Live updates at wealth management's first AI conference

Suzanne Siracuse and Michael Kitces at Advise AI Las Vegas — Suzanne Siracuse and Michael Kitces onstage at ADVISE AI in Las Vegas, Oct. 10.

Enjoy complimentary access to top ideas and insights — selected by our editors.

This week, members of Financial Planning's editorial staff are on site at ADVISE AI — the first conference devoted entirely to AI in wealth management — in Las Vegas.

Check this story regularly for updates as we bring the conference to you live, from keynote speakers to panel discussions on data, marketing, client communications, investing strategies, client prospecting and more.

If you can't be here in Vegas with us, our coverage will help you wrap your mind around AI in the industry and how it can scale your business and help you meet client needs.

Throughout the two-day event, we'll post the latest updates at the top of the cardshow below.

FP announces the Innovators of the Year

4:30 p.m., Oct. 10

Michael Wilson, executive vice president of Orion Technology Suite at Orion, accepts his firm's award for Innovator of the Year at ADVISE AI in Las Vegas on Oct. 10.

Capping off the groundbreaking conference that was ADVISE AI, Financial Planning Editor-in-Chief Brian Wallheimer presented a slew of awards at a conference-closing ceremony.

Onstage at the Encore Ballroom, Wallheimer honored the seven Rising Stars of 2024, describing the achievements of these young financial professionals to much audience applause. Each Rising Star received a plaque, as well as a complimentary FP subscription and ADVISE AI conference attendance.

Following the Rising Stars presentation, Wallheimer moved on to FP's 2024 Innovation Awards, in which eight firms won nine awards for their work at the crossroads of AI and wealth management. Representatives from each firm accepted their Innovation Awards and paused for celebratory photos.

The evening culminated in the naming of two winners of Innovator of the Year awards: Orion and RBC Wealth Management, both praised for the work they're doing to help advisors save time and boost business.

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Orion, RBC Wealth Management named Innovators of the Year at ADVISE AI

Industry visionaries and the future of AI in wealth management

3:45 p.m., Oct. 10

Swati Bairathi, Sindhu Joseph, Joel Bruckenstein and Michael Wilson on the "Visionaries" panel at ADVISE AI.

With about 350 advisors and other financial pros gathered to learn about how AI is going to impact their businesses, it was natural to convene a panel of industry leaders and tap their brains on how they see the next few years developing in terms of AI in the field.

Moderator Swati Bairathi, chief product officer at 55ip, led the discussion among three experts:

Joel Bruckenstein, president of Technology Tools for Today (T3); Sindhu Joseph, CEO and founder of CogniCor Technologies; and Michael Wilson, executive vice president of the Orion Technology Suite at Orion.

Bairathi asked the panelists for what they saw as risks and pitfalls inherent in AI tools advisors are beginning to adopt; cybersecurity, bias and hallucinations were concerns — as was compliance.

"The third rail of tech in the AI space is investment related, if it's client facing," said Bruckenstein, one of the most well-known figures in fintech, who described himself as an advocate for advisor tech. "It's fine to use AI to do research, investment reports … but if you're going to have AI build a portfolio or make stock recommendations, I can almost guarantee you're going to get a visit from regulators, and it's going to feel like a proctology exam."

Wilson suggested advisors turn to the tech consultants available to advisors through their broker-dealers or custodian networks for help navigating some of these areas.

Bairathi asked what firms should be doing now to stay on top of the game.

Start hiring, Bruckenstein said. He urged advisors to invest in the future of their businesses and create at least one full-time role for technology staff. "You need someone in your firm to monitor the industry, check out the competition and up your due diligence game," he said.

"We're at an AI tipping point," Wilson said. "Advisors that don't embrace AI are going to go the way of the dinosaurs." The next generation of clients is expecting their advisor to take advantage of AI tools, he said — so the smart advisor will get ahead of the curve.

"The wealth industry has been very behind," said Joseph. "This is the perfect moment … to capture and really revolutionize the space. And if we don't, we're quickly going to be replaced by something Silicon Valley will come up with."

Plenary session: Innovators fireside chat

3:15 p.m., Oct. 10

Brian Wallheimer, Michael Wilson, Brad DeLoatche and Andrew Altfest spoke at ADVISE AI.

