Zach Ashburn, founder of Reach Strategic Wealth, has built his business around getting clients to ask better questions. Zach joins to discuss how to weave portfolio management in with financial planning, the importance of apprenticeship when starting out as an advisor, and how technology empowers independent advisors.
Transcript
Speaker 1:
Speaking Logicly as brought to you by ETF Logic, the leading provider of analytics and portfolio analysis tools for financial advisors. No information within this should be considered trading or investment advice.
Scott McKenna:
Hey guys, and welcome to another episode of Speaking logicly. My name is Scott McKenna, and today I am joined by Zach Ashburn, the founder of Reach Strategic Wealth. Zach, how are you today?
Zach Ashburn:
I’m great, man. I’m happy to be here. How are you doing?
Scott McKenna:
Doing pretty good. So, for our listeners who might not know a lot about you, can you give us just a little bit of background about who you are and your business?
Zach Ashburn:
Sure. So, I’ve been in finance since graduating college. I started out in banking, as pretty much plain Jane banking can be. Had an office, help people with accounts, things like that. And getting my start there was great. It let me touch a lot of areas of the world of finance, so the deposits, lending, insurance, planning, things like that, and just see what was going on in that setting where banks are doing everything. I was there for a few years, but didn’t take too long to see that planning and investing was where I was seeing people changing their outcomes and making big steps, and I really liked that. I got interested in the investment world there. And so, I started considering what that opportunity might be like, and I guess as fate would have it, I had a client who I knew personally, who was also a client at the bank, who had just gone on board at a independent wealth management firm.
Zach Ashburn:
And so, I started talking to him just like, “Tell me about your world,” and ended up, eventually after along a series of conversations, coming on board with he and the other guy who had founded that firm and I got my start there. It was fantastic. It was a great place to learn the business. We were affiliated with a small broker dealer. There was three of us at the time, and they came from different backgrounds so it had a lot of mixture of perspectives on how to do the business and how to grow a business and things like that. And it was there that I cut my teeth and learned the industry and what was going on, what the different, I guess, aspects of the financial advice world are. And then, naturally, a long series of things have happened since then to lead me here, and I’m happy to fill you in if you’d like me to.
Scott McKenna:
Yeah. So, when you started Reach Strategic Wealth, what spurred you to want to do your own shop?
Zach Ashburn:
Sure. So, when I joined this independent firm, we were affiliated with a small broker dealer, and after a little while there, we were looking at, “Maybe we should be looking at an RIA setup to hit the next level.” We were transitioning a lot of business to fee-based setups where make that transition easier. And right when we were getting close to pulling the trigger on that, a larger broker dealer actually bought the whole network that the small BD we were with as part of, and so we were left with this really challenging decision of do we really go full throttle and on short notice start an RIA, which of course has all the disruption and question marks, especially having never done that before. What’s that like? What’s it going to be like? Or go along with this transition that they promised to be smooth and moving accounts easily and hopefully maintain business as usual and, at the same time, move from a small broker dealer to a large broker dealer and, theoretically, see what benefits come out of that transition?
Zach Ashburn:
And when that move happened, it kelt pretty quickly like, “Okay, even at a large broker dealer, I’ve seen this play before.” The differences weren’t quite what I was hoping they would be. And the change to start my own firm came out of… I guess it was, I was working on some content for our website at the independent firm I was with and started doing some research on the competition in the area, seeing what they were offering, and it really struck me that everyone was offering the same thing. And of course, that’s not really true, but in a nutshell, what people were saying was, “We’ll develop a portfolio tailored to your goals, needs, and risk tolerance, and we’ll develop a financial plan to help you achieve your goals.” And I was just really struck with, “Well, yeah, but shouldn’t you? Isn’t that the thing we do?”
Zach Ashburn:
And having that hit me the way it did, I really started thinking, “Okay, what is the thing that we’re offering that adds value? Really, what is the thing?” And that was a question that was the driving factor behind everything that’s happened since. And so, as I really started to think through that question, “What’s the thing?” I was left with one thought that ended up being the top of my business plan and really integral to everything that I’ve done. Whether I’m right or wrong, we’ll see, but it’s been a guiding post for me, that advisors who want to offer value in a world where Google exists, can’t be banking that value on answers. Instead, we should probably be looking at helping people ask better questions and lending them the will to act on the answers that they find.
