Empowering Advisors: Technology and Financial Psychology in Action with Morgan Bell

Jack Sharry: Hello everyone and welcome. Thanks for joining us for this week’s edition of WealthTech on Deck. Our goal for our podcast, as our loyal listeners know, is to explore new ideas, innovative solutions, and forward-thinking strategies in wealth and asset management, insurance and annuities, workplace retirement, all enabled by FinTech and WealthTech. Our goal is to help financial advisors and firms grow, adapt, and thrive in a rapidly changing world. Today we’re delighted to speak with Morgan Bell, managing director of advisory at Constellation Wealth Capital. Morgan leads technology consulting for Constellation and focuses on helping advisors and firms optimize technology for efficiency and growth. We’ll get into Morgan’s background, but to give you a taste, she has worked directly with clients as well as empowering advisors to unlock the value of their technologies and solutions. Morgan has a CFP and is a holder of an MBA with an emphasis on financial psychology and behavioral finance. She is passionate about how financial psychology works and the value it brings to the advisor-client relationship. And a little bit about Morgan’s firm, Constellation Wealth Capital. Constellation makes investments in leading wealth management firms who want to add to their success and independence. Basically, Constellation adds value by being a solutions-oriented partner to advisors and their firms, while at the same time addressing a significant capital need. Morgan, welcome to WealthTech on Deck. Great to have you here.

Morgan Bell: Thanks, Jack. It’s great to be here.

Jack Sharry: So Morgan, let’s start by having you go deeper on Constellation Wealth Capital. What do you all do? Who do you do it for? It strikes me that what you’re doing is a bit different than others in the marketplace. So tell us about all that.

Morgan Bell: Absolutely. Constellation Wealth Capital is a private equity firm that’s making minority investments in large RIA firms. We officially launched in December of 2023. And one of my favorite things about my role and about Constellation more broadly is that we really are a strategic long-term partner. And so our strategic advisory team and our investment team are working closely with the partner firms that we’ve made investments in to help them both set and achieve their strategic goals and objectives.

Jack Sharry: So that’s at the investment level. Talk a little bit more about what you do day to day as you’re helping advisors and firms be better at doing what they love to do.

Morgan Bell: Yeah, what does that look like? And the fun thing about this organization and this industry is that every firm looks a little bit different, right? And so my day-to-day does vary a bit. I am focused, as you had mentioned, specifically on technology. And so what that means for our partner firms is that I spend about a third of my time with vendors in the industry, making sure that we have strong relationships with them when we’re looking for someone to make an introduction to, or we’re looking for someone to help solve a pain point on. But then two thirds of my time is spent directly with our partner firms. And it really does vary based on the firm and their needs at any given time. So one day I could be working with one of our partner firms to help them identify their overall tech priorities or to help them set a five year technology roadmap and then dial in on what that actually looks like for the next six months. Sometimes it means thinking about specific vendor selection and introductions, although at the size of partner firm that we’re investing in, most of them already have those tech selections made. So it’s much more about optimization of what they’re using today. How can they use it better? But then ultimately, how can they use technology to help them grow?

Jack Sharry: So tell me a little bit more about that, because as I observe and read in the press, as I’m not working intimately with independent and RIA firms day to day, it seems to me they’ve bought a bunch of stuff, often I say this respectfully in somewhat of a haphazard way, and at least in hindsight, all to try to solve an immediate problem, but then they have a jumble of stuff. That’s a technical term. So they have a lot of different capabilities. They have their CRM, they’ve got their asset management, various tools, and I’m sure you’re getting into all of that. So how do you work with them? Because I’m sure you, it’s sort of like the person that hasn’t done their taxes in a while and they come with a shoebox to the accountant. In some ways, that’s probably an overstatement there, but point being is they’re saying, can you help me straighten this out? I know that that is a big issue for so many firms. Maybe less so at the bigger firms, maybe they’re just bigger problems. So talk about that if you would, the role you play in that.

