Well, hello and welcome. I'm Eddie Sempeck, National Sales Manager with Orion Advisor Technology joined today with Jeremy Stalkup from Mutual Group and we're here to talk a bit about how risk intelligence plays a role in in firm level you know usage and and what it will do for you know for Mutual group. As a company. So Jeremy, I'd love for you to introduce yourself and kind of your background and then we can kind of get started. Sure. Thanks, Eddie. So a little bit about me, I serve on the leadership team at the Mutual group as the Vice President and the wealth advisor for mutual advisors, which is the RIA for Mutual Group. So a little bit about mutual advisors. We have a little over 5 billion in assets under management. Across 70 or so advisor teams and we have about 60 dedicated support staff. So what we do is we work with independent advisors to help run their advisory practice through compliance, technology and other services like outsourcing, investment solutions and succession planning. So the succession planning pieces is the is the area that I lead. So I lead our succession planning and retail business which they they go hand in hand. So we work with our advisors to develop a succession plan and through that effort we also provide a succession solution in the event that the advisor would unfortunately you know pass become disabled or even retire. So my team actually uses our experience with the end retail investors to build knowledge capital through real world application of the resources to create shared experiences with our advisors and insights and perspectives that we can share with them and they can actually in turn share with us. That's awesome. Well, thank you, Jeremy, for that intro. I know you were pretty instrumental in going through the kind of risk intelligence review and an adoption process for Mutual. I'd love to hear a little bit about like kind of what inspired your guys's process, you know, what were you guys looking for at the time and and you know, kind of what started that journey. Yeah, absolutely. So I actually grew up at Mutual as the Director of Compliance and so. Through that role, I worked closely with Don Claussen, who really, you know, we were struggling with our risk assessment technology at the time and we had one of our top advisor groups reach out to us and approach us about what was hidden levers at the time now Orion intelligence, Risk intelligence, sorry. So used to hitting levers. So Scott and Elaine Manley with Financial Journey Partners came to us and they asked us to take a look. So we did. And so yeah, that's how we came to know about it. Yeah. And you know it's not that's that's interesting to hear like you know the the experience that you guys were going through and kind of the the struggle initially, you know. What what did you guys look at multiple vendors, you know was it a multi vendor review, was it you know kind of this was an answer to questions and you just kind of settled, not settled, but you know decided that at the time hit levers. Now Ryan Risk intelligence was the right platform to go with maybe walk through a little bit about that process. Yeah. So working in the independent space we have advisors bringing different solution to us all the time. So we absolutely looked at multiple you know vendors, multiple solutions. And I would say what we were looking for specifically being in the independent advisor space, we were really looking for some something that had overall you know an overall product, but specifically at the time because of the struggle was risk monitoring, that's what we were focused on. So we were looking for something with. You know, holistic functionality that could fit the needs of you know all layers of the business, so clients, advisors and staff, we didn't want to just think about ourselves but kind of across the board experience. So we needed a tool that could check several boxes and and one of the examples I could give you was, you know, we wanted something that could provide an electronic, you know survey and APDF survey. For those clients who might not be tech savvy, we're also looking for something simple that clients could understand, bring up the advisor I think is a really important item. I mean the, you know you guys have really a national presence and working with advisors across the country. How does how did technology and it's specifically on the risk side like when you guys were looking at this technology and supporting that broad advisor base. You know, what were the, what have been the wins, I guess that you've heard from the advisors leveraging it to work with their clients. Yeah, I mean the first one would be the increased adoption that we've seen from the advisors. I mean that tells us it's a win right off the bat when they adopted the technology and not only used the risk assessment tool. But we've also seen, you know we've seen this fill other areas, you know for our advisors including the proposal process and the portfolio management research and analysis, even replacing the need for other tools that this tool fills for us. So we got the holistic functionality we were looking for and you know the translation of the risk score. To a number the client can understand about their risk has been huge. Finally, I would just say that the feedback that we've gotten is that the user interface and the visuals that the tool provides makes it attractive to advisors because with the different layers that it provides, advisors can keep it high level for the client or themselves or they can dig as deep as they or their clients want to go with the data. Yeah, No, that's that's that's actually really interesting point. I mean it's advisors themselves are supporting you know clients of all walks of life. Some are are really just in need of of understanding kind of really foundational aspects of the portfolio relationship and some are are more unlike call it that engineering level where they want to get it into more of the statistics and the you know the impacts there but. Out of curiosity, you know as you guys have looked at how, I guess one question, how long have you guys been been leveraging the risk intelligence technology to date, I would say we are about five years in Okay, maybe