Zach Ashburn:
And so, as I thought through that question, that was so important to me, it became a good project to say, “Okay, so what’s the product or service model that I offer to meet that question?” And I developed a modular planning process that I was planning to put people through and said, “This’ll be a great setup for us to use at the firm I was at, and we can still do investment management, everybody’s happy.” And I packaged it up, and I knew in the broker dealer world there was, excuse me, some restrictions on how we’re going to charge, what we’re going to charge, things like that. And I packaged it all up and took it to the compliance, and they really just said, “No, thanks. We’re not interested in that.” And to be clear, there was nothing so extreme about this other than the nature of just charging for a ongoing or a termed planning project, that they just didn’t want it.
Zach Ashburn:
And I definitely am aware that that’s changed somewhat and it wasn’t entirely true. Like I probably could have done certain things to make it work okay or fudged the setup a little bit. But by that time, I had built this process I was really excited about, and so being told no really led me to this, “Okay. I can either not do it, or I can leave and do it on my own,” and I chose the latter, which was bittersweet because I was leaving my partner who still is an awesome guy and a great mentor to me. And he wished me all the best in the world. It was just a scenario where he wasn’t prepared for another move right after changing broker dealers, so it was left to me to, if I wanted to do it, do it on my own.
Scott McKenna:
That’s really interesting. And I’ve heard that from a lot of independents. When you’re not able to do certain things, like especially for a lot of independents that we’ve talked to, it seems like the social media and content stuff, that’s really difficult to do at some of the larger networks. So, that’s a point of contention to the point where, “I want to build a personal brand, I’m going to have to leave.” Similarly, it seems like you were in that situation with your modular planning.
Zach Ashburn:
Sure. So, I really started with the, “What’s the way I think is right to do financial planning? And then, what is the business model that backs that up?” So, I think that this is the right surface to offer, and then we can figure out, “All right, what do we have to charge? How do we have to charge it?” Things like that. So, the planning process that I use is 10 modules, and we do it over a calendar year and it just walks through. A lot of the work we do is anchored in vision and behavioral work, so the whole process is anchored in the first module being vision statement, vision casting. And then, from there, we progress through the things you’d expect, largely. But what I’ve done is just interweave a lot of deliverables and a lot of relationships between what we did in this one to what we’re doing in this one, and happy to talk about the things that I’m really excited about, about that process.
Zach Ashburn:
But that was the theme, is how can we construct something that with rhythm and sense, put someone through a financial planning process over an extended period of time, such that we can both do the planning, of course, and the implementation, rather than saying, “Here’s a plan. Now let’s implement”? And that was a big goal that I had in this consideration of how do we offer value, and one of those things being better questions that we need to ask ongoing and the will to act that we need to be there for. It’s not a best of luck interchange.
Scott McKenna:
Yeah. That’s interesting. And talking about some of the themes overall, as we’re evolving in the industry, technology is playing more and more of a position, so the value that advisors are adding, it’s really more on the planning side of things than anything. Right? And it’s interesting you say like asking those questions and how do you pull those out? That’s super important, too, when we’re thinking about what’s the future of the financial planning industry. Right? So, talking a little bit more about who your ideal clients are, i know some advisors, they have a niche or they have a specific type of client that they work with. When you’re talking about the modular planning, is there anyone that you’re targeting with your business? Right? Yeah. It’s interesting. I always wondered how advisors go about picking that. Maybe some of them, it just falls in because their network. How are you going about picking that niche?
Zach Ashburn:
Well, I think the standard story is either it’s what my spouse does or it’s what I used to do, and I don’t think that either of those will probably be how I pick mine. I mean, there’s a geographic component that I live in a big medical town. I live around several big universities, so there’s opportunities there. Yeah. A faith-based approach would be appropriate for me, too, like working to combine your faith and your values into your financial life. So, all those things are options and open that I’ve considered. I think that the beauty of the process that I like so much is that I could really feasibly make very small changes overtly or covertly that say, “Hey, this process is built for you, dentists,” or whatever, and be using fundamentally the same steps with a few different things, just like anyone would with a financial planning process, with the added benefit that we’ve got a rhythm to it. And so, hopefully, increasing that sense of purposefulness when you approach the niche conversation. I’m open to being wrong about that, too, but that’s my current perspective where I’m at right now.
Scott McKenna:
That’s awesome. So, I wanted to dive a little bit deeper into moving away from the financial planning stuff into on your website, it says you guys do also portfolio management, so can you talk to me a little bit about what you offer there? And I know it seems like, for instance, you guys are very fee conscious, right?
