Lindsey Tewell, our head of sales, joins as a guest host to welcome our newest team member, Dave Connor, VP of Advisor Growth, and discuss his experiences and tech pain points as a former financial advisor. We also discuss the latest additions to the logicly ETF analytics platform.
Transcript
Intro:
Speaking Logicly is brought to you by ETFLogic, 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 back to another episode of Speaking Logicly. My name is Scott McKenna and Emil is actually sitting out today, but in place of a Emil, we have Lindsey Tewell coming in, our head of sales here at ETFLogic. Lindsey, how are you doing today?
Lindsey Tewell:
Hey Scott. I’m great. I’m glad I could finally make it on Speaking Logicly.
Scott Mckenna:
Totally. I’ve been waiting to do this episode where we can dive a little bit deeper into what we’re up to here, and what we’re working on with Logicly. So, obviously you’ve been a staple in the ETF virtual world for years and years, but for advisors who might not know a lot about you, why don’t you give us a little bit of background?
Lindsey Tewell:
Sure. So, I’m originally from Kentucky and for the last 15 years in New York in the financial services world, focused on ETFs, was at an ETF issuer for a while as a salesperson. And then, Dan and Emil, the co-founders of the company, came to me and had the idea of ETFLogic, and it really made a lot of sense. It resonated with me, being a salesperson at an issuer. They were talking about building, building tools and this platform that now it’s been three years and then we’ve transformed and happy to discuss some of our ideas and goals with you guys today. But yeah. It was just a few of us at a we-work office and now we have grown to over 15 people.
Scott Mckenna:
Speaking of the team growing, we actually have the latest addition to the ETFLogic sales team on as well, Dave Connor. So, Dave has joining our team as the VP advisor growth. Dave, how are you doing today?
Dave Connor:
I’m doing great, Scott. Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Scott Mckenna:
Of course. Super excited to have you on. So Dave, for our listeners, why don’t you give us a little bit of background on you and what you’ve been up to before joining the team here at ETFLogic?
Dave Connor:
Sure. I’ve always been in the financial services industry. I started off my career as an advisor, was an advisor for many years. And then, I moved over into the wholesaling field for a mutual fund company out of Boston. And I guess that’s really where I developed my passion for helping advisors. And so, from there kind of moved over into the FinTech side of things. And so, just real excited to be with an organization that is really trying to help advisors.
Scott Mckenna:
So, taking a step back while we’re on the topic of helping advisors, let’s talk about some of the big pain points that we see. In your mind, I’m curious what you guys think are some of the biggest pain points that advisors have when it comes down to investment management.
Lindsey Tewell:
Yeah, I’ll jump in here. So, I think there are a lot of technology platforms out there and I think it’s really trying to understand what works best for your practice as an advisor, what gives you maybe an all-in-one solution where you’re not having to go to several different platforms, knowing what works best for you to communicate with the client. And obviously you want to spend more time with your client and less time navigating technology and spending time on portfolio construction. So, I think that’s one of the pain points. What do you use? We’ve really created a robust, all in one solution. And I think, another thing that clients are facing or financial advisors are facing is really some compliance scrutiny, if you will. For example, Reg BI and suitability requirements.
Dave Connor:
Yeah, absolutely. Lindsey is spot on with the tech stack. And there’s a recent Broadridge study that says 43% of advisors, they will leave the wirehouses in [inaudible 00:04:03] for outdated technology. And so, I think we’re seeing this big shift where tech has become increasingly important for automation and clients are demanding it because they want the advisor to have the latest and greatest in technology out there.
Scott Mckenna:
Totally. But in my mind, sometimes the flashiest new thing is not the one that’s going to be the best for the advisor and the end client, right? When you’re thinking about it in terms of technology, you need to make sure that you have a system that flows nicely.
Lindsey Tewell:
Yeah. You’re spot on. And that’s why we’ve spent so much time in the last few months, working on integration for advisors to pull in their client accounts from different custodians. And streamlining the process going from, “Okay, let’s screen this universe and find an ETF or a mutual fund or a security. And then how does that fit into the portfolio and building the portfolio there and getting all the different risk metrics and cost and exposures that you need for your diligence reports to advisors?” And then being able to report to your clients and client reviews and meetings on the fly. So, that’s been a very important part of what we’ve built for the Logicly Platform.