Morgan Bell: Yeah, it’s a great observation and it is a little bit like shiny object syndrome, right? If you look at the Kitces Tech Map, the pure number of choices on that can be really overwhelming for a firm. And so a lot of times in the conversations that we’re having, it’s let me help you cut out the noise of that map, of the sheer volume and the number of vendors and let’s really zero in on what’s important to you and how it fits into your broader strategic priorities. And so we’ll push back from time to time too, when they find something that they’re like, I found this tool, I really wanna implement it for the firm. And it’s like, well, let’s press pause and take a step back and really identify what goal is that helping us achieve in the broader terms of what the organization’s looking to accomplish this year. So sometimes we’re like the checkpoint of, does this make sense? And it’s not always that the answer is no, but sometimes it’s just prioritization, right, of you guys are working on three other technology initiatives. Let’s focus on getting those done before we start going down the path of evaluating another vendor.

Jack Sharry: I would think a lot of it has to do with just the coordination of all the capabilities. It’s one thing to have… there’s lots of stuff out there. You can just look at the Kitces map and it makes your eyes go cross, at least mine go cross-eyed. But how do you make sense of it? I would assume it’s a big part of your role.

Morgan Bell: Yeah, one of the projects, there’s two projects that we work on with a number of our partner firms. The first one is a tech map. And so it’s essentially kind of like a Kitces map, but for that individual partner firm. And so to your point of how do we identify what they should be using, it’s a really nice visual representation, often in a way that the firms haven’t thought about it before of where’s their duplicate technology? Where is there technology missing that might be a good fit? And so we start with that, right? Of what does this picture look like overall? Where might there be opportunities to lean in? But then to your point of how does it all fit together? Another project that we’ve just started working on with a couple of our partner firms is what I’m calling the data integration map. And it’s essentially looking at where does data start in the organization and how is it flowing through systems? But then also what data are you trying to get out of each of those systems? And I think the more clarity and understanding firms have around how they should be using a system and why they’re using it and the value it provides to them and the firm, the better adoption they have of the technology overall.

Jack Sharry: Now this is an assumption. Of all of the different podcast interviews I’ve done, I don’t think I’ve asked this question, but it seems kind of obvious now that I’m about to ask it. So there’s a difference between the tech geeks and the business geeks. We’ll just say that. And that particularly even at a large RIA firm, just different orientation around the business versus the technology and operations of making it work. I would assume you have to, as you’re developing this roadmap, and it seems obvious as you’re saying it, that it starts with data and how does that flow and how does that work? But then how a tech geek, I say that respectfully, might look at it versus a business geek might look at it might be different. So talk about that translation, that assimilation I’m sure that you find yourself doing probably daily.

Morgan Bell: Yeah, it’s a really good point. And it gets a little bit into my background too. I actually started my career as an advisor, not on the tech side. So I actually fall probably more so into the category baseline of the business orientation with a learned understanding of the tech orientation. So I think that does to your point really frame how I show up for these engagements and these conversations. And the really nice part, and we didn’t talk too much about the broader strategic advisory team at Constellation, but there’s six of us today. And two others are very solely focused on service and operations, which oftentimes gets into some of the technologies and how they’re actually being used in a tangible way. And then we have another woman that primarily does Salesforce development. And so the three of us are able to work in a really unique way where we certainly can see the tech side of it. We understand the platforms and how they operate on the backend. We have those vendor relationships to get super deep when we need to. However, at the end of the day, we’re able to look at it holistically so that we’re not just solving something for one point of the business or just for the technology team. It really is thinking about the larger firm.

Jack Sharry: And how does that translate? Obviously, the ultimate goal is organic growth. How do you help these firms become more efficient and effective and generate greater revenue? That’s really what it’s about. How does that translate? Because certainly, if you have better systems, better operations, better technology, more integrated, more coordinated, all that kind of stuff, you get that. But at the end of the day, you really need to have it so it winds up as part of the client experience and the advisor delivery of advice and that experience. So talk about that if you would, how you pull that together, because that’s, what I just said is a bit garbled, but that’s part of the challenge is a lot to making all that work together.

