Swift Chats Live at the 2023 T3 Technology Tools for Today Advisor Conference

In this special Swift Chats, we're live at the 2023T3 - Technology Tools for Today Advisor Conference in Tampa, which took place March 13-16. Host Marie Swift talks with an array of guests in the T3 Podcast Station powered by Myriad Advisor Solutions about their big takeaways from #T32023, as well as why they love the T3 community and keep coming back to the T3 conference year after year. A few of the VIP guests even discuss some big announcements shared at the conference.

Guests include:

Bridget Grimes and Katie Burke of Equita Financial Network
Robert Steinberg of Blue Chip Partners
Christophe Gauthron of Kwanti
Mike Lecours of fpPathfinder
Ryan Marcus of MarketCounsel

Listen to Swift Chats live at T3 2023

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Transcript of Conversations 

BRIDGET GRIMES AND KATIE BURKE / EQUITA FINANCIAL NETWORK

Marie Swift: We're here at T3. I'm joined now by Bridget Grimes and Katie Burke, and you are the co-founders of a network for women RIAs. It's called Equita Financial Network. Tell us about your experience so far at the conference.

Katie Burke: We are so excited to be here. I think one of the most exciting things was coming in and seeing on the exhibitor list and the partners who are going to be here, so many of the technology firms that we work with already, were going to be here. We got to run through and make sure that we said hi to everybody and get some additional insights into what's going on with each of those each of those partners that we have.

Additionally, we always want to be out there talking to other solutions, see how we can better build out our platform. This has been a great way to do both of those things.

Bridget Grimes: We've had a chance to really see what's new. Like Katie said, what's new and happening that we don't know about?

We feel like we have a great tech stack, but what was kind of cool is you find solutions here that we would never have known about. We had talked about earlier, emerging solutions, emerging companies. How cool to be able to walk down and have a conversation with these people to see, is this something we want to add to our platform? So that was pretty exciting, it's been great.

Swift: And to be able to walk right up and speak to the developer, the owner, the technologist, instead of just a salesperson. That's one of the things that's great about T3.

Grimes: Right, and the demos. You can do a demo right here and really get to know what the what the software does. So, we’ve been doing that.

Swift: You know, Bob Veres and Joel Bruckenstein presented the survey results of the annual technology survey, and advisors weigh in on what they're using, what they're happy with, and what they're thinking about replacing or adding on. Almost like if you had a yogurt sundae and you wanted to put gummy bears or sprinkles on top. How do you think about building your own tech stack for not just your own practices, because each of you are practitioners, but you also have the network. Talk maybe a little bit about how you make technology decisions and about the network as well.

Burke: So currently our platform, we have what we would consider to be our core tech stack, which is everything that a woman-led business firm could come in, a woman-led planning firm could come in and run her business with.

But we've found that there are specific advisors that are members of Equita who work with clients who are perhaps more involved with tax planning needs or want a different way to report on the portfolios that they have, or analyze risk. Us having that core stack is great, but being able to, like you said, add those sprinkles on top and really come in and say, we feel like this would be a great solution for us to have available to advisors who really want to use it.

Grimes: You had mentioned the survey. For us, it was really cool to come in and see, we took a year of due diligence to put our tech stack together. And you could come into this program and you can see everything right here in one place. But when we looked at the survey results, to us, it was really neat to see that we're using a lot of the solutions that are used by a lot of the different firms out there.

And there are so many to choose from, and to know that our stack is, while it's super customized, we're using a lot of really similar, highly regarded, highly reputed solutions. So that was great to know.

Burke: I was also thinking, when we were talking about this earlier, that how great would it be to come to a conference like this with an idea of what you're looking for, for your firm, and you've got that tech survey. You're coming armed with all the tools that you need in order to make, perhaps even make the decisions here for that tech stack.

Swift: And just the hallway conversations. I know I was with one of my clients, Erin Goss, and she's the COO, CTO of a nice size RIA in Ohio, and she was looking for a document management system.

She was in the lunch line with Bob Veres and he said, “Oh, what are you looking for?” And she's actually here shopping for technology, and doing her due diligence, and accelerating the timeline, and getting up close and personal with those demos and conversations. So, you never know who you're going to meet in the lunch line, right?

As you walk around the exhibit hall and think about the sessions and why you're here, do you see anything as missing and needed?

Grimes: Well, we're surprised that there aren't as many women here as we would have expected. We’ve talked about how maybe it's because it's tech and women tend not to be as into tech as men. Sweeping generalization, but probably true. And we are really surprised as owners of Equita, and as owners of our own financial planning firms, this is a place where we women should be.

