Susan Theder

Wealth management firms are under pressure to grow, differentiate and help advisors stay relevant in a market where client expectations, technology and competition are all changing at once. Join Mark Casady, recently named WSR Person of the Year, for a conversation on where the industry is headed and what firms should be thinking about now.

If you’ve invested in your email marketing, good. Keep going. Email is still one of the most effective ways to stay in front of clients, share your thinking, and demonstrate your expertise over time. The relationships it builds are real. But here’s what email can’t always do: get your client’s attention immediately. That’s where texting changes things. It’s not a replacement for email. It’s the missing piece of your email strategy.

I spend a lot of time thinking about how AI is changing the way people discover and choose financial advisors. So I decided to stop theorizing and just ask. What follows is a real conversation with Claude, Anthropic's AI assistant. The answers may surprise you. Susan: If someone asked you to help them find a financial advisor near them, walk me through exactly what you would do. Claude: The first thing I want to be honest about is what I can't do. I don't have a database of financial advisors.