Between Meetings With Matt Heine

Hear Sue Viskovic, General Manager, Consulting at VBP, trace her career in financial services, and discuss how she started Elixir Consulting (now part of VBP) to provide business coaching to advice firms. Sue recounts the challenges when advice businesses moved from commissions to fee-based models. She emphasizes the need for advisers to understand the intricacies of running a business, thorough business planning and being well-capitalized. Sue predicts that scalability will be crucial for advice businesses and outlines how practice management roles, technology (especially AI, data and CRM systems), and outsourcing to countries like the Philippines, can significantly reduce costs and improve efficiency. Lastly, Sue mentions how VBP helps firms looking to improve their operations through consulting, coaching, and outsourcing services.

 Listen to Hugh Humphrey, CEO of Count, as he traces his unique career path from roles in consulting, to telecommunications, and eventually to financial advice, now leading one of the largest licensee groups in Australia. Hugh shares the leadership insights he gained from other impressive leaders, such as values-based decision-making, the importance of effective communication, and the need to respond quickly and transparently when problem-solving. He chats through the evolving role of the licensee and the areas he is focused on with scaling the business, diversifying revenue streams, and integrating technology to improve client service. Finally, Hugh identifies technology and outsourcing as crucial for increasing efficiency and client capacity, while also emphasizing the need for more advisers and new ways for people to enter the profession.

Hear Danielle Press, ex-Commissioner of ASIC and Consultant at Income Asset Management (IAM), discuss her diverse career in finance, including her roles at the Reserve Bank, a family office, and ASIC, before joining IAM. Danielle shares her views on leadership and change management, emphasizing the importance of honesty, humility, and vulnerability to get the best out of people, and creating a balanced leadership team. She reflects on the impact of the Royal Commission and the Quality of Advice Review on financial services and shares her ‘back to the future’ prediction on the role of superfunds. Finally, she discusses the future of hybrids, her current work on fixed income and bonds, and her efforts to make bonds more accessible to retail investors through Netwealth.

Listen to Dean Lombardo, Founder & Principal of Effortless Engagement, as he shares his history in advice to becoming a consultant and an author. Dean talks through how he developed a unique method of evaluating client progression and confidence using short-term milestones and adult learning theory. He discusses the benefits of goals-based planning and explains how re-engineering adviser processes could lead to increased productivity, referrals, and better client outcomes. Dean suggests that advisers could address the advice supply gap and service more clients with less effort by using technology. He warns of the risk of not investing in intergenerational planning and multidisciplinary services and finally concludes that the best businesses are already using AI and other tools to enhance their client engagement and value proposition. Effortless Engagement: www.effortlessengagement.com.au

Hear Lawrence Calcano, Chairman & CEO of iCapital, a platform that helps advisers access private markets, share his experiences of growing iCapital from a small team to a global company with over 1,200 employees. Lawrence emphasises the importance of having a strong culture, a clear vision, and a commitment to innovation and client success. He explains why alternative investments, such as private equity, private credit, hedge funds, and real estate, are becoming more popular among advisors and can help investors achieve their long-term goals. Lawrence also shares his enthusiasm about partnering with Netwealth to bring these opportunities to Australia, enabling Netwealth's clients to access iCapital's curated selection of alternative investments, as well as its educational program and operational support.

Listen to Jean Oelwang, CEO of Virgin Unite, relate how she was instrumental in creating the foundation of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, which brings together the business and not-for-profit worlds to scale change and create a better world. 20 years on Jean recounts what drew her from telcos into the impact sphere, how she observed and had a few ‘’light bulb’’ moments whilst incubating groups of great leaders, like Nelson Mandella, which became the inspiration to write her book on Partnering. Jean shares stories of people and companies who have connected with purpose and the rituals they maintain for success. She highlights the opportunity for businesses to change the world, how this impacts the bottom line, and shares advice for smaller businesses starting their journey

Hear Shachar Kariv and Bernard Del Ray, co-founders of Capital Preferences, a company that provides solutions for understanding client preferences and behaviours in financial decision making, describe their research, background and motivations. Shachar and Bernard outline the challenges and limitations of traditional risk profiling methods. They break down the innovations and applications of Capital Preferences' tools in areas such as risk aversion, loss aversion, ambiguity aversion, multi-dimensional social preferences, and how to go about advising the modern couple. They also discuss the trends and opportunities for utilising these tools in financial advice and wealth management, especially in the context of personalisation, inter-generational client engagement, and enabling clients to achieve greater financial wellbeing. Learn more about Capital Preferences 