This is a place where anybody should be, regardless of gender, because it is a really amazing opportunity to get to first off, see the people who you are using and really cement those relationships with your providers. But also see what else is out there, because our firms are always evolving. For my own financial planning firm, I met someone who provides a solution that I don't have now, and this could really make a difference for performance solutions for my clients. I didn't even know it existed.

I feel a little surprised, I guess is the word, that there aren't as many women as I would've expected, and this is a great place for them to come.

Burke: We started to have some great conversations after we noticed that there maybe weren't as many women in the room. And Bridget and I kind of went on a campaign yesterday with Marie and Dori to find the women who are here working for the tech companies, the women who are here, let's go around and let's take a picture together, and let's kind of build this up and know that we're supporting each other.

We're all on the same page, that there needs to be more women here. But for the ones that are here, the ones we've met, they've been great.

Swift: Yes, I think the representation matters and making sure that women know about this. This is a great place to come and network, meet other great people, including great women executives and leaders.

I also wonder if Spring Break had a little bit to do with the lack of family people here because, whether a husband, a wife, or whatever, there's Spring Break going on. We are in Tampa, so I saw a lot of families arriving today. Maybe next year's timing will be a little bit better or a different city.

But I think that we are lower on women this year than I have seen in the past, and I just wonder if more women need to know about this conference, that it’s a great place for them to come. And whether you're a support staff, maybe you're an administrative person on the team, it's another great way to divide and conquer and really get out there and attend more sessions, see more in the exhibit hall. It's a bit overwhelming when you walk up and down the aisles. And the survey helps.

Grimes: Definitely, yeah. But I'll tell you, Tampa is a great destination and this is a really good venue.

Swift: It is indeed. As you think about the rest of the day, we're in day three, is there anything that's on your radar or that you're looking forward to?

Burke: There are some sessions this afternoon that are focused on women in the profession that I have circled on my printed T3 agenda, that I'm definitely attending, so I'm really excited about that. And there's a couple other exhibitors here that I make sure that I want to talk to. We just started working with Holistiplan and I really want to get over there and talk to them and make sure that, again, we build that relationship a little bit more in person.

Swift: Yeah. You guys have picked some great software for your network members, and I know that holistic plan is part of your opportunity for those who, would you think of that as a sprinkle or part of the core Sunday? How do you think about Holistiplan in your tech stack?

Grimes: I think it's a sprinkle. It's really so subjective how each of us runs our firms and our areas where we choose to focus on.

So that's actually something that one of our members had said, “Hey, I'm using this and this is important to me and my firm.” And we reached out and we said, great. We're going to have a partnership with them and we're going to negotiate pricing and make this more accessible for you.

There are a couple other things we're looking to do the same way, where someone has expressed an interest, this is important to their practice, and we're going to research it and we're going to try to get a relationship, a partnership going. There's a lot of opportunity to do that. 

Swift: Holistiplan is doing quite well. In fact, they might be the top of their category in the T3 Inside Information Survey. Also, I know that you have adopted the Advyzon platform as one of your core technologies. Is that your core, or talk about how you think about building it?

Grimes: Oh yeah. Advyzon has been an amazing partner. When we did our one year of due diligence for our platform we kept coming back to Advyzon, and it was pretty new.

We have worked with a lot of other really big-name solutions in that space, and we just kept coming back to Advyzon. We use it for CRM, interesting when you look at the findings on the survey, it's a great CRM. So, we're using it for that. We use it for pulling our fees, portfolio performance, it's great. It integrates with our trading team, obviously our custodians, we use it for workflows, so it's actually been an amazing solution, and could not say more about the partnership with them.

Swift: And they're also number one in their category, I think two categories actually this year. And they're gaining market share. Good for you for being visionaries and looking at them early before they got so popular.

Grimes: The due diligence.

Swift: Let's talk in the last minute or so that we have, just about the opportunity for women to understand how they can be supported by organizations like Equita. How do you think about that?

Burke: We think that the reason that we started Equita was really as a cost-effective way to run our own planning firms. We wanted to put together a suite of services that were blue chip, top notch, because we didn't want to give up anything when we were running our own firms. And by that, realized that not only did that not exist, just the platform for women, but the community piece was so important.

Being at a place like Equita, and having that community reach, that community support, we've got a great new website that Dori has helped with, to really give us that community feedback forum. So important in growing my own business. And I think all of the members would agree that's a very important piece of what we're doing.

