Even in 2022, wealth managers and financial advisers are using poorly integrated technology. It is a problem that creates needless delays and hassle, leaving us with one foot stuck in the twentieth century. This time on The WealthTech Show we speak to Ian Hutchinson and Emma Napier, both part of the business development team at Bravura Solutions. We look at the hassle caused by technology that does not communicate with the rest of your tech stack, and we discuss the potential for microservices t...
Jan 21, 2022•31 min•Ep. 20
Lavinia Osbourne, named as a LinkedIn Top Voice in 2021, has quickly become a renowned advocate for blockchain and its potential to create a better and more inclusive platform for financial services. In this episode, we look at the opportunity to educate ourselves about decentralised finance, as well as the possibility of lowering the barriers to entry for financial services. Further, we get Lavinia’s take on celebrity NFTs, such as those launched by William Shatner, Jay-Z and Lindsay Lohan....
Jan 14, 2022•34 min•Ep. 19
Financial inclusion is a little misunderstood. On the surface it's a chance to make advice and wealth more inclusive and friendly, so it gets lumped in with philanthropy. This week we speak to Shan Millie, a member of TechNation's delivery panel, to look at the bigger picture. Sure, financial inclusion is ethical and righteous, but is it not also a massive opportunity for wealthtech adopters and innovators? With the right tech, can we create business models that are sustainable and profitable as...
Jan 07, 2022•34 min•Ep. 18
London-based IFA Simon Bullock has spent his career building close connections with clients. Even so, he was a little surprised when one of them presented a tech solution to him, which could help him offer better investment and planning insights. We speak to Simon about what has happened since, and how he's devoted time and effort to refining the tool so that it works seamlessly for clients. If you're a wealth or advice professional with aspirations of building your own tech, this one is a must ...
Dec 10, 2021•28 min•Ep. 17
The money being spent on NFTs is ludicrous. But when you think about it, what’s new? Artist Eric Drass joins The WealthTech Show to discuss parallels between the physical and digital worlds, and what’s driving the demand for non-fungible tokens. Eric tells us about the NFTs that he’s created and sold, and the dubious ethics involved in using certain cryptocurrencies for the transaction. This is an open and lively chat about a confusing new trend, and an unexpected reflection on the relationship ...
Dec 03, 2021•24 min•Ep. 16
Award winning journalist and broadcaster Misha Glenny joins The WealthTech Show for a 20-minute chat, following his presentation at the 2021 Wealth Manager Retreat. We touch upon cybercrime, decentralised finance, international relations, and cryptocurrency. Listen in to hear Misha’s thoughts on Bitcoin becoming a ‘speculative ponzi scheme’, how decentralised finance can help us spread risk, why the UK’s dated internet infrastructure may be problematic, and what leading organisations need to do ...
Nov 26, 2021•20 min•Ep. 15
We need to distinguish between today’s tech boom and the Dot-com bubble says Gregg Guerin, senior product specialist at First Trust. In this episode of The WealthTech Show, he explains what investors should know about emerging technology trends, while also considering the things we don’t need to know. We take a walk on the wild side too, touching upon Gregg’s attempt to purchase a basketball NFT at a Citywire event, as well as the beautiful world that could be created by cobots – the friendly co...
Nov 19, 2021•47 min•Ep. 14
As an angel investor, mentor, and guest lecturer, Simone Ishikawa has a keen interest in tech start-ups and their founders. In this podcast, she tells us what it takes for ambitious founders to achieve their goals. We also look at fintech as a force for good, and how new tech innovators are helping to reinvent financial services. As we dive into these topics, Simone gives us an outline of what this could all mean for wealth managers and financial advisers.
Nov 12, 2021•41 min•Ep. 13
What makes you pick a mortgage broker? In this episode, Jinesh Vohra explains that lots of people pick someone because they seem nice, rather than doing proper due diligence. Jinesh, the CEO of recently launched app Sprive, is on a mission to educate and empower the UK public to pay off their mortgages more quickly. This means helping us to overpay properly, and it also involves an endless search for the best rates available. This episode might enlighten you, and it may save you a fair chunk of ...
Nov 05, 2021•35 min•Ep. 12
Georgia Stewart is the CEO of Tumelo, an investor engagement platform that lets you tell fund managers what they should vote for at company AGMs. In this episode of The Fintech Show, Ian asks if this is the start of a new era for ESG and relations with asset managers. The potential for change should not be understated. Since the roll-out of auto-enrolment in the UK, large swathes of the population could soon be empowered to tell fund managers what they want. Is this a catalyst for conflict? Mayb...