Scott Mckenna:
Absolutely. So Dave, I wanted to jump back to that stat you mentioned before about advisors at broker dealers, thinking that their tech stack wasn’t up to par. Do you think that that is fueling a lot of the trend that we’re seeing with advisors becoming independent? And as a technology provider, how can you capitalize on that trend?
Dave Connor:
Yeah, no. You’re absolutely right. I think one of the things that we focus in on is, there’s been this evolution of the advisor, right? There’s, they’ve kind of switched over from using model portfolios and a lot of them now are portfolio managers themselves, and they’re deciding to construct their own models. So, one of the things that we can help out with, and I think one of the things that advisors are really looking for is Lindsey mentioned earlier, this all-in-one, cohesive technology that allows an advisor to access model marketplace, find their models or that are based on their investment objectives, and through our portfolio analysis tooling, they can construct their own models.
Scott Mckenna:
I couldn’t agree any more with you, Dave. I also wanted to touch a little bit on the regulatory challenges that advisors face and how we might be able to help out with that, right?
Lindsey Tewell:
Yeah. So, the topic of compliance is never fun. And as most of you are aware now with Reg BI, there are some additional requirements that advisors have to adhere to. For example, a suitability report or a cares kind of checklist, if you will. And so, are you going to create that yourself or are you going to outsource that, what’s the best way to do it? And with the Logicly Platform, using our portfolio analysis tool, you’re getting that due diligence report that meets those suitability requirements. So, it’s an easy way to have that conversation with your client, but also to keep a trail of the decision-making that you’ve made and why you did so, and it’s timestamped and saved, so, God forbid you’re audited, it’s all in one place on the Logicly Platform.
Scott Mckenna:
Well, my hope would have been that advisors were picking the right funds for their clients regardless. And now this is just a little piece of extra red tape for them to go through in terms of documentation, right? I want it to move on though, and talk a little bit about our overall advisor strategy. So, I know we had started off talking with ETF issuers and we quickly realized that our platform was really helping them answer questions that they were getting from advisors, right? About how their funds trade, how do they compare against their peer groups?
Lindsey Tewell:
Yeah, thanks Scott. I think you’re spot on that we had the tools for issuers and now we said, “Let’s level the playing field and let’s give the advisors these tools.” So I think that’s one thing that we’ve definitely been evolving. And I think the evolution going forward is, we’re giving you analysis on, historically, on your portfolios, or helping you screen for ETFs, but now we want to create what we’re calling a portfolio coach. So we can give you suggestions on maybe it’s time to harvest and tax loss, or maybe you should look at putting this different risk overlay on your portfolio, or maybe this ETF is down and maybe consider this competing ETF. So, giving you ideas to help enhance your portfolio for the future is really kind of the evolution of where we’re going with the Logicly Platform
Scott McKenna:
And Dave, what are your thoughts?
Dave Connor:
I think it all starts with, any successful platform or technology it’s only as good as, like you mentioned, it’s only as good as what the user’s capability is. And I think one of the things that we’re really focused in on is providing a concierge service to the advisors that come onto the platform. Because like you said, Scott, there is that those, those levels of sophistication. So, we’re committed to working with the advisors who want to have complete access to them and they know what they’re doing, everything is there for them. But for those advisors that are looking to, for help, we will work with them one-on-one. Because the adoption of the platform is really the key. So, we’re committed to, to provide that concierge service.
Scott Mckenna:
Lindsey Tewell:
So, Dave spot on. The value of customer services is definitely number one in our approach. We know that there are a lot of different tools on our platform, so we can be all or we could be one. So, we take a consultative approach when we’re speaking with advisors and understand what their needs are and we can tailor the experience accordingly.
Scott Mckenna:
And on the topic of what advisors need. Let’s talk a little bit about the press release, right? I think there were a lot of awesome enhancements that we announced rolling out onto the Logicly Platform today, along with adding Dave to the team. Lindsey, why don’t you give us a little rundown on what those enhancements are and what it means for advisors using our platform?