just under, yeah, how has that had an impact on your overall firm growth? I mean it's, I want to say it's. You have one technology directly attribute there, but like how has that had an impact on the relationship that you're building that you are able to do with advisors, maybe just overall organic growth as they've been able to leverage it from a sales perspective potentially or helping convert maybe outside assets into the business. Any type of insights in that area? Yeah, I mean I think everything you mentioned I think. One of the toughest parts about growth for us at at that time when we adopted it was the ability to supervise independent investment advisors, you know across the nation who are all managing investments in different ways and unique ways and finding a way to do so across the board that wasn't going to break our back. And so you know, not only can we talk to advisors about how we monitor risk in a way they can understand. You know they can do the same thing for their clients. So you know it's it's less burdensome and more so you know a way to lead the conversation with the clients, right. And then all the other tools packed in with it and and I have to tell you, you know, having the proposal tool. And really just the tool in general where you can help a client look at their portfolio against different scenarios that you know either you are concerned about as the advisor or that they're concerned about at the time. It's a game changer for growth. I mean what we were able to do over things like the Pandemic and other market driven events has been huge. So I think you bring up another interesting point about a lot of. Let's say risk technology in general, it's historically been more of a sales led tool, but the impacts that you're mentioning here really about client retention and potentially you know additional wallet share growth that you have because the ongoing you know I guess involvement of scenario based reviews that the client and the advisor can have together. Really it sounds like that's been a a very impactful aspect because you're taking something that's very complicated, right, these scenarios and situations and helping relate that back to the actual investments and then helping communicate that back to the to the client of saying you know these are the impacts and this is how we're helping you know from an asset management perspective to to navigate you know what what is a really uncontrollable events right in the world. So you know as as. As you guys have continued to you know look at additional adoption from the portfolio proposal standpoint, the risk scenarios, you know ongoing client oversight you've mentioned this and and a couple of times, but are you guys leveraging the technology around any of the like client succession planning or advisor succession planning? Absolutely. I mean you know when you think about succession planning with the an independent advisor whose value has been you know the way that they manage money and that the the way that they select their investments, it's part of their identity. And so it's it's it's part of the value that they've presented to the client. And so for us we have to find a way to. Maintain that at at some level, but also, you know, bring in a new way of doing things as well. And so the tools that Orion Risk intelligence offers really gives us the ability to say okay, here's how the advisor is doing it, here's how we may do it, how can we, you know, what's similar, what's different, you know. Lots of different ways to be able to marry two different pieces and I think that's really important when you're talking about succession. Hey, Eddie, before you move on, I, I, I wanted to mention something about something that you you talked about earlier on really using the tool for client retention, I think over the last, you know, at least three years. We've seen a lot of growth from focusing on that retention and using those tools for clients to say, oh wow, you can do that, I've got money over here, oh wow, you can do that. Let me, let me introduce you to my to my friend. And that's where we see most of our growth. That's that's an interesting aspect. So that actually creates a lot of scale for your advisers, right, because then they're able to not necessarily have to grow their relationships overall, but really be able to. Continue to really serve and support the existing relationships and and I I think probably build a better layer of trust with those clients in that in that capacity. So that's that's really helpful to understand. You know as we as we look at the you know kind of maybe shifting a little bit into the succession planning side, but maybe even just ongoing reviews of your clients. I I think one of the unique things that you guys are leveraging from the risk intelligence platform is. What we call our risk monitor, but it really covers a couple different areas, right. But it's more of a macro level approach of reviewing stress testing across all your portfolios, reviewing drift tracking as well as you know potentially some financial impacts. You know if you wouldn't mind Jeremy, would you be able to kind of describe how you guys are leveraging the risk monitor functionality today from a firm perspective and really the overall impacts that's having on maybe your your internal reviews at Mutual? Absolutely. So the risk monitor was was actually one of the things that drew us to the tool initially. So from the firm level we've been able to increase our risk monitoring capabilities. You know and we use the scenario based testing too with that. It's not just Monte Carlo like what's the risk here, it's like well what's the risk in this scenario or this scenario. I mean you can have advisors who are more equity based. Managers will one scenario versus another for an equity versus a fixed income manager may be completely different. So we've been able to run multiple scenarios and we do that. You know not just looking at a client's portfolio, but an advisor looking at their book and you know us looking at the firm level, you know just those multiple layers and and and at the business level and and test it against those scenarios so. You know we can catch worst case scenario across the board