Simplifying Finance: Transforming Complex Concepts into Tangible Asset Maps with Alison Susko

Voiceover: [00:00:00] Welcome to the FAST Podcast, Financial Advisor Strategy Talks with Lara Galloway, SVP of Financial Education at White Glove. Lara provides advisors with an opportunity to hear from some of the best minds in the business, follow along to learn quick tips to help you grow your business. From gaining new leads, to keeping current clients engaged and everything in between. 

Now onto the show.  

Lara Galloway: Awesome, Aric. I am so excited today to have Alison Susko with us and let me tell you just a little bit about Alison and who she is. She is the VP of Community at Asset-Map, a financial technology firm, dedicated to creating engaging visual communication tools used throughout the customer and advisor journey. Now, Alison's been working in the Fintech industry for over 15 years, specializing in account management, training, and partnership development and growth. Before joining Asset-Map in 2018, she worked at eMoney Advisor where she oversaw the account development and enterprise relationships and Docupace Technologies where she created and ran their training department. So Alison, I am so excited to welcome you to the FAST Podcast.

[00:00:50] Alison Susko: Lara, I'm thrilled to be here. You know, we've really been so excited to kind of ramp up our partnership between White Glove and Asset-Map and certainly getting to know you and meeting you in person just a couple months back was really fantastic. So it's great to be here today.  

[00:01:05] Lara Galloway: Yeah, it's so nice to get out to those industry events and just see what's going on and you guys make such a great splash every time you attend. I think one of the things that I love about what you guys do at Asset-Map is you just make things simple. And I'm sure with your background and training that this is something you're passionate about, and I know you've helped, but I'm also very passionate about it for our advisors, Alison, and that's something I kind of want to dig into today because you know, what we see, and I'd love to hear your perspective, what we see is advisors sometimes get really excited about their charts and their graphs and their products and their returns, and they're just so stoked with those numbers. But the rest of us, laymen like me, and I'm guessing, maybe like you, I don't know if you're a financial advisor, but I am not. Are you?

[00:01:52] Alison Susko: I'm not.  

[00:01:53] Lara Galloway: Okay, didn't see it in the background. But with those of us who are not financial advisors, we don't get as excited about that stuff, right? And we need something kind of relevant and tangible that we can get our eyes on. And when I hear you guys, when, I think it was at T3, when I hear you guys present and I see these visuals, I'm like, oh my God. Now I can understand something. So I'd love for you to just share a little bit about kind of what Asset-Map does and what's the use case. Why did you guys come up with the Asset-Map?  

[00:02:26] Alison Susko: Well, you're really speaking my language, so you went through a bit. It's sometimes even shocking to me still to hear kind of my history in this industry and at companies such as eMoney Advisor and Docupace Technologies, two of the best out there. You know, I think we really, as an industry, went super deep for a long time. You know, get as complex as possible, really allow the advisors to focus in on what's so important when it comes to getting down to sometimes it's even numbers to the dollar, a decade out. I mean, we're talking really specific details, and what we tend to find is advisors and clients alike realize that once the clients leave the office you know, the plan is almost out of date before you even know it. And there's numbers while so important to verify and to almost used as more of a back office tool to your point, the advisors love the detail. They really want to make sure that they're doing what's most valuable and accurate for their clients, but sometimes it just doesn't resonate with the end client. And that's really what we're all about. And by taking things that can be ultimately very complex, very overwhelming, and making it more digestible and easy to engage with, with the clients. And that's really what we're all about here at Asset-Map. Not to recreate how financial planning is done, but also to really just kind of focus on what's super important. And we find that a super engaged client is just making better decisions. And those visuals, those simplifications of sometimes the very complex keeps those clients, whether they be clients just getting started in their careers, all the way to folks that are nearing retirement, very engaged and making great decisions because of that.

[00:04:04] Lara Galloway: You know, that's such a good point too, that we don't want to try to change anybody. We don't want to tell advisors you can't be that specific. This is very satisfying. I want my plan. I want to get it down to the dollar 15 years out. Okay, great. We can work with you on that, but now let's also talk about how to, like you said, how to make that digestible to your client so that they are able to make good decisions. So can you talk to me, what makes it digestible? How do you do that?  

