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CrossFit CEO Bruce Edwards joins Jason Fernandez at the 2026 Owners and Coaches Conference. They discussed what HQ got wrong over the last five or six years and how the partnership between HQ and affiliates gets rebuilt. They cover brand, coaching standards, IP protection, HYROX and GLP-1s as growth portals, the board relationship, and where the community goes over the next 12 to 18 months.--- Take the free Affiliate Blueprint Assessment
What does it take to move from fixing one broken corner of healthcare to reimagining the whole thing? On this episode of Astonishing Healthcare, host Justin Venneri sits down with two of his favorite guests together for the first time: Judi Health's CEO, AJ Loiacono, and Chief Commercial Officer, Kristin Begley, PharmD.The catalyst for this special episode is the company's rebrand, the evolution from Capital Rx, the transparent PBM that built Judi®, into Judi Health, a unified health technology company. AJ and Kristin explain why the "Rx" designation remains a core piece of the company's identity but no longer fully reflects the organization's evolving mission. They also describe the difference between "little T" transparency and the real thing, why incentive alignment matters so much, and what it took to build the first platform to process medical, pharmacy, dental, and vision claims on one system. They also express gratitude to the team and share bold predictions for where health benefits go next.Key TakeawaysThe rebrand reflects an expanded mission, not a new one. Capital Rx launched as a transparent PBM, with "Rx" signaling its focus on pharmacy. Over eight years, the company broadened its administrative capabilities, including medical claims processing, and much more - all powered by Judi. Thus, the primary brand: Judi Health, with services harmonized as Judi Rx (pharmacy), Judi Care (medical administration, TPA, navigation), and Judi Cloud (platform licensing for health plans and TPAs).There's a real difference between "little T" transparency and true transparency. AJ argues that true transparency means an auditable workflow: full disclosure of all compensation, proof that every customer receives the same pricing and benefit, and no hidden earnings. He calls out the "little H" holding company trick and explains why alignment yields better outcomes for plans and their members.Nobody had built unified claims processing before. AJ recalls initial skepticism around unified claims. His response: "If Netflix had kept mailing DVDs, we wouldn't be talking about Netflix." To date, no other organization has built a unified claims processing platform. Judi is the exception.Unified claims processing will become the standard. Once employers realize they have options, markets shift quickly. AJ, who predicted the rise of transparent PBMs, makes a new call: unified claims will be the industry norm.Related ContentJudi Health™ Announces Capital Rx is Now Judi Rx™, Launches Judi Care™ and Judi Cloud™ to Power the Next Era of Health Benefits Administration and Patient CareAH100 - The End of the Age of Confusion, It's Time for Acceptance, with AJ LoiaconoAH067 - Aligned Health Benefits and the Freedom to Unbundle, with Kristin Begley, PharmDWhat is a Core Administrative Processing System (CAPS) in Healthcare Payer Operations?AH111 - Building a Single Source of Truth for Medical and Pharmacy Benefits, with Kevin Sundquist & Liya LomsadzeFor more information about this episode, please visit Judi Health Insights.
WATCH: Battlelines Ep 1: WXM Goes GLOBAL with WrestleTalk! THE NEXT ERA of Indian Pro-Wrestling Begins
For years, health systems have focused on building a strong digital front door. But what happens when patients begin their healthcare journey somewhere else entirely?In this episode of The All Access Pass Podcast, Elizabeth Woodcock sits down with Jordan Moore, MBA, Division Chair of the Enterprise Office of Access Management at Mayo Clinic, to explore how artificial intelligence is changing the way patients search for care, choose providers, and navigate the healthcare system.As more consumers turn to AI tools for guidance, health systems face a new challenge: ensuring they remain visible, accessible, and ready to meet patients wherever they begin their search. Jordan shares how Mayo Clinic is preparing for this shift—from rethinking decision trees and demand forecasting to exploring new approaches to patient-provider matching and capacity management.Together, they discuss what access leaders need to do now to prepare for a future where the patient journey starts before a website visit, phone call, or portal login.If you work in patient access, digital strategy, or ambulatory operations, this conversation offers practical insights into the technologies, expectations, and opportunities shaping the future of healthcare access.
