In this week's episode of the Financial Planning Podcast, Blake Wood explains how his new fintech gig blends his passion for helping advisors with his dedication to care for his family.
Wood, U.S. CEO for
Now serving nearly 4,000 families globally via its cloud-based software, Lumiant wants to help advisors more easily marry a client's life goals and their financial goals. To pull it off, the software tracks and measures a variety of goals focused on values and aspiration instead of finances.
But Lumiant also promotes itself as a platform that prioritizes a client's entire family and provides tools with the goal of engaging family members beyond just an advisor's primary financial point of contact. That means people like spouses, children and caregivers can be part of the conversation. Lumiant leaders believe this approach can help advisors boost referrals and retention while forging stronger bonds with the people they advise.
Wood said when joining the Lumiant's team, its mission of centering the non-financial spouse resonated with him after seeing a lack of advisor engagement affect his loved ones.
"A little over a year ago, my father passed away and my mother was a non-financial spouse. It was eye-opening," Wood
"If an advisor would have engaged her and my father earlier on in a better conversation about this, I think it would have changed the last 20 years, and hopefully the next 20 years of her life, significantly."
During his conversation with FP Podcast host and lead editorial producer Justin L. Mack, Wood talked about making the big career change; why fintech that focuses on family is a game-changer; and what he loves most about the work he is doing today.
Listen to the new episode — as well as all future and past episodes — by subscribing to the FP Podcast on
Transcription:
Justin Mack: (
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening. Welcome to the Financial Planning podcast. I'm your host, Justin L. Mack, wealth tech reporter with Financial Planning, and it is my pleasure to introduce this week's guest, Blake Wood, US chief executive officer for Lumiant. Blake, thanks so much for joining us this week.
Blake Wood: (
Thank you so much for having me Justin, glad to be here.
Justin Mack: (
Absolutely. And if you've been reading FP well, you know, that Blake has been quite the busy guy in 2022, after more than 17 years at Investnet, where he most recently served as senior vice president of corporate strategy. Blake joined the Lumiant team to lead the FinTech firm stateside expansion with a home based down under the Australia based company is all about putting family first and engaging family members beyond just that primary financial point of contact spouses, kids, caregivers. They're really all part of the party. And very much a focal point for Lumette currently serving nearly 4,000 families globally with its cloud-based client experience platform Lumette wants to help advisors more easily marry a client's life goals and their financial goals to pull it off their software tracks and measures a variety of goals that have nothing to do with dollars and cents instead advisors craft their client conversations around values, ideals and aspirations. Sounds cool. Right. So we're gonna get into all of that and much more on this week's episode, but Blake, I wanna kick things off by talking about that career change. Like we said, 17 years at in Investnet and then making the move to Lucent something that I'm sure a lot of people in the industry that hits home with all the movement and change we've seen. What's it been like for you so far?
Blake Wood: (
Yeah. Thanks Justin. It's no doubt for, for me personally, it's, it's been a, a challenge, you know, but one that comes with a lot of really fun and, and rewarding conversation what's been nice is the FinTech community has really been overwhelmingly supportive. It's been far more collaborative and open than I expected. It's really been humbling to see old friends from, from my old job and, and new friends, uh, that we've made here at Luc reaching out with, with their support ideas and, and sharing their net, their network. And, you know, I've, I've joined this company at Lumette that has some amazing people. We've just hired three more amazing women here in the us to help us get even better. And we've got an incredible amount of opportunity in front of us, but we just gotta stay focused. We got to remember that it's the investors experience. That's our north star. And what's been really great though, is hearing about the types of relationships and experiences that both the advisors and clients are having during these value sessions held, um, through the process. It's really been the fuel that, that fires all of us here. Atian
Justin Mack: (
Definitely, and, and great to hear that that FinTech community has been so embracing and warm and, you know, welcoming you with open arms. So good on you, FinTech. And, uh, you brought up an interesting poise, those value sessions. Tell me a little bit about what that's all about, what do advisors gain from it and what did you gain from it by being a part of it as well? Yeah,
Blake Wood: (
It was, it was something that before I, I joined Lumette, I, I was, um, really aligned with that, you know, having reassessed a, a lot of what was going on in our life, I think, you know, with work from home and, you know, as, as people say the great resignation, I think COVID gave people time who were fortunate enough to have time to reassess their goals and value. And that sudden shift to work from home gave some people more time, some people more stress, and the outcome was really a more realistic understanding of what was valuable for them. You know, for me, I went from a hundred plus days in the road to zero. I gotta see the boys grow up, got to be more present with my entire family and rethink how I could help people do better, not just financially, but mentally, you know, unknowing to me at the time, the move to Lu aligned with what I've now come to understand were some of my top values.