[00:04:33] Alison Susko: Sure. You know, many of heard you had mentioned seeing us up on stage at an event in this past spring, our CEO and founder, Adam Holt, was a financial advisor for many years, using those tools that we all know and love that are more the legacy systems that are out there providing really great calculations for advisors, and he just found that as we've kind of mentioned already, his clients weren't super engaged with the reports he was handing out, so they were very long, they were complex. And I think sometimes we as industry professionals in Fintech even if we're not financial advisors, like yourself and myself are at least very up on how things work and what we can expect and what's super important when you think about preparing for retirement. But even your most sophisticated clients can just get paralyzed when they're looking at something that's very detailed, very complex. So Adam decided...  

[00:05:28] Lara Galloway: I mean, who doesn't love a good 50-page report?  

[00:05:30] Alison Susko: Who doesn't love it?

[00:05:32] Lara Galloway: Like, what's not to love, right?

[00:05:34] Alison Susko: But when Adam started handing them out to his clients, or did over the years, they kind of just responded with, this is great, we love working with you, but you can just file that report away. I'm never going to read something that's 50, 60 pages long and I can't take this home to my spouse because they're just not going to even understand what we're talking about. So he decided you know, maybe a little over a decade ago, to create Asset-Map, which was a way to inventory what's super important, talk about what's the most relevant in your kind of whole family dynamic and finance, and talk about what might need to be changed, what needs to be updated you know, what's something that we could potentially make an adjustment to improve your plan. And because it was right there in front of them on an easy to digest, single one-page visual, the clients were uncovering things they maybe had elsewhere. They were giving the advisor permission to talk about what was important because it was sitting right there in front of both of them and leading to some great discussion which just is better for everybody.  

[00:06:34] Lara Galloway: I love it. And you just mentioned a term that I've heard Adam speaking about on the podcast with Derek and you know, some other places I've heard, but just advice engagement.  

[00:06:44] Alison Susko: Yeah.  

[00:06:44] Lara Galloway: So, what is that? Why are you guys so passionate about it? Talk to me about that.  

[00:06:48] Alison Susko: Oh, man. You know, we've been lucky to get Michael Kitsis involved with the advice engagement movement as well. There's now a new category. You know, we might all be familiar with the Kitsis, what we call almost a placemat of technology that has just, I mean, it has grown by probably tenfold in the last few years, which is so, so exciting. They're an amazing group of systems out there and technologies that no one had heard of and they didn't exist maybe five years ago. Giving advisors a really nice breadth of opportunity to work with different tech to support what they're really good at. Advice engagement is really kind of a movement to help advisors address the challenges of motivating clients. You know, a lot of times, we'll say, a confused mind doesn't buy, right? So, a client who's just overwhelmed just not fully understanding the process and maybe not super engaged in the process, is more likely to kind of say, well, let's figure that out later, I'm not ready to make that decision. What we're finding with advice engagement, and goodness, there's at least maybe 6-10 companies now who are falling in that category. They're really kind of tackling really effective fact-finding visual interactions, ways to keep the client throughout the engagement process, which means discovery, finding out if they're going to be a good fit as a client, all the way to implementing new accounts or making great decisions together. Making sure that they're following that process throughout and really kind of being engaged in what the advisor's working on with them.  

[00:08:18] Lara Galloway: I love what you just said there because again at White Glove, we're all about getting our advisors in front of groups of audiences that need their help, right? Somebody's online in the middle of the night, do I have enough money to retire? Somebody's online on vacation, and they're worried about how do I pass this stuff down without disinheriting my daughter's children from her first marriage, whatever it is, right? So there's all this stuff that people are worried about. We get them into a workshop on a financial topic, and then what I hear, Alison, from some of our advisors, they're like, yeah, okay, great. I'm getting all these leads, I'm getting these prospects, but I'm struggling to do that pivot. And this is something we're really passionate about at White Glove. We're very passionate about education. So we don't just educate our consumers, we educate our advisors, and this is an area that I've been pursuing relationships with companies like yours, and just others saying, how can I help our advisors who are doing great, they're killing it at these workshops. They're getting all these qualified leads, and they're like, great, now my pipeline is full. I've got that top of funnel, but how do I drop them into that next level and help them see my value? What I want to look at Alison, is how do we help them visualize those opportunities where a financial advisor could be really beneficial? And so you're talking about advice engagement, so the engagement, getting them empowered with enough information about their financial future to make a decision. So can you talk to me, like you were saying, you've got a whole life cycle, right?  

