{"id":21403,"date":"2024-02-15T19:54:23","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T19:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thinkadvisor.com\/2024\/02\/15\/burt-white-on-tech-if-we-lose-the-humanity-were-toast\/"},"modified":"2024-02-15T19:54:23","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T19:54:23","slug":"burt-white-on-tech-if-we-lose-the-humanity-were-toast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2024\/02\/15\/burt-white-on-tech-if-we-lose-the-humanity-were-toast\/","title":{"rendered":"Burt White on Tech: ‘If We Lose the Humanity, We’re Toast’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Technology can be a powerful asset, but that isn\u2019t what\u2019s driving organic growth for financial advisors.<\/span><\/p>\n

So suggests Burt White, managing partner and chief strategy officer at Carson Group.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe magic has never been about the machine,\u201d White tells ThinkAdvisor in an interview. \u201cIt\u2019s what the machine enables humans to do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Less than two years after joining the firm from LPL Financial, his job has evolved into running Carson\u2019s day-to-day operations. White, who worked at LPL for 14 years, was managing director and chief investment officer.<\/span><\/p>\n

At Carson, inorganic growth is \u201csupercritical,\u201d White says. There, mergers and acquisitions activity has accelerated the past three years, as it has for its advisor partners.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the interview, White \u2014 <\/i>based in Charlotte, North Carolina \u2014 <\/i>talks about client and advisor trends and what they mean to investing. He also declares that artificial intelligence \u201cis going to change everything\u201d \u2014 <\/i>but that \u201cif we lose the humanity, we\u2019re toast.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are highlights of our conversation:<\/span><\/p>\n

THINKADVISOR: What\u2019s your role at Carson Group?<\/b><\/p>\n

BURT WHITE<\/b>: I joined as the chief strategy officer. But over the last two years, I\u2019ve evolved into running the day-to-day strategy and operations of Carson.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ron Carson is still the CEO, but the entire organization reports up to me. <\/span><\/p>\n

Is Carson Group doing anything unique?<\/b><\/p>\n

One thing is working on exit planning for entrepreneurs starting to sell their business. <\/span><\/p>\n

And we\u2019re investing in the second generation of leaders because succession is more than just a transfer of work. We need to make sure that they\u2019ve got that next battery for growth.<\/span><\/p>\n

We have a next-gen program hiring right out of graduate school as well as folks that are changing careers. We\u2019re putting them through a program so they can get their CFP. <\/span><\/p>\n

That will allow [our] financial advisors to delegate some of their smaller or less sophisticated clients and focus on growth.<\/span><\/p>\n

How can advisors, in general, grow organically?<\/b><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a sea of sameness out there; everybody wants to replicate each other or [brag], \u201cMy lineup has one more mutual fund than yours.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s not what\u2019s driving organic growth going forward.<\/span><\/p>\n

And tech isn\u2019t the answer. The magic has never been about the machine. It\u2019s what the machine enables humans to do. <\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re focusing on integration processing and great customer service because that ends up creating efficiencies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why is organic growth so important?<\/b><\/p>\n

Clients are getting older; consequently, there are fewer folks that drive the economy. So we\u2019re not likely to get outside macro help like we have had over the last 10 or 20 years. <\/span><\/p>\n

We help our financial advisors to isolate and insulate their time so they can focus on what they love to do, which for most is talking with clients, and then outsource all the stuff that doesn\u2019t make them happy.<\/span><\/p>\n

How critical is inorganic growth to Carson?<\/b><\/p>\n

Supercritical. M&A \u2014 <\/i>to supplement our organic growth \u2014 <\/i>has really been accelerating for our firm in the last three years and also for all our financial advisors.<\/span><\/p>\n

Three years ago, we didn\u2019t do M&A. This year, about half of our revenue growth will come from firms we have either acquired by M&A or will do so this year. <\/span><\/p>\n

In the industry, what current client trends are most important? <\/b><\/p>\n

One is diversity. By age 85, two out of every three Americans are women.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Technology can be a powerful asset, but that isn\u2019t what\u2019s driving organic growth for financial advisors. So suggests Burt White, managing partner and chief strategy officer at Carson Group. \u201cThe magic has never been...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[1],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/burt-white-on-tech-if-we-lose-the-humanity-were-toast.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21403"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}