Brian Wallheimer, editor in chief of Financial Planning, led a main-stage session at ADVISE AI with three winners of FP's first-ever Innovation Awards: Andrew Altfest, founder and CEO of FP Alpha; Brad DeLoatche, chief product officer at Snappy Kraken; and Michael Wilson, executive vice president, Orion Technology Suite at Orion.

How do these firms, at the leading edge of AI in wealth, see those tools and manage their approach to the emerging and evolving technology?

"The promise of AI is to take that work and automate it to free us up to do even more for our clients," said Altfest, who is also an advisor. "This is why it's taken off."

Wilson said Orion wants to help advisors better help clients and to connect with clients on a deeper level, but the business appeal of AI-based tools is undeniable: "It's all about driving operational efficiencies in the middle so your bottom line will improve."

DeLoatche said Snappy Kraken is looking to AI to harness data to improve efficiency and effectiveness at three levels: prospect, advisor and enterprise.

AI-based tools advisors actually use — and like — in their practices

2:05 p.m., Oct. 10

Rachel Witkowski, Shane Cummings, Rianka R. Dorsainvil and Erik Allison spoke at ADVISE AI.

With tech tools proliferating at lightning speed, how can financial advisors keep up while making the best tech choices for themselves and their firms?

And what tools are they putting to work right now?

FInancial Planning's tech and AI reporter Rachel WItkowski moderated a panel that explored those questions with three financial advisors: Rianka R. Dorsainvil, founder and senior wealth advisor at YGC Wealth; Shane Cummings, wealth advisor and director of technology and cybersecurity at Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors; and Erik Allison, wealth advisor at EAWealth.ai.

Dorsainvil cited Jump, Vega Minds and FP Alpha as three of her most-used tools that help boost her practice productivity and deliver an elevated client experience, while Allison praised AdvisorX AI's ability to help him surmount writer's block and get creative on connecting with clients via unique communications.

When it comes to whittling down the multitude of tech choices, Cummings said his firm ultimately put together a committee to find consensus on what's actually needed, instead of doing deep dives on tech that solves problems the firm doesn't have.

"Prioritizing is critical," he said.

Chasing efficiency with AI to streamline advisor workflows

1:20 p.m., Oct. 10

Craig Iskowitz, Amy Young, Era Jain, Nick Reed and Andree Mohr spoke at ADVISE AI.

Everyone says AI tools will save advisors time on the back end in operations, all to the benefit of their business … but how, exactly?

A panel of financial services heavyweights — Amy Young, managing director of capital markets strategic partnerships at Microsoft; Andree Mohr, president of Integrated Partners; Nick Graham, executive vice president and chief technology officer at Cambridge; and Era Jain, co-founder and CEO of Zeplyn.ai — attempted to address that question in the ADVISE AI session "AI-Powered Efficiency: Streamlining Operations for Bottom-Line Impact."

Moderator Craig Iskowitz, CEO of Ezra Group, said the panel was "designed to provide real-world expertise and real-world examples to you of using AI in wealth management."

Saving advisors time by automating or augmenting certain actions can be crucial, and ensuring platforms cleanly integrate is key so that advisors don't need to flip back and forth between screens or platforms to find what they're looking for.

As Young put it, "This industry already struggles with a pretty onerous 'toggle task.'"

READ MORE:

Goosing productivity, saving time — AI advice from industry leaders

Michael Kitces says ‘AI trust gap’ stifles fast adoption of advanced tech

9:22 a.m., Oct. 10

Sideview Suzanne Siracuse and Michael Kitces Advise AI 2024

Suzanne Siracuse and Michael Kitces speak at ADVISE AI in Las Vegas, Oct. 10.

Michael Kitces, one of the most well-known advisors in the wealth management space, kicked off day two of ADVISE AI with a conversation about AI in the wealth space.

Essentially, people are willing to see and accept faults with humans they cannot abide from technology, said Kitces, chief financial planning nerd at Kitces.com, co-founder of the XY Planning Network and head of planning strategy at Buckingham Wealth Partners.

"We know that humans are not perfect, but we expect technology to be," Kitces said in a fireside chat with industry consultant Suzanne Siracuse. "I call this the AI trust gap. We have this standard … that we set for technology that is higher than teh standard we set for a fellow human in anything that has high stakes."