Oct 15, 2021•17 min•Ep. 11
Automation and artificial intelligence offer exciting opportunities, but how do we harness them properly? In this episode we welcome Clara Durodie, a board member and consultant for international business leaders, who specialises in helping C-suite executives to properly integrate technology. Here, we look at the importance of ethics, and how we can avoid dystopian tech calamities such as those depicted in Terminator, The Matrix, and Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers.
Oct 08, 2021•32 min•Ep. 10
Roger Camrass has a fascinating place in world history. As part of the team that designed the ARPANET in the 1970s, he is partly responsible for laying the foundations of the internet. In this episode, Ian asks Roger for his thoughts on what the internet has become, and what’s gone right and wrong. Roger also offers his vision of the economy of 2040 and how investors can invest for growth and dividends within the new paradigm. We also delve into demographic shifts and how they will reshape the w...
Oct 01, 2021•29 min•Ep. 9
Fintech startups are not in short supply, and for every success story there are countless tales of near misses and abject failures. So how, as an investor, can you identify growing companies that will be the future stars of fintech? In this episode Ian speaks to Tim Levene, CEO of Augmentum Fintech, to find out. Augmentum became the first publicly traded fintech-focused venture capital company in the UK in 2018, and Tim has ample experience of investing in and working with innovators. If you wan...
Jul 06, 2021•37 min•Ep. 8
In this episode Ian speaks to award winning fintech innovation and strategy expert Kate Bohn. Drawing upon Kate’s experience in banking, and in promoting financial inclusion and accessibility, they discuss how to make finance more approachable for those who are excluded, while also delving into Kate’s experience of working with startup fintech firms in incubator programmes. An interesting stat to start. 20% of financial advisers claim not to have a single disabled client, yet research suggests t...
Jul 01, 2021•35 min•Ep. 7
For our season finale, Dr Bijna Kotak Dasani MBE, an executive director at Morgan Stanley, joins Ian for a conversation on how technology is shaping the diversity and inclusion profile of financial services. Research shows that many groups are underrepresented in technology and finance, and also that technology might be widening the gap between the rich and poor. We delve into that here, as well as the issue of human biases being baked into algorithms and artificial intelligence. Such biases hav...
Apr 30, 2021•44 min•Ep. 6
Behavioural finance has taken the financial planning world by storm. As advisers strive to better understand their clients, behavioural finance is helping uncover their true attitudes towards money, risk and financial goals. In this episode Ian chats with Neil Bage, director of behavioural insight at Be-IQ, to look at how technology, data, open banking and APIs can facilitate better conversations around client finances. Just as crucially, Neil indulges Ian’s decision to factor in the varying pri...
Apr 30, 2021•30 min•Ep. 5
David Stamp is a financial adviser with a difference. Not content with the inefficiencies involved in the advice process, he hired a tech team and spent over a decade automating and refining as much of the advice process as he could. The result? 2,000 clients on his book, and younger members of the team bemoaning that they only onboarded 200 clients in a single year. In this podcast, David tells Ian exactly how he did it, and how technology could usher in a new paradigm for financial planning....
Apr 30, 2021•24 min•Ep. 4
Is technology making it easier to invest sustainably? In this podcast, Ian catches up with Gavin Francis, managing director of Worthstone, to ask how he’s helping advisers and wealth managers to assess funds and fund managers on their ESG and impact credentials. While Gavin’s elevator pitch belongs in the Burj Khalifa, he rightfully outlines suggestions for how people can build portfolios in line with the values of their clients.
Apr 30, 2021•24 min•Ep. 3
The lockdown made advisers and wealth managers think twice about their tech stack, so in this episode, Ian invites NextWealth’s managing director Heather Hopkins to offer her take on the next advancements in advice and wealth tech. While the episode was recorded on Groundhog Day, this conversation helps outline why change and progression. This message is not exclusively for advisers and wealth managers, so we also shine a spotlight on product providers, and what they need to do in order to servi...
Apr 30, 2021•22 min•Ep. 2
Institutional money has been rolling into cryptocurrency, so for episode one of the Tech Travels podcast, Ian speaks to James Butterfill, investment strategist at CoinShares. Most advisers and wealth managers will have discussed cryptocurrency with at least one client, so here we attempt to demystify an asset class that understandably grabs headlines and causes confusion. Not content with just discussing the biggest names in crypto, Ian also seeks advice on his Dogecoin holdings.
Apr 30, 2021•29 min•Ep. 1