[00:09:50] Alison Susko: Right.  

[00:09:51] Lara Galloway: What sort of help can you give to some of the folks that are doing workshops with us who are trying to pivot from that, I'm an educator on taxes and retirement or social security or estate planning, to now I can help you manage your wealth in all the different assets that you have. So can just talk to me about that just for a minute.  

[00:10:09] Alison Susko: And you're talking a little bit about kind of that prospect to client phase. Is that really what you're thinking about here?  

[00:10:15] Lara Galloway: That's it, yes. Prospect to client. Yep.  

[00:10:17] Alison Susko: We are equally as passionate about that. And because of that I started at Asset-Map five years ago in about two weeks, which just blows my mind. I cannot believe I've been there that long and we've seen some amazing growth and some great features to kind of support what we're doing in advice engagement, one of them being our discovery process. And I mean, you and I need to chat offline more about discovery and how we can use it together between our two companies, I think, because discovery allows the advisor to, let's use a maybe a scenario of like you said potential client event or a prospecting event or even advisors who work with, plan participants and want to work with them maybe in a deeper fashion, make them wealth management clients. That's a really great use case as well. But taking a group of folks or an individual who is a prospect or who are prospects and finding out a little bit about them before a meeting, I think that is one of our most special things that we do at Asset-Map, which is let's send out a link to maybe it's yourself and your husband, Lara, I send you a link and I say, tell me a little bit more about yourself before you come in and meet with me as your potential advisor. And I send you a really quick, tell me what you're comfortable with, type of link. Nothing getting into account numbers or God forbid, social security numbers. Very high level about what's important to you in your finances. So you might say things like, I have a job, I have a house with a mortgage, I have a couple of investments, a life insurance policy, and I'm filling this out in almost like a TurboTax kind of experience that we've all gone through, a questionnaire that's super simple online. Just to find out a little bit about you, about your spouse, about your family. Because we also know at Asset-Map, every family looks different, right? Your family isn't made up the same way mine is. It's really important for finding a good fit between a client and advisor to know what the family looks like, find out what the priorities are, and what their goals are. So this discovery process that, again, we offer here at Asset-Map allows that client or prospect to tell the advisor more about themselves leading up to that first meeting, which does two things. It creates that Asset-Map behind the scenes using what that client or prospect told you all about, and it also gives that advisor some insight into that person before they have their initial conversation, making things much more natural. They know a little bit more about you before you come in. They know that you're focused on education planning and legacy or whatever those topics are. And it makes that first meeting a lot more productive. It really kind of allows that trust to start up really quickly and also you know quickly if it's a good fit between the advisor and the client. And we're getting tremendous results back. Folks are filling it out. They are you know, kind of letting that advisor know what's important. And again, that first meeting, it's almost like getting to the third meeting in the first meeting because it's cutting out that initial kind of uncomfortable you know, getting to know you kind of first start of a conversation because you've already gotten that out of the way. And it's really been pretty powerful to really get those kind of first meetings lined up and appropriate and really valuable. Leading to scale, leading to trust, all the things advisors want when they're working with their books of business.  