Grimes: Absolutely. There are some really cool nuances to having a community like Equita for other women because, as we had said earlier in this conversation, we need to see more women here. Where are they?

There just isn't really a community that brings these women planners together. That even speaks to bigger issues that women have in their own firms, like continuity plan, emergency succession planning. We try through our community to provide solutions in ways that you're just not able to find out there.

Swift: All right. Well, I've enjoyed speaking with you. Thank you, Bridget and Katie.

ROBERT STEINBERG / BLUE CHIP PARTNERS

All right. And we are back at T3. I'm joined now by Robert Steinberg at Blue Chip Partners. And Robert, how many T3 conferences have you been to?

Robert Steinberg: This'll be my third and it's become more of a mark on your calendar that you really try to make every year, just because of the breadth of different vendors out there. We look forward to it.

Swift: The third time, what are you looking forward to this year?

Steinberg: It's really three things that we like to check out at the conference. First is, what new technologies are out there as far as things that you just haven't discovered. There are so many innovative people in the fintech space now, so really trying to figure out, knowing what we don't know. I always joke that that's always the thing that's most important. It's easy to know what you don't know, but if you don't know what you don't know, that's a whole other thing. So, trying to figure out what's out there.

Second is for the software we use, you talk with the vendors and is there certain things that we're not doing, or other things that we may want to be looking at with our software?

Third of course is the people, the relationships. This is a relationship business, and you start to meet people at different conferences, T3, you see them at other conferences, just reunite with friends, see what people are doing, and learn more about what others are doing in their business.

Swift: Yes, T3 is a great community and like you're pointing to, the communities are different.

Going to the Schwab Conference is a little different than coming to T3 and so forth, and I know you brought some team members or at least one team member. Talk a little bit about why you would want to bring more than one person to T3.  

Steinberg: At this stage I'm the founder and involved in everything, but not necessarily in the details as much as I would've historically been.

Our COO, Erin Goss, came to the conference. One of the software we're really looking at closely, is replacing is our document management system. Worldox is one that we've been on for a number of years, is going away. It was acquired. The acquirer isn't as versed in the space that we're in.

That's one of the things I wanted Erin to do, is just be able to have face-to-face conversation with the three providers that are our finalists, and felt like that would be good. And also felt for someone who's in operations who's a little bit closer to many different things, that it would be beneficial for her to have the opportunity to do the same thing I do. Walk the tables and talk to people.

I talk to pretty much everybody. I feel like if someone's sponsored, you might as well sit down and talk to them and see if there's a fit for you, and if not, you're probably going to still learn something. 

Swift: That's one of the unique things here about T3 is people come just for the exhibit hall alone. The sessions are great, but you could walk the exhibit hall and have an interesting conversation the whole entire time.

There are about a hundred different exhibitors here and just to kind of capstone what you're saying, you'll be able to talk to the technology providers, not just the salespeople at T3. With that in mind, I'm thinking about how your firm has grown, and let's pivot a little bit and talk about your RIA. Tell us about your growth trajectory.

Steinberg: We've made a commitment to growth, and our commitment has been to really try for most client relationships to have two advisors on every account. The reason we've done that is it's training that second level advisor, that early CFP somebody.

We're not looking for people that are just starting out. We're looking for people with some background in industry, and having them obtain their CFP relatively quickly. But the idea is to train them by having them be a secondary advisor on client relationships. And quickly challenge them, push them to basically acquire the skills to be a primary advisor.

Our growth is we're almost creating a farm team. Like if you think about sports, let's build our farm team. As different acquisition targets present themselves, then we have people that are already verse studied, understand how Blue Chip does things.

Part of what we're doing is we're focusing on advisors that are relatively close to retirement, not necessarily the big firms like many others are. People that we can tuck in and provide a nice sunset for them, provide a nice buyout for them, but also make sure that their clients are taken care of. They actually get to meet the people that are going to be taking care of their clients, you know, over some type of transition. It could be two years, it could be five years, but it's really building the quality staff.

As those opportunities present themselves, it's not like we're rushing out to go higher. It's an investment you make as a firm. Because it does impact your overhead, it does impact your profitability to some degree, but I call it our Field of Dreams strategy, build it and they will come. We feel confident that that will happen.

Swift: My team and I had the opportunity to be on site and to look at your office, to be with you in the office, and the space is great and so are the people. So how do you think about creating that warm, inviting environment for work and also for your clients?

