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By Nico DeMaio - November 12, 2024 The financial services landscape is rapidly evolving, with increased competition, regulatory demands, and the ever-present need to adapt to new technologies. For Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) and independent firms, maintaining a competitive advantage means focusing on core strengths and client relationships while streamlining operational demands. Outsourcing is emerging as a critical solution, allowing advisors to enhance service delivery without the resource drain of hiring, training, and managing a large internal team. However, myths around outsourcing often prevent RIAs from capitalizing on these opportunities. Here, we explore and dispel four major misconceptions about outsourcing and how this strategy can elevate your business. Read More

By Nico DeMaio - October 23, 2024 The financial advisory landscape has dramatically transformed recently, with a notable shift towards independence. Many Investment Advisors are entrepreneurs; they are self-starters who are not intimidated by challenges. They seek the freedom to act in their client's best interests, crafting holistic, personalized financial plans. However, many advisors working within the wirehouse model face limitations— pressured to sell proprietary products and adhere to institutional guidelines that may conflict with clients' unique needs. This desire for autonomy has fueled the rise of independent Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs). These advisors operate under a fiduciary duty, meaning they are legally bound to put their client's interests first, free from corporate influences. Independence allows advisors to provide more flexible, tailored solutions but also presents challenges. From building a client base to managing compliance and technology, independent advisors must navigate a more complex business environment. Yet, the rewards—both in terms of client satisfaction and financial upside—drive more advisors toward independence. ReadMore

By Nico DeMaio - September 2, 2024 Choosing the right CRM platform is critical for financial services firms aiming to enhance operations and client relationships. Salesforce Financial Services Cloud, Redtail CRM, and Wealthbox CRM are three leading solutions in this domain, each offering distinct features. In this blog, we’ll compare these platforms across four key dimensions: integration capabilities, open architecture, ease of use, and data ownership. At AdvizorStack, we view your CRM system as far more than just a tool for managing client relationships. We see it as a critical operational platform integrating and reconciling data from various sources into a cohesive, centralized system. As we look to the future, it is increasingly evident that firms lacking a unified database will face significant challenges. Businesses risk diminishing their reporting capabilities, service quality, and competitive edge without a platform that consolidates client data into a single hub. In contrast, organizations that leverage an integrated CRM system will be better positioned to excel in these areas, gaining a substantial advantage over their competitors. ReadMore

By Nico DeMaio - August 5, 2024 In the rapidly changing world of RIAs, achieving optimal performance requires a strategic blend of expertise, comprehensive management, and adaptability. As firms continue to seek robust frameworks for optimal outcomes, one key strategy is outsourcing critical activities to specialized firms. Outsourcing professional money management, back-end technology, and other essential services allows financial advisory firms to save time and resources while accessing top-tier services for a fraction of the cost. Firms like AdvizorStack provide a comprehensive solution that includes Unified Managed Accounts (UMAs) and integration with leading platforms, enabling advisors to focus on client relationships and growth. ReadMore

By Nico DeMaio - July 08, 2024 In today’s competitive financial advisory landscape, Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) face the dual challenge of expanding their practices while managing operational complexities. One of the most significant hurdles they encounter is maintaining high service levels amidst rapid growth. By strategically leveraging technology and outsourcing non-core tasks, RIAs can streamline their operations, alleviating these complexities and enabling them to concentrate more on client relationships and business development. This approach not only enhances operational efficiency but also significantly boosts the valuation of their practice, allowing advisors to focus on what matters most: their clients. Read More

