Three Crowns Mixtape: November 4, 2022

Important financial industry news + marketing insights + good music.

It’s time to hang up our spooky hats and get down to business. With a new office (yay!) and our brand-new graphic designer on board (welcome, Carter!), the 3C team has been busy making content to keep your weekend fresh and fun.

This week’s mixtape includes:

• Wealth Management’s “Ten to Watch” list

• Changes from Eddy Jones

• Google’s latest announcement

• And more!

Must-Read Financial Industry & Marketing Articles

Ten to Watch in 2023

Wealth Management has released its “Ten to Watch” list for 2023, and we’re thrilled to see both friends and clients make the new edition.

We want to offer a big congratulations to all the honorees this year, with a special shout out to:

• Lacey Shrum, Founder and CEO of Smart Kx

• Preston Cherry, Founder of Concurrent Financial Planning

• Joy Lere, Co-founder of Shaping Wealth

• Marwa Zakharia, CEO of Assetbook

If you’ve been paying attention at all, you know that big things are coming from these folks and we can’t wait to watch their continued rise in the industry.

Check out the full list and profiles for everyone at the link.

Industry Icons

Edward Jones Wants to Lend You Money

Edward Jones has been making a number of business model changes lately. Back in the summer, it announced it would let advisors form multi-advisor branches. Now, it’s adding onto its services with banking and lending services, and also exploring the addition of securities-based lending (something you might have seen announced recently from Wealth Access and Supernova).

The impact of these additions is still to be seen, but they’re on trend with the rest of the wealth management industry. Tech solutions like Envestnet and Orion have been pulling in features and some RIA giants have been exploring ways to facilitate lending for clients too.

For many firms, though, it becomes a matter of too much. The majority of RIAs are small businesses and there are only so many features and services that can be added before it’s all overwhelming.

This story isn’t newsworthy because it’s a red flag that all firms need to add lending; instead, it’s a reminder that oftentimes the best way to grow is to get narrowly focused on what you do best instead of trying to compete on every new front that arises.

Keeping Up With the (Edward) Joneses

Google Pushes Back Another Deadline That’s Had Marketers Sweating

Earlier this year, Google said they would start sunsetting Universal Analytics in July 2023. In classic Google fashion (see also: the perpetual pushback of sunsetting third-party cookies), now Universal Analytics gets to live on until July 2024. Apparently, people are dragging their feet making the switch, as Google said the reason for the pushback is the time and resources it takes to switch to GA4.

Honestly, making the switch isn’t hard (it just takes a few minutes), and there’s zero risk in turning on GA4 – your Universal Analytics property will continue working as it always has until Google flips the big “off” switch in the sky.

The bigger adjustment is getting your head around the differences between Universal Analytics and GA4, and the sooner you can get started with that, the better.

Praise for Procrastination

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