Lindsey Tewell:
So, some of the things that we highlighted in the press release today were some new capabilities, such as advanced charting. We are also adding mutual fund support, which has been something that financial advisors have asked us to add. So, that should be integrated pretty soon. And another thing that we really focused on is the model marketplace. We have some big partnerships with some of the issuers that have models available, and we really thought it would be great to create a place where advisors can come and sift through that universe of models and select based on their investment objectives or certain parameters, and then pull that universe down to something manageable and then quickly pull that model into our portfolio analysis tool. Other integrations include with different custodians, so it’s easier for you to pull your client’s accounts onto the platform. I think those are some key points we wanted to make in the press release too.
Lindsey Tewell:
One of the other things that we didn’t highlight in the press release is that we’re constantly updating our visualizations and our charts to make it more appealing to advisors and make it more friendly for advisors to use with their clients.
Scott Mckenna:
I’ve heard from so many advisors that they’ve love how it looks and that’s because it’s a platform that we developed for the 2020s, not the early 2000s, right, like some of the competing products that advisors are using right now. And Dave, curious your thoughts on this, but how important is it to have the right visuals and displayed in a fashion that clients, it makes it easy for clients to understand what the advisor is showing them?
Dave Connor:
Yeah. It’s extremely important. It always has been. One of the challenges that I had when I was an advisor, and I’m sure very out there can relate to this, is that discussing the investment choices, especially in a downmarket, that could become difficult. So, having the right visual tools be able to explain to a client, this is one of the things that I was taught early on was, “Know what you own and why you own it.” Right. And so, I think that is time tested, as investment choices have changed. So, it becomes extremely important for clients because they react, they react based on what they see, and they’re looking for that advisor to give them that comfort in downmarket, but also to know why they chose the investments that they did, and then be able to, from an advisor standpoint, to be able to document all that. That makes their job that much easier. So, yeah. It’s critical. It’s extremely important.
Scott Mckenna:
Yeah. I hear that from a lot of advisors as well. But Dave, touching on your experience being one, is Logicly something that you would have used back in the days? And if so, what are some of the use cases that you personally would have used the platform for in terms of streamlining your investment research workflows?
Dave Connor:
Yeah. And the day wasn’t that far back Scott. So, one of the things that I love about our platform is the ability to show that all the different risks and costs, the factors, all the things that go into making a proper investment decision. So, use case for me would be the client meeting, whether that’s on a quarterly basis or an annual basis, having a tool like this to be able to show not only the performance, but again, why you chose the investments that you did, to know the logic behind everything and be able to document all of that. It makes the client meeting, again whether that’s quarterly or annually, go that much smoother.
Scott Mckenna:
That’s some really great insight, Dave. And I think it’s really valuable to have someone like you on the team because you’re able to give us a lot, that much more insight into the mind of an advisor, right, which I think is going to be huge for the growth of our platform. But Lindsey and Dave, I’m curious to hear your thoughts. What are you guys most excited about as we’re closing out the year of 2020 and moving into 2021?
Lindsey Tewell:
So, number one, we’re really excited to have Dave and have more of a focus on the advisor growth from bigger partnerships, with larger RAs and an advisor. So, very happy to have someone with his level of experience, join my team. And then, from the platform perspective, as I mentioned earlier, we’re really excited to take this to the next level of not only just analyzing historical performance of our portfolio, but being a coach, providing different ideas for you to enhance your portfolios. So, continue to look out for new developments there.
Dave Connor:
Yeah. And for me, I’m just super excited to be on board. And I think that one of the things that I’m really looking forward to is, what we’ve been doing with issuers for many years, being able to show advisors that capability and putting it in their hands to make some of the decisions that they do and build their own portfolios. That’s really exciting to me, but I’m also just eager to get out there. Like Lindsey said, hopefully there’s some partnerships that we can form that to help power advisors at these firms because that’ll give them more tools to make the right choices. So, I’m excited about that. I’m also excited about 2021, just to get out of 2020.
Scott Mckenna:
Dave, I couldn’t agree more. It’s felt like such a long year, so much has happened. Good things for us though, in terms of our business. We’re super excited to have you on. Lindsey so glad you could finally make it on Speaking Logicly. For advisors who are all pumped up and ready to try out the Logicly Platform for themselves, you can go ahead and request a free trial by going to Logicly, spelled L O G I C L Y.finance/freetrial. And we look forward to providing even more Speaking Logicly episodes where we speak with advisors and other industry thought leaders throughout the rest of this year. Thanks again for listening.
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