whether it's a bond portfolio and equity portfolio or in Queen and you know still be able to catch the worst case scenario there. Yeah, yeah, well I think what's interesting and this is just kind of feedback we've heard from you know other firms that are leveraging it as well is really gives them a better level like kind of optics into. You know more broadly how maybe advisors PM versus their manage account experience or internal investment management process is operating because now they're able to have that conversation with advisors across you know the various approaches that they're taking. But can also create a better client outcome because now as they're doing that review the advisors are able to be supported in terms of like identifying. Maybe it's funds or securities that might have a very high level correlation you know to specific market conditions and and and effectively allowing them to do the research to to maybe find more suitable products or securities for the client. I don't know if that's something that you guys have kind of seen or gotten to that level of of reviews. But that is that is definitely something that we hear a lot of firms kind of approaching the market on. Yeah, you know, I mean I think we see from an advisor to advisor case by case scenario, yes they are using it that way. You know the risk profile comparison tool and and and which can be used for any type of record in the system. So you can, it's not just comparing you know a client portfolio or a model but. You know, you can compare an an index or you can compare, you know a book of business. You know, you know the top 500 holdings, whatever you want to do, you can do it in there just about. And yeah, I mean we see advisors using the correlation Screener, right, so. Yeah, definitely using, using a lot of those tools and I would say also too we use the, the survey tracker a lot. So setting up the automated like risk questionnaires to help continue to you know, understand the clients. And yeah, I mean when you think about it, you know some of our not some of our advisors, most of our advisors, not all of them, when they come on board, they're bringing an entire book of business over. And so monitoring who has and hasn't completed a risk assessment questionnaire, not only you know is a way for us to to to grow because now we can bring more on because we can monitor that a lot closer. But it's also you know a way for them to to bring their book of business on in an efficient manner and and not have to wonder okay, well where's this, where's that you know they're using the tool to very. Quickly and easily identify, OK, who hasn't, hasn't received one and then to be able to push it out just as quickly, right. Yeah, yeah. You know, maybe shifting focus a little bit here. I'd love to kind of understand the context of why you guys felt risk management specifically you know for client portfolios the the correlation between you know, risk proposals, things like that and the and how that relates back to compliance just. Obviously the time of your research you know you and Don were working upon you know from a compliance perspective why did you guys see those being so, so tightly connected. So because I think what we a lot of advisors say like well risk is really separate from compliance. But you know I think we're, we kind of get a different perspective from the firm level. Yeah. So I mean I think that especially in RIA, in the RIA industry right. It's it's the fiduciary. Right. And as a fiduciary, you can't make investment decisions without understanding risk. And you know that can be a tool if you use it in the sales process. And we recognize from a compliant standpoint that advisors will talk about risk. And this, this can help you know put us on the same page so that we know how they are talking about risk and that there's a messaging and a communication behind that and then the built in disclosures in the proposals and and just the ability to oversee that through the system for us, you know it's a game changer. Yeah, Yeah. Though I I appreciate you bringing up the disclosure piece because that's you know. It's an ongoing component of really all, all advisor engagement with clients, right. And so you know as you guys continue to look to the future and and the engagements that you have and I realize there may not be a lot of of insight or feedback to share on this one, but like how was behavioral finance, you know, how are you guys looking at behavioral finance playing a role in some of the advisor client engagements? Yeah, I mean you know with risk intelligence having a behavioral finance piece to the to the overall profile question, I know you guys aren't engaging with that today, but is that something that you guys are looking at? Definitely, we've definitely considered it. I mean I don't think it's a matter of if it's a matter of when. You know for for us the client experience is about making it simple, easy and understandable and we know about Orion risk intelligence. And and what it does for us today, you know, we can do that. And so if there's an opportunity to improve that and to be able to tap into, you know, some of the more behavioral aspects of risk, I don't see why we wouldn't, if if you have to like outline a couple of your favorite features, I guess of the risk intelligence platform, what what would you say those would be, Jeremy? Oh man, I'm glad you said a couple. I've got a lot, so I'll, I'll try to keep it. I'll try to keep the list down. So the first one I mentioned already, but it's the risk profile comparison tool. And the reason why I mentioned it again is because I use it almost on a daily basis to compare any two record types in the entire system. So indices, accounts, households, models. We use custom assets, securities. And then you can put them side by side and you can do it with more than one, but you put them side by side and you can see, you know compare the data like yield and and risk and asset allocation and beta, you know expenses, right. There's some compliance for you, right. You can compare the expenses or really just about anything you can think of including. Comparing how different scenarios might affect one versus the other, right. So if our concern is