Blake Wood: (
And that was to work with a purpose to master new skills and knowledge and to help people live a more per purposeful life and, you know, those conversations and, and, and we keep seeing it's one of the most rewarding parts of this job is hearing how the advisors are, are changing the way they engage the clients and hearing the clients learn frankly more about each other than, than they really knew my wife and I had similar experiences, my friends and family that have gone through this, you know, rate, um, happy, emotional conversations of what it means to them and realizing that yeah, you know, sometimes each partner might have a different view on what one thing might mean to them, but it, that alignment that comes out of this and, and starting with values rather than starting with a financial goal, you know, we believe that you really don't know what your goals are until you understand your values and, and having that conversation together, you know, with the help of that professional in the room, just to ask the questions and create the space as an incredibly powerful tool.
Justin Mack: (
Absolutely. And you mentioned that that interesting duality that kind of came for a lot of people during the pandemic and what we've all experienced more time, but maybe more stress. Um, you're at home if you're working from home and now there's all this ability to do things differently, but with that you have new worries, new troubles things you didn't worry about before, because well, you weren't working at home. Um, wanted to talk about what attracted you specifically to joining the Lum team. Like we said, talked about your personal experience and what you were going through, but when you saw the work that they were doing and said, you know what, I wanna be a part of this and in a big pressure role, this is the us expansion they've been doing. Other thing for what, two years in Australia before they decided this expansion. And they, uh, you know, you came in as the guy to kinda lead the way, what attracted you to the platform. And was there any pressure when you stepped into that seat?
Blake Wood: (
Yeah. You know, it, it was, you know, for me personally, you know, coming in having, you know, that same experience that, that others hadn't worked from home, but, you know, the second part of that is, um, my, my father passing away last year, you know, he was the financial partner, uh, for, for my parents. And, you know, he worked in banking, banking and brokerage and, and was a lead. And my mother wasn't engaged. And when he passed, she didn't really know what to do. Her, his financial advisor, wasn't helpful at all. He's absent really. So, you know, I flew down and, and helped her sort some things out with the amazing help of, of my aunt. Um, and we got her sorted, but she still didn't really know what to do. You know, she was investing in things that she didn't understand with, with her financial advisor.
Blake Wood: (
She didn't have a financial plan and her one financial goal was just to not have her money go down. And this is a, a woman who doesn't spend her social security, checks her RMD more than covers her lifestyle. And all I wanted for her is to, to spend the money doing things now that make her make, makes her happy. You know, she raised two troublesome boys, me being one of them and, you know, I just want her to enjoy the years she's, she's got left because she's more than earned that. And she's afraid to do that cuz she doesn't know what she wants to do. Right. She never wants to be a fuss. She never, she just wants to go with the flow. And I wish I had tell someone telling her that it's okay to go see the world. You know, I I'm working hard on her, I'm nudging her along and it seems to be a little better. But if that advice had come from a professional, it's the kind of advice I wish my mother had, you know, the, the process that Lumette has built in and what the platform supports. You know, I, I came into financial advice because of my dad, but now I work with a purpose at Lumette because of my mother's experience.
Justin Mack: (
Awesome. Awesome. To hear that the family is so central to your personal motivation and very much at the, uh, center of Mian platform. So talk to me a little bit about how that conversation has changed. And we know we hear a lot of advisors and uh, solution providers, people both in and outside of financial services, understanding that goal setting has changed. Like you said, it's not necessarily focus just on the finances. Well, what do I wanna accomplish on a, just a real personal level, smaller things I wanna plan for that trip. I wanna plan for that addition. I wanna plan to just maybe not have to do anything because I've taken care of these other things. We realize that we don't really lead with our finances, even though our finances shape what we can and cannot do. Um, that environment is, is healthier. People are understanding that's important and you're at a company that's very much part of that change. Talk to me about what it's like to see the conversation in financial services after, you know, like we've talked about nearly two decades in it now you're really seeing goals start to lead the way more than money. What's that been like for you?
