That’s a wrap on Ascent 2023, and what a week it’s been!
With an audience of 1,600 financial advisors and industry leaders, we started this year’s annual user conference with a thrilling keynote from our Founder Eric Clarke, and a panel featuring Ryan Beach, Brian McLaughlin, Marcel Tsai, Penny Phillips, and Brian Hamburger to discuss the future of fintech — moderated by special guest Nicole Casperson.
The momentum of Day 2 was unmatched! From how to better integrate your tech, to the latest Behavioral Finance tools to level up your financial planning, and how to harness the Fiduciary Flywheel, advisors were provided with the latest business growth ideas.
Day 3 included more informational sessions, 1:1 consultations, panel discussions plus an interactive magic-meets-technology event from Digital Deception.
To close the event, Ascent guests enjoyed off-the-charts entertainment from Alter Ego, the ultimate tribute cover band.
An audience of 1,600 financial advisors and industry leaders had a front-row seat to our biggest technology enhancements and inspiring keynote speakers. Check out our top 10 highlights:
1. Announcing Orion Stacks
Orion is offering clients the opportunity to opt into integrated tech stacks that provide greater value and convenience via a unified, seamless wealthtech experience. By bringing Orion’s most powerful tools together, advisors can better realize the holistic functionality and potential of our integrated wealthtech suite to grow their business and improve the client experience. Clients can get the best of Orion, and save, by using more of Orion’s technology and services.
- Orion Essentials is a powerful combination of Orion’s portfolio accounting features, plus access to additional capabilities, including Redtail CRM, Orion Planning, proposal and new account opening tools.
- Orion Advantage includes everything in the Essentials Stack plus: A Redtail suite including Speak and Imaging, Orion Risk Intelligence, Orion Compliance (Employee, Firm and Client Oversight) and advanced Business Intelligence.
2. New Story Paths for Orion Custom Indexing
Orion’s Custom Indexing solution enables advisors to differentiate their offering with personalized, professionally managed, low-cost portfolios — supported by a dedicated team of CFA-credentialed portfolio managers and Orion’s industry-leading technology. Advisors can now easily select from one of several user story paths which enables them to customize portfolios or tax transition legacy assets within a handful of steps.
Within minutes, an advisor can immediately generate a proposal to present to their client or choose to allocate an existing account to the newly designed custom portfolio. Acting within Orion’s multi-custodial accounting system, the new technology will streamline the portfolio customization and tax transition process to a matter of minutes compared to the industry normal of multiple days.
3. New Proposal and Technology Integration
Orion also announced its first proposal generation tool for Orion Advisor Tech clients, available with its recently introduced Orion Advantage and Essentials stacks. Driving end-to-end efficiency by eliminating manual data entry and cumbersome cross-system navigation, this new functionality enables advisors to create and deliver proposals in a fraction of the time.
The proposal generation technology workflow is integrated throughout Orion’s tech ecosystem, including Orion Connect, Orion Planning, Communities model marketplace, Orion Risk Intelligence and Redtail CRM. Orion and Redtail users can launch the proposal tool directly from their CRM dashboard in Redtail.
4. New Client Oversight Tool
A first-of-its-kind Client Oversight tool, including an automated share class selection monitoring feature, is now available and fully integrated with the Orion trading and technology tools advisors use every day. The Client Oversight tool enables automated monitoring and reporting of several compliance pain points typically managed through time-consuming and manual processes. It allows for workflows involving one or more compliance officers. Features include: Pre-Trade Compliance, Share Class Alerts (SCSD), Ownership Alerts, and Large Trader Alerts.
5. Dennis Moseley-Williams
As a client experience expert, Dennis showed the audience how they can stand out by creating unparalleled and unforgettable experiences for their clients. In his presentation, How Experience Delivery Can Save Your Practice, he went through his step-by-step process that will transform an advisor’s practice into an experience-driven enterprise built on trust and advocacy.
6. Dr. Shirley Davis
CEO and Founder of SDS Global Enterprises, Dr. Shirley Davis shared her insights on the new leadership skills and competencies necessary for achieving high performance, innovation and inclusiveness. She shared steps advisors can take to create space for more open conversations at work to build a company culture that attracts and retains talent.
7. Ben Nemtin
Bucket list builder and real-life dream achiever, Ben Nemtin, shared his unbelievable story on how he launched The Buried Life Movement: What Do You Want to Do Before You Die? Advisors learned how they can connect his inspiring story of goal-setting, defining one’s purpose and achieving dreams to financial planning conversations with their clients.
8. The Mind & The Market
Orion’s Chief Behavioral Officer, Dr. Daniel Crosby and Chief Investment Officer, Tim Holland delivered their always popular The Mind & the Market presentation to help advisors gain insight into the latest market activity, our economic outlook, and how to use behavioral investing tendencies to keep investors on track to achieve their long-term financial goals.
9. How Advisors are Using OCIO Services to Supercharge Their Growth
Kurt Brown, President of Orion OCIO, presented winning strategies to attract, serve and retain high-net-worth clients.
10. The Power of Discretion
Brian Storey, CFA, our new Head of Discretionary Portfolios, and his team discussed how partnering with Brinker Capital Investments can help you gain valuable time back in your day and the latest insight on the Destinations portfolios' current positioning and performance.
Make sure you’re at Ascent 2024! Contact us today to find out more about how Orion’s robust, innovative technology and wealth management services can support your firm.