FintekNews is pleased to publish the fourth interview in our new series – #FintechSavvy. The series has a two-fold purpose: 1) To feature ADVISORS who are successfully using financial technology in their practices and profiting from it, and 2) To feature FINTECHS who are helping advisors grow their practices with their unique product offerings.
This week, we’d like to introduce you to Brian Beasley, Wealth Advisor & Managing Member of Athena Private Wealth, an educated & experienced collaborative team with a national network of advanced planning specialists. Internally, they have over 100 years of collective experience and are fully independent fiduciary advisors.
NAME:
Brian BeasleyTITLE:
Wealth Advisor, Managing MemberCOMPANY:
Athena Private WealthWEB ADDRESS:
athenaprivatewealth.com1) What services does your wealth management firm offer & what is your AUM (if you wish to share the latter)?
We are a best-practices RIA firm, offering financial planning, investment management, and advanced planning.
2) What was the personal motivation for you to join (or launch) your firm?
We launched our current evolution as an RIA in 2013, primarily so that we could add more value to our clients through a more streamlined, custom experience. We have found that we can innovate and deliver services much more effictively as an RIA than with our former independent broker-dealer.
3) What is the average age/ gender/ financial demos/ social composition/ geographical location of your client base?
Although we are based in Illinois, we have clients from New York, Florida, California and many parts in between. New clients are typically business owners, executives, and some really great savers. Relationships typically begin when our clients are in their 40s or 50s. We have many relationships that have lasted over 20 years.
4) What financial technology tools/services do you currently use in your practice?
- Billing/Reporting: Morningstar Office
- Risk Profiling: Riskalyze
- Financial Planning: Assetmap & Right Capital
- CRM: Redtail
- Email: Google
- Scheduling: Calendly
- Advanced Investment Management: 55ip
5) Do you feel the fintech tools/services you use give you any sort of competiive advantage over other advisors and/or do they help you retain clients or win new business more easily? If so, how?
Our competitors all have access to great tools. Simply having them doesn’t give us any competitive advantage. However, fully levering them (rather than just having them) has helped us add value to clients. Also, the ability to use API’s to use different tools in sync with one another continues to help us.
6) How have your clients reacted to the fintech that your firm uses?
Clients assume that you’ll provide good reporting and have some kind of planning software. There is an expectation that we bring something of value. The additions we have made in the past four or five years have had generally positive responses, but Assetmap has surprisingly received the most favorable feedback from both clients and their other professionals. Most recently, we’re excited about leveraging 55ip’s capabilities to automate and customize improving fee, risk, and tax sceniarios on behalf of our clients.
7) Have your clients requested that you add any other financial technology offerings that you are not presently providing?
No, and we are not anticipating adding any new fintech offerings in the next year.
8) Finally, how do you think fintech will impact advisors in general, and your practice specifically, in the future?
When tech is designed and used properly, it saves advisors time. Sometimes this is by doing things more quickly, or automating mundane functions. But when clients gain clarity and perspective from the tech, it can make the overall relationship more effective, and therefore more efficient.
Advising clients since 1994, Brian Beasley's focus is on advanced tax, investment, and business planning strategies. By working in a team-based model, alongside CPAs and several dozen specialists, he helps develop coordinated strategies that seek to reduce unnecessary business expenses & investment expenses, reduce tax costs personally and in clients' businesses and reduce risks to the achievement of client goals.