Page 41 - Investment Advisor September 2022

Thought Leadership

The American College of Financial Services Vestmark
For nearly a century, The American College of The VestmarkONE platform, the firm
Financial Services says it “has been commit- says, “offers real-time data, true tax-lot and sleeve accounting,
ted to providing applied financial knowledge automated rules-based workflows and seamless connectiv-
and education, promoting lifelong learning … ity between asset managers and sponsor platforms, enabling
[and to] democratizing financial education with innovative personalization and tax management at scale across many
consumer financial education programs for each stage of an thousands of accounts.”
individual’s wealth-building journey.” To raise awareness of its technology and educate the finan-
Earlier this year, The College launched Know Yourself, cial-services community on the tools available to manage direct
Grow Your Wealth, an e-learning consumer education and indexing at scale, Vestmark developed a thought-leadership
empowerment experience for students at over 20 HBCUs. campaign, which focused on “a tech-enabled workflow that
In April, its Black Executive Leadership Program welcomed streamlines and automates managing and rebalancing hun-
its first cohort. “As the nation’s largest accredited non- dreds, thousands or even hundreds of thousands of accounts
profit institution devoted to applied knowledge and educa- in a scalable way, and … consistent, accurate, real-time data,” it
tion, The College is uniquely positioned to make a lasting said. This included blogs highlighting topics like direct indexing
impact,” it said. and tax management at scale and a white paper looking at per-
sonalization at scale illustrated by the case of a Vestmark client.
The Kelley Group
The Kelley Group aims to pro- Wealthramp
vide “the most progressive com- Wealthramp, the fiduciary-advi-
munication-skills training for financial professionals, sor referral service, was “founded on the principles of finan-
including but not limited to CEOs, managers, financial cial education and investor advocacy as opposed to lead
advisors and their teams,” who have “benefited from its generation,” according to the firm. Its marketplace aims to
programs as they recruited top talents to their firms,” address “flaws and conflict in the current consumer path to
according to the organization. best-fit financial advice, as well as to promote and celebrate
Also, a similar methodology has been used to help finan- top independent advisors based on experience, niche exper-
cial advisors “increase client acquisitions substantially by tise, client retention, regulatory conduct, and conflict-free
using a relational marketing system,” it said. “Along with client service models.”
being retained to provide coaching and training for some of In 2021, more than 45,000 people came to Wealthramp to
Wall Street’s largest firms, The Kelley Group offers compli- learn about fiduciary financial advice; it matched more than
mentary webinars each week on a variety of business devel- 5,000 mass-affluent consumers with “rigorously vetted fee-
opment topics.” In the past year, the firm added, “hundreds of only advisors,” it said. “In addition, Wealthramp reached over
managers and over 10,000 advisors have participated in The 1,500 women investors with educational newsletter content
Kelley Group’s programs.” tailored to the unique challenges women face when planning
for their retirement.” It also rolled out new services to help its
The Meakem Group, network advisors grow their practices and better serve clients
Idea Decanter & Kalli Collective seeking increased virtual engagement.
The Meakem Group President Traci
Richmond, along with her video market- YieldX
ing team at Idea Decanter and digital marketing team at Kalli YieldX says it aims to transform the
Collective, “saw the potential in [a real-life] story and created way income investing is delivered: “With [our] innovative,
a content strategy around retirement depression that had a end-to-end digital solution and five quant-based applications,
far-reaching and unexpected impact,” according to the groups YieldX eliminates the traditionally complex barriers to sophis-
involved in the video project. “The likelihood that someone ticated, income investing solutions.”
will become depressed goes up by 40% after [starting] retire- Since its start in 2019, the firm “has prioritized not just
ment, and the highest suicide rate in the United States is technology innovation but comprehensive market education,
among those over the age of 65.” creating both thought leadership and product-focused content
This content has garnered nearly a million impressions aimed at helping advisors and their clients understand why
on YouTube, they said, demonstrating that Richmond “had income solutions drive better investor outcomes, how to opti-
tapped into a need for more information on the very real sub- mize portfolios to maximize yield while mitigating risk, and
ject of retirement depression.” Also, she has been contacted how broader market movement and global economic trends
by more clients “who were encouraged to open up about their impact the efficacy of the investment vehicles advisors chose
own experiences,” the groups added. for their clients,” it explained.

SEPTEMBER 2022 INVESTMENT ADVISOR 37