[00:13:31] Lara Galloway: Well, you are right. We have a lot to discuss as an offline, so put a pin in this. But just to kind of reiterate some of what you said and put it in the White Glove vernacular, when an advisor is doing a workshop, whether it's a seminar or a webinar their entire goal, so they've got two goals. Number one, I'm going to educate people on this topic so they learn a little bit about what they don't already know, so they can ask powerful questions, right? And then also I'm hoping that some of these people will want to go deeper and do more and sign up for a discovery session with me, right? A one-on-one meeting. And that is their goal. That's the, what we're asking them and helping them do is get that at bat. And then once they get them to the office, there's all this other stuff and we actually, I've got to put a plug in for our Host University coming up, which is our big educational event that we're doing. It's August 27th- 29th. I've told you about it. I hope you guys are going to be a part of it with us. When we, what, one of the things that we talk about in Host University is, the workshop is just the start. It's the tip of the iceberg. And then there are about 9 or 10 steps after that where we also need to educate these advisors to be powerful and be successful and give them tools. So, you mentioned a couple of them. One is like, first of all, just saying, come to my office and we're going to work through this and I'll be able to show you that using a platform that's going to give visual representation of their assets and exactly where they fall. That's so smart. Number two, you mentioned what we call a fit call. So a lot of advisors before they have, so they say at the workshop, you did a great job and half the people signed up to meet with you on your calendar, right? And you're like, okay, rock on. Well now you've got to go through and talk to them and say, okay, before our meeting, Lara, could you bring in this or could you bring in that, or, let me just ask you a few questions. And we have advisors who really struggle with how, and even if they should do the fit call. Am I going to turn somebody off? Is it going to make them not come in? Or if I don't do them, am I going to be wasting my time and getting people that I actually can't serve, but my calendar's full and now I'm talking to all these people. Right? So that is a huge piece that I'm super excited that you guys address. And then from the fit call, getting into that next step of okay, like an onboarding, right? Like it's a, like you said, it could even be a preliminary meeting that you're already kind of doing that because you're saying, okay, I'm going to ask, you've heard me talk about my topic that I educated you on in the workshop, but I know very little about you and your family, so why don't you share a little bit about that so we can hit the ground running when we do sit down to our strategy session, so.

[00:16:14] Alison Susko: I love it. The synergy between our two companies, I mean, we've known for a long time is pretty powerful. But you know, like everything you just said, I could not possibly agree with more. What we really find is when things are really nicely laid out on the asset map, whether it be from that initial discovery interview with the client or prospect or you know, once the advisor has gone in and put their own insight in and really kind of specified and gotten into the weeds a little bit more with the client about what needs to be on the map, when you're discussing what's there together and the client has given you insight into what they have going on in their financial life, whether it be their goals or what they already have things that might need to be adjusted, it gives the advisor permission to talk about it. So it takes away that kind of, well, maybe I feel like I'm overstepping, or maybe I don't know them well enough to ask about that you know, niece who they're helping out financially with when it comes to college. If they put it on the asset map and they say it's something they want to discuss, it immediately gives that professional, that financial professional, the ability to discuss it and feel comfortable discussing it because the client divulged that to them and gave them that piece of information. So it really, you know, that's why we focus so much on trust as well, because those advisors that we work with, any advisor is just looking to get to that really great comfort level between them and their client and let them know that they're doing what's best for them and getting great digestible, easy to to discuss facts from the client. You know, valuable fact-finding is at the top of the list of things that you need to do. And I think we do it better than anybody because it is you know, a bit of an easier entry point to get that information rather than a very complex, six-page fact finder. That's overwhelming in itself. So, we take a different approach. We make it super client-friendly and it's paying dividends for the advisors that use Asset-Map.  

[00:18:07] Lara Galloway: Absolutely, awesome. Because people want to know, should I do a fit call? Should I do a fact finder? Okay, if so, how? And then, like you said, oh my God, a six-page document. Do I ask for them to send me their their tax returns up front? Like you're taking so much of what needs to happen after the workshop and before the meeting, and even during maybe that first meeting again, kind of that onboarding part, you're squishing it down, making it super effective, not invasive, giving that advisor that permission to talk about things that people already put on the table on the map. I love that. That's so smart. Okay. This is, you're absolutely right. This is why we fit together so well. So I love this. And because I'm really passionate about just making this easier for advisors because they're telling us I'm getting the leads, but gosh, I'm losing, I'm losing some ROI because it's me. I'm not converting them. I'm not meeting, I don't have my system tied down. I don't have my program tied down. Now, you guys are giving us some great ideas here. So that's just like for the first step. And I know we don't have a whole lot of time here left, but I just want to kind of hear a little bit more if you could just talk about the rest of the life cycle. Like how do I keep coming back and using this platform, how is it going to be valuable to me as an advisor, and to me as a client going forward.  

