Interview with AdviceTech.LIVE Speaker Aaron Klein of Riskalyze

Aaron Klein
CEO at Riskalyze
AdvisorTech.LIVE Panel: Practice Multipliers

How did you get your start in financial services?

My career has largely been at the intersection of finance and technology. Before Riskalyze, I was managing technology products at an options brokerage firm. 

A conversation with my friend, who was also an advisor (and now Riskalyze co-founder) prompted research into why investing feels broken to the average investor. Since that time in 2011, I’ve been dedicated to the wild ride we call the Fearless Investing Movement!

What’s something that you know now that you wish you’d known when you started your career?

You can’t build a great company without first intentionally designing a great culture. The people you hire are your company, so if you don’t figure out exactly what you want your culture to look like, you’ll assuredly hire the wrong ones.

What excites you most about the financial advice profession right now?

Ten years ago, if you picked up an industry trade magazine, you would have seen a very different picture of the advisor tech landscape. At that time, the tech solutions entering the marketplace largely fit into three pillars: financial planning, portfolio management and CRM. 

Riskalyze doesn’t fit into any of these pillars, but it’s been incredible to watch as tens of thousands of advisors embraced risk alignment as the fourth pillar of the tech stack. With the Fearless Investing Movement continuing to grow by leaps and bounds, I’m excited to see where the next ten years will take us.

Is there something your company does that you don’t think advisors know about that they should be aware of?

I think the awareness of our newer products like Portfolio Analytics and Trading are relatively high, so I’ll actually focus on something advisors may not know that we don’t do. 

Some advisors may not realize that Riskalyze doesn’t force advisors through a one-way workflow—many advisors who don’t feel like a risk questionnaire is for them start with the portfolio side of the equation and work their way backward to setting a risk target for the client. 

Riskalyze never dictates what an advisor should advise; it’s an analytics platform that keeps the advisor in the driver’s seat by supercharging their ability to make great decisions with their clients.

Any words of advice for advisors looking to update their tech stack?

You’re only as efficient as the systems around you. For advisors, it’s not enough just to have all the pieces, but those pieces need to fit together in ways that lift you up and bring you closer to your clients. I always encourage our customers to think very carefully about how a piece of technology will integrate into their existing systems and workflows.

What are you looking forward to the most about attending AdviceTech.LIVE?

I’m excited to hear from some of the most influential voices in the industry representing the best of advisor-facing tech. 

I agree when Adam Holt says “innovation requires looking at problems differently,” and I think the event he and his team have planned will be a fantastic opportunity for advisors to review the entire suite of critical solutions for their firms.