With a ‘stache like that and starting fights on LinkedIn about pricing models, I was hoping Sam was… well, you’ll just have to watch.

This is Sam Flaten of LEVR Planning:

He does outsourced paraplanning and consulting for “AUM advisors” and “Flat Fee advisors”. I don’t think I’ve ever heard them called “AUM advisors” before. It’s interesting how the pricing model gets so much attention in this business.

Anyway, we talked about a lot of cool things:

* The advisor as the main bottleneck in the firm and how the whole team could play a role in client relationships AND client outcomes

* How each client engagement needs to be custom designed around their desired outcomes AND custom priced

Dennis Moseley-Williams said something like that too - “transformations should be independently priced”.

* Obviously we chatted about how custom engagements can be more easily priced and sold based on “what the clients actually want” - matching the outcomes to the price. Almost like a menu of planning scenarios that are each their own thing.

* He mentioned a firm he worked with that was using a construction CRM instead of a standard industry-specific CRM, because it had better features around the work to be done and the time-tables

And here are some short clips with some highlights:

Advisors that are good at making the sale are also good at selling clients on DOING the things they recommend

Hazel: Where’s the real value in the AI-generated tax planning report?

Finding the “Why” behind each planning goal

Match the proposal to the “kind of car” the client wants to drive

There you have it.

Joe

Today I chatted with Alex and Ayo on the podcast about their company Bridge, private investments, how they’re using AI, and the overall alts market.

They explained it in a few ways:

* Tools aimed at GPs vs. LPs (general partners and limited partners)

* Tools for pre-transaction vs. post-transaction

I think… the landscape is something like this:

We also discussed the liquidity of private investments and how historically, they’ve been less so and can cause a “run on the bank” scenario:

On gating redemptions:

Private vs. public returns:

I brought up the convo between Peter Mallouk and Tony Robbins where they discussed the difference in returns (9% for the S&P and 15.7% for private equity):

Alex says it’s a bit more nuanced that:

Lastly, we talked about pre-AI vs. post-AI SaaS and how timing or “return on luck” plays a role.

Check out around 41:10 above or on the YouTube.

If you’re like Tim Brown, this might be one to listen to:

To Epic Human Stories,

Joe

P.S. People give me codes, thinking that I’ll share them around… well, maybe I will!

Use JOE-MOSS-PRO or JOE-MOSS-TEAM to knock a month off the price of an annual Individual Pro or Team Pro subscription of RIA Pulse:

P.S.S. Apparently, Eric Negron thought this industry need more conferences… use code ScaleConJoeMoss for 15% off Advisor ScaleCon

Besides this:

There’s just the already growing body of research about AI making us miserable and dumb.

…the most powerful insight I’ve gleaned from the Kitces’ research around tech, efficiency, and revenue is this:

Advisors that answered that “The Most Important Role of Technology Within An Advisory Practice” was time or cost efficiency… make half as much as those that think it’s all about quality optimization and client experience.

I feel like Dennis Moseley-Williams would like this…

We also talked about AI ending the human race…

The 45 “categories” of AdvisorTech:

The ‘Hub’ of The Tech Stack:

And for just how long Jump will deny it’s building a CRM… :)

So the question remains… will average advisors using AI beat great advisors not using AI?

…OR… are the advisors most attracted to AI shiny objects… the one’s making the least due to their focus on efficiency?

What Actually Contributes To Advisor Wellbeing 2025

Maybe… wellbeing is the most important thing…

A little less tech and hype… and a little more focus on clients.

Probably do us all some good.

“Most optimization is procrastination in disguise.”~ Stijn Noorman

Thank you to Mark Tenenbaum and the whole Kitces team for bringing us some of the coolest research in the space!

To Epic Human Stories,

Joe

P.S. I realize I “buried the lead” with the title… you’ll have to listen to find out about the future of the map… 🔮😂