Three Crowns Mixtape: November 11, 2022

Important financial industry news + marketing insights + good music.

We just came up with something we want to try out on you. Here it is:

Friday? More like Fri-yay.

What do you think? Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss any of the spontaneous creativity in the Mixtape.

This week’s mixtape includes:

• Envestnet is just everywhere

• Shaping Wealth’s new outsource option for advisors

• A historic marketing whoops from KFC Germany

• And more!

Must-Read Financial Industry & Marketing Articles

Envestnet Does Everything Else, so it Might as Well Custody Your Assets, Too

Do you think Envestnet’s chief executive, Bill Crager, just woke up one day and thought, “Hey, we already offer outsourced investing, an insurance marketplace, portfolio management software, and financial planning… we might as well be a custodian while we’re at it.” ?

The giants are going to do what giants do, and in this case Envestnet added a new partnership with FNZ, a custodian out of New Zealand.

Our initial take is that more competition is good competition, but as Michael Kitces recently pointed out, there’s already a lot of custodian choice for advisors outside the big two of Schwab and Fidelity (RIP TD).

And that article doesn’t even delve into Entrustody, a new custodian we’re excited to watch that’s making big personnel moves recently.

But back to Envestnet. This move makes sense… and also it doesn’t. What’s the target market? It’s tough to sway large advisors because a custodian change is such a pain. And Envestnet doesn’t seem like the right fit for brand new advisors.

They’ll likely get assets from the advisors who are already ride-or-die for the full Envestnet ecosystem, but is that enough to set them up to become a major player? Time will tell.

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Shaping Wealth Wants to Focus on Financial Wellbeing, not just Planning

Fresh off their co-founder Joy Lere being named a Wealth Management Ten to Watch member for 2023, Shaping Wealth announced the launch of their Outsourced Chief Behavioral Officer program.

This one’s a big deal, because the role of a financial advisor has been getting increasingly murky lately. Twenty years ago, if you asked an advisor what they did, the answer was “Manage investments for clients.” Nowadays, the answer is “A little bit of everything,” and the whole investments part is somewhere near the bottom of that list. The shift to financial planning as primary value has morphed advisors into more financial therapists than stock pickers.

Shaping Wealth’s OCBO program recognizes that shift and seeks to help advisors expand their focus beyond financial planning to the financial well-being of their clients through behavior-focused content and coaching.

Bravo to Joy, Brian Portnoy, and the rest of the Shaping Wealth team.

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BOGO T3 2023 FTW!

It’s never too early to start planning for the 2023 industry events you want to attend.

T3 is a perennial entry on our best conferences for financial advisors list, and we don’t expect anything to change in 2023. If you’re looking for a conference to attend where you can get focused one-on-one time with fintech providers (and often, meet with the founders and executives at those firms) there’s no better place to be.

If you’re in the hunt for replacing or adding to your RIA’s tech stack, this BOGO offer is a great deal – and it only lasts through the end of November, so act fast.

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Binance Says No to Last-second Finance

We know that crypto is kind of like a foreign language for many of us, so we’ll try to write this story in the only way it actually makes sense to us – in a bullet list.

• Binance is the world’s largest crypto trading platform.

• FTX is their rival.

• Crypto is losing a lot of money lately, and FTX customers want to withdraw a reported $6 billion.

• That massive withdrawal has FTX on the verge of collapse.

• Binance was going to come in and save FTX but…turns out their books look bad.

• Really, really bad.

And now all of the crypto market is roiling. In times like these, there’s only one thing to say: Insert gif.

via GIPHY

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Skience Integrates for Best Interest Validation

In fintech integration news, Skience announced a new integration with the RightBRIDGE Best Interest Validation system.

Reg BI brought sweeping changes to broker standard of conduct, and there’s still a lot of debate on whether it’s good or bad, but one thing is for certain: It’s here, and you have to live with it.

So, you should be doing all you can to streamline your workflows and be certain your actions are, in fact, aligned with the “best interest” of clients. This integration puts fintech to use to make sure you can feel good about the recommendations your firm makes.

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How to Increase Contact Form Conversions

The contact page is the unsung hero of an advisor’s website. It’s where the warmest leads go when they are ready for help. It’s where people tell you exactly what they want from you. Yet it doesn’t get much love compared to the home and services pages.

Influence & Co. put together this short blog exploring how you can improve your contact form conversions. One thought to add: Consider adding form fields to help qualify people who fill out your contact form. Simply adding a drop-down field labeled “Estimated investable assets” with a few options can help you get a much better picture of people right away.

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Marketing Fail of the Week: KFC Germany Offers Cheap Chicken to Celebrate Kristallnacht

November 9, 1938, a.k.a., Kristallnacht, a.k.a., “The Night of Broken Glass” – People throughout Germany attack Jewish-owned businesses, hospitals and homes while German authorities look on without intervening. In addition, police arrest more than 30,000 Jews without cause. More than 100 Jews are killed.

November 9, 2022 – KFC Germany sends the following push notification: “It’s memorial day for Kristallnacht! Treat yourself with more tender cheese on your crispy chicken. Now at KFCheese!”

Check your automated marketing messages, folks.

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Here’s what we’ve been listening to this week.