In this episode of the Seatrade Maritime Podcast, correspondent Gary Howard sits down at Posidonia with Robert Sakker, president & CEO of Pulsar International, and Ben Palmer OBE, president of Viasat Commercial, to explore how next-generation satellite connectivity is reshaping life and work at sea.From the mental health of seafarers caught in geopolitical crises to the fiercely demanding Greek shipping market, the conversation dives into why reliable, secure, and high-capacity connectivity is now a strategic necessity—not just a technical nice-to-have.Robert and Ben unpack NexusWave, a fully managed, bonded multi-network service that combines LEO, GEO, and cellular to deliver resilient connectivity for ship operations and crew welfare. They discuss the shift from price-driven decisions to value and outcomes, the growing role of cyber security as ships become “mobile offices,” and how multi-orbit, software-defined networks and upcoming Viasat-3 satellites are setting the stage for the next five years of maritime digitalisation.
WATCH: Battlelines Ep 1: WXM Goes GLOBAL with WrestleTalk! THE NEXT ERA of Indian Pro-Wrestling Begins
What happens after a woman has already achieved success? She is leading. Carrying responsibility. Making decisions. Holding teams, families, businesses, and futures together. From the outside, it may look like she has arrived. But internally, she may be standing at a different kind of threshold. It's one where success still works, but no longer feels like the whole truth. In this episode of Your Passion, Purpose, and Personal Brand, Lisa McGuire continues her conversation with Dr. Don Barden, author of Here Come the Girls and founder of Architect Her. Together, they explore why the next era of leadership will require more than information, inspiration, or another conference room full of content. Architect Her is a private, curated, year-long leadership architecture experience created for high-capacity women who are ready to build what comes next. It is not a retreat. It is not a mastermind. It is not another place to consume ideas without integration. It is a room designed for understanding. Lisa and Don talk about the loneliness of leadership, the burden women often carry that others do not see, and why relevance may be the defining question for leaders in the new human economy. They also explore the power of being in proximity with other women who are not competing, posturing, or performing, but collaborating from lived experience. If you are a woman in leadership who has built something meaningful and still senses there is more to architect, this conversation will name something you may already know but have not said out loud. Key Takeaways Architect Her is a year-long leadership experience designed for women in meaningful positions of influence, responsibility, or readiness. The real value is not just the curriculum. It is the room, the cohort, the conversations, and the understanding that happens between women. Relevance is becoming one of the most important questions for leaders and organizations preparing for the future. Women often carry a greater volume of responsibility across work, family, leadership, and personal life. Success can be lonely when others assume you already have everything figured out. The right room creates safety without softness, collaboration without competition, and transformation without performance. Architect Her is built around understanding, not simply knowledge. Work-life balance may not be the real goal. Work-life harmony is the deeper invitation. Companies benefit when they invest in the women who are shaping culture, teams, and the future of business. The next era belongs to women who are ready to lead with clarity, capacity, and authority. Bonus: Mention that you heard about ArchitectHer on this podcast and receive a complimentary one-hour Identity Integration Session with Lisa upon enrollment in the ArchitectHer experience.