Steinberg: That's something that keeps me up late at night.

That whole hiring process is challenging, but I think we've been able to do really well with it. We have a relatively wide network. You're always trying to look at networks. We use the testing service that really helps to identify whether somebody has the skills for the role. We always feel that we can teach somebody the role.

It's just, do they have the right skills? And by skills, both hard and soft skills, whether they would fit our culture, do they have that team approach? How are the organization skills? What's their mental acumen? All these different things. Are they organized? Do they work well with teams? Do they work well individually?

We look at all these different factors through a test that we use. We found that provides good future, whether someone will fit our organization. Then from there it's on us to try to train them and get them involved. We have not been afraid to hire people from outside of industry, which is something different that most wouldn't take that risk.

Swift: And you have a fantastic kitchen, and you're doing fun things with small groups of clients and their friends. Anything come to mind as far as the kitchen and use of the space?

Steinberg: We have a wide big kitchen. Generally, we'll have once a month birthday celebration.

Sometimes other things are going on that we're celebrating, little victories in the organization. If clients come in, you may have something. We're working on a mixology class for clients that we're going to put on. It's a versatile space that shows well, and it really allows us to have that team environment at least once a month.

Swift: Breaking bread together, sharing a drink. What could be better than that?

Steinberg: Yeah. We generally have a lunch. We generally have some type of social event once per month. So that culture and hiring people that enjoy each other is a big part of the hiring process.

Swift: All right, well thank you for being here. We'll let you get back to the conference.

Steinberg: Okay. Thank you.

CHRISTOPHE GAUTHRON / KWANTI ANALYTICS

Swift: Welcome back to another great Swift Chat. I’m joined now by Christophe Gauthron and he is the CEO of Kwanti. Christophe, you and I are just getting to know each other, I’ve been watching you from afar for many years and especially in relationship to the Kitces survey and the T3/Inside Information survey. So, tell us a little about Kwanti.

Christophe Gauthron: Yes, Kwanti offers portfolio analysis, proposal generation, risk assessment, and model management. So, Kwanti helps you grow your AUM by doing client acquisition and helps you build better communications with your clients.

Swift: Is this your 10th year attending?

Gauthron: Yes, it's our 10th year at the T3 anniversary. The first T3 was 2013, also in Florida. Every year we have attended, we're big fans of T3. It's a conference where we always enjoy connecting with partners, meeting new clients, meeting existing clients. And it's one of a kind for this. We're very glad to support this. Every time we come to the conference, we always come away energized and inspired. So yes, T3 again this year, and forever.

Swift: You're energized and inspired. What are you seeing at the conference that is energizing and inspiring?

Gauthron: This year when I listened to advisors, it seems like the trend is they are very concerned with the market in general, and it's not surprising when you see what started last year.

Number one, the end of the bull market. Number two, rising rates. Number three, return of inflation. I think it's been a difficult year for advisors, and this is still unfolding. Every client portfolio has to be reviewed and to be repositioned, with respect to risk, with respect to performance, and what we observed is a shift, renewed interest in fixed income.

All these CDs, cash, treasuries, that for years didn't yield anything and didn't have much interest, now all of a sudden are more a part of portfolios. And recently you've seen with the SVC bank issues, everybody now understands how important it is to have proper metrics on the fixed income part of the portfolio, such as duration.

In short, what we do is help advisors understand those risks, make sure that their portfolios for their clients are properly balanced between those new cash opportunities and more traditional stocks portion. We help them on these metrics, for example, yield. It's not always simple, it's different metrics for yield. And we help them with making a decision, so they're confident of their investment for their clients.

Swift: Thinking about 2023 and beyond, is there anything on the radar for Kwanti or your team? What are you working on?

Gauthron: Yes. We are working on a number of projects. A lot of those driven by our users' requests, and this is how we function.

We don't try to come up with the next big flashy thing, we listen, and we enhance our system to make it more efficient for our advisors. Another trend we've heard a lot about, it's a long-term trend, is model portfolios and how model portfolios can help number one make more time for the advisor to spend with their clients because that management of portfolio is delegated.

Number two, be more efficient in the practice and allow for more scalability in the practice. And number three, model portfolios are not one size for all. It's a misunderstanding actually. You can blend them, you can mix them, you can customize them with the right tools, of course, and come up with pretty much customized strategies for your clients with those models.

We've been pushing on this. We'll continue to push on this with our partners in our model marketplace, but also for advisors who build their own models as well.

