The Year in Review

By Oleg Tishkevich, CEO of INVENT

As the calendar (finally!) flips over to the New Year, we wanted to take this retrospective opportunity to thank all of our clients, colleagues and friends for their continued support of the INVENT platform throughout this most interesting of years.

Like most folks in the industry, the INVENT Elite team was busy despite the many curveballs thrown by 2020 and was actively engaged with our INVENT clients as they continue to push the digital, Cloud-Native transformation of their wealth management platforms.  When not engaged directly with INVENT clients, the INVENT Elite were contributing to the mission of the INVENT platform to continue to advance the industry in a number of profound ways, all designed to foster the success of advisors and the companies and organizations they rely upon to deliver the best advice to clients.

So much so, that we are excited to share some of the highlights from founding members of our consulting team.

Up first for INVENT Elite is the vibrant and amazing Suzanne Siracuse, fresh off her start as an industry consultant after a 20-year, successful and industry transforming career leading the number one industry publication, InvestmentNews.

Suzanne did not miss a beat in continuing her legacy of thought leadership and advocacy in her new role launching Suzanne Siracuse Consulting Services.  This past year Suzanne created and moderated the first female only session, Women Leaders in Wealthtech , at the famed Technology Tools for Today (T3) event where top female tech execs focused on the importance of diverse teams and how that impacts innovation.

She also launched the Big Reveal Podcast, in partnership with Envestnet. In this new limited series, Suzanne leads lively discussions, that not only focus on the guests’ personal and professional journeys, but also incorporates their perspectives on news items, hot topics, and industry trends. And, at the end of each episode, Suzanne dives deep to have her guests share something they’ve never revealed before, hence the title, The Big Reveal.

Most notably, Suzanne was the recipient of the 2020 InvestmentNews Women to Watch Trailblazer award.  As the former publisher and CEO of InvestmentNews, Suzanne was awarded special recognition from InvestmentNews for her trailblazing role as a champion of gender and racial diversity in the financial services industry.

She also was prominently featured in several podcasts, including Advisor Group’s The W Pulse, In the Suite with Tina Powell  and Framework with Jamie Hopkins. Check out Suzanne’s many contributions to the INVENT Insider blog here.

Next, we have the eminence and grace from industry veteran, Gavin Spitzner, President of Wealth Consulting Partners.  Like Suzanne, Gavin was actively involved in creating and sharing valuable content to help foster the success of advisors and the companies that support them.  Gavin moderated and served as a panelist at a variety of financial services and wealth tech conferences as well as webinars including the Bank Insurance & Securities Association (BISA) Annual Conference, The Money Management Institute (MMI) Annual Conference, ThinkAdvisor webinars and more.  He served on Next Chapter, an industry group involving the MMI membership, FA Magazine and The Execution Project, focusing on solving industry issues related to retirement advice best practices and solutions.

Additionally, Gavin created a video podcast, The Wealth Management v2.0: The AdviceTech Revolution, interviewing leaders with innovative firms in the wealth management space including Personal Capital, Facet Wealth, Edward Jones, Goldman Sachs, Mariner Wealth Advisors, The Colony Group, Raymond James, AdvicePeriod and more.  He was also featured in “The InVest Podcast” with Toby Salinger from Financial Planning magazine and was named a Top WealthTech Influencer to Follow and named to an exclusive Top Financial Advisor Influencer List.  Check out Gavin’s many contributions to the INVENT Insider blog here.

Rounding out the team’s accomplishments was the content creator extraordinaire, Tim Welsh, President and CEO of Nexus Strategy.  Tim continued his work as the program consultant and founder of wealthmanagement.com’s Industry Awards Program, co-hosting the live, virtual winner’s announcement program viewed by over 2,000 industry executives with wealthmanagement.com’s Editor in Chief David Armstrong.  Over 550 nominations were received from nearly 200 companies, making the sixth season the largest, and most successful one yet.

Tim also produced the third season of ScratchWorks, the wealth management industry’s leading wealth tech accelerator modeled after the popular “Shark Tank” television series.  The founding investors of ScratchWorks provided over $5 million in seed funding to two prominent tech start-ups in a unique, drama filled, 4-part video series.

When not producing industry recognition programs and events, Tim was busy developing and delivering industry content both online, video as well as in old fashioned print magazines.  For Asset TV, Tim hosted the “Advisor Tech with Tim” video interview program that featured key thought leaders and technology executives sharing their best ideas, tips and views on industry trends.  Additionally, Tim continued his role as the “Industry Insider” columnist for the online publication ThinkAdvisor and its companion Investment Advisor magazine, authoring a dozen monthly columns on provocative industry issues, trends and prognostications. (https://www.thinkadvisor.com/author/profile/Timothy-Welsh/ ). Check out his many contributions to the INVENT Insider blog here.

Mark Hollingsworth, our broker-dealer insider, joined Advisor Peak as a Senior Advisor and Board member, focusing on strategic product design and marketplace positioning. Additionally, Mark continued to run AssetGro, a VC fund focused on the wealthtech space that is experiencing 30% growth in its Venture and Portfolio assets.  And to show his versatility, Mark co-founded and is Board Chairman for GolfTron, a golf technology startup aiming to democratize golf from the learning and gaming perspective.  Fore!

To capitalize on the collective experience of this team, Suzanne, Gavin and Tim joined up with myself and T3 founder Joel Brukenstein in a lively, 11-part panel discussion of the Top Trends in Wealthtech that we are observing throughout this interesting time. Be sure to frequently check back here at the INVENT Insider blog as we look forward to bringing you the best advice, insights, analysis and trend spotting to take your personal career and company to the next level in 2021 and beyond.

In the meantime, best wishes for a prosperous, healthy and Cloud-Native New Year!