This week, Jack Sharry talks with Ann Covington, Founder & Financial Advisor at CovingtonAlsina. Ann is passionate about helping strong, successful women navigate increasingly complex financial lives. She brings a personal understanding of the challenges women face and the value of thoughtful financial guidance. Ann talks with Jack about how the rise of women investors is reshaping wealth management. She also discusses the systems and workflows that have helped her scale the firm while delivering a consistent client experience, how tax planning can demonstrate the tangible value of advice, and why brand awareness built through education and community involvement matters more than any other marketing tactic. In this episode: (00:00) - Intro (01:57) - Ann's unconventional path into financial advice (04:10) - Inside CovingtonAlsina and its growth trajectory (06:24) - The strategies behind CovingtonAlsina's rapid organic growth (09:52) - Why Ann built her practice around serving women investors (13:58) - How Ann attracts women investors (16:05) - The shifting dynamics of women's roles in financial decision-making (18:23) - CovingtonAlsina's marketing playbook (23:43) - Using tax planning to demonstrate the value of advice (27:56) - Ann's outlook on the future of CovingtonAlsina (28:48) - Ann's interests outside of work Quotes "You have to go small to get big. When your marketing and branding are focused on one area, people opt in. People come to us to buy." ~ Ann Covington "On average, women see money as what it enables them to do for their family." ~ Ann Covington "We take the really complex, crazy stuff and make it simple for clients and give them peace of mind." ~ Ann Covington Links Ann Covington on LinkedIn CovingtonAlsina SEI Women's Institute for Financial Education Daily News Brief Connect with our hosts LifeYield Jack Sharry on LinkedIn Jack Sharry on Twitter Subscribe and stay in touch Apple Podcasts Spotify LinkedIn Twitter Facebook
This week, Jack Sharry talks with Andrew Ang. Andrew is a leading voice in quantitative investing, factor research, tax-efficient portfolio construction, and AI. He spent 15 years as a professor at Columbia Business School and 10 years as Managing Director at BlackRock, where he led work across factors, sustainability, and investment solutions. Today, he is the Co-Founder of Tau Balance, where he applies technology, tax expertise, and AI to wealth management. Andrew talks with Jack about factor investing and tax-efficient portfolios, why taxes can significantly affect what investors actually keep, and how advisors can think beyond pre-tax returns when building portfolios. Andrew also shares his vision for the "self-driving portfolio," an agentic investment strategy where AI agents can specialize across asset classes, challenge one another's assumptions, and continuously learn. In this episode: (00:00) - Intro (01:37) - Andrew's background and career journey (03:47) - The evolution of factor-based investing (06:16) - Andrew's transition from academic research to portfolio management (07:40) - Taxes as the biggest factor in investment returns (11:35) - The vision behind the "self-driving portfolio" (17:11) - Using investment policy statements as guardrails for AI (18:34) - Andrew's interests outside of work Quotes "Taxes constitute the biggest wedge between returns that you seem to participate in, or that are reported, and the returns that you actually get to keep." ~ Andrew Ang "The really big gains come when we don't just substitute something for AI, but completely change the way that we work with it." ~ Andrew Ang "Where the agents disagree, those are the most interesting and important areas for investing. That's probably where alpha lies, or where we actually have to be very careful to construct robust portfolios." ~ Andrew Ang Links Andrew Ang on LinkedIn Tau Balance BlackRock SEI Ang Research Enhanced U.S. Large Cap ETF (ANGU) Connect with our hosts LifeYield Jack Sharry on LinkedIn Jack Sharry on Twitter Subscribe and stay in touch Apple Podcasts Spotify LinkedIn Twitter Facebook
This week, Jack Sharry talks with Mike Perry, Head of Client Solutions and Wealth Management at Guardian Life. With leadership experience spanning Guardian, Nuveen, UBS, and Merrill Lynch, Mike has spent his career helping firms evolve their wealth management strategies while expanding access to comprehensive financial planning. Jack and Mike discuss Guardian’s protection-first philosophy and why holistic planning begins long before retirement. They explore the firm’s “living balance sheet” framework, the growing importance of strategic partnerships, Guardian’s investment in Avantos, and why AI is best viewed as a tool that helps advisors deepen client relationships—not replace them. In this episode: (00:00) - Intro (02:24) - Mike’s path to Guardian Life (05:09) - The evolution of separately managed accounts (07:38) - Guardian’s protection-first planning philosophy (11:20) - The “living balance sheet” approach to holistic advice (13:28) - Why Guardian rebranded Park Avenue Wealth Management (16:23) - Why Guardian invested in Avantos (18:48) - AI as a force multiplier for advisors (20:51) - Why strategic partnerships accelerate innovation (23:01) - Mike's key takeaways (27:51) - Mike's interest outside of work Quotes "What clients need is trusted advice from an advisor. So, the real engagement, where trust gets built, and problems are solved, is in that back-and-forth planning discussion with the end client." ~ Mike Perry "Our opportunity here is protection first, because we're engaging clients earlier in their lives and marrying it with a much broader set of questions and client engagement across all of our planning." ~ Mike Perry "Innovation has to be a constant thing you focus on, because across financial services, one day you may provide something at less cost, but it's immediately replicated. So you need to keep doing that." ~ Mike Perry Links Mike Perry on LinkedIn Guardian Life Nuveen UBS Merrill Lynch eMoney Advisor Park Avenue Wealth Management Avantos Vanguard BlackRock Connect with our hosts LifeYield Jack Sharry on LinkedIn Jack Sharry on Twitter Subscribe and stay in touch Apple Podcasts Spotify LinkedIn Twitter Facebook