Listen to Stephen Scheeler, CEO & Co-Founder of Omniscient Neurotechnology, relate how his corporate career moved to the internet and e-commerce sector, working at Facebook and finally setting up Omniscient, a leader in the field of neurotechnology. Stephen describes how he joined Facebook as one of the "adults" who helped transform the company from cult success into a global powerhouse. He explains how he learned to be a humble, flexible and transparent leader at Facebook, and the practices he adopted, such as posting his performance reviews, creating a good boss/bad boss list, and empowering his team to succeed. Stephen talks through how he co-founded Omniscient, a company that uses AI to decode the human brain and solve problems in areas like mental illness, neurodegeneration, emotions and intelligence.

In this episode, we roundup some of the highlights from our 2023 podcasts, to give you a flavour of each episode and so that you can catch up on what you missed, or find an episode you’d like to hear more of. We cover the best bits from: Ep 83: Ringing in the changes for the financial industry ​- Marcus Price Ep 82: Achieving the unachievable for financial services ​- Sarah Abood Ep 81: Raising the voice of the financial sector ​- Blake Briggs Ep 80: Harnessing the power of AI in the advice industry ​- Michael Kollo Ep 79: Evolving the client value proposition with technology - Matt Heine Ep 78: Empowering students for their financial future - Kendall Flutey Ep 77: Strategic perspectives on scale and independence - Matt Brinker Ep 76: Building a wealth platform to transform lives - Brent Brodeski Ep 75: Talking about a revolution in investing - Jennifer Risher

Hear Marcus Price, CEO and Managing Director, Iress as he shares his background in banking to building PEXA and what drew him to the investment side of financial services with Iress. Marcus discusses the industry step change he accelerated with data and automation in banking decisions as well as bringing the digitisation of property settlements through PEXA (Property Exchange Australia) to fruition. He expands on the hallmarks of change management, his eye-opening first few days at Iress and the inspiration he draws from other companies. Marcus chats through the applications for AI as a tool to provide actionable insights and the need for tech toolkits for people in financial services.  He finally shares his concerns over cybersecurity with old tech stacks, the role of communities, and where he sees Iress heading in the next few years.

Hear Sarah Abood share her journey into financial services and how she headed the merger of the FPA and AFA to become the CEO of the newly formed FAAA. Sarah discusses how she brought two longstanding organisations together and chats through the process of creating the FAAA brand to represent a united voice for the profession. Sarah relates the FAAA’s involvement with QAR and their focus on the key issues facing consumers and advisers. She mentions the FAAA’s continued support of video SOAs and how technology and data standards will play a key role in the path to the future. Finally, Sarah outlines the strategic priorities of the FAAA relating to policy, its members and consumers.

Listen to Blake Briggs as he shares his diverse career journey through industrial advocacy, superannuation policy and finally to financial services and the FSC. Blake relays the skills, governance processes and overarching consumer lens that assist in creating a unified strong voice for the financial industry through the FSC. He explains how the FSC is engaging a cross-section of licensees, advisers and associations to achieve successful regulatory frameworks and create a healthy sector. Blake outlines that diversity of product options to aid retirement planning will be a big focus for the FSC over the next 12 months and how removing red tape could enable the introduction of overseas technology solutions to deliver advice in new and innovative ways.  Lastly, Blake explains the issues around moving clients from old legacy systems to new products and foreshadows a groundswell of consumer concern around failed products in the coming months for advisers to be aware of.

Hear Dr. Micheal Kollo as he discusses his journey from a PhD in finance to becoming a quantitative manager, using algorithms to forecast markets. Michael uncovers how AI now translates complex financial data into intuitive client reports. He takes a deep dive into the intricacies of tools like ChatGPT and how financial advisers can harness its potential without compromising sensitive data. Kollo throws light on groundbreaking plugins, their pros, pitfalls, and the steps for crafting effective AI prompts. Finally, he presents a glimpse into the future of SOAs and ROAs, where automation meets human intuition and shares his vision on how AI adoption could redefine and personalise financial education. To hear Dr. Micheal Kollo live in-person register for Netwealth’s Accelerate Summit.

