Interview with AdviceTech.LIVE Speaker Randy Lambert of Orion Advisor Solutions
Randy Lambert
COO at Orion Advisor Solutions
AdvisorTech.LIVE Panel: Portfolio Management
How did you get your start in financial services?
I graduated from Creighton in Omaha in 1993 with a Finance degree and I wanted to become a financial planner. I took an operations job at a small TAMP RIA called CLS Investments, LLC. I worked several different operational positions in the 1990s. I worked for Eric Clarke at CLS and in 1999 Eric launched Orion Advisor Solutions as a service & technology solution and I’ve been a part of our operations team ever since.
What’s something that you know now that you wish you’d known when you started your career?
How to be an effective change agent. I had some early struggles because I was too focused on “my ideas” rather than being a change agent. A change agent is one who proactively provides feedback, participates in decision making, publicly supports decisions that are made, and passionately promotes decisions within the organization.
What excites you most about the financial advice profession right now?
Tech-enabled fiduciary processes continue to strengthen the advisor-client relationship. Connecting wealth planning centric advice with investment management tech is the next step. Integrating automation into the advice process is also exciting. Robotic Processing Automation (RPA) shows a lot of promise in this area.
Is there something your company does that you don’t think advisors know about that they should be aware of?
Orion has developed and Advisor Journey process where we leverage our Strategic Consultant team to proactively engage our advisors to assess their current state and determine the most important priorities from a technology and practice management standpoint. Orion tracks these priorities in a transparent manner and once the priorities are completed the assessment is completed again and the process starts over. This is a journey, not a destination.
Is there something your company does that you don’t think advisors know about that they should be aware of? What are you looking forward to the most about attending AdviceTech.LIVE?
Mostly I’m looking forward to connecting with peers and learning from the incredible lineup!