out what to do and then work with them to make it happen. So it was a real pleasure to have her on. Plus, she’s just a delightful person. So it’s the great combination. One of things I enjoy about, frankly, working in this industry.

Matt Nollman: No question about it. You mentioned delightful person. Another one of those that we had on our show was Jackie Reardon, who works at Franklin Templeton and conducted the Harris Poll on the voice of the American worker. And on our episode, we unpacked that research and found and discovered what Jackie thought was the most eye opening in terms of all the different questions and research that they implemented. So for you, Jack, when you listened to that episode, and had the conversation with Jackie in the first place, what was your key takeaway from it?

Jack Sharry: So Jackie, and I’m assuming many other colleagues, but she happens to be the spokesperson, and I believe is the lead on the project, she worked very closely in the development of the survey with a team of advisors, financial advisors, and retirement planning executives from around the industry and with the Harris Poll, to develop a survey to understand what was on the mind of the American worker. There were five key takeaways Jackie discussed on the, on the podcast conversation. Big one for me is the, is that retirement has been redefined by the American worker. And this is in the midst of COVID. So no surprise there. We’ve seen other research that echoes what the Harris Poll and Franklin Templeton found. So, it’s retirement, shockingly, is no longer about couples walking hand in hand on the beach, or playing their daily round of golf in a warm climate. There’s plenty of that going on. But when you look at today’s work, or when they think of retirement, it isn’t about checking out, it’s about engaging and embracing, and really seeking out financial independence. That’s the key takeaway, that retirement is defined by achieving financial independence. And that includes a whole lot of things that does not include just checking it out. So it’s the ability to make choices. It’s about choosing how you want to engage and live the rest of your life. Whether that is to find the right balance between work and volunteering, spending more time with children and grandchildren, changing careers, starting a business, getting involved in your community, the American worker views their retirement as something to take on and embrace, to live the life they want to live. And to do that, that requires financial independence. And that’s what they’re focused on. And that may include, by the way, continuing to work just maybe in a different way than they did historically over the course of their life. And Jackie goes into far more detail and, with some other key findings that I think our listeners would find compelling.

Matt Nollman: And, just piling on a little bit, Jackie’s episode is a really unique one with a ton of information within it that is more than just about strategy, it hits home for a lot of different people, you know, no matter where you are in your life. So that one, I would definitely encourage a listen for many reasons, that being one of the main ones. But we’ve covered a lot of ground today, we did a huge recap, some of our favorite episodes only. That was really only 10 of the 50 executives and episodes that we had this year in 2022. So having been on all of these podcasts and listened to every single conversation that we’ve had, I can tell our audience that the other 40 episodes that we’ve had are also very interesting and worth the listen. But now is the time in the show where we talk about the three key takeaways from this episode. I know we talked about 10 different episodes and 10 different executives in this show, and you probably have a ton of information that you can take away. But if you can, can you just boil it down to three takeaways for our audience today?

Jack Sharry: Well, I have to admit, it’s a tough one. Because as I thought about this after thinking it through, not easy. So here goes. Of to 10 super interesting guests and a lot of important content, I’ll give you my three key takeaways. So takeaway one, the future of advice will play out on comprehensive wealth management platforms. Having a comprehensive and coordinated ecosystem is table stakes for firms to build and refine and compete. In the years to come, that will be the competitive battleground, who can build and refine the best ecosystem? That’s what we’re going to argue about in the years to come. Takeaway number two, you have to ask, why are so many firms spending so much time, money, and resources to build these platforms? Simply, if you can improve investor outcomes by a third over time as EY has found in an independent study, not only will investors do better, but so will advisors and firms, they’ll do better as well. So, said another way, if I can improve outcomes by 1/3, but only if the assets are consolidated in one place, what do you think the investor is going to do? And that’s why firms are spending the time, effort, and money on it. So it’s a win, win, win for all three. And the biggest bang for the buck is the combination of good financial planning, smart tax management, and fully coordinated implementation, which sounds like, what’s the big deal? It’s huge. It’s hard to do all that stuff. And it’s stuff we work on every day, so we’re quite familiar. And takeaway number three, there are a lot of smart, good people in our industry driving this train. I could have picked any one of the 50 people we interviewed this year to feature and our listeners would have been well served to hear what they have to say, and would have a better understanding of how to move their businesses forward. I’m very grateful to be in this business and learn from the high quality people I get to talk to each and every day.