Morgan Bell: There’s a lot to it. So if we take a step back, when we really think about technology, one of the first questions that we’re asking our partner firms is what does technology help you solve for? What should it enable your firm to do? What do you want it to empower you as a firm to do or how you show up? And more often than not, a really important component of that is the client and/or advisor experience. And so not every single decision, but the vast majority of the decisions that are being made related to technology tie back to either the client or the advisor experience. And to your point, that’s really what fuels organic growth, right? You could look externally or internally. Not to pat the team on the back too much, but we have another woman that focuses primarily on organic growth with our partner firms. And so that’s another intersection of our team working closely with her and the work that she’s doing within the broader firms related to organic growth as well.

Jack Sharry: So I can’t help but ask the question, how does one teach organic growth? Tell me about that and the role that she plays.

Morgan Bell: How does one teach organic growth? Yeah, it’s not a perfect science and it really is very tailored to the firm individually. So some of our firms are thinking about organic growth really from a marketing perspective or maybe they’re diving deep on the events experience that they’re providing for clients or advisors, or perhaps they’re really thinking about advisor growth and how they’re training their advisors to grow organically. And a piece of that is the tools, right? That’s where the intersection of technology and the organic growth happens of what are they looking to optimize for and where can technology lean in? I think as we start to look at some of the AI tools, there’s a huge opportunity on the organic growth side related to all of those different components.

Jack Sharry: Well, hallelujah, you mentioned AI because no podcast is complete as we know without the discussion of AI. I’m assuming that is playing an increasingly prominent role in what you’re recommending, what you’re suggesting, what you’re helping your firms determine their AI strategy. Talk about that if you would, please.

Morgan Bell: It’s a big task, right? And so much of it is still relatively new and relatively unknown. And so how we’re encouraging our partner firms to think about AI is really both from a short-term and a long-term perspective, right? From a short-term perspective, there’s these tools coming out. I think AI note-takers are a fantastic example of a tool that can really add uptick with short adoption cycles to be able to add value to the advisor and ultimately hopefully the client experience. But that’s just one piece and we don’t know what those tools are gonna look like in six months, a year, two years. And so there’s this quick adoption piece that we want them to be thinking about, but I think more importantly is the big picture, right? And so although they may be adopting those point in time technology solutions, it’s really thinking about how is AI gonna change our business? What do we want this to look like? What is our roadmap for AI going to look like? And so we’re encouraging our firms to think about it from a top-down leadership approach of they really need buy-in at the leadership level for adoption of short-term wins as well as the long-term strategy. At the end of the day, it is still going to be a tool and it’s a learned tool and something that our firms need to be thinking about and training people on. It will not, in my opinion, replace the advisor. I think it really will augment how they’re able to spend their time and enable them to spend more time with their clients, which is what most of them are looking to do.

Jack Sharry: We’re in violent agreement. That sounds great. Now you mentioned earlier about your start. Let’s go back a little bit and find out how did you get started. You were in an advisor role. Now you’re advising firms about how to optimize advisor effectiveness. So talk about that career journey, if you would, how’d you wind up doing what you’re doing?

Morgan Bell: Yeah, absolutely. I have a little bit of a unique background in that I actually went to one of the CFP board registered programs. And so from my sophomore year of college, I knew that this was the career path and industry that I wanted to be part of. I was fortunate to find the program at a relatively young age. Most of these programs aren’t finding people until junior or even senior year. So I was able to spend a lot of time throughout my undergraduate career learning about our industry, attending industry conferences, starting to build relationships. And so when I graduated, I started working for an independent RIA firm in the Metro DC area and was working directly with clients and building those client relationships in an advisor capacity. I got my CFP and I loved the relationship piece, but was curious as to what else could be out there. I spent a little bit of time at CFP board on their corporate relations team. And then most recently prior to Constellation was with BNY Mellon Pershing and was leading the technology consulting team there working with both broker dealer and RIA clients. And that’s really how I got the intro to tech consulting.