Zach Ashburn:
That’s a fair statement. I mean, it blends into this experiment that I feel like I’m doing on what will work and where my perspective of the future of the industry is, but absolutely. So, in the modular planning, the strategic planning program, investment management is included in the fee you pay, so it was always a service we were going to be offering. The question was, do we offer it as a standalone or some kind of complimentary service? That was something that I wrestled with for awhile. I included it because I existing clients who had been clients for a while who were used to an investment management or normal advisory type setup, so I don’t want to betray the trust that they’ve put in when I’m starting my firm, if I can help it.
Zach Ashburn:
And so, where I landed, again, related to my perspective on the industry, was that if I’m offering a standalone investment management service, I can in fact do that at a pretty discounted rate and define that relationship as your focus, as indicated by you, is on portfolio management. What you’re really trying to do is outsource your portfolio management, and you’ve chosen to do that to an individual advisor. And so, because of that, we can probably charge less than that 1% industry standard where we’re kind of saying we offer advice, but we’re really trying to get the portfolio, but also, “We’ll manage the portfolio, and call if you have any questions.” And maybe we can define that relationship. Again, like a theme has been, let’s not conflate business problems with planning problems, and let’s say, “This is a business problem that we can probably define this relationship and charge an appropriate amount, investment management scales really well, and do that appropriately.”
Zach Ashburn:
And it’s been good. Honestly, it’s been an appealing offering for both prospective clients and myself to say, “Absolutely. If what you want to do is open an account that I manage for you, and you go into it with an agreement that says, ‘And the moment we broach a further financial planning topic, the dynamic of the relationship has to change,'” because I can manage your portfolio in like a relative vacuum. I can say, “Based on what you’ve told me, and based on the information we’ve gathered, this is all what we know.” But if you are going to ask a deeper planning or tax or whatever question, well, then, of course, we got to go further on everything. Right? And that’s my perspective on the industry. Just like the reason a bank cares about your deposit account is not because they need your $200, it’s because they want your whole relationship. So, instead of, “Hey, we’ll offer a financial plan, please move your portfolio,” “Hey, we absolutely try to do a great job at portfolio management, and when it comes time to do the financial planning, we’re here for you, too.”
Scott McKenna:
That’s awesome. That really makes sense. So, why don’t you walk me through the process? Let’s say I wanted to go ahead and start having you manage my portfolio. Right? What are some of the considerations that you have when you’re putting together that portfolio?
Zach Ashburn:
Sure. I guess I can probably answer it in two parts, though. I mean, the workflow of it is pretty standard. It’s not super glamorous. We have an intro meeting that we try to define that relationship a little bit to say, “Are you moving towards a financial planning relationship? Are you really here for portfolio management only?” and generally try to just be a faithful guide to those people and say, “Look, what you’re looking for is this, and here’s why you might need to consider, or when you might need to consider, a different offering.” Assuming they go the portfolio management route, we do a client info sheet where we can open an account, we do a risk tolerance questionnaire, and we open the account. Once the account transfers over, that models that are set up at the custodian we use, and from there, the clients are in discretionary portfolios.
Zach Ashburn:
So, we’re able to really focus on what is the value we can deliver in relationship to a portfolio management arrangement? And I actually think it’s awesome because if you’ve come to me and said, “All I want to do is outsource my portfolio management,” and I can really easily just drip on you about, “Here’s some better questions to ask about your financial life,” that value is just stacking up at really no additional work to me. And I like that a lot, so that’s a good probe from that side of things.
Scott McKenna:
Awesome. So, you’re saying you’re leveraging model portfolios, which we’ve heard more and more, and we’re working with model providers. So, when you’re talking about implementing model portfolios, that’s something that you’re doing at the level where maybe it’s a paper model such as like WisdomTree where they’ll tell you it’s time to rebalance things, like that? Or are you going to someone who’s going to manage it for you and charge a couple of bips?
Zach Ashburn:
Yeah. So, I think it’s an awesome time to be getting into this world, as a young advisor especially, because there’s so many awesome tools out there. So, I, in my practice, manage the models myself using securities, largely ETF portfolios, and it’s able to be done pretty streamlined through envestnet in my case, but irrespective of what custodian you’re at, the tools are there. But to your point, the same applies, like there are model portfolios, there’s research tools, there’s paper-style portfolio providers that just give you the cues. And all of those are exceptional offerings that sat at… And there’s tamps you could outsource entirely, and you can satisfy the same itch that says, “We believe that investment management is a core competency, not a value add, and here’s how we’re going to meet that.” And you can kind of take your pick, more or less, once you’ve made that decision, I think. Would you agree with that? I’m interested in your opinion, actually? Would you agree with that statement?