Matt Nollman: You know, Jack, I echo that. I echo that for sure. I’ve been the beneficiary of many of these conversations and a lot of your key takeaways. And I think this episode really summarizes all of them well, at least from 2022. So I’m excited to wrap up this episode, mostly just because of all the amazing things that we heard from all of these guests this year, and to package it up in one I think is extremely valuable. But now is the time that we do on every podcast that we have, to ask my favorite question of the day. So we’ve asked this question to you a few times over the past couple of years when you’ve switched it up and been in the guest chair. But I’m interested to see what you come up with this time. So what is something you do outside of work that you are particularly excited or passionate about and people might find interesting or surprising?

Jack Sharry: So as our listeners may well know, you certainly know, Matt, I’ve been around a while and feel most fortunate to do what I do with so many people I love working with. So I operate from the mantra that to whom much is given, much is expected. So as a way of giving back, I actively volunteer at not for profit organizations where I contribute my time, talent, and treasure. And it should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me, I am a passionate advocate for what I believe in. So too in the work I do for nonprofit, not for profits. I am currently the president of the board of an organization called Hale Education. Hale is based on 1200 acres of undeveloped woodlands, ponds, and streams near where I live outside of Boston. And it’s only actually 10 miles from the Boston line. It is the largest tract of unprotected land and natural habitat in eastern Massachusetts. We serve 15,000 kids over the course of the year in camps, school and community programs. And during the summer, we have 2200 kids from the Boston area attend our camps and summer programs. We work with many local school systems on outdoor education programs, including some award winning education programs we do with the Boston Public Schools. My favorite story is about a kid from Roxbury, the poorest neighborhood in Boston. When this student got off the bus for the first time at Hale, he said, “Where’d you get all these trees?” So his neighborhood, this well shouldn’t come as a surprise, his neighborhood is asphalt, concrete, and dirt. His neighbor doesn’t have any trees. So he got off at Hale and it’s, there’s a lot of trees, let me tell you. So what we want to do is what we’re working towards, we want to protect 1200 acres of land in perpetuity. And we want to put it under a conservation restriction as it’s called. And we abut 800 acres of protected land next door in an interconnected trail. So that’s 2000 acres of woodlands, trails, streams, ponds, and farmland 10 miles from Boston, we’re in the midst of a $46 million comprehensive campaign where we’re raising $26 million in private philanthropy, seeking a conservation restriction of $10 million each, from the towns of Westwood and Dover to permanently protect the land from ever being developed. So I thoroughly enjoy the work, it’s hard work, it’s very rewarding work, we’re making great progress. And we have a lot more to do.

Matt Nollman: Very interesting. It’s nice to hear, you know, you making a difference outside of of LifeYield. I know you give a lot back to me personally, and a lot of other employees here. And we all appreciate it, Jack. So finally closing it down. I really loved this conversation today. I mean, recapping all of our favorite episodes from the year, I always learn something new again, and I took away a bunch. But I’m also looking forward to next year. And we have a bunch of great episodes, and executives that we have in our queue right now that are going to come out in the new year. Among these people that you’re going to hear from are a return guest from Ed Murphy, who’s the CEO of Empower. Ed was actually the first interview that we ever did on our podcast. And still to this day, is our most popular guest and our most listened to episode. So we look forward to getting an update from Ed when he returns next month. And additionally, another one we’re really excited about is a two part series that we’re putting together with Ken Cella, who heads up the branch system at Edward Jones and Ken Dychtwald of Age Wave, who conducted in depth research with Edward Jones on what consumers are actually looking for from advisors on retirement advice. And as a consumer myself, I learned a ton from this episode, and I know that our listeners also will. And we have a ton more podcasts already ready to go, so these insights that are coming your way in the new year are going to be just as impactful if not more than the ones we heard already. As we close this session, for our audience, if you’ve enjoyed what you’ve heard today at WealthTech on Deck, please rate, review, subscribe, and share what we’re doing here at WealthTech on Deck. We’re available wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks again, Jack. It’s been a real blessing.

Jack Sharry: Matthew, did a great job. Fun as always. Look forward to the next time.

Matt Nollman: Thanks, Jack. Talk soon.