Jack Sharry: So I’m fascinated by this evolution. If you would talk a little bit more about, I noticed with your MBA, it’s a focus on financial psychology. Talk about that and also how that connects to the technological aspect. I gotta believe there’s a connection there. So tell me.

Morgan Bell: Yeah, absolutely. So I found the financial psychology program, it’s an MBA financial psychology behavioral finance program through Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, and I was really fascinated by how financial psychology would change the advisor relationship with clients. And I think that’s probably part of why I’m so insistent that AI will not replace the advisors because from a human psychology perspective, we are relationship people. And at the end of the day, this is a relationship business. Now, what does this mean in terms of technology and how does that impact the work that I do with partner firms today? I think there’s a huge opportunity from both a training and adoption perspective of technology in the work that I do today, but also from a tech vendor perspective, how can you build in those touch points with end clients from a behavioral finance perspective to create stickier client relationships. So it really does kind of come full circle from financial psychology to technology to organic growth. It’s been really fun to have that perspective and bring it with me to these tech conversations.

Jack Sharry: One of the things I find fascinating, having been around this industry forever, or at least for decades, is that convergence of the psychological aspect, the behavioral aspect. I suppose they’re flip sides of the same coin. There’s the technological aspect. There’s the relational aspect. There’s the, I guess those are all of them. It’s just fascinating how it’s coming together and we’re all trying to figure it out. And again, something I haven’t really thought about until we’re having this conversation or at least articulated that really as people are, as you well know, more people are retiring this year and last than at any point in history before or hence, lots of people are retiring, trying to figure it out. And that’s a big change in life. That’s a big change in circumstance. That’s also part of it. It’s not just the financial aspect of it, but I gotta believe that it’s a more holistic challenge, problem, set of issues. And so you really need to take a more fulsome look at the person that includes all the above of what we’ve been talking about. But please weigh in, I’m starting to pontificate, I’ll stop myself.

Morgan Bell: No it is. And as we think about the evolution of technology and where things are going and as more things are automated and as AI augments the advisor’s day, how can advisors deepen those relationships with clients? And I think that’s where the behavioral finance piece and training in behavioral finance or education, or even just workshops on it of what are the questions that you can be asking to your clients?  Because as you mentioned, retirement is a huge life change. And I think so often people see it as the pinnacle of you made it, you saved enough money. Now you can retire. For a lot of people, it’s a huge change to their day to day. And so as advisors have more time in their day, how can we use that lens to help them craft better conversations and have more meaningful conversations with their clients?

Jack Sharry: That’s great. So we’ve covered a lot of ground, as I had hoped and expected. Thank you for all that. Anything we haven’t covered, you think our audience might benefit from knowing? Including where’s Constellation headed? Talk about anything we might not have covered and also where you and your organization are looking out as you look further out into the future of our industry.

Morgan Bell: Yeah, absolutely. So we’re very proud of the work that Constellation is doing with our partner firms. And since December of 2023, we’ve learned a lot, right, of how these firms look similar, but how they look different. And so where we’re really excited and where I’m personally excited for my role specifically, is the tremendous opportunity of how quickly things are changing with technology and more specifically to AI. And I think we’ve touched on a number of components around that of helping advisors have those deeper relationships with clients. But if we look at a Constellation perspective, one of the things that we’re excited about is the numerous ways that we can lean in to our partner firms. And so each of us on the strategic advisory team have a general, a generalist mindset around RIA firms. We’ve worked at, with, or for RIA firms for the vast majority of our careers. So we come from this business and that enables us to lean in in really unique ways. So we’ve talked about the service and operations piece. We’ve talked about Salesforce development. We’ve talked about organic growth. We have someone that focuses specifically on inorganic growth for the firms that are interested in growing inorganically as well. And then we have another woman that focuses primarily on business consulting. And so really, how are they thinking about the business? How are they thinking about career pathing? And so when we look at that holistically across our team, I’m really excited about the long-term strategic partnership that we can provide to their firm. And I think one of the really unique things is that we’re nimble enough to be able to lean in in the way that’s best for them. Right. And so not all of our partner firms look the same. They’re all different sizes, both in terms of AUM managed, and client type, number of employees. And yet there’s similarities because they all are RIA firms. And so the other thing that I’m really excited about is we have communities at Constellation, which is groups for our partner firms specifically where it’s bringing together the heads of functional roles or the heads of strategic opportunities at the firm. So I run one for our advisors or heads of advisors that are thinking about some of the things at the intersection of behavioral finance and technology. We have one for corporate development. We have one for up and coming leaders in the firms. And so there’s still so much opportunity for them to learn from one another because at the end of the day, they’re the ones in the business. And so we’re really excited about creating those connections and building the relationships across the firms as well.

