The WealthStack Podcast

Wealth management firms are being asked to support more assets, deliver greater personalization and provide clients with increasingly real-time experiences. But behind the scenes, many investment teams are still operating across disconnected portfolio management, trading, CRM, accounting, compliance and reporting systems. As artificial intelligence moves from copilots and chatbots toward agents that can actually perform work, that fragmented infrastructure may become an even bigger constraint.

In this episode of The WealthStack Podcast, host Shannon Rosic sits down with Sterling Perkins, director of solutions consulting at Ridgeline, to explore what happens when the investment management tech stack is rebuilt around a single system of record.

Key takeaways:

Why embedded AI with access to client, portfolio and transaction context could have an advantage over bolted-on tools

Why AI could allow firms to grow AUM without increasing headcount

How Ridgeline moves portfolio workflows from modeling through compliance, trading, accounting and billing

How firms should think about governance, permissions and human oversight as AI agents take on more responsibility 

Why the capacity created by AI can be reinvested in client relationships 

Resources:

Listen to WealthStack on Wealth Management

Subscribe and listen to WealthStack on Apple Podcasts

Subscribe and listen to WealthStack on Spotify

Connect with Shannon Rosic:

Shannon Rosic

WealthStack website

Wealth Management

Connect with Sterling Perkins:

LinkedIn: Sterling Perkins

LinkedIn: Ridgeline

Website: Ridgeline

About Our Guest:

Sterling Perkins is the Director of Solutions Consulting at Ridgeline, where he works at the intersection of wealth management and financial technology. He began his career as a financial advisor at Baird, helping grow a book of approximately $100 million across roughly 100 client relationships before transitioning into wealth technology. Sterling later spent six and a half years at InvestCloud, where he served as Global Head of Product and Global Head of Sales Engineering, before joining Ridgeline. His experience as both an advisor and technology leader gives him a practical perspective on investment management operations, AI, portfolio technology, and how firms can use connected systems to support growth and client service.

Investment teams have access to more data than ever, but more information does not necessarily mean better insight. Analysts still spend enormous amounts of time gathering filings, reading disclosures, comparing earnings calls and reconciling information across disconnected systems. At the same time, market volatility, geopolitical risk and rapidly changing investor expectations are making traditional, backward-looking portfolio analysis increasingly difficult to rely on alone.

In this episode of The WealthStack Podcast, host Shannon Rosic sits down with Af Malhotra, Founder and CEO of ReN, to explore how AI can help investment teams move from backward-looking analysis toward more forward-looking risk intelligence. They discuss ReN’s approach to analyzing portfolios, why domain-specialized AI matters in financial services, how automation could reshape investment research and what the future of embedded, agentic investment intelligence could look like.

Key takeaways:

How AI can help uncover portfolio risks hidden across filings, disclosures and earnings calls

Why investment research is moving beyond backward-looking performance data

How ReN uses AI to identify inconsistencies, anomalies and changing risk signals

Why domain-specialized language models may be better suited for high-stakes financial decisions

How automation and agentic AI could reshape the future of investment research and advisor workflows

Resources:

Listen to WealthStack on Wealth Management

Subscribe and listen to WealthStack on Apple Podcasts

Subscribe and listen to WealthStack on Spotify

Podcast: StraightTalk (ST) with Af Malhotra

Connect with Shannon Rosic:

Shannon Rosic

WealthStack website

Wealth Management

Connect with Aftab (Af) Malhotra: 

LinkedIn: Aftab (Af) Malhotra

Instagram: Af Malhotra (@afmalhotra)

X: Af Malhotra (@AfMalhotra)

LinkedIn: ReN

Website: ReN

Website: Af Malhotra

About Our Guest:

Af Malhotra is a tech founder, active investor, and dedicated philanthropist. He has an illustrious career in technology, having held leadership roles in global companies including Amstrad, Fujitsu, and most recently Gartner. 

Af is a regular contributor in the media, having been featured as a ‘technology entrepreneur and visionary ’ on the BBC News, CNBC Live, HuffPost, Financial Express Magazine, The Times, Raconteur, Bloomberg, International Finance Magazine and the Entrepreneur Magazine.

Af has acquired graduate and post-graduate degrees from Goldsmiths College, University of London (Anthropology), Kingston Business School (MA in Business), Harvard Business School (Executive Education). He is also a guest lecturer at London Business School (LBS)  and Queen Mary’s, University of London.

Financial advisors are investing in more technology than ever, but many are questioning whether traditional software pricing models actually align with the value those platforms create. As artificial intelligence changes what software can deliver, many firms are reconsidering how technology providers should be connected to the growth they help create.

In this episode of The WealthStack Podcast, host Shannon Rosic sits down with Eden Ovadia, CEO and co-founder of FINNY AI, to explore the firm’s shift from traditional software subscriptions to a pay-as-you-grow model. They discuss how AI is changing expectations for technology providers, why outcome-based pricing may create stronger alignment between vendors and advisors, and how FINNY is approaching growth attribution, advisor partnerships and the future of wealth technology.

