AFO|Wealth Management Forward

Rob and Rory provide a year in review with highlights from top guests. Listen to Dr. Sean Stein Smith, Forbes Crypto Contributor, talk blockchain technology and the emergence of NFT's in April of 2021. Hear from Cody Barbo, CEO of Trust & Will, talk about the importance of Estate Planning and listen to Vanguard Economist Josh Hirt discuss the importance of Holistic advice. Get tips on how to grow your practice from accounting thought leaders Donny Shimamoto, Jody Padar (The Radical CPA), and Blake Oliver, host of the #1 Cloud Accounting Podcast. Listen to clips of guests from leading financial and accounting publications like The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Accounting Today, and AccountingWeb.com. Check out this action-packed 2021 year in review episode, and don't forget to subscribe to the podcast to listen to more great guests in 2022.

In this episode, Rory and Diane Young, Managing Director at Arrowroot Family Office, are joined by Brenda Meller, Founder of Meller Marketing, which helps VIPs and Sales Leaders “unlock the power” of LinkedIn through strategy coaching, optimization, and training. In this episode, Brenda talks about the limitless potential of LinkedIn and how to harness the #1 professional business networking increasing that has over 800 Million global users. Find out why posts are for “TELLING” and your profile is for “SELLING.” Learn how to create engaging content, from your header to headlines to fun polls that invite users to interact with you and your audience. Lastly, discover the secrets to increasing your LinkedIn presence via likes, comments, and videos. Check out this latest episode with our resident LinkedIn Sales & Marketing Leader to better understand how to cultivate and grow your network.

In this episode, Rory and Rob are joined by Adam Holt, a “recovering” financial planner, thought leader, and founder of Asset-Map. Adam talks about how he used his background in architecture to develop a technology that helps advisors and people better understand their finances through simple visual frameworks. Asset-Map is a resource used by thousands of advisors and more than a million people globally. Learn how Asset-Map utilizes principles from Netflix and Amazon to help advisors suggest and not sell solutions to solve their client’s needs. Discover how advisors are using Asset-Map to assess their client’s financial makeup and how they can deliver advice in a fraction of the time. Asset-Map has proved to be a revolutionary tool for financial advisors. Find out more about Adam’s game-changing platform and how firms can start to harness the power of Asset-Map to grow their business.

Rob and Rory are joined by Charles Paikert, Contributing Writer for Barron’s Advisor and U.S. Correspondent for Family Wealth Report. In this episode, Charles talks about the frenzied M&A activity in the RIA space, which has a tremendous amount of demand and a limited amount of supply. He talks about $500 Million AUM firms getting more than 10X EBITDA with 80% to 90% cash at closing. They also talk about CI Financial’s rapid growth in the US market, where they have bought over 20 firms in a little over 22 months, with over $100 Billion of that being in Wealth Management holdings. Charles discusses the impact that Private Equity is having on M&A activity, citing 70% of deals were PE-backed in the 3rd Quarter in 2021. Learn why Private Equity is so attracted to RIA’s and how accounting firms can leverage this model to increase their enterprise value. Is Private Equity coming after Accounting Firms next? Find out on this engaging and informative podcast!

Rob and Rory are joined by Forbes Wealth Management Staff Writer Jason Bisnoff. In this episode, Jason talks about ESG investing and the problems from supply not meeting growing demand. He also touches on the belief that you have to look at these issues long-term by citing a CNBC report that GM will not be making gas-powered cars in 14 years, which would affect companies like ExxonMobil. Learn about the growing demographical shifts, how Robinhood millionaires are shunning financial advisors, and why some experts believe Millennials could drive a 30-year bull market. Also, you'll hear their thoughts on ARK Invest's prediction of a 200 Trillion Dollar innovation market that will come about from AI, Robotics, Energy Storage, and Blockchain. Don’t miss this episode covering Wealth Management, politics, hip hop, Squid Game, and the sports world

Rory is joined by Jelani Jenkins, founder of Postseason, and former NFL linebacker of the Miami Dolphins. Postseason is the first comprehensive, holistic online platform for retired athletes tailored to help them find purpose after their professional sporting careers. In this episode, Jelani takes us through his journey of retirement from the sport he loved and eventual self-discovery. He claims and has proved that is it possible to be equally passionate about life after the end of an athlete’s stint in the locker room. Using his application, he is trying to promote this idea and help all athletes rebrand themselves. He talks about how Postseason is all about encouraging a sense of comradery amongst fellow athletes to help with the feeling of isolation that one is hit by after retiring from their respective sport. He also touches on the importance of holistic financial planning and how athletes often suffer from the fear of asking for support. Listen to this episode and find out exactly how Jelani plans on eradicating these systemic problems from the sports that we all dearly love.