Kitces continued with thoughts about AI expediting tasks versus automating it, as well as compliance concerns around advanced technology.

READ MORE:

Michael Kitces on what he does — and doesn't — trust AI with

The revolution has begun: AI trends, according to firm leaders

4:55 p.m., Oct. 9

Chana Schoenberger, Deep Srivastav, Nick Reed, Jeremi Karnell and Kristie Edling-Day spoke at ADVISE AI.

Moderator Chana Schoenberger, editor-in-chief of FP sister publication American Banker, opened the day one general session panel on "AI in Action: Current Tools and Future Trends in Wealth Management" with the question at the top of every financial advisor's mind: Will AI take my job?

"Categorically, no," said Kristie Edling-Day, executive vice president and chief investment officer at LPL Financial. "Every time people have predicted the end of the financial advisor, they've been wrong."

"AI will take away a lot of tasks, and actually will do those tasks better than we do," said Deep Srivastav, head of AI and digital transformation at Franklin Templeton.

"I imagine that there'll be a significant role for humans to play," said Nick Reed, chief product officer of Moody's Analytics. "It'll just be different than it is today, because we don't need to care about gathering knowledge and processing information and potentially even building inference or making connection."

"I agree that there are going to be a lot of other workflows that we'll get out of [AI], but our superpower is human connectivity and empathy," said Jeremi Karnell, head of data solutions at Envestnet. That said — ignoring AI and AI tools would be detrimental to any advisor looking to stay competitive.

"Being AI literate is probably your No. 1, 2 and 3 objective" for the near future, Karnell told the audience of advisors and other financial professionals.

Infusing AI into wealth management workflows for better productivity

3:45 p.m., Oct. 9

Shell Black Michelle Feinstein Amanda Lott Samuel Deane Advise AI automation panel

Shell Black, Michelle Feinstein, Amanda Lott and Samuel Deane spoke on an ADVISE AI panel.

AI is supposed to be a great time saver — but practically speaking, how can advisors put those tools into practice today?

Answering that was the aim of the ADVISE AI panel "Streamlining Advisor Productivity and Client Engagement Using Automation and AI." Moderated by Shell Black, the president and founder of ShellBlack, three panelists tackled that key question: Michelle Feinstein, the vice president and general manager of financial services product at Salesforce; Amanda Lott, the head of wealth planning and innovation at the Advice Lab for JPMorgan Private Bank; and Samuel Deane, the CEO and founder of Deane Wealth Management.

The panelists explored some of the most popular use cases of AI in financial services, including meeting prep and summary, thought leadership, document summarization, summarization of analyzing transaction disputes and thought leadership.

AI can help "scrape the brains" of JPMorgan's best advisors and thought leaders, Lott said, and then take those insights wider to other employees. That allows JPMorgan to "level up" its advisors, which ultimately gives clients get a better experience, she said.

READ MORE:

Goosing productivity, saving time — AI advice from industry leaders

How AI tools can be used to attract young investors

3 p.m., Oct. 9

Rachel Witkowski

Tech powerhouse leaders discussed how AI is being applied to attract younger clients and at scale.

"Every client's portfolio is different. Every financial situation is different. So you can give the AI the data and train it how to evaluate and make those payoff for the advisor," said CEO of TIFIN's AI investment platform, Sage. "Ultimately, our goal is to power advisor practices and give advisors more personalized outputs that they can take to clients so that they can scale and deliver more and better advice."

Speakers also included Andrew Smith Lewis, founder and CEO of Alai Studios, and Carrie Nelson, founder and CEO of Atlas Point.

READ MORE:

How tech leaders are removing bias from AI

How to leverage gen AI to write marketing materials

2:55 p.m., Oct. 9

Susan Theder, Mary Kate Gulick, Tim Bickmore and Diana Cabrices speak at ADVISE AI.

How can AI generated content remain compliant with industry regulations?

What exactly is an LLM? How can AI generated content remain compliant with industry regulations? And while we're at it, what exactly is content marketing? Diana Cabrices, founder of Diana Cabrices Consulting, moderated a well-attended panel on how advisors can use AI to improve their marketing that addressed those questions and more.