WSR Inaugural List Of Leading Next Generation Professionals Recognizes Executives From AdvizorStack, Diamond Consultants, LPL, Stratos And Berkshire Global Advisors. By Chris Latham - June 4, 2024 In the past, Next Gen recognition lists have focused mainly on financial advisors. And while advisors are quite deserving of those honors, in a lot of ways the advisor population demographically reflects the broader industry population – from home offices of RIA and independent broker-dealer enterprises to executive teams at third-party solutions providers. So any discussion of Next Gen leaders ought to consider how the full ecosystem of the wealth management industry interconnects across this larger landscape. Furthermore, just as long-established veteran financial advisors must engage in succession planning on behalf of their clients and colleagues, so must the management teams of forward-thinking organizations. Therefore, when we think of Next Gen, we are looking for the rising talent of today who can steward the industry into tomorrow. Our inaugural edition of the invitation-only NEXT 5 features leaders who have distinguished themselves throughout their careers, which are still very much in progress, by demonstrating exceptional drive, vision and the ability to inspire others to achieve positive change at their organizations. We congratulate them on their accomplishments, which we have summarized below. Here are the winners, presented in alphabetical order. Nico DeMaio, President, AdvizorStack Nico DeMaio is President of AdvizorStack, a consultative outsourced CTO that provides customized technology stacks for RIAs. Its solutions encompass client onboarding, billing and reporting, trade and order management, financial planning, research and analytics, as well as CRM. The 30-year-old is a Pittsburgh native and University of Arizona Eller College of Management graduate. DeMaio had a passion for finance and technology at a young age. He started his career at Charles Schwab in 2017, where he was Head Junior Advisor for a $3 billion practice. Moving on to TD Ameritrade in 2018, DeMaio started his own book of business in Silicon Valley, where he oversaw more than $750 million in assets. As a top performing Senior Financial Consultant at TDA, DeMaio saw the need for technology in an industry that he felt was significantly lacking innovation. From 2020 to 2022, DeMaio worked at the wealthtech platform Amplify, where he served as Relationship Manager. He oversaw growth from $400 million to $6 billion in 18 months. In December 2022, DeMaio launched AdvizorStack with his father, Paul, who serves as CEO and Managing Partner. Nico DeMaio brings his expertise in financial planning, technology and relationship management to building and growing a company that he strives to be recognized as “truly for advisors, by advisors.” AdvizorStack has grown over 300% since the start of 2024. Read More

The growing retail appetite for alts: Impacts and outcomes By Alternatives Watch Staff - March 22, 2024 Market volatility and economic uncertainty over the past few years dominoed across investment portfolios large and small. One potentially permanent — and paradigm-shifting — consequence is the rising popularity of alternative investments among retail investors. It is a development that has implications far beyond broadening the scope of investment options for non-institutional investors. The complexities associated with the democratization of alts are not limited to advisor education and end-client knowledge of the asset class and its risk/reward profile. Regulatory hurdles, technology investments, reporting requirements and product due diligence all spring to mind. Then, there are the operational challenges. Registered Investment Advisers (RIAs) looking to accommodate the expectations of advisors and meet their clients’ appetites, while also expanding their AUM, are working to ensure their back-office infrastructure and solutions can enable alts participation by this growing demographic. How are firms approaching this imperative? Alternatives Watch spoke to three executives to discuss the emerging challenges that accompany this shift, what solutions firms are gravitating toward to meet this demand and the top back-office solutions RIA firms need in order to align alts effectively and compliantly with their advisors and their clients: We spoke with a panel of experts: -Tiffany Magri, Sr. Regulatory Advisor, Smarsh, a technology company specializing in digital communications compliance and intelligence - Paul DeMaio, CEO and Managing Partner, AdvizorStack, a fintech technology platform offering RIAs turnkey access to a curated assortment of third-party solutions providers -Kevin Keefe, Chief Executive Officer, Realta Wealth, an independent broker-dealer and RIA platform Q: What are the top back-office solutions RIA firms need to have to effectively, and in a compliant way, align alts with their advisors’ end clients? DeMaio: While alts have become more and more prevalent in today’s portfolios for high-net-worth individuals and trusts, the problem of reporting on these assets is more difficult than ever. AdvizorStack feels we have the right solutions and integrations with top-tier firms to solve that problem. But we don’t stop at just integrating the platforms. We become the all-in-one service provider and tech support arm for your firm. We not only implement and transition your accounts to these platforms, we also train your personnel on how to best use these platforms. We believe having an excellent financial planning tool is extremely important when evaluating alts for any client. We partner with financial planning software providers to give us these solutions while fully integrating them into our CRM, allowing the advisor to set a comprehensive long-term plan for any clients or trust accounts. Third, but not least, is the importance of having a strong risk scoring tool in place to make sure your alts do not throw the portfolios out of the client’s general risk parameters; our offering includes a risk analytics and scoring platform that is also fully integrated into the AdvizorStack CRM, allowing one-stop shopping for all of the advisors’ needs, while giving the advisor the ability to latch onto our institutional pricing. This integrated functionality allows AdvizorStack to be an outsourced chief technology officer and an extension of their firm. Read More

