AI

FINTECH VIEWS: 2024 – The Year of AI Escalation

2024-12-02T21:02:39-05:00

FINTECH VIEWS: 2024 – The Year of AI Escalation by Jeff Nash, Founder & CEO, BridgeMark Strategies Published November 24 on Digital Wealth News As we prepare to close the book on 2024, many of us will reflect upon what happened during the year, why it mattered and what it may portend. I’m one of those people. However, for me, this exercise is always more forward-looking than nostalgic. 2024 has had a number of noteworthy events – from a pivotal U.S. election, to the 33rd Olympiad in Paris, to geopolitical unrest. What among them will your descendants still be talking about in 50 or 75 years? That’s a tough question to answer, and also a fun one to consider as 2025 beckons. I find myself categorizing items into two distinct silos: events so impactful, they served as a line in the sand, effectively demarcating what came before and what came [...]

FINTECH VIEWS: 2024 – The Year of AI Escalation2024-12-02T21:02:39-05:00

2023: The Year of Scale

2024-02-01T20:31:02-05:00

New beginnings, especially ones dictated by the passage of time – such as the start of a new year – often prompt both reflection and anticipation, as we look back upon the past and also consider what’s ahead. How will historians look back on 2023? Perhaps more importantly, how will we, as active participants in the wealth management industry, view the challenges, opportunities and outcomes of the past 12 months? Rising interest rates proved to be a double-edged sword for financial services as the increased cost of capital tamped down M&A activity and upended the regional banking sector but also put additional dollars at the disposal of broker-dealers via cash sweep programs. Artificial intelligence (AI) went mainstream in the space as professionals tasked with duties from marketing to compliance relied more and more on advancements in this revolutionary technology to create efficiencies and build scale. Scale … While Taylor Swift [...]

2023: The Year of Scale2024-02-01T20:31:02-05:00

Succession Planning in an Age of Demographic Change, Active Aggregators and Private Equity

2023-09-11T19:23:25-04:00

You are probably familiar with the adage “Failure to plan is planning to fail.” It’s as true today as when Benjamin Franklin first said it. Of course in order to have a plan, you need to have options to consider. And, right now, when it comes to succession planning in the wealth management space, choices can be limited for financial advisors who are considering a succession. For all the worry surrounding the potential impact of artificial intelligence on wealth management, demographics may prove to be the real disruptor for the industry. You have most likely seen the statistics that bear this out: the average financial advisor’s age is 58. Almost 40% of financial advisors are planning to leave the industry in the next 10 years. Upwards of 70% of advisors don’t have a succession plan. There are more advisors over age 80 than under age 30. That’s a lot of [...]

Succession Planning in an Age of D