The panelists for "Leveraging Generative AI to Write Stuff" were experts from across the field: Susan Theder, chief marketing and experience officer at FMG; Mary Kate Gulick, the CMO and head of marketing and PR services at Ficomm Partners; and Timothy Bickmore, the co-founder and CEO of Hyphaway.

From how to nail brand voice to best practices for writing with AI, the panel covered a great deal of ground. But as Bickmore, an advisor, stated, "AI is not a silver bullet."

Check back here later for a full story on the panel.

Adopting generative AI tools in wealth managament

1:15 p.m., Oct. 9

Rachel Witkowski and Michael Moeser discuss AI in wealth management at ADVISE AI.

Financial Planning's Rachel Witkowski took the stage on the first day of ADVISE AI to discuss "Wealth's State of Readiness for AI Adoption in New Client Acquisition" with Michael Moeser, senior industry analyst for Arizent's Research division.

A Financial Planning survey of 270 wealth management professionals indicated that few felt well-prepared to take advantage of available AI tools to improve their practices. Modernizing their firms' tech stack was top of mind for the most respondents (40%), along with data and data governance (31%).

Witkowski and Moeser's discussion also covered advisors' concerns and the potential risks of AI tools, from compliance to data security to the pure unknowns regarding the technology.

"I understand the hesitancy, especially in the financial services space, to adopt AI tools," Witkowski said. "These are the things to keep in the back of your mind."

FP editor joins Gregory FCA for live podcasting

11:45 a.m., Oct. 9

Greg Matusky of Gregory FCA and Brian Wallheimer, editor-in-chief of Financial Planning, discuss ADVISE AI and tech innovation in financial services for Gregory FCA's podcast.

Financial Planning Editor-in-Chief Brian Wallheimer stopped by the Gregory FCA booth at ADVISE AI Wednesday morning to chat with the firm's founder Greg Matusky.

Gregory FCA is one of dozens of firms set up in the ADVISE AI exhibit hall.

AI is coming faster than we think, Microsoft chief data scientist says to open ADVISE AI

11:50 a.m., Oct. 9

AI is moving fast, and it's time for advisors to get on board.

That's the message this morning from Charles Morris, chief data scientist at Microsoft, who gave the opening keynote talk at ADVISE AI, Financial Planning's AI conference this week in Las Vegas.

"I've never seen financial services companies adopt a technology so quickly. The things that we have access to in the next couple of years are going to be incredible," Morris said. "It's not about if AI is going to be involved. It's about how we prioritize what we bring AI to."

The key, Morris said, is adopting quickly, but strategically.

"People are going to throw some really bad features out there and see if they stick. But the overall trend is that people are going to find the useful things," Morris said.

READ MORE:

AI will create things 'we can't even imagine,' Microsoft data scientist says

ADVISE AI kicks off in Las Vegas

8:50 a.m., Oct. 9

Editor in Chief Brian Wallheimer kicks off the first ADVISE AI in Las Vegas on Oct. 9.

The first-ever U.S. wealth management conference focusing solely on artificial intelligence kicked off Wednesday at the Encore in Las Vegas, with Financial Planning's Editor in Chief Brian Wallheimer opening the event.

"This is really the first deep dive into AI and wealth management, in terms of a conference," Wallheimer said. "We're working really hard to make sense of AI, how it's affecting the industry, how it's affecting advisors and their businesses."

"We have now a couple of inflection points in wealth management," he said. "We have to separate the wheat from the chaff. Everybody wants to create an AI tool and AI solutions, and some of them will be amazing. Some of them will not. … Those of you in the business side have to make decisions about what works for your business and how it's going to help you scale, how it's going to help you attract clients, market and all those sorts of things. … The key, of course, is doing it right, protecting data, staying compliant, investing in the right tools to integrate with our workflows and move the needle for wealth management. That's why we're here today."

Before handing the lectern off to keynote speaker Charles Morris of Microsoft for a big-picture look at AI in wealth management, Wallheimer thanked the conference's Advisory Council, industry consultant Suzanne Siracuse and the Arizent event, marketing, sales and other teams for their efforts in making ADVISE AI a reality. He also thanked the advisors and other wealth management professionals in the audience.

"Thank you all for being here, because what you're doing is you're exploring, you're learning, and you're putting in the efforts to get it right."