inflation and we think we're going to get stagflation then we pull stagflation in. We look at plants portfolio versus what we want to recommend and we say okay here are the differences, right and and we can look at how one might. Affect the other So yeah another really cool one I like is the correlation Screener and we used it a lot last year for tax loss harvesting where you can run a security to see what the most correlated securities is to that. Because when you sell it, unless you want to sit in cash for the wash sale period, you got to turn around and buy something else. Well, you can use the correlation Screener to see what's most mostly correlated to that security. So love that one and I'd say finally the last one would probably be the economic data. I know that's simple. But you know the fact that you have access to to almost any data points you want to at any given time without you know leaving, you know Orion risk intelligence, you know, to get index or market or a data point that you need. And it's not just access to the economic data. What I love about it is, is how it's layered. To be able to tie it to an industry that's affected and then the securities within that industry and countless other layers that help drive that decision making process and even really client conversations you know where you can show your value to the client. So and then the war room videos supplement you know that economic data even more if you're if you really want to get nerdy about it. Yeah, Yeah. Well and and you know, I I'm glad you brought up the custom asset feature because I think what many firms struggle with is understanding what nonstandard assets effectively can do to a portfolio. And that could be, you know, something as as standard as like a an annuity product, but also getting into more of your advanced custom assets, whether it's options custom or or private assets. Or structured products, right. And so I think inherently many firms especially the larger they get tend to insulate themselves from some of these more advanced products because it's harder to to define like you know, risk correlations and how that might impact the client is in the best interest. And so obviously aside from this, those aspects of it, how is using the advanced asset functionality allowed you guys to to better support your client environment because. Yeah. I think that's a key gap that a lot of advisors run into when they're trying to execute these types of reviews. Yeah. So the way we use it is fairly unique. So we use the custom assets to build a return series for actual return series for a portfolio. I mean when you build a proposal and you have a manager, that's a pretty. Buy and hold manager and has a a fairly fixed set of of securities. That proposal works really well when you have a more tactical manager that can go quickly from 75% equity to 25% equity then. The holdings as of today may not be very reflective of the risk of that man. And so we use it to support our third party money manager platform that the investment solutions I alluded to that we offer out to our advisors if they don't want to to manage it themselves. And So what that allows us to do is to bring in actual return series and to build that into a proposal. So that the advisor and the client can look at it and see the actual performance of that strategy over time and and and and and then I'm not saying one is right versus the other. I just think that they're both valuable in their own ways and so we we leverage that. That's great. Actually that's a phenomenal point to make. I mean the composite type integration of the platform but also being able to maintain that if you if you need to on a more independent level. Well I think you know one question I'd probably be good to end on is when I appreciate your time Jeremy, this has been really insightful and I and I I think those that are going to be watching it will, will also agree. But what I'd love to hear from you is if you had a couple pieces of advice for firms that are looking at you know trying to. Effectively do what you guys went through the process five years ago. Maybe could you outline a couple of things that you guys learned in that process and maybe some feedback that you'd recommend they consider as as they look at, you know a risk platform that's right for their, their business. Yeah, I mean I think the advice I would give is to look at it from multiple angles, right. I think the easiest thing to do for a firm like ours that I can speak to is to. Think about yourselves and and how to manage risk and and how to check some compliance boxes. But I think the thing that you really got to, you really have to do is you have to put yourself in the advisor seat and you have to say okay, what's that conversation across the table or across Zoom with the client look like and and how does this tool. Help do that while also remaining compliant. And I think you also have to sit in the seat of the client and say if I don't know anything about investments or if I don't know anything about finance, what does this look like to me? And you know can I understand it because if because if I don't understand it, you know I'm going to be hesitant and you know it may not make me feel like I want to do business. You know, if it's, if it's too much, yeah, yeah, I know that's that's a great perspective and I think that's a really great way to end our time here this this day. But Jeremy, I really appreciate the time. You know you guys have built a phenomenal business there at Mutual. You know we have a great deal of respect for the work that you guys do and helping advisors and ultimately the clients and and you know achieving their goals and we you know. For those of you that are listening or watching this, maybe at a later date, we encourage you to reach out to Ryan, ask us for a demo, There's a request to demo link within the webinar settings here. So we'd love to hear from you and answer any questions that you might have as well. And hopefully we can be a part of your advisor client journey at some point going forward. So with that, Jeremy, I hope you have a great rest of your day and. Enjoy, enjoy wherever home, wherever it's at. So thank you Eddie, I appreciate you. _1729257622011