Innovative Wealthtech Positioned to Breathe New Life into Small- and Mid-sized RIA Segment By DWN Staff - March 11, 2024 Throughout his 30+ year financial services career, AdvizorStack CEO Paul DeMaio never considered himself a disruptor. All that changed in 2022, when Paul, along with his son, Nico – a 10-year industry veteran himself, who serves as the firm’s President – launched AdvizorStack, a fintech technology platform offering Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) turnkey access to a curated assortment of third-party solutions providers. What’s revolutionary about that? The answer lies in AdvizorStack’s client base: the under $250 million RIA segment – breakaway advisors, large OSJs and established RIAs all looking for cost-effective, integrated tech and back-office support. Read More

AdvizorStack, a visionary player in the financial technology sector, is proud to unveil a revolutionary solution designed to empower financial advisors in today’s dynamic landscape. Focused on breaking down technology barriers and turning them into steppingstones towards success, AdvizorStack is set to redefine the way advisors navigate the digital age. In the fast-paced world of fintech, a glaring challenge for financial advisors has been the lack of an affordable platform for trading advisor-driven portfolios. Recognizing this need, AdvizorStack has introduced a game-changing solution. Paul DeMaio, CEO of AdvizorStack says “This solves a huge need in the space for advisors that want to have the ability to create their own portfolios, create rebalancing rules at the model and individual account level.” AdvizorStack has selected Qdeck as its primary advisor portfolio manager sleeve, and it now comes as an integral part of the initial purchase of AdvizorStack. This strategic alliance equips AdvizorStack clients with an institutional-grade trade order management system that is agnostic to custodians. This greatly simplifies an advisor’s investment process through one centralized platform. Jagdeesh Prakasam, CEO of Qdeck.ai Stated “For over 60 years financial advisors have seen only incremental improvements in technology offerings. Finally, Qdeck.ai and AdvizorStack have teamed up to deliver a digital framework for financial advisors that captures the ethos and expectations of the next generation of advisors and their clients.” Nico DeMaio, President, and Founder of AdvizorStack, added “What interested me was the use of generative AI to allow models to create their own weightings, drift thresholds and truly made the advisors life easier. As the next generation of advisors continue to prepare for the great wealth transfer, tools like this are going to be the difference in recruiting advisors and keeping assets at your firm.” About AdvizorStack: AdvizorStack was conceived by advisors, for advisors, with the mission to provide an Outsourced Chief Technology Officer for the everyday Registered Investment Advisors (RIA). Historically, only larger firms possessed the capability to craft unified experiences and dashboards. However, AdvizorStack extends this capability to the everyday advisor by creating institutional level contracts and hand selecting vendors to fit the firms’ specific needs. As for financial advisors, AdvizorStack recognizes the challenges of breaking away from the norm and selecting the technology that aligns with your needs. AdvizorStack is the one stop solution for you to create a wirehouse type home office. Offering support during advisory transitions and handling the implementation and onboarding of advisors onto their new technology stack. We pride ourselves on being your firm’s back office and solving any problem that you present us with to improve you and your end clients’ experience. We stand at the forefront of empowering advisors to thrive in an evolving landscape, leveraging technology to transform obstacles into your success. About Qdeck: Qdeck, an innovative FinTech company, harnesses the power of generative AI and investment management technology to empower Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) in enhancing their clients’ digital experiences while seamlessly managing their portfolios. Our Qdeck platform, developed over the course of four years and recently introduced to the market, boasts a robust suite of features including real-time access to financial data, advanced financial simulation and reporting tools, an AI-driven chat interface providing actionable insights, customizable compliance-friendly content, comprehensive client account management, and a fully tailored client portal. With the Qdeck model library at their fingertips, RIAs can effortlessly incorporate advanced portfolio overlays or develop their own custom Robo-advisor, all for a flat subscription fee. Discover more at www.qdeck.ai. AdvizorStack and Qdeck will be discussing generative AI and how AI tools will continue to change the way Financial Advisors do their job on the Adjusted for Risk Podcast November 6th. For more information on AdvizorStack, please feel free to contact the AdvizorStack team at info@advizorstack.com or visit our website at www.advizorstack.com or www.Qdeck.ai.