Nitrogen Fearless Investing Summit attracted an audience of about 1,000 advisors to Miami, Florida in early October. F2 Strategy CEO Doug Fritz hit the main stage for a panel discussion with industry leaders on the trends in our industry specifically around M&A and a look forward on where the industry will find itself in five years. We spent the rest of the time attending sessions and engaging in discussions with colleagues and friends from across the industry. We found they share many similar questions and concerns about wealth management right now. That’s why I want to offer a few quick thoughts on two of the Summit’s themes:
How Should RIAs Market Themselves?
A large focus of this conference was about the best ways for RIAs to market themselves. Through different presentations from Michael Kitces, Snappy Kracken and Nitrogen, it became clear there were several different opinions on that “best way”. Kitces advised firms to think about the lifetime value of a client when considering cost of acquisition and to look at private equity firms as an example of their willingness to spend. Snappy Kracken on the other hand, recommended a strategy around building an audience, growing it and then driving referrals. Nitrogen described how to absorb warm leads from your website into your ecosystem.
Our take is that no matter what marketing route you decide to take, understanding the technology landscape and your firm’s value proposition before any marketing effort is critical. You must define and understand your firm’s value proposition and then select the right technology vendors to execute on that vision. Only then can you define your ideal client journey and experience with your brand.
Where Will AI Take Us?
We didn’t come away with a lot of new insights from the AI sessions. It is interesting to understand takes from industry leaders on the impact generative AI will have on our industry and more specifically how we work with clients.
There continues to be robust speculation on what will come out of this new technology, but the sentiment is mostly positive. Nitrogen’s CEO Aaron Klein highlighted the importance of the human component to generative AI, all to say the tool is not as useful without human input much like many tools used in modern society today. It’s entirely possible to imagine that AI could facilitate a 20 hour work week in the future. Or allow advisors to reduce minimums. Or something else we haven’t thought of yet. For now though, there are no clear answers on how AI will ultimately benefit us.
Two minutes wasn’t enough? Get in touch with Doug Fritz for more about this conference.