Scott McKenna:
Yeah. And for us, the biggest thing is our mission statement and why we started working with advisers was, we wanted to streamline that process. So, there’s a report, I think, from Cerulli Associates that says, “Advisors spend about maybe 17% of their time managing investments if they’re constructing their own portfolios.” And then, that number drops down to 8% if it’s advisors who are using models, so that’s a huge amount of time. And I think when we’re thinking about the future of the industry, like I said earlier, it’s going to be moving more towards, how can you provide more of the relationship? Like you said, how do you ask better questions, get them to ask better questions? And a lot of that other stuff is going to be more and more automated. So, as an advisor, your time is going to be more focused on the end relationship and working with the client and less about some of the investment management stuff.
Scott McKenna:
And so, that’s what we’ve actually been working on for advisors who maybe don’t want to use model portfolios, is we like to call it portfolio coach. So, it might be telling you situations where you’re in an ETF that you can be in a similar one that has lower bips. Right? And maybe it’s about tax. For us, we’re seeing the value that advisors are adding around tax and some of the tax implications, how do you lower your tax liabilities, things like that. So, it’s interesting to think about where the industry is going, and I think you’re spot on with the fact that there’s so many tools out there and there’s so many things out there that advisors can get in and can scale their business a lot easier, leveraging all these different tools.
Zach Ashburn:
Yeah. When it comes to investment management, you could make the analogy like it’s not even the same as at a broker dealer if you’re picking… I guess the normal starting point is using just their model portfolios, and the same at a wirehouse, or even picking how you’re going to manage a mutual fund portfolio. And you step into this world, whether it’s at an RIA or not, and you realize, “Wow, if we’re asking the question, ‘How do we add value to people’s lives?’ all these options become open to you to fit into your process however adds the most value to your people.” And that’s super exciting, I think, to say, “Hey, maybe we can use a tamp, and that’s okay. Let’s figure out how it adds value to people,” instead of having to say or deal with the, “I’m not a wall street expert. What do I do?” kind of questions. And I think that’s a cool place to be at in the life cycle of the industry.
Scott McKenna:
Yeah, definitely. So, moving on to content, you have your own podcast, right?
Zach Ashburn:
I do. You can check out The Dollar Derail anywhere you get your podcasts. New episodes every Tuesday. Our whole shtick is that we’re here to ask better questions to help you change your financial train of thought. My co-host is another firm owner, Ben Wacek. He’s fantastic. So, we just have good conversations about some of the questions that we get. It’s been a really fun project to have, honestly.
Scott McKenna:
Awesome. And what made you start doing a podcast?
Zach Ashburn:
Oh, man. Honestly, it’s because I was so bad at blogging. I love to write, I went into this like, “Oh, finally, I’m at an RIA. I’m running the show. I can blog to my heart’s content. It’s all good.” And I would sit down to do it, and it was just this monumental task every time. And so, I had to find something else. So, I had this whole schpiel I was running about asking better questions, so I pitched Ben to say, “Hey, what if we just did a podcast where our whole formula was, ‘What’s a normal question we get? We’ll offer a better question and work through it.'”
Zach Ashburn:
And he was on board, and again, he’s just been fantastic. And that’s become the anchor of my content, marketing to say, “Now it’s a little easier to do a blog post when our episode today was how much house can I afford?” And later this week, I could write a blog post real easy on taxes when you sell your home, or something like that. But it’s already anchored and I’ll just come up with it and stick to it because… Full transparency, I was not doing a good job at that blogging aspect, so it was out of finding another option.
Scott McKenna:
Yeah. That’s funny. When I first started at ETF Logic, I was doing a lot more writing and the same thing, I was like, “I’m going to become a writer, and I’m going to get featured. I want to get in Financial Times. I want to get my pieces in all of these magazines.” And I emailed it to a bunch of people, and of course, it just fell dead in the water. And then, I spent so much time and effort, and at the end of it, I was like, “Oh my God, I just spent two, three weeks on this one article and no one even picked it up.”
Scott McKenna:
And my background was I used to sell video production, so I was like, “All right, let’s get back into doing the video.” And I resisted doing a podcast for a while. I don’t know why. I just felt like everyone and their mother [inaudible 00:22:14] podcast, and then we fell into it. And it’s actually done a lot better than I thought it would. I was a little bit of a podcast hater, but you can’t sit down and interview someone. Right? I’d love to be able to be at what event would be this week and do this in person, but that’s not the world we live in.