Key takeaways:

How FINNY moved away from traditional seat-based pricing toward an outcome-based approach

Why AI is changing the relationship between advisors and the technology platforms they use

How pay-as-you-grow pricing connects technology costs with advisor growth

Why attribution and measurement are important parts of technology partnerships

How FINNY is building a platform around helping advisors identify growth opportunities

Resources:

Listen to WealthStack on Wealth Management

Subscribe and listen to WealthStack on Apple Podcasts

Subscribe and listen to WealthStack on Spotify

Connect with Shannon Rosic:

Shannon Rosic

WealthStack website

Wealth Management

Connect with Eden Ovadia:

LinkedIn: Eden Ovadia

LinkedIn: FINNY

Website: FINNY

Email: sales@FINNY.com 

About Our Guest:

Eden Ovadia is the CEO & Co-Founder of FINNY, a technology platform designed to help financial advisors grow their firms through AI-powered tools, data, and marketing capabilities. Eden focuses on how advisor technology companies can better align their success with the growth outcomes advisors are trying to achieve. Through FINNY’s pay-as-you-grow model, Eden is helping rethink how wealth technology companies approach pricing, partnerships, and measurable advisor growth.

As artificial intelligence adoption accelerates across wealth management, enterprise RIAs are becoming an important proving ground for what it actually takes to move from experimentation to scale. The conversation has shifted to be more about the foundation required to make AI useful across an entire wealth management business

In this episode of The WealthStack Podcast, host Shannon Rosic sits down with Leslie Norman, chief technology officer at Dynasty Financial Partners, to explore what it takes to move AI beyond experimentation and into the everyday operating system of an RIA. They discuss why advisors can still find themselves acting as the “human integration layer” between disconnected systems, how Dynasty is building a more unified technology and data foundation, and what has to happen behind the scenes for AI to become truly useful at scale.

Key takeaways:

Why connected data and integrated systems are critical to getting more value from AI

Why Dynasty Labs was created as a dedicated innovation arm

How change management affects whether advisors actually adopt new technology

How Dynasty is prioritizing AI use cases based on business impact and ROI rather than chasing technology for technology’s sake

How virtual assistants and AI agents could prepare work for advisors before the day begins

Resources:

Listen to WealthStack on Wealth Management

Subscribe and listen to WealthStack on Apple Podcasts

Subscribe and listen to WealthStack on Spotify

Connect with Shannon Rosic:

Shannon Rosic

WealthStack website

Wealth Management

Connect with Leslie Norman:

LinkedIn: Leslie Norman

LinkedIn: Dynasty Financial Partners

Website: Dynasty Financial Partners

About Our Guest:

As Chief Technology Officer, Leslie Norman is responsible for the strategy and delivery of technology solutions that benefit the hundreds of independent financial advisors and professionals across the Dynasty Network. She oversees the Product and Engineering, Information Technology, Cyber Security, and Technology Services teams who help Dynasty’s community get the most from their tech stack. She also leads Dynasty Labs, the firm’s dedicated innovation arm, where emerging technologies are explored and developed into practical capabilities for advisors.

Her leadership has focused on building an integrated platform that supports independent advisors at scale, with a strong emphasis on AI and data-driven capabilities. Leslie has spent her career at the intersection of technology and financial services, leading initiatives that modernize operations and put better tools in the hands of advisors and their clients. Her work spans product development and operational transformation — building systems that simplify complexity, automate the back office, and create more meaningful client experiences.

Leslie holds a Master of Business Administration and a Master’s in International Business from the University of Florida, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Finance. A proud Tampa Bay native, Leslie brings a personal connection to the region’s growth and to the mission of developing the next generation of business and technology leaders.

For many business owners, the company represents far more than a line item on a balance sheet. It is their largest source of wealth, income, identity and legacy. Yet critical questions around valuation, succession, equity risk, tax planning and an eventual exit often remain disconnected from the broader financial plan.

In this episode of The WealthStack Podcast, host Shannon Rosic sits down with Jason Early, founder and CEO of RISR, to explore how technology and artificial intelligence are helping advisors bring greater clarity to business owner planning. They discuss how advisors can capture and analyze business data, identify risks hiding inside legal and financial documents, and begin building trusted relationships long before a liquidity event.

Key takeaways:

How advisors can bring privately held businesses more fully into the financial planning process

How AI-powered document analysis can uncover gaps in buy-sell agreements, operating agreements and insurance policies

Why valuation is only the starting point for conversations around wealth, risk, succession and exit planning

How understanding business value changes retirement, tax and wealth planning conversations

Why advisors who intentionally serve business owners often build stronger long-term relationships

Resources:

Listen to WealthStack on Wealth Management

Subscribe and listen to WealthStack on Apple Podcasts

Subscribe and listen to WealthStack on Spotify

Connect with Shannon Rosic:

Shannon Rosic

WealthStack website

Wealth Management

Connect with Jason Early:

LinkedIn: Jason Early

LinkedIn: RISR

Website: RISR

About Our Guest:

Jason Early is the Founder and CEO of RISR, a technology platform that helps financial advisors better serve business owners through business valuation, succession planning, risk analysis, and AI-powered planning tools. Throughout his career, Jason has worked at the intersection of financial advice, business owner planning, and technology, with a focus on helping advisors gain deeper insight into privately held businesses. Drawing on years of experience working alongside advisors and business owners, he is passionate about equipping financial professionals with the tools and information they need to deliver more meaningful planning before, during, and after a business transition.