This week, Jack Sharry talks with Indivisible Partners' Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Alok Kapoor, and Founder and Chief Operating Officer, John Hogarty. Alok oversees and guides the firm's technology direction and brings leadership experience from Fidelity Investments and Merrill Lynch. John leads the company's growth by optimizing operations and technology, with a track record of managing large-scale initiatives and building platforms at Merrill Lynch's Global Wealth and Investment Management for Bank of America. Alok and John discuss how technology and operations serve as competitive differentiators for wealth firms. They share how they built a fully integrated platform, powered by technology and human expertise, to align clients', advisors', and firms' objectives. Alok and John also discuss what it means to deliver total wealth advice and how the future of wealth management will be shaped by those with the capabilities to serve clients best and build processes and efficiency into their businesses. In this episode: (00:00) - Intro (01:51) - The 'why' behind Indivisible Partners (03:55) - How innovation in fintech has transformed wealth management (06:01) - Technology and operations as competitive differentiators (09:46) - What Indivisible Partners is building and who it's for (13:28) - Why platform architecture and integration matter (18:38) - Scaling organic growth without losing the client experience (20:23) - What the best firms will look like in the future (21:50) - John and Alok's key takeaways (24:41) - John and Alok's interests outside of work Quotes "When you're dealing with people's wealth, you can't make mistakes in the back office. The soundness and safety, the consistency, and the quality of the reporting and interaction in this day and age, the movement of money, and the protection of those assets are so important." ~ John Hogarty "We needed a capability where every advisor could lay out their desktop exactly the way they want to see information, in the order they want to see it." ~ John Hogarty "Everybody out there will talk about the capabilities they're building into their products. It's really easy to move quickly on a rocky foundation. We work really well in making sure we're moving very quickly on an extremely solid foundation." ~ Alok Kapoor "Most firms treat technology and operations as back-office cost centers. They're measured on risk. They're measured on budget. We think of them as the product. Because to the advisor and client, this stuff working is the product. It has to work." ~ Alok Kapoor Links Alok Kapoor on LinkedIn John Hogarty on LinkedIn Indivisible Partners John Thiel Advyzon Connect with our hosts LifeYield Jack Sharry on LinkedIn Jack Sharry on Twitter Subscribe and stay in touch Apple Podcasts Spotify LinkedIn Twitter Facebook
This week, Jack Sharry talks with Andrew Guillette, Vice President of Global Insights at Broadridge. Founder of Verge Advisory and former COO of Cerulli, Andrew has a track record of delivering industry-leading market research to U.S. asset managers. With specialized expertise in research and product development, he can leverage cutting-edge technologies to transform business operations and create new revenue streams. Andrew talks with Jack about what investors actually want, based not on surveys, but on real behavior from 55 million retail investors. Drawing from the Broadridge Investor Pulse dataset, Andrew breaks down five critical trends reshaping the investor landscape today. Their conversation also challenges long-held industry assumptions and offers a data-backed look at how firms can better align with evolving investor behavior. In this episode: (00:00) - Intro (01:59) - Andrew's career background (04:05) - What Investor Pulse is and why it matters (08:02) - Theme 1: The myth of the 'average investor' (11:40) - Theme 2: Democratization and concentration of wealth (14:29) - Theme 3: Product proliferation and model portfolios (20:40) - Theme 4: Blending of self-directed investing and advised relationships (25:08) - Theme 5: Investor intelligence as a competitive advantage (26:56) - Andrew's advice for wealth and asset management leaders (28:05) - Andrew's interests outside of work Quotes "Advice still reigns, but the mix is shifting. The self-directed growth is real. Now, one-third of all investors have a relationship with a self-directed firm." ~ Andrew Guillette "The number one reason that investors straddle is diversification and enjoyment. Diversification was highest among women, and then enjoyment was highest among men, particularly younger men." ~ Andrew Guillette "Don't rely on legacy assumptions about who your investor is and how you think you should engage. Get the data to gain more precision about investor behavior. The firms best positioned to win will be the ones that understand the end investor." ~ Andrew Guillette Links Andrew Guillette on LinkedIn Broadridge Broadridge - Investor Pulse Connect with our hosts LifeYield Jack Sharry on LinkedIn Jack Sharry on Twitter Subscribe and stay in touch Apple Podcasts Spotify LinkedIn Twitter Facebook