[00:19:28] Alison Susko: For sure, thank you. That's a great question. You know, I think you mentioned it earlier, and I can't remember what context it was in, but you had mentioned if someone's out of state or you know, potentially it's not super easy to meet with someone logistically, we all know what happened a few years ago. Something else that we think that Asset-Map really shines with is making the experience almost identical, if not just as valuable, whether we're on a Zoom call together as a client, an advisor, or you're across the desk from me in the office. You can be in Florida, I can be in Pennsylvania, it doesn't matter. The idea behind Asset-Map, even originally when our CEO went remote over 10 years ago, which is almost unheard of when it comes to being a financial advisor, Asset-Map makes it a seamless experience because it's super Zoom friendly, it's easy to share that, again, that one screen, right, to have a really valuable discussion. It can be over a Zoom or it can be on a smart board in the office. It can be printed out. We have advisors who say, I still like to print.  

[00:20:28] Lara Galloway: Yeah.

[00:20:28] Alison Susko: Sure, print the Asset-Map out and draw on it. We have people do it all the time and it's a pretty great experience. But you know, that's a long way for me to get to the fact that using Asset-Map in a meeting, whether it be the semi-annual review, the annual review, whenever you're talking about something that is, let's make sure we're all on the same page. Let's make sure you don't need any changes to your existing scenario. You know, anytime you're reviewing the facts, you want to use Asset-Map. And the firms that are using our system, how I consider to be some of the most successfully, are just always using it as a level set in any meeting. Hey, how is this looking? Has anything changed? Well, my wife's still a dental hygienist, but she just got promoted. Okay, great. Pop it up, change it on the fly, make sure all of those reports that go along with it have followed suit. And it's just quick, simple and a great way to say, here's where we were last time. Let's see kind of what kind of goals you've gotten closer to, or what kinds of things have changed in your life. And again, it gets that conversation going. Keeps the client engaged for financial advice, engagement and also gives the advisor some insight into what's super important at that meeting. So, I would never have a meeting if I were an advisor without an asset map to do that level set to see if things are still on track. And finally we have some really great needs analysis based systems to tell you are you on track? What are some things that you might need to do to update or get closer to your goals, but allowing you to scale that for all clients, not just the ones who you consider to be your A clients? Get everybody good advice because Asset-Map allows you to scale due to its simplicity. So during that during those meetings, regardless of the lifestyle life stage is perfect use for Asset-Map.

[00:22:17] Lara Galloway: I love it. And thank you also for really mentioning and playing up the idea of that virtual engagement. So, even yeah, COVID rung a bell that can't be unrung. We have a lot of people that are virtual. It's funny, Alison, we had when when COVID hit, we only did seminars, and so our revenue went to zero, and that was very horrifying. And so we had to pivot to learning how to do webinars and selling them immediately, like while we were also still learning. And people listening to this podcast have heard me talk about this a few times. It was a crazy time, let me tell you.

[00:22:52] Alison Susko: There was pivoting going on, no doubt. And I saw some amazing things happen in our industry over that time. As scary as it was, I think for all of us, you all pivoted so well. Advisors pivoted so well. We, as you might imagine, we were pretty popular in those first few months because advisors saw it as an opportunity to say, wow, okay, I can still really be productive with my client even though I'm not used to this whole remote situation. But they were able to quickly implement Asset-Map and get that level setting done right over a Zoom call and really put their client's minds at ease when it was a very tumultuous time. Because we kind of focus on the big picture, not just the every tiny detail, every tiny holding. We're letting people know, hey, you're making great decisions. You're on track for your goals. You know, let's stay the course. Everything looks good. That's really what we're all about. And so it was, we felt like we were really adding some value at that time, which was important. But there was some great pivoting going on, no doubt. And it really has kind of stuck, although I think we're doing a lot more in-person. You know, you'd mentioned getting back to events has been really nice, but hey, some of the remote is here to stay, for sure.