Swift: One of the highlights of the T3 Conference is the T3 Inside Information Survey, and Kwanti did remarkably well. Tell us about that.

Gauthron: That's right. The T3 Survey by Joel Bruckenstein and Bob Veres every year for us is a very important time.

The release we watch very closely, because it is in the end what drives us. Are users satisfied? This is the only thing that matters, and we struggle to really reach a high mark. We did have the highest mark in our category for this year. It was Investment Data/Analytics. Our market share has grown a bit also, so another subjective satisfaction. Yes, this definitely lifts our spirits.

Swift: It's always gratifying when people who use your products and services rate you highly. Congratulations on that. I also understand that you have had another big announcement this year, something called Screener.

Gauthron: That's right. Screener in a no-nonsense way, is a screener. It's simply a tool to help discover instruments; financial instrument, ETFs, foreign stocks, and so on, out of the big universe of what's available. Of course, this is not new. There are other companies proposing this, but we looked at everything available. We listened to our users and we thought we could do it a bit better.

And this is what just came out a couple of months ago. One of the features of our Screener that users really like is how to find similar investments to a given investment. So they enter a ticker and we give them very similar alternatives. That's very often what advisors need to do when they revise a current portfolio.

Swift: Well, congratulations again on all of your great success, and we're looking forward to seeing you again next year.

Gauthron: Thank you. It's been a pleasure.

MIKE LECOURS / FPPATHFINDER

Swift: We're here at the T3 conference. I'm joined now by Mike Lecours. And you are with fpPathfinder.

Mike Lecours: That's right. Thank you for having me.

Swift: You're welcome. Where is home for you?

Lecours: I'm up in Hartford, Connecticut area.

Swift: Oh, nice. All right, so here we are in Tampa and you're down here attending the conference. What stands out to you?

Lecours: For me, the big themes I see is this push on cybersecurity that's been talked about up on stage. There's plenty of exhibitors here. And we're talking about it among a lot of the attendees.

Swift: You are a practitioner. You also have fpPathfinder, which is solutions for practitioners. Tell us a little bit about fpPathfinder.

Lecours: We help advisors have more diligent conversations with their clients about financial planning topics.
We do that by creating checklists and flow charts. The checklists help advisors. It serves as a conversation aid in some aspects, or a client engagement tool to help advisors uncover planning opportunities for their clients. And the flow charts really help advisors understand and communicate the various decision points that a client might have to experience or consider when making a decision about what to do with their finances.

Swift: I think visuals are really important in today's age, where a lot of this feels like information overload, or digital pieces and parts flying at everyone. How do you think about visuals as a way to ground the conversation?

Lecours: Visuals, that's a big trend and theme that I see, not just with fpPathfinder and our flow charts, but it's a theme that's spreading out throughout the whole fintech landscape.

When you're walking around, you're seeing more visual aspects coming into the software, and that really deals with the way that the individual clients absorb information. And it just goes back to like old school education practices. It's one thing to hear it, whether an advisor's talking and it's something to see something written down, but seeing the visual nature actually from how we're all wired triggers in a different way, and it can actually create a stronger connection in the mind so that the client can retain that information.

Swift: We've been hearing about storytelling, not just at this conference, but at other conferences, and I think that that visual can actually be a part of a storytelling process.

Lecours: Exactly, exactly. It's just one other element to bring it all together.

Swift: Whatever we need to do to have that resonate, to have it be less abstract, more real for people, whether it's visuals, the words that we use, tying it all together, I think that that's an important communication skill.

Lecours: It is. Because for many investors and clients, finance is not something that they're going to easily be able to absorb. It can be complicated for many, and so some people are going to need it really spelled out for them in a visual format that the words or the written form can't really address.

Swift: So, it's really a great anchor for them.

And I'm thinking about the other ways that you fit into the financial planning process with your solution. Maybe you could touch on some of the other partnerships that fpPathfinder has, and anything that you think would be helpful for our listeners to think about as they're building out their own tech stack and their own methodologies.

Lecours: Sure. We have a couple of interesting partnerships. First of all, all of our checklists integrate with CRMs. The advisor or the client can complete the checklist or flow chart, hit one button, and all of that information flows over into the CRM. We have integrations with Redtail and Wealthbox and Salesforce.

Then there's another aspect of our integrations with Holistiplan and Asset-Map. And there from within their software, let's say Holistiplan, this is a great example. You upload the tax return, it reads it. And it generates a few observations from what to do in the tax report. From there, there are references to fpPathfinder, flow charts or checklists, so that the advisor can learn a little bit more about what that observation means.

