Wealth Advisor Magazine September 2024 Edition - 14

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13
at Future Proof look like?
Middleton and Brown attack the
questions from different angles, but
their answers converge so well that
they don't even need quotation marks:
whatever the future looks like, you can
bet there will be more of it.
More points of view. More " nontraditional "
advisor representation. More
talent. More business models. More
conversations. More ideas.
For Josh Brown, that boils down to
democratized access to solutions that
were previously restricted to rarefied
client segments and the advisors who
evolved to work with them. Elite asset
managers are moving down market.
Mainstream investors are moving up.
Somewhere in the middle, you'll be
able to offer billionaire-class expertise
with confidence even if you never meet
an actual billionaire.
" As an industry, the biggest problem
we have now is that we've put up these
walls, right? " he asks. " Traditional asset
managers define themselves as serving
Main Street, which means mutual funds
and ETFs. Alternative asset managers
define themselves as 'you can't afford
it.' Can you serve all investor types and
own the relationship at every stage? "
Matt Middleton is also looking forward
to a broader menu of convergent
investment options, but he's more interested
in how the firms of the future use
technology to differentiate themselves
on the front end.
" Two RIA firms on paper with the
same asset level, located in the same
area with the same size staff will have
completely different needs and desires
based on their client base, " he says. " AI
will help larger ones transform their
business and smaller ones punch way
above their weight class. "
Weigh these visions side by side and
the industry becomes a kind of matrix
of opportunities: big and small firms,
mature consolidators and rogue startups,
old hands and new blood working
in parallel to create experiences for
themselves and their clients.
One endless investment architecture,
open to all the best ideas the insti14
| SEPT/OCT 2024
tutional world has ever had. Infinite
permutations.
Very few wrong answers. To me, it
looks and sounds like the Breakthru
pavilion . . . clients and counterparties sit
down across the table, endless resources
available at your fingertips.
You talk as long as you both find the
conversation rewarding. The future is
the festival that never ends.
OPEN UP TO THE WEATHER
One last point: the market almost
always gets in the way
whenever I go on the road. I
remember a lot of the biggest
headlines of the past decade
for the hotel room I was in
that morning and the meetings
that " distracted " me from
what was going on.
My memories of Future
Proof aren't like that. I have no
idea what the markets were
doing last year. I'm probably
not going to check in every
five minutes this week either.
The world evidently did not
end when I took my eye off the
indices. That's an unexpected relief.
What I remember is the weather. A
rainy morning on the beach and then
that afternoon I got more sun than in
the previous three years put together.
I remember kids biking past the fence
reading the banners and yelling, " I love
financial planning! "
Don't we all, really? It triggered
a flashback to the days before smart
phones and 24/7 real-time market commentary,
when people logged out for
vacations and a thing called weekends
walked the earth.
Make no mistake, this is still business.
Serious stuff. But if we try to beat
the robo platforms at their own game,
we've already lost. The human element
is how we add value.
And occasionally, that human element
needs a recharge just like your
smart phone. With that in mind, try to
spend some time this week unplugging
the screen and plugging back into the
big power sources that humans have
historically found inspirational: big
NEXT STEPS: JOSH
BROWN
MUCH LIKE ELVIS, Josh Brown
the blogger has left the building. The
venerable " Reformed Broker " ended
its run back in November. Survivors
include a book-length greatest hits
and remixes compilation, You Weren't
Supposed To See That: Secrets Every
Investor Must Know.
" Having been a daily chronicler of
the investment business
for 15 years, I felt it was
time to close that chapter
and send it off with a
bang, " he explains. " The
culmination of all the
lessons I learned along
the way. "
Needless to say, it's
not a textbook. This was
never going to be that
kind of investor secrets
manual to shelve next to
Benjamin Graham.
Life is too volatile for
that. Instead, Josh says
it's about " markets and parenthood
and pop culture and money and the
intersection of all these things. "
I can't wait to see Hollywood or
one of the streaming channels option
the rights and start casting. Meanwhile,
much like Elvis, Josh Brown the
blogger lives on. His new blog goes on
at DowntownJoshBrown.com.
sky, big water, big sun.
Maybe you're already well ahead of
that curve, in which case, congratulations!
But in that scenario, think kindly
of us workaholics who've lost our
work-life balance in the past few years.
If you see someone staring at their
phone, make some noise. See if you
can tempt them to take a break.
Even if it rains. It's always raining
somewhere in the market, but that's
ultimately where oceans come from.
Now, get out there! Take this issue of
Wealth Advisor magazine with you for
the dull times.
THEWEALTHADVISOR.COM
http://www.DowntownJoshBrown.com http://www.THEWEALTHADVISOR.COM
Wealth Advisor Magazine September 2024 Edition

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wealth Advisor Magazine September 2024 Edition
