The Compound and Friends - You are going to be a part of the future - Josh's remarks to the advisor community live from Wealth/Stack

Starting point is 00:00:00 Good morning, Santa Fe! Hot enough out there for you? Summer in Arizona was an interesting choice. Holy shit. When we were planning the conference, the big question was, how do we keep everyone in the sessions in the panels? I think we figured it out. We'll hold the event in hell panels. I think we figured it out. The whole event in hell itself. I might have

Starting point is 00:00:27 packed too much North Face for this one. All right. Just kidding. Matt, I love you. John, great job. For those of you who don't know me, you're probably not on TikTok a lot, but my name is Downtown Josh Brown. I'm the CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, which is named after my co-founder and personal trainer, Barry Ritholtz Wealth Management, which is named after my co-founder and personal trainer, Barry Ritholtz. Barry, where are you? How am I doing so far? So far so good.

Starting point is 00:00:51 All right. He's dying to get up here and get a word in. Plenty of time for that. Before I forget, I just want to thank Eric Clark of Orion for throwing that incredible tailgating party last night. Give Eric a round, everybody have fun? Thank you, thank you. The football game wasn't great,

Starting point is 00:01:12 but the networking was like the best I've ever seen. Everyone is here. So that was really a fun way to get started. Anyway, Barry and I were approached by Matt Middleton and John Swolfs, who run the incredible inside ETFs event in February in Florida every year and they wanted to do something new for the West Coast I think I could see the West Coast from my hotel room but they wanted to do an event that was less focused on products and more focused on practice management and strategy and actually delivering advice

Starting point is 00:01:45 to clients in the first meeting we hit on the idea of doing a conference that was by advisors for advisors and steering all of the panels and presentations toward what advisors really want to see and learn about and of course the number one thing that advisors want to learn about and talk about is the future. We're a very forward thinking industry. We have to be. It's literally the job description.

Starting point is 00:02:15 Our clients are counting on us to make probabilistic decisions about how to plan for and invest for the future. The entire premise of our service is that our clients will need to spend the money they have today years and decades from now and there damn well better be more of it when that time comes. We can't predict the future perfectly for our clients but we can help them make the decisions today that will look wise and prescient years from now when they look back. And more importantly, we can help them through the very uncertain present

Starting point is 00:02:51 with our words, our actions, our empathy, our ability to contextualize, our optimism and our realism. A good advisor is both coach and quarterback, on-demand psychologist and reliable friend, historian and futurist. We are simultaneously the person in our clients' lives who gives them permission to enjoy the fruits of their labor and the stern discipline they sometimes need when the fear or greed of the moment begins to take hold. We have to remain detached and businesslike when it comes to their money, but personally invested and emotionally supportive when it comes to the challenges and triumphs of their lives.

Starting point is 00:03:43 It's a tricky thing, playing all of these roles in our clients' lives. But it's this combination of skills, training, and instinct that makes the value proposition of a true and capable fiduciary advisor incalculable, literally priceless. And the technology with which we bring these assets and virtues to the table, the technology that you are all going to be watching and learning about this week becomes increasingly important in a business as competitive and demanding as ours. We know that the human element cannot be replaced with a slick user interface. The modern wealth management client's expectations have been ratcheted up, and they want the best of both.

Starting point is 00:04:33 Having a technological edge cannot make you a great advisor. But being at a technological disadvantage can absolutely break your firm. It can destroy your potential as a practitioner. The good news is that in 2019 and beyond there's no reason to be at a technological disadvantage. There is an army of WealthTech founders at your disposal just waiting to plug you into the cutting edge. They're all here this week. There is an ocean of capital flowing into fintech solutions. There's money backing founders and coders and engineers as they

Starting point is 00:05:12 rewrite and re-engineer the financial advice game in real time. And we're all living through what I think is a great leap forward period. We're all experiencing it every day. I firmly believe that the advisor of the future is in this room right now. You are all here because you've made the determination that you and your firm will be part of the future. You are progressive. You are open-minded. You are hell-bent at becoming the best advisor, the

Starting point is 00:05:47 most informed advisor that you can be for your clients. And not only are you going to be a part of the future, you are going to win. Give yourselves a round of applause for being here. Louder, more. This looks like it's not connected to anything. I'm just going to let it fall, okay? Fintech. I think I just unplugged Money Guy Pro.

Starting point is 00:06:16 Sorry. All right. Over the next day and a half, you will be hearing from the top leaders and founders in our industry. You will be joined by a total of 700 registered attendees 70% of you here are financial advisors we've also got industry professionals from asset management from custodian brokerage from software companies from our friends in the media there are representatives from over 450 companies here

Starting point is 00:06:47 with combined assets of roughly $528 billion at this conference. Give yourselves a round. We are half a trillion dollars strong in this room. Over the next few days, you will be seeing demos from 10 of the hottest technology providers out there over in the Stack Stadium. You're not going to want to miss that stuff. You will be entertained by the world-famous, legendary hip-hop DJ, DJ Scribble, at Scottsdale's most banging nightclub, The Mint. I hope everyone's on their best behavior, just in case we've been indemnified.

Starting point is 00:07:27 Over the next few days, you will eat and drink like you are going to the electric chair. Over the next few days there is a 99% likelihood that you will be interviewed for Justin Costelli's podcast. Shout out to Justin, love you. We are so confident that you are going to have the best financial advisor conference you have ever been to that we're already planning the 2020 event just looking for somewhere a little warmer we will be in September again I'm told and potentially California so stay tuned for that. I hope everyone comes back.

Starting point is 00:08:09 We're aiming to have over 1,000 attendees at the next one. You're going to look back and say, I was at Wealthstack 1. I'm telling you, we are pulling out all the stops to make this the most memorable couple of days that you've ever spent at an industry conference. And I've been to a million of them. So I know what's lacking and what makes for a great conference and I think the Inside ETFs people,

Starting point is 00:08:29 along with my people, I really think that we've accomplished it, you'll let me know tomorrow, or don't. But without any further preamble, I want to welcome everyone to the Wealthstack experience. Thank you for being here, we appreciate all of our attendees, our speakers, our sponsors, and I hope today is a really great day and everyone gets the most out of the panels the sessions the networking and later on tonight the tequila so thank you very much for joining

The Compound and Friends - You are going to be a part of the future - Josh's remarks to the advisor community live from Wealth/Stack

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