The way I see that, and answers the second part of your question, what do advisors do? I think it's really baking down or coming down into more advice engagement. It's how do we take all this cool information that we're learning about in the software, and how do we package it up to deliver it to a client in an engaging way so that they can actually act upon it?

Swift: I love that word, engaging, engagement. That's what it's all about, and I think that that builds a stronger relationship where they actually retain what they want to say, the value of the communication and the relationship. They tell other people more naturally.

Lecours: That that's exactly it.

Swift: All right. Well, good to see you as always, Mike. Have a great rest of the conference.

Lecours: Thank you so much.

RYAN MARCUS / MARKETCOUNSEL

Swift: All right, we're back at T3. I'm joined now by Ryan Marcus of MarketCounsel, and you have been talking to me a little bit about the exhibit hall experience and the community aspect. Let's jump in.

Ryan Marcus: First of all, we're really happy to be here.

I think Marie, you coined the phrase that ‘Joel is the godfather of financial advisor technology,’ and he once again has outdone himself. This is such a great opportunity for us as MarketCounsel and Hamburger Law Firm to come here and meet with longtime friends, legacy fintech providers within financial services.

But it was also to scope out new and emerging fintech providers that give our clients the opportunity to separate themselves perhaps from the competition and create a much better client experience, where they can then look to create greater operational efficiency. This for us is absolutely amazing, and we're just thrilled to be here.

Swift: I know that you do a great summit every year. How many years have you been doing the MarketCounsel Summit?

Marcus: This December it will be our 15th MarketCounsel Summit. There's quite a bit of experience, and what I really like to do is kind of take the best of what every conference we attend has, and try in some way, shape, or form to implement that. To continue to deliver excellence through our own event.

Swift: That's interesting. I want to talk a little bit and compare and contrast this conference from other conferences, including the MarketCounsel Summit. Congrats on 15 years, it’s 19 years for T3. That's really an accomplishment for both of the conferences.

Marcus: Yes. Well I think Joel has been to every single MarketCounsel Summit, and I think my founder and CEO Brian Hamburger has been to every T3 event. There's a mutual respect and admiration for both organizations. Our experience here is that this particular community really just thrives on creating the next best thing for the advisor.

Whether it be the advisor community here that that's participating in and attending here, or the fintech community here, this is an opportunity for everyone to gather together to really identify what advisors currently need and perhaps what their future needs might be. And identifying then, okay, well then how can we take that away and really just create a better offering within financial services.

Swift: This is like a little pop-up city, almost like the Consumer Electronics Show. I think last count, 85 or close to 90 different participants in the hall. It can be a little overwhelming. Do you have any ideas about how people coming for the first time might get their arms around being here?

Marcus: That's a great question. I think coming into the exhibit hall, which is packed as is usual, before they do that, someone might want to think about what they're really looking to accomplish. There's plenty of great organizations here that represent plenty of different facets within wealth management fintech, but I think coming into the exhibit hall, identifying what you're really looking to get out of it.

What my firm or what can my firm most benefit from, as far as where or what does my firm need to implement in order to have this event be successful for me? It's about the conversations. Sure, it's about the sessions, but it's also seeking out specific fintech that your firm might need in order to create a better experience.

Swift: Yes, you could be really efficient with your time. Instead of trying to schedule demos, you can just walk right up and get a demo, talk to the developers, the people who are founders of the firm, not just the people who are repping for the firm. I think it's a unique experience. Also, you could use the T3 Inside Information Survey as a guide to see what other practitioners are saying about the different tools and resources, or you could just wander the hall, which is something I do and I find something new every time.

Marcus: Same here. What I find really amazing about this event is that everyone that you have the opportunity to talk to, they're fully engaged. They want to learn about your business, they want to learn about your practice. They want to learn about what your organization does, and perhaps identify how you might be able to work together or to facilitate introductions to other peers within the space.

This has been great for us and I find myself having trouble leaving just based on some of the great conversations that I've had the opportunity to have.

Swift: I know, there's so many choices. I look forward to seeing you at MarketCounsel again this year. Is that December?

Marcus: That is December. We'll be announcing details relative to the location and the actual dates likely by the end of next week. We'll look forward to seeing you there, and we're just thrilled to be here and happy to support this great event.

Swift: Ryan Marcus, thank you for being here.

Marcus: Thanks for having me.

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