Zach Ashburn:
Yeah. So, before I started my firm, I didn’t have personal social media, just because I just didn’t care to. It wasn’t a big deal to me. Starting the firm was a business call to say, “All right, it’s probably good to have exposure out there. And what does that mean?” I tell people all the time that the value in the podcast has nothing to do with, “Can we get to 1,000 or a million downloads or listeners?” or whatever. It’s that I can constantly have this thing that I can expose my second circle of people to, to say, “People that I know but wouldn’t talk to on any given day are constantly being reminded, ‘Zack’s asking good questions.'” And at some point, maybe that intersects. And I think it’s like, there’s an old maxim that’s like, “Always have something to invite people to.” Always be hosting a dinner seminar or always be having a webinar, or something like that. And the podcast is just that. It’s just always there, and if you do it right, then you’re always inviting people into that conversation.
Scott McKenna:
I like that. So, ABI, always be inviting.
Zach Ashburn:
Yeah. There you go. Yeah. The worst thing you could do is have the conversation and somebody’s like, “Do you know anything about this?” And you’re like, “I do, but I’ve never said it out loud.” Instead, you can just say, “Yeah, absolutely,” and here we go. At least working towards that end. I’m not there, but we’re trying.
Scott McKenna:
Yeah. No, I totally agree with the consistency. It’s so important to stay consistent. It’s tough starting out, so for younger advisors who are just starting out, you’re a little bit along in there now, do you have any tips for them?
Zach Ashburn:
Do what you’re good at. So, when I sit down to write, even if I’m sitting down to write about a technical subject, what’s coming out is emotion. Right? That’s just how I write. It’s going to sound like I’m journaling. And you know what? That’s okay, but it probably should inform what I’m actually writing, which bends me a little back towards podcasts, where we can be quippy and we can talk through different things and that can be a little bit easier to inflect than just having to write one blog post a week or something like that. So, do what actually expresses your voice? I mean, I don’t need to be the 10,000th person person to say, “Actually use your voice. There’s a limited impact to canned marketing, so don’t create your own canned marketing if you’re going to do it.”
Zach Ashburn:
The one thing that I think if you’re a young advisor starting out, or if you’re somebody in transition, who’s considering starting their own firm, along with that, “How do we add value?” the other thing that was written on my business plan was, “We’re not just starting a business, we’re creating a platform from which to speak.” And you should probably define that platform. So, for me, it was things like we’re going to eliminate as many conflicts of interest as possible and we’re going to conduct this process with rhythm and sense, and we’re going to speak to the entirety of your financial lives. Those are the platforms that I can be obnoxious about and say, “Hey, I don’t want to have more conversations that are like, ‘I’ll manage your portfolio. Great. Just give me your money and trust me.’ I wanted to be delivering value right away.” And so, you’re constructing that platform, and just do it consciously and do it flexibly to say, “This is really where we want to speak from,” and figure out how to equip that into your awesome product that you’re putting together.
Scott McKenna:
Yeah. So, Zach, I know we touched on it before, but why don’t we talk a little bit more about your personal vision of what the industry is going to look like in the future.
Zach Ashburn:
Sure. I mean, that’s a big question. I reserve the right to be as wrong as possible about everything, but I do think about this, what’s the future of the business? And of course, naturally, it informs what we want to do in our own businesses. I tend to be a believer that, broadly speaking, business trickles down from high-end consumers to retail consumers, and I think in our industry, that’s basically banking to retail consumers. And we’ve seen that, right? The general public now has openings to most fields of investment, where at the time that was not true. You can buy most kinds of products in some fashion or another, as an individual investor, most likely. Financial planning’s been the same way, where this white glove approach that we would bring out of wirehouses and big banks, and now it’s been brought down to this big push for subscription plans and working with people who have low net worth and are just starting out. And that’s awesome. So, things just, generally speaking, tend to trickle down.
Zach Ashburn:
In my current operating opinion, at least, is that where we’re heading towards will be a more family office style approach to the masses, and I think that, as we talk a lot about fee compression in the investment world, we’re going to see a lot of efficiency compression in the broader financial planning world. I like to think of it like financial planning will ultimately just be the discipline, and it will not be this segmented financial services market we see. Instead, financial planning will mean something truly on its own, and that thing will probably be something that looks a little bit like a family office to a high net worth individual right now where… I mean, we’ve already seen there’s tax planning softwares that you can implement really well, and there’s coming of age, at least, estate planning softwares that do similar things and bringing on experts.
