By Vasyl Soloshchuk, CEO and Co-Owner at INSART
Larry Shumbres
CEO at Totum Risk
Larry got his feet wet in the technology space and financial sector by working at IBM right out of college. Later, he moved into the investment space working for New York Life MainStay Investments, then Morningstar and Charles Schwab. Larry gained considerable experience building FinTech products and selling them to advisors at eMoney Advisor (acquired by Fidelity Investments) and eVestment (acquired by Nasdaq).
In September 2017, Larry accepted the CEO position at Totum Wealth. At the same time, Totum Wealth was renamed Totum Risk, reflecting the company’s shift in focus to calculating risk.
We talked about the explosion of robo-advisory services and how financial advisors should implement this technology. Larry shared his thoughts about artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and blockchain, and his expectations about their impact on the industry.
Robo-advisors and human touch
Talking about the trends that we have lately been observing in the wealth-management and investment industry, Larry agrees that there has been an explosion of robo-advisors. However, he highlights that individual investors aren’t leaving their advisors.
“The individual investor wants that technology, but they also want that personal touch with the advisor.”
Thus, Larry believes that this situation means that financial advisors need to implement technology in the workflow. This is where the challenge of selecting the right technology comes in. Technology should pull together all the market data needed by advisors and investors, have a simple user interface, and allow seamless integration into the workflow.
“FinTech firms should have open and rest APIs for seamless integrations that will make the workflow more efficient for the advisor.”
Integrations give both sides advantages—investors have the technology and the advice they need, while RIAs offer transparent and competitive advice and customer experience.
From AI to blockchain
Another significant trend Larry mentions relates to big data analytics and AI. Advisors can really benefit from having access to all kinds of market data and being able to use that in sophisticated algorithms and approved methodologies.
“Machine Learning and AI will be a huge value add to helping an advisor know more about a client to help them reach their investment goals.”
While a lot of the large institutions, banks, and investment companies are working with and talking about blockchain and cryptocurrencies, Larry says that massive implementation of these technologies will happen in the next several years.