Rethinking Retirement with Steve Gresham

Jan 24, 2023

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The demographic shift toward an older population, concerns about the financial sustainability of traditional pension systems, and lengthening life expectancies are just a few of the challenges facing retirement systems today. While having human and digital advice connected and coordinated is key to the wealth management ecosystem, how can financial advisory firms accelerate the development of wealth management platforms to meet the needs of the retiring age wave?

In this episode, Jack talks with Steve Gresham, Chief Executive Officer of The Execution Project. Steve is also the managing partner of the premier executive community in the financial services industry, Next Chapter, and a senior education advisor to the Alliance for Lifetime Income. For nearly 40 years, Steve has been an asset and wealth management leader and a pioneer of managed accounts and advisor practice management. Today, Steve focuses on improving retirement solutions for a historic demographic wave of retiring clients.

Steve talks with Jack about the challenges of combining human and digital advice to create a personalized client experience, how he sees advisor adoption being solved, and the importance of a connected and coordinated wealth management ecosystem.

Key Takeaways

[01:50] - The key role Steve plays in wealth management.
[05:03] - A look at some of the findings of age wave research.
[08:33] - The challenges of combining human and digital advice to create a personalized client experience.
[12:26] - How Steve sees advisor adoption being solved.
[17:24] - Creating a coordinated ecosystem of wealth management.
[23:43] - The challenges AUMs face today.
[28:05] - One of the biggest lessons Steve learned from Fidelity.
[29:23] - Steve's three key takeaways.
[31:30] - Activities Steve engages in outside of work.

Quotes

[03:38] - "Two-thirds of America are connected in one way or another to an aging and retirement life. And retirement is not the first word that most of them use. It is the next chapter because there is, in many cases, the desire to do something different, and sometimes there is the need to continue working depending on their circumstances." ~ Steve Gresham

[10:47] - "Innovation is very difficult because when the components are owned by different players with different levels of self-interest, motivation, and speed to action, it is extremely difficult to find the ringleader that will pull them together." ~ Steve Gresham

[12:39] - "I'm not sold on the idea that the advisor should be the one that is driving the solution all the time. That seems like a gating mechanism. We're never going to grow and engage with the number of people we need to if we have to wait for a human to prioritize that in their day." ~ Steve Gresham

[20:43] - "If you can solve the needs of those people and you don't get hung up in connecting a product to them immediately, you will become that person, that firm that can connect with them." ~ Steve Gresham

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