Zach Ashburn:
And I hope, my sincerest hope… I made a joke on Twitter recently that I started taking really seriously after I made it, and I said, “Hey, can we just establish a financial planning guild that has an appropriate apprenticeship program?” Right? And some firms do that really well, and I love that they do, but we don’t as an industry. And maybe there’s opportunity to say there’s a maturity level in our industry that can go up, and that would involve a broader approach that touches more things and the opportunity to come in and increasingly specialize without having to go from here to here to here, and that that is just a defined path that you can progress through. And ultimately, that pendulum swings back to, “Hey, are we just creating banks again? Is that where we’re heading?” But then they’ll serve their own purpose.
Zach Ashburn:
That’s what I see and hope for, honestly, because I would love to be part of a great apprenticeship program, and I would love to bring on professionals that actually specialize in different areas and keep it in-house in a way that works for the business. And that’s a challenging prospect right now.
Scott McKenna:
Yeah. I love that you say that because, for me, when I came out of school, I had an economics degree and always really interested in marketing. I’ve always been someone who loved helping people, and that’s what drew me towards maybe becoming a financial advisor. But one of the biggest barriers to entry was places where I got interviews, where the places that I even thought to apply to, were the big ones, where their programs were very much, “Call everyone you know, sell them an insurance product, and if you cut your teeth, you bring us enough people, maybe we’ll move you up and you could get your series and whatnot.” Right?
Scott McKenna:
And for me, that just was not appealing at all, and that’s why I switched into selling video advertising instead. And it kind of sucks because I feel like I definitely would have loved to be a financial advisor and be a part of the community that is on Twitter and outside of it. Right? And I think as an industry, there’s just so much… I know it’s changing, but there’s still so much of that where, like you said, having a guild, that would have been awesome. 100% I would have been a financial advisor if there was a guild. You know what I mean? And taking and really learning to do that instead of just saying, “Hey, sell it to everyone you know, and then maybe we’ll teach you the other stuff after.” Right?
Zach Ashburn:
Well, and we have this pandemic of imposter syndrome that gets talked about all the time, and I think a lot of that comes from we’re in this field which has such a low barrier to entry and such a large skill gap. And you spend all this time in the middle where, yeah, you actually do know more than your clients and the general public, but you can see very clearly how far there is to go. And that pathways kind of process at least speaks to that. And I’m so grateful for my experience in banking, where I got to see, “All right, what’s insurance really look like? And what’s financial planning really look like? And what’s lending really look like, and risk and all these different things?” And that meant a lot to me to pick up path.
Zach Ashburn:
But then I entered this other branching decision tree of, “Okay, do I want to analyze, or do I want to sell or do I want to plan?” and things like that. And that’s not going away. Right? There’ll be, even if there’s a software that is doing estate planning for you, someone will be coordinating that kind of element of your firm, and that person should be passionate about the role that that plays. It’s clear from, I think, from what I’ve said, that I’m a big believer that we’ll be moving towards a life planning style model and behavioral coaching style models, but that’s not irrespective of the hard sciences of the industry. It’s just going to change how we conduct them, and I would love to be on the front end of how we conduct those things.
Scott McKenna:
Yeah. I love that. And how do you personally see technology playing a role in that life planning process?
Zach Ashburn:
Oh, I think it’s completely vital because technology is the thing that frees up the advisor to do that. I mean, we talk about the conflicts of interest side of it, but currently, the business models that back up the planning processes are not great, necessarily. If you just took a random sampling of advisors, whether they’re wirehouses, broker dealers, or RIAs, a good portion of them aren’t going to be running great businesses, and you don’t necessarily have to if you’re at a broker dealer. Right? You’re in this bucket, or in this shell, and it’s okay. And some people are, and they do fantastic jobs. But because of that perspective, implementing technology is what frees you up to be able to do a good job and to reach these other areas that are so important if you’re going to transcend from, we’re really, even if we’re talking about financial planning, we’re focusing on investments, or even if we see ourselves as financial planners, we have to then touch these other areas. How do we do that? I think it’s through technology.
Scott McKenna:
Awesome, Zach. Well, thanks so much for coming on the podcast. For those who are interested in learning more about Zack or Reach Strategic Wealth, you can go ahead and go to reachstrategicwealth.com, or you can hit up Zach on Twitter. So, thanks again for listening, guys.
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