[00:24:03] Lara Galloway: It is. And you know, I interviewed a wonderful guest last week. Ross Marino of Advisor2X. And Ross has been fully, I think like Adam, fully remote for many years and has no desire to go back. He won't. And he, so again, even if that's not your preference, even if you like doing things in person, and maybe you have some clients that want some virtual stuff because they don't feel like traveling as much, you can get in touch with them more often and we're providing you tools, like Asset-Map, to help you do that better connection, to give that better advice engagement, to keep people talking to you and to keep them on track so they can make those good decisions. So it's such a win no matter whether or not you're fully virtual. So Alison, we are coming to the end of our time together today. It has been absolutely wonderful, and before I let you go, we always like to just have you share something about success, and I always like for people to think about how they want to talk about it, whether you want to share something about your personal definition of success or some success you're seeing at Asset-Map or success for an advisor, whatever it is, I'd just love you to leave us with a little something that we can all be excited about.

[00:25:13] Alison Susko: When I heard this question, I first thought I want to see everybody else's definition of success after I give mine. You know, because it is so variable for everybody. You know, being that, again, I had said I've been at Asset-Map for almost five years. We're a super small company, and when you go back to what's available out there in financial technology right now, there's lots of small companies doing really amazing things in that startup phase, right? And when you're in those types of roles and at those types of companies, you're working a lot. It's a lot of work. You know, you're almost, everyone's, almost their own entrepreneur. So for me, success looks like working at a great company where you feel like you're actually making a difference not only for yourself and your coworkers, but also the advisors and the clients that you serve. Because if we're not getting value out of what we're doing every day, you're not going to get to work fired up. You're not going to be able to again, help out not only your own company, but who you're serving as far as clients go, so for me you know, being at a company like Asset-Map or feeling like you're actually providing something that's super educational, you mentioned that's important at White Glove and it is at Asset-Map as well being not only providing a great product, but also giving some great advice in providing education to those that you work with. So feeling like you're doing meaningful work every day is of the utmost importance to me, and I feel like I'm lucky to have that every day. And right now, that's how I see success is doing valuable and meaningful work is so, so important.

[00:26:42] Lara Galloway: Well, one of the things that is so great about working for a small company, and you and I share that as well, I've been at White Glove just a little over five years, so there you go. And we also were in a startup stage and we're still a pretty small company. And to your point about being able to impact the lives of the people that you're serving, you can see your legacy every day, right? You can look back and go, we created that and then this happened, and then we created that and we made it better, and then we did this, and you can actually see that legacy, so you can see that success playing out and I commend you for it, so that's awesome. Well, it has been a pleasure, Alison. I would love for you to just maybe share a way that people can get in touch with you or find out some more about Asset-Map. How would they reach you?

[00:27:26] Alison Susko: Absolutely. We work easy, of course, my microphone falls with 30 seconds left. I love connecting with people, as VP of Community at Asset-Map, part of my job is to talk to advisors, talk to those in the industry, and see what's going on and see what's really important. I am always happy to connect with people. You can find me, Alison Susko on LinkedIn. Shoot me a message. I'm always happy to meet with anybody who wants to see what we're working on, what's going on in the industry. It's one of my favorite things to do and you can easily get in touch with Asset-Map and anybody to help you, whether it be from the customer success side, if you're already a subscriber, or if you would like to find out more from our sales team. It's asset-map.com, or Google Asset-Map and our team's phenomenal and we're always happy to chat with you with whatever your needs might be.  

[00:28:15] Lara Galloway: Awesome. And we'll drop that information in the show notes for those of you listening. So, it has been a pleasure, Alison. Thank you so much for joining us today.  

[00:28:23] Alison Susko: Thank you for having me. It's been wonderful.

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