Blake Wood: (
Yeah. I mean, you've, you've hit on the head, Justin, you know, for, for too long, the traditional systems and technology and experience that we've used to engage clients around their advices place, product performance compliance and, and efficiency. First they're not facilitating that experience that, that has the extreme client focus that, and it ignores that non-financial partner and the non-financial clients there's, you know, both clients could be non-financial the clients don't really care about performance. You know, they're don't care about their risk profile or tax servicing so much. They want to know, well will me and my family be okay now and, and in retirement and what do we need to do to, to live the best possible life. And our industry has been really focused on financial wellness. Um, I'd challenge, if that's really the, the right focus, it seems like financial wellness is almost intentionally engineered to create demand for financial products rather than getting at the heart of what clients want.
Blake Wood: (
And we need to start focusing on those life goals beyond financial goals. I mean, the, the reality is behind every financial goal is an underlying motivator and it could be used to ensure that you give your kids the best chance at life or saving enough to make worth optional. Uh, so they could spend more time that they love it could be ensuring that your clients won't become a burden on the rest of the family. As they grow older, we find there's all kinds of reasons that clients want to achieve a financial goal, but it's more important that we know that reason. And by better understanding what they're looking to achieve, I think we can find clients are, are gonna be better motivated to stick their, to their financial plan because they're emotionally attached to the life. And the goals that they want to achieve will find they're more engaged and, and more likely to talk to friends and family about how their advisors helping them live the life they want, cuz it's a much better conversation around the barbecue than talking about investment performance.
Blake Wood: (
And those, those are new opportunities to serve clients that start emerging and open up new revenue streams for advisors. But it's really bringing in and aligning the finances with their life and creating space for the client to identify what really matters to them, especially beyond money. And you know, today is, is we all live in this fast paced world. We're constantly busy, overwhelming with overwhelmed, with choices and decisions. We really don't have time or space to question our values. So we just keep up with the Joneses Jones is based on goals and society expectations. And what we do at Luk is to create that space, right? Create that time, have the advisor, bring the clients into the officer or do it via zoom, where they can dive deep into their personal values and then bring the partners together to create that household set of values.
Blake Wood: (
That act as a decision framework, you know, to achieve that you need to have excellent EQ skills, a fantastic relationship, know how to a ask the right question. And usually it takes years of experience to develop, but you know, that's what Mian has built. What's what attracted me to is they've got this interactive process that gets the heart of what the client wants to achieve in life beyond just money through a series of online assessments and meetings, that's all around the eight dimensions of wellbeing and, and these 16 value statements that help the client unpack really simply and effectively. What's important to them. And with this information, advisors can craft a, a family financial plan that aligns with the wellbeing and values of their clients.
Justin Mack: (
And in your opinion, in which you've seen so far in your work with Loomie and, you know, providing this tool to advisors and having them take that into their client interactions, how has this kind of, of tool and other tools that, that do this kind of thing, try to get at the heart of what really drives a person beyond the dollars and cents. How does that change the client advisor relationship? Because when you think about it today, if you are a client who is getting some form of financial planning, say you're someone new, like the thousands of people who have joined and, and started getting fiduciary, financial planning and advice within the last two to three years, um, when you're monitoring your performance, you can probably do that from your phone with a lot of the platforms and the tools that are available. So I don't need to check in with my advisor to see how things are going.
Justin Mack: (
I can probably do that without a conversation. So knowing that that's out of the way, how are advisor and client conversations changing when they actually do get in that same room or on that zoom, do you find that they're talking about different things when we can move some of the less, I don't wanna say that performance. Isn't interesting. We know people are interested in the performance of their investments, but that time with advisor can probably be spent a little bit differently when we can automate some things and then bring these value focused conversation forward. Have you seen some of that in your experience?
