As Advisor Group continues to work through its
In January, Advisor Group announced it hired Peter Clemson, a 25-year industry veteran who was most recently serving as the CEO of Evati, a robo-advice startup he founded, as its senior vice president of digital solutions.
In the newly-created position, Clemson is responsible for developing Advisor Group’s next-generation technology for both the 11,000 independent advisors on the network and the clients they serve. He’ll also have to figure out how to craft a unified technology platform that satisfies advisors coming from the five different wealth management firms that were under the Ladenburg umbrella.
In an interview, Clemson discusses his vision of Advisor Group’s technology, why he decided to leave the startup world to return to a big firm, and what role technology will play in improving advisor retention.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Financial Planning: Why did Advisor Group create a new role for you in the firm? What will you be doing that the firm previously wasn’t?
Peter Clemson: Their focus is how they help advisors grow and protect their businesses and underlying that is how they make advisors more efficient.
I had discussions with [Advisor Group President] Jamie Price and [chief strategy & corporate development officer] Cindy Hamel, and they have a large number of technology initiatives under way and were looking to bring somebody in who would work to weave all of those together into an even more significant and longer term digital strategy.
FP: Obviously it’s early on, but what can you say about that strategy or vision?
PC: It’s one that I’ve formed over a much longer period and actually feel very passionate about. And that strategy is actually pretty simple in description, but incredibly complicated in execution.
Your investment clients are going to realize they really need a person in the equation of their financial planning and expect a flawless execution of technology to support that person. Technology does everything from making a process more efficient, removing any friction points, and getting people access to all the data they can imagine to support their planning.
FP: Why is that difficult to execute?
PC: The devil is in the details. We use those apps that feel like they should do what you want them to do, but by the time you’re done you’re intensely frustrated by it. It’s sequencing, deploying and then maintaining all the processes that are going to give end users the quality of experience that they demand.
You have [to envision] your true target state, and then work all the systems to reach that target.
FP: Are you looking to primarily develop new technology in-house, or are you going to acquire third-party startups?
PC: I think it’s too early for me to talk about things like an acquisition strategy, but what I would say is we'll always be looking for the optimal solution and working towards that. So there may be cases where it makes sense, such as the Equipt platform at Advisor Group, that technology is developed in house. But when you think about how advisors keep themselves nimble by using a third-party clearing strategy, there is a real willingness to use commodity features we don’t want to pay to develop ourselves.
FP: Advisor Group counts its third-party clearing structure as one of its competitive advantages. How does this influence technology innovation and product development?
PC: It’s all about focus. What I believe deeply is you do really need to focus on where you think you can add real differentiation and ideally remove any distractions where you can’t. And that model allows teams to put all of their efforts into that last mile where you’re combining all of the different parts for an advisor.
A lot of people talk about the swivel chair effect and how advisors basically have to shift from app to app to app. We want to focus on creating that one unified experience. Things like having your own clearing platform is a distraction. There are people who want to do it, and I understand why they want to do it, but this group really has its focus on where they want to make a difference.
FP: Previously, you were at a fintech company called Evati. What is that, and how will your experience there inform your job at Advisor Group?
PC: Evati started as a direct-to-consumer robo-advisor. We evolved our business model to be a business-to-business platform that could be white-labled for FAs. As I went through that process, the conclusion I came to was that I wanted to position myself in one of the leaders of the industry that has the capacity and momentum to build out the next generation of tools.
FP: You went to the fintech world after five years of leading technology teams at Charles Schwab. Why leave the startup life and come back to a big firm?
PC: We all learn as we go through this journey and if you really play back my career, I've actually moved back and forth between large and small firms. I spent 10 years at Bank of America, then four years at optionsXpress. We were acquired by Schwab, which is how I ended up joining Schwab for six years. And then I had my stint founding and running Evati.
As you look at the world of robo-advisors, it actually looks to me in many ways like the world of self-driving cars. A number of firms jumped out and started working on the process, and then there was a massive consolidation. So when I started my discussions with Advisor Group, I could see that they were leaping ahead and it seemed like a chance to really move my entire plan forward about 10 years ahead.
FP: How is Advisor Group moving ahead of the competition? What advantages do they have?
PC: Their advantage is a very large group of advisors already using the platform, and then a broad number of technology initiatives that are currently under way that we are going to be weaving together to create that end-state platform with the frictionless experience everyone knows they want, but have not seen successfully implemented anywhere in the industry.
FP: Where is Advisor Group at with integrating technology from the Ladenburg acquisition?
PC: Being new to the process, I can’t go into the full details of that. What I can say is I’ve been working closely with a number of people from those teams and it’s a great addition. Any time you start a new job, you always wonder what you’re going to get into. Across the entire Advisor Group experience, including Ladenburg, I keep running into very smart, hard-working, dedicated people who are incredibly focused on getting to the target.
FP: How does technology affect advisor retention?
PC: The firms really focused on [technology] are going to start to pull away from everyone else. Those firms are going to positively change [retention] rates for the better as advisors look for places that make their jobs easier.
FP: What are these specific capabilities that firms need to keep advisors?
PC:You really want frictionless onboarding, seamless delivery of the overall experience and quality access to data to have an accurate view of your client.