Jack Sharry: Morgan, I’m fascinated by the model and to let our audience know how we connected, a group that SEI recently partnered with, Summit Wealth Group, we had Randy Morris on the show, the CEO there. He talked a lot about what you’re talking about. So I’ve heard this before. This resonates in terms of what he was describing. I didn’t quite get the connection when I spoke to him because I didn’t know the connection to Constellation at that point, but I do now. And I see why he’s excited and why you’re excited. And I’m getting excited. But the whole idea here is that you’re kind of putting your money where your mouth is because you’re investing in these firms. You’re providing strategic guidance around not only what to do, but where to deploy capital, always important to understand. So it’s a fascinating model. I’m really intrigued. So I’m really glad we’ve had you on the show. Any key takeaways we want to highlight before we start to move on?

Morgan Bell: We’ve talked about AI today, but I think my first key takeaway would be that data is imperative and being able to execute on that AI strategy and operational AI is dependent upon making sure that your data is accessible, reliable, and secure. And so going back to basics before trying to leverage some of those long-term tools and really creating a foundation around data is imperative to these businesses. The second one is that firms, in my opinion, should strive to use AI to compliment, not compete, right? AI is a skill and you and I were laughing earlier today, results can certainly be improved based upon human knowledge of AI. And so while I don’t think that advisors are going to be replaced by AI, how can we empower them to use it to better serve their clients, to spend their time how they want to spend their time. So use AI to compliment, not compete. And then the third is most importantly, technologies aside, we’re in a people business and this is a relationship business. And I think we’re at a really interesting inflection point and opportunity point in the life cycle of this industry where we can use technology to improve and build upon those relationships.

Jack Sharry: Wow, I think those might be the three best takeaways that we’ve had in our 200 plus shows. So well done. Congratulations.

Morgan Bell: Thank you.

Jack Sharry: I’m ready to sign up. So one last question, always my favorite. What do you do outside of work that you’re particularly passionate or excited about that people might find interesting or surprising?

Morgan Bell: I live in Salt Lake City, Utah, and we moved out here for access to the outdoors. So my current hobby is I just completed my first Olympic triathlon. That was a labor of love for training. And I am currently training for a trail half marathon, but on a day-to-day basis, seasonally, my favorite hobbies are mountain biking, trail running, and skiing. So I always encourage people to come out and visit us in Utah and explore the great outdoors.

Jack Sharry: That’s great. Good for you. Congratulations. Wow. That’s also cool. So, Morgan, thanks. This is, I really have enjoyed our conversation. I’ve learned a lot and I am leaving inspired, which is the whole purpose of podcasts, last I checked. So thank you for that. For our audience, thank you for tuning in today. If you’ve enjoyed our podcast, please rate, review, subscribe, and share what we’re doing here at WealthTech on Deck. We’re available wherever you get your podcasts. You should also check us out at our dedicated website, wealthtechondeck.com. All our episodes are there along with blogs and curated content from many folks around the industry. Morgan, thanks. This has been a lot of fun. I’ve enjoyed it.

Morgan Bell: Thanks, Jack. I really enjoyed our conversation as well.

Jack Sharry: Terrific.