Rob and Rory speak with the CEO and co-founder of Trust & Will, Cody Barbo. Trust & Will has helped over 200,000 families start their estate plan using their online technology and have transformed the way families plan for their future through affordable and straightforward estate planning. Cody describes the motivation behind creating a modern, intuitive, and affordable solution as an alternative to high-priced attorneys and inefficient processes. He emphasizes the affordability and accessibility of their estate planning platform, which has a Turbo Tax type experience that can be completed in 30 to 45 min. He talks about the importance of having a Trust if you have a property so that it doesn’t fall into probate. We discuss how the world is becoming digital and how Cody has been leading the charge for legislation that allows digital signatures of Will’s, which has recently passed and adopted in a few states. Learn about the basics of estate planning: Trusts, Wills, Guardianship, and Health Care Directives. For Advisors, find out how you can utilize Trust & Will to offer your clients these value-added estate planning services. Whether you need to set up an estate plan for the first time or update an existing one, you won’t want to miss this episode.

Rory and Mark are joined by Maria Quinn, a National Speaker and Senior Member of the Thought Leadership team in Vanguard Financial Advisor Services. Maria joined Vanguard in 2013 and has held a variety of roles serving Vanguard’s high-net-worth retail and financial advisor clients. In this podcast, Maria highlights the importance of establishing strong relationships and building trust with the clients and their families (spouse and children) to ensure the protection of assets while minimizing potential tax impacts in intergenerational wealth transfer. She also touches on the pending tax law changes, sharing her advice on what accounting firms can do in preparation. Listen to this podcast and find out what Maria has to say about intergenerational wealth transfer and don’t miss her explanation on how to get over public speaking fears, hint hint “Know thy Content and Know thy Audience." Don't miss this informative and engaging episode!

Rory and Rob are joined by Univ. Michigan and UCLA Law School Grad Ryan Schumacher, a private, professional trustee and attorney with Lorenz Private Trustees. Learn about the importance of a fiduciary as a person who stands in a special relation of trust, confidence, or responsibility in their obligations to others. In this episode, Ryan discusses the three options people use when using a trustee: 1.) A family member or friend 2.) Bank or trust company and lastly 3.) A professional private fiduciary. He talks about flexibility, operational efficiency, and independence as just a few of the benefits of using a professional private fiduciary. He provides the reasons why accountants, advisors, and attorneys may want to avoid taking on the role of trustee, just as he doesn’t advise people to hire him to be their dentist or plumber. Find out why Ryan decided to stop practicing law to start working for clients as a fiduciary private trustee. If you are an accountant, advisor, or attorney looking for advice on hiring a private trustee, you won’t want to miss this episode.

In this episode, Rory and Rob are joined by Tanya Van Court, a former ESPN, and Nickelodeon executive and the founder of Goalsetter. Goalsetter is an educational-based financial literacy app that teaches kids and teens finance through games, memes, and pop culture. This episode focuses on Tanya’s passion for teaching children and students of all ages how to invest and how she strives to close the wealth gap in America through her educational-based fintech platform. Tanya begins her discussion by highlighting how 90% of wealthy families lose their wealth by the third generation and asserts that all families should create an environment at home where the children are continuously learning about money. Tanya also discusses how Goalsetter has been working with schools, educational providers, and large corporations to promote early financial education and expose children to the concept of investing in a fun and more child-friendly way. Tanya also speaks on Goalsetter’s partnership with the NBA Players Association to draft kids across America to create Goalsetter accounts and to inspire a million African American and Latino kids to start saving. Listen to hear how Tanya used her background in gamification, multimedia, entertainment, and education and past experiences to create a financial education platform that will teach parents and kids how to better manage their finances.