BetaNXT CEO Robert Santella discusses how wealth management enterprises can harness the power of connected wealth and connected data.
Russ Alan Prince: As you recently became the CEO of BetaNXT, what is your vision for the company’s future?
Robert Santella: Along with the established team at BetaNXT, I am focused on executing the vision carved out by my predecessor Stephen Daffron, who remains with us as executive chairman. That long-term plan is to drive the transformation in technology that will power the next generation of frictionless, end-to-end wealth management. “Connected wealth” is what underpins everything we do. Companies that embody connected wealth have platforms and systems that “speak” to one another. This connectivity enables them to facilitate a curated view of client and market data and utilize that data to provide the coherent, near-real-time answers and next steps that the new generation of investors demands.
We plan to continue improving the solutions and services we provide to wealth management companies in order to help them streamline operations, reduce costs and create revenue opportunities while also better understanding and meeting, their clients’ evolving needs.
Prince: How do you plan to drive innovation and growth?
Santella: We are looking to drive innovation and growth through two strategies. First, we are going to continue making significant investments into new tools that are focused on data, artificial intelligence (AI), and other leading-edge technologies. The landscape of the wealth management industry is transforming and evolving because clients expect superior products, hyper-personalized advice and analysis, and faster and more accurate reporting. AI, along with blockchain and big data, has shown a lot of promise for expediting time-consuming and manual processes, and delivering financial advice and analysis that are both more personalized and more accurate.
We also plan to continue leveraging partnerships and our relationships with third parties. These integrations have uniquely positioned us to help wealth enterprises attract and retain advisors in a highly competitive marketplace. Our partnerships also help ensure our transition and service teams can continue to enable wealth enterprises to attract and onboard advisors with any business model.
Prince: What are your top strategic priorities for the first year?
Santella: One of the main areas of focus will be increasing our end-to-end ecosystem’s capabilities to improve and enhance the client experience. We believe we succeed when our customers succeed, and the best way for them to thrive is to offer a fully personalized, consistent, and intelligent experience for their clients. Ultimately, we enable our customers to make their data do more for them, so they can obtain the 360-degree view they need to proactively provide each client with the tailored advice, content, and communication that give them the guidance and insight they need, when they need it.
We will also continue to concentrate on innovation, especially with regard to enhancing data solutions and the integration of AI. While AI can increase productivity and streamline communications and operations, the integration process shouldn’t be rushed. Wealth management enterprises need to think of AI as a long game that requires careful and thoughtful implementation. There is a right way and a wrong way to implement it. If you rush the integration of AI for the sake of speed, or to make a splash in the media, then you can’t be sure that the data that the AI is modeling is accurate, clean and accessible and you defeat the whole purpose. AI is only as good as the data it models, and wealth enterprises should focus on the integrity and security of that data instead of how quickly they can capitalize on the latest trends or put new AI capabilities in their marketing materials.
Prince: Can you elaborate on what connected wealth means and how it impacts financial advisors?
Santella: No matter how innovative or cutting-edge a technology solution is, it will not do any good for advisors or their clients if that solution is not fully in sync with everything else in a firm’s tech stack. And if the data that flows through the most innovative tech solution in the world is inaccurate, unsafe, and has not been cleaned, then it won’t help advisors demonstrate any value for their clients. On the contrary, client relationships will suffer from the obvious fallout.
Connected wealth aggregates the information necessary for a client’s wealth to be managed. It supports a solutions-based ecosystem, united by connected data capabilities, that streamlines operations and improves an advisor’s delivery of analysis and advice to their investor clients. Connected wealth is driven by “connected data,” which integrates all the information necessary for a client’s wealth to be effectively managed and, ultimately, enhances the experience for both financial advisors and their clients. Our connected data strategy consolidates many data points, including company details, security information, account data, transaction records, event data, and individual profiles—creating a holistic, comprehensive view that transcends isolated data silos and gives wealth enterprises deeper insights into their operations and their client needs.
Source: Financial Advisor