In this episode, Matt jumps into the hot seat to be interviewed by Peita Diamantidis on the Ensombl AdviceTech podcast. They discuss how advisers are using technology to differentiate their offering and build their client value proposition. Matt shares the efficiencies of managed accounts during turbulent markets, integrating ESG into the offering, cyber-security considerations for firms, and how Artificial Intelligence is being used to provide insights, manage back-office administration and deepen client relationships. He also chats through the continuously evolving client expectations of technology and how Netwealth is providing technology and services to help advisers meet these expectations. Listen to more Ensombl AdviceTech episodes: https://ensombl.com/series/friday-advicetech-podcast/

Picking up from episode 35, Kendall Flutey, Co-Founder and CEO of Banqer, now shares how experiential learning with Banqer Primary has expanded to high school children, giving them the chance to increase their financial literacy and capability that translates into real life. She describes how Banqer has helped to uplift the financial capability of parents, teachers and kids by engaging them on the financial education journey of their children, and relates how the principles of financial literacy amongst children can be expanded to adults. Kendall discusses the exciting potential for AI to lend itself to personalised learning pathways and what Banqer is doing to help prepare students for their careers and financial future in an uncertain world ahead. Finally, she chats through the challenges and key learnings along their growth trajectory and the healthy tension between profit and purpose on their journey to becoming a social enterprise for-profit. To learn more and refer a teacher, visit Banqer.co/netwealth

Listen to Matt Brinker, Managing Partner of Merchant Investment Management, share how he built United Capital, a platform to help advisers scale their businesses, into a $25bn behemoth before its acquisition by Goldman Sachs. Matt reveals why he then changed focus from uniformity and scale to celebrating diversity in business structures and individuals with Merchant. Brinker delves into his observations of the success factors of firms that have been able to scale, how digital tools can bridge the client experience gap, the growth of alternative investments in the US, and exciting developments in global markets. He also provides insightful commentary on investment strategy, capital duration, and the importance of building long-lasting, sustainable businesses.

Hear Brent Brodeski, CEO & Founder, Savant Wealth Management discuss his journey to becoming a successful entrepreneur and leader in the financial industry. Brent shares his personal experiences and how he overcame challenges, made tough decisions, and developed a strong vision for the future of his company. From his early days as a stockbroker to founding Savant Wealth Management, Brodeski shares valuable insights on building a culture of growth, selecting the right partners and staying true to core values. Learn how one of the most respected figures in the financial industry cultivated leadership skills and implemented effective strategies for managing teams and driving innovation and growth.

Listen to Jennifer Risher, Author, Speaker and Co-founder of #HalfMyDAF, as she shares her wealth journey from early days at Microsoft and Amazon. Jennifer explains the emotional and sensitive side of money with real life examples of what she terms as 'the embarrassment of riches', a title she almost used for her book, and the isolation that wealth can bring. She unpacks the vital support role her adviser played and why she penned the book, “We need to talk“. Jennifer reveals how peer networks helped her learn more about investing and her power to create change. This led her to philanthropy and co-founding an organisation to encourage Americans to donate half their donor advised fund, awarding millions to non-profits. www.halfmydaf.com www.JenniferRisher.com

Listen to Nathan Fradley, Director of Ethos ESG Australia and Senior Adviser at Tribeca Financial, as he recounts his career journey into ethical advice and why he brought an ESG data and software tool for advisers (Ethos) to Australia. Nathan unpacks the micro and macro impact of financial advisers on society and the economy, and the need to enhance the reputation of the industry for clients and the next generation of advisers. He identifies opportunities in the client experience from a platform perspective and in the delivery of advice with technology, particularly with the Statement of Advice (SOA). Nathans explains how Ethos is solving the challenges of providing advice to clients on ESG investing in a personalised and transparent manner.

Hear Ben Krasnostein, Managing Director of Kilara Capital, trace his career path into the world of impact investing, where he finally began to realise his aspiration to combine profit and purpose and founded Kilara Capital, an investment management business focussed on both impact and commercial returns. Ben unpacks the responsible investment spectrum and the need for taxonomies and standards, decarbonisation companies they currently partner with, and the structural positions they take in them. He chats through some of the common mistakes he sees founders or small business owners making and the qualities they look for in a founder. Ben identifies key impact areas he believes will drive significant change, advantages of certain business structures, and resources to learn more about the growing area of impact investing.   Learn more about Kilara Capital: https://www.kilaracapital.com/resources Kilara in the news: https://onimpact.com.au/kilara-capital-reports-on-impact-performance-against-a-global-benchmark/