Blake Wood: (
Yeah, that's I mean, that's really the, the chicken noodle soup for the soul, right there is, is hearing from the advisor. You know, we had one of our advisors here shared an amazing story with us about a, a new couple that she had brought into the office and she was gonna be doing this for the first time, kinda leaning in, um, with a, a new prospect and into the value session. And she was telling us she was so nervous. She almost canceled the meeting four times, but you know, she said the heck with it. Let's, let's dive in new client. Um, very high powered, you know, great prospect ultra high net worth. And they went in and they started where we start is these, this three thing, what we call three things and it asked the clients to reflect on, imagine you're 90 years old and you wanna look back on your life and what are the three things you wanna achieve?
Blake Wood: (
And we also ask both partners and these clients just loved it. They were talking about, you know, being on the porch of their advisor when they're 90. And so you've already got a prospect at the beginning of the journey, imagining the advisor being a part of their life when they're 90, because it's not a conversation around, you know, here's my, my designations, here's all the certifications I have. Here's our process. Our firm is, you know, 50 years old. It's about them. It's not about the advisor. It's not about the firm. When you have a conversation that's meaningful to the client, you're gonna become part of that client's life. And it was so cool just to see, you know, these two partners at the very beginning of their relationship, talking about being with that advisor when they're 90 and then going through the value session and hearing the dynamic between the two partners, understand where things were different and, and how that advisor since then has used that framework to come back to when the client had some questions about, you know, doing some different deals here and there, the advisor go back and like, Hey, remember this, this was your top value.
Blake Wood: (
What are, what are you really thinking? And it helps manage some impulsive clients that, you know, may, may, may be able to, or want to make some rash purchases or decisions to anchor them back and say, Hey, remember, this was one of your top values. It, it doesn't line, let's hit pause and we'll come back to that. And so these it's just really so cool Justin to hear, and our advisor share these stories. And mark Arod from our team does a podcast, um, where he brings the advisors into the podcast and they bring these client stories to life and, and get to hear the impact. It's not only making to the clients, but the advisors and the change from the relationship as the advisor or someone that's, you know, there just, just doing your investments or they're selling you something to someone who's an integrated person in your life. And that's a very different value proposition than, than a lot of advisors have with their clients today.
Justin Mack: (
Definitely fantastic. And now we're actually gonna take a quick break and enjoy a word from our sponsors, but when we return, we'll have more with Blake wood talking about the power of tech, the current state of innovation, and some of those patented FP podcast, good vibes stay locked. We'll be right back after this word from our sponsors. And welcome back to the financial planning podcast. I'm your host, Justin Mack. And this week we're chatting with Blake wood, LUME us C. And we're gonna jump right back into the conversation. And Blake, before we went to break, we talked about some of how the advisor client relationship has transformed in recent years, the, the greater emphasis on that holistic approach to financial planning, marrying life goals, with financial goals, and the fact that clients, they are a little bit different. They want to see their real life goals, front and center, as much as their returns and their, uh, the performance of their investments. So I wanted to transition a little bit by talking about not the client, but those other people who are very much a part of the client's life and part of Lilian's focus. Uh, we talk about the platform and its engagement of the unengaged in the family that non-financial spouse, however you want to categorize them, but the person who's not maybe the primary financial point of contact for many wealth management firms, how wasent bringing them into the conversation. And, and why is it important that they're at the table?
Blake Wood: (
Yeah, I'll, I'll first start with some research Justin and a lot of the research is it's looks at through the gender lens, which we tend to very intentionally not leaning into it loo because we don't think it's a function of your chromosomes. It's just a function of, of who you are. Um, but you know, the research says, you know, 50% of women say that financial advisors can't connect with them. 36% feel patronized by their financial advisors, just terrible, the, these stats. And I think, you know, real well known as 70% of women leave their financial advisor upon divorce or, or death of their spouse. And as I said, it's, it's not just women. These are people from all walks of life that are being disengaged by the traditional advice process. And it focuses on financial expertise rather than helping the client identify what's important to them and charter course to help them live their best life.
