Interview with AdviceTech.LIVE Speaker H. Adam Holt of Asset-Map

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H. Adam Holt
Founder & CEO of Asset-Map
AdvisorTech.LIVE Panel: Financial Planning

How did you get your start in financial services?

I was working for the federal government two years out of school and realized that I was really an entrepreneur that wanted to work with people, not computers. I did a 180 and started applying for investment banking jobs globally. But was compelled by my family to look at local outlets to see if I liked the financial business. 

So at a job fair, I met a local company doing financial planning. I took the job even though I did not fit the ideal profile of a financial advisor by any measure with a background in economics and design. They took me on to fill a spot and I wound up getting hooked on financial planning. I made a name for myself by solving problems from a completely different perspective by applying design and consumer empathy, which is how I invented Asset-Map for our practice back in 2002. 

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

Everyone needs help and wants you to offer it. I was intimidated in the early years of my financial services career by the fact that “I was too young” or “not experienced enough” or “they are already too rich for me to help”.  I bought into the idea I needed to think small.  But Asset-Map gave me the ability to offer a completely different value proposition – to reveal the state of their current financial closet. And you know what I discovered? Most of the “financial stuff” people have is haphazard, under-managed, or simply missing.  All I needed to do was point it out and offer to help households fix it. 

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

We are at a turning point – both in the demographic urgency to address the distribution (decumulation) of assets for the Baby Boomers that advisors have been serving for the past years and covid-accelerated remote delivery of that advice. These two megatrends are creating huge opportunities for disruption, innovation, and disintermediation. 

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

I am a recovering financial advisor so I know what it is actually like to deliver compelling and thoughtful financial advice that results in action. The challenge is humans have a tendency to think more is better.  More features, more capabilities, more complexity, more options. 

In contrast, simple communication supported by technical credibility is the key to helping an advisor become more effective.  Asset-Map focuses on the most important part of the advice delivery process by answering three questions:

  1. What do I have (visually)?

  2. Am I on track (on one-page, not 40)?

  3. What action might I consider (a.k.a. what are others doing)?  

When the tech is easy to use and helps advisors communicate the real issues – things start moving forward. 

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

Add one thing at a time. Don’t renovate the whole house at once – larger implications like CRM take a full year to nine months. For a marketing program, take six months without changing anything else. 

What I’ve learned from changing too much, too often, is that you don’t build the habits firm-wide to squeeze the value from a platform. The second one will cause a stir – stop focusing on integrations as the required criteria. Ironically, Asset-Map spends hundreds of thousands of dollars supporting and building integrations with our peers. But I have found again and again that a tool that does not integrate, but that I actively use, is more effective than one that integrates. Focus on the value proposition first. Eventually, if you are vocal enough, the tech firms will integrate to please their customers.

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

  1. For me it’s hearing the gems that are going to come out of this program and knowing that there is an audience member that will grab an idea learned and build a thriving practice that touches hundreds of lives. 

  2. AdviceTech.LIVE is unscripted-  It’s like a reality TV show with thousands of nearly anonymous viewers who can be a fly on the wall or join a breakout room and interact with a tech firm directly.  That level of entertainment experience requires tension to remain relevant – and I think that having traditional competitors come together on the main stage in an unscripted, open forum, is on the fringe of exciting. 

  3. The willingness of our co-sponsors to go on stage to engage in conversation with competitors and peers is a testament to the community behind the financial advice market in the United States. Believe it or not, we all know, or know of each other, and have deep respect for the profession of delivering advice. I am looking forward to seeing how this plays out just like everyone else.

TJ Hill