Vib Arya, Shufro Rose’s chief operating officer, said at WealthStack, part of Wealth Management EDGE at The Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood Beach, Fla., that he centers the 86-year-old company’s technology stack around the idea that automation removes friction.
“We’ve got multi-generational relationships, which are so precious to us,” he said. "We want advisors to spend as much time as possible with clients.”
As part of its tech stack, Shufro Rose uses AI technology via CogniCor, which allows it to have an embedded AI assistant.
Leslie Dentinger, deputy CTO of Dynasty Financial Partners, said the company built a data lake for their “holistic data strategy.” And Jon Meyer, CTO of Captrust, said the firm uses Microsoft Copilot to write code, ChatGPT for marketing and has created its own internal chatbot. Meyer said it have focused on aggregating data in its CRM system for maximum efficiency.
“Once you figure out how to put it in your CRM, it’s easy to use in other places in business,” he said.
However, Dentinger said it could be cost-prohibitive to follow the lead of these larger businesses if a firm is under $2 billion in AUM. Because wealth management is a relationship business, they consider their technology a selling point.
“(Advisors) can say, ‘I take your data security and privacy seriously,’” she said. “Use technology to sell who you are and what the experience will be like with your firm.”
Because Dynasty is a network of firms, this means something different for each advisor based on which channel they are in.
“We try to create a technology stack that flexes to those different needs,” she said.
Arya said his firm constantly tries new things to stay adaptable, which was especially useful when COVID-19 first hit.
“Advisors found they could work the same way at home as in the office,” he said. We have instilled the mindset and confidence in our folks to leverage technology.”
Dentinger said Dynasty carefully considers how adding new pieces to their tech stack will assist them in their work.
“There are so many shiny objects out there,” she said. “We are serious about asking ourselves, ‘What is the problem we’re solving for our clients?’ Is this a better mousetrap or a mousetrap with a new paint job?”