Blake Wood: (
And if we can, as an industry, you know, ENT advisors, other FinTech partners, if we can create the space and the time to have that more meaningful conversation where we're not trying to sell products, we're not trying to sell them performance and trying deliver advice value through a portfolio, but deliver life management. You know, it's, it's really, I think it's an, an, it's an evolution in care, moving from financial wellness or financial management to life management. It's, it's moving to the new gold standard beyond the fiduciary standard today and, and helping the client across all their aspects in life. And, and if we truly think that we're there to give advice to clients and we want them to do as best as they can in life, it's going beyond just the dollars and cents.
Justin Mack: (
Definitely. And you talked about kind of that, I guess that connectivity between not just the client advisor, but the advisor and the client's entire family cause, and it's something that's on a lot of people's minds. Now there's a lot more options for clients. There's a lot more options for people who are looking for financial planning or financial advice. And if something happens, you know, unfortunate, someone passes and now that advisor is starting to work with family members that they've not engaged. I imagine there's an element, you know, for the family members who are still living like, well, who is this person? I don't know. You, you've never spoken to me before. Why would I now trust my finances with you? I've never even spoken to you, uh, just on a very real practical level. I, is there just a lot of value in maybe having as an advisor, uh, more people in your corner when it comes to working with families, especially when we talk about the succession of wealth and the ability to remain engaged with a client or, or someone's business for years and years and years.
Blake Wood: (
Absolutely. Right. We we've built with the intent on, on connecting those different generations and bringing in the family to have these value sessions as well. So we, we've got an error in our platform that lays out, you know, the family tree, the asset tree and the legacy tree. And of course, you know, bringing the clients to bring the family members in as, as part of their family tree, of course, but think about the advisor, being able to facilitate a value session and a goal session. We don't need the financial plan. We don't need an investment portfolio, but bring that next generation or two in and talk about what are your family values? What's important to you as a family and then for each individual in the family and being able to, to help that client or, you know, the maybe not client yet, um, anchor to what's important to them.
Blake Wood: (
And then being through the Lum process, we always store and keep all the things that have been completed, whether they be non-financial goals, financial goals, tasks, these different decision points, um, that the client and the advisor have gone through over the years of the relationship. So when that client, or that, you know, the, the son or the daughter or the granddaughter come in and say, Hey, you know, what have you been doing? We've got a record. We've got that. Client's voice, you know, talking about, Hey, this is, this is the intent of the trust I set up, you know, here's the purpose for this? You know, one of the things that's tough having, you know, done it with my father last year is, is reading, you know, the wills and estate plans. It's, it's legalese, it's confusing, it's convoluted. And I, you know, it almost seems like an industry just built.
Blake Wood: (
So you gotta pay them more money to understand what they wrote in the first place. And with, with Lu, you can hear the voice of that previous generation telling you why they made the choices that they made, why these values were important to them. And that connection back to your parents, back to your grandparents and understanding that that advisor helped them make meaningful decisions that impacted that next generation's life is gonna help you win more clients. And, you know, that's what we're seeing when, what we've understood from our first year and a half or so in Australia. And we're, we're seeing the same early data here in the us is clients are, our advisors are able to go deeper with clients. The referrals are increasing, their lead conversions are increasing because they're having a different conversation. As you think about that next generation, that divorce spouse going to shop advisors, it's stunning, how similar all advisors presentations are.
Blake Wood: (
It's, it's all about them and their firm and not about the client. And we were just talking to an asset manager a couple weeks ago, and his father had passed away and he was taking, his mom was shopping. He said he was very intentional. I was gonna go to a wire house, a broker dealer and RA and a varying sizes. And he said, every single one of them basically had the same pitch. He's like if my mother had seen, or someone had talked to her about the approach of Lua, she would've been sold immediately. And I think that's the power of leaning into something that's a little different. It can be a little scary the first time, but once you have that experience with a client, you do it two or three times, you're gonna see the return in your clients that conversation's gonna change meaningfully.
Justin Mack: (
Yeah. That that's powerful too. You know, uh, the client had an intention, Hey, I'm gonna do this. And then literally shove the business out the door by, uh, not really focusing on them. And you know, it got a secret for a lot of people. If you're looking to gain new clients, I, I can assure you, your, your AUM isn't as appealing to that potential client as what you can do for, you know, their family and their future generations. Trust me, they're not that moved by that number. Uh, kind of switching gears a little bit. I wanna talk about, uh, the FinTech family that you are a part of, and you mentioned the, the welcoming response you've gotten and just the, the current state of innovation and the, and the power of tech, because, you know, we talk about platforms like yours and so many others that are really streamlining things given time back to advisors, so they can focus on doing exactly what we've talked about throughout this episode, connecting deeper, connecting on a different level, you know, moving things off of their plate and putting some more nutrient rich stuff on that plate to reuse an analogy I've used before.
Justin Mack: (
But it's a good one. Uh, tell me a little bit about your thoughts on the current state of, of first FinTech innovation, because I feel like every single day we're seeing something really cool that is really gonna change the lives of advisors, but being a part of that, what's that like for you, knowing that, you know, you're one of the people who is kind of driving that car a little bit, as far as streamlining advisors lives and hopefully passing that on to their end clients.
Blake Wood: (
It's, it's really cool. Um, you know, you know, I've been in it in my previous life, but really at, at kind of a, a different level with the enterprise platform, but just seeing the, the different founders, the, the people running these companies, the passion that they have, um, you know, and, and the drive that they had to succeed is amazing. And, and, and only really overshadowed by their willingness to help each other out and, and wanna partner and want to find ways to help the end investors to help advisors do more. And there's so many great and cool ideas out there. It's one of the, the more stressful parts of the job is, is keeping, um, mind space, right? There's so many neat things coming out there is how do you stay relevant to advisors? How do you be the call, the phone call they make when they're looking for something new and differentiating ourselves and, and really understanding that a lot of these tools can be complimentary, but then the challenge becomes as we train so many advisors, rightly so that, you know, integration is key. You want the unified experience. And so being able to help articulate what that could be for that firm, and then being able to play well in, in the larger ecosystem. So as these advisors and firms wanna build their own kind of unique value prop, their own unique client experience, we've all gotta work together to deliver that for our advisors. And it's been really fun seeing an industry that, that seems pretty aligned with, with helping that, uh, vision long.
Justin Mack: (
Definitely. And, uh, as I mentioned before the break, and we always like to close things here now on, on the financial planning podcast with some good vibes, it's kind of become a thing. And if you don't know, tell your friends, but on that same theme, Blake, we've talked about a lot of things that have motivated you push you forward, both what you were doing for years in financial services, in which you're doing at loot now got into the industry because of your father wanted to be a part of a company like this because of what you experienced and saw with your mother. So a lot of personal motivation for you with all that. And you look back on it, what's your favorite part about this job? Because as we know, the markets can make things crazy and sometimes it's you look around it and try to figure out what's going on, but you keep coming back. What do you love about it most and what keeps you going, uh, every single day?
Blake Wood: (
Yeah. You know, I, um, I'll, I'll kind of go back to, to investing. It'll get me to today is at investment. I couldn't have got a better education on, on creating technology in this, this space and, and what it means to advisors. But the most important thing I learned at investment is how important good people are, you know, and good people are everything. Um, and it's what I love most about this job. The people I work with, the advisors we serve, and, and most importantly, it's, it's the clients that they serve and being able to be a little piece of their life. The, the amazing stories we get to hear about every day, as I said, it's it, it fuels our fire. It's the chicken new noodle soup for our soul, whatever you wanna call it. I've, I've never heard a client's life outlook or wellbeing be changed by portfolio. Um, but Lumiant helps align the partners in the families and the professional that serves them an amazing way. And I, I hope everyone gets a chance to experience that because the, the stories that come outta here, the good people that were meeting us, just, I wake up every day and I could smile about it.
Justin Mack: (
Well said, well said. And Blake, thank you so much for us sharing your story and, uh, a little bit of time with us this week on the Financial Planning podcast.
Blake Wood: (
Thank you so much, Justin.
Justin Mack: (
All right. And thank everyone for listening to this edition of the Financial Planning podcast. This episode was produced by Arizent with audio production by Kevin Parise. Special thanks again to our guest Blake Wood of Lumiant. Rate, review and subscribe to all of our content at www.financial-planning.com/subscribe. From Financial Planning, I'm Justin Mack, thanks for listening.