In the opening hour of today's show, Carl and Mike discuss the potential of AJ Dybantsa and Darryn Peterson as the next faces of the NBA after impressive Summer League showings. They also debate the contrast in roster management between the Falcons and Lions. 01:00 - NBA Summer League Stars 07:10 - Austin Riley's Struggles 10:38 - NFL Roster Discipline Debate
The subsea technology company DEEP recently reached a significant milestone by installing Vanguard, a sophisticated underwater habitat, on the seafloor of the Florida Keys. This installation represents the first project of its kind in the United States in four decades, signaling a new era of sustained human presence beneath the waves. Positioned at a depth of 56 feet, the vessel acts as a specialized laboratory for marine science, climate research, and ecological restoration efforts. The facility is designed to house a crew of four aquanauts for extended missions, allowing researchers to study coral reef health with unprecedented continuity. Beyond its immediate scientific goals, this pilot project serves as the foundational ocean infrastructure for future large-scale modular habitats. By successfully transitioning from engineering to operation, the mission aims to fundamentally expand human access to the underwater environment.http://atlantisseacolony.com/#DEEP #VanguardHabitat #UnderwaterHabitat #FloridaKeys #Aquanauts #MarineScience #CoralReef #ClimateResearch #EcologicalRestoration #OceanInfrastructure #ModularHabitats #Seafloor #OceanExploration #SustainedPresence #UnderwaterFuture #HumanAccess #OceanColonization
In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Owen Lozman, Managing Partner at 55 North. Owen discusses the rapid evolution of quantum computing, the investment opportunities emerging across the sector, and why infrastructure, growth capital, and long-term thinking will play a critical role in shaping the future of technology. Follow Adam on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/askadamtorres/ for up to date information on book releases and tour schedule. Apply to be a guest on our podcast: https://missionmatters.lpages.co/podcastguest/ Visit our website: https://missionmatters.com/ More FREE content from Mission Matters here: https://linktr.ee/missionmattersmedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Owen Lozman, Managing Partner at 55 North. Owen discusses the rapid evolution of quantum computing, the investment opportunities emerging across the sector, and why infrastructure, growth capital, and long-term thinking will play a critical role in shaping the future of technology. Follow Adam on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/askadamtorres/ for up to date information on book releases and tour schedule. Apply to be a guest on our podcast: https://missionmatters.lpages.co/podcastguest/ Visit our website: https://missionmatters.com/ More FREE content from Mission Matters here: https://linktr.ee/missionmattersmedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In this episode of Mission Matters, Adam Torres interviews Paul Abrahimzadeh, Partner at 1789 Capital, during the iConnections Global Alts New York series. Paul shares how the firm's investment strategy centers on American innovation through AI, defense technology, growth equity, and emerging private market opportunities, while discussing the importance of timing, sector selection, and investing in category-leading companies before major liquidity events. Follow Adam on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/askadamtorres/ for up to date information on book releases and tour schedule. Apply to be a guest on our podcast: https://missionmatters.lpages.co/podcastguest/ Visit our website: https://missionmatters.com/ More FREE content from Mission Matters here: https://linktr.ee/missionmattersmedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In this episode of Mission Matters, Adam Torres interviews Paul Abrahimzadeh, Partner at 1789 Capital, during the iConnections Global Alts New York series. Paul shares how the firm's investment strategy centers on American innovation through AI, defense technology, growth equity, and emerging private market opportunities, while discussing the importance of timing, sector selection, and investing in category-leading companies before major liquidity events. Follow Adam on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/askadamtorres/ for up to date information on book releases and tour schedule. Apply to be a guest on our podcast: https://missionmatters.lpages.co/podcastguest/ Visit our website: https://missionmatters.com/ More FREE content from Mission Matters here: https://linktr.ee/missionmattersmedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What happens when people stop looking for influencers and start looking for guides? What if the future of marketing isn't about getting more attention, but about creating more trust?In this episode of Soul Alive Radio, I share my predictions for the next era of marketing through the lens of Human Design, astrology, and intuitive insight. As we move toward the era of the Sleeping Phoenix, I believe we're witnessing the end of shallow influencer culture and the rise of something far more powerful: the guide by your side.If you're a soul-guided entrepreneur who wants to grow your business without sacrificing your authenticity, this episode offers a powerful roadmap for what comes next.You'll discover:Why depth, authenticity, and real stories will outperform polished performance and superficial contentHow human connection is becoming the premium experience in an increasingly AI-driven worldWhy trust is the new currency and how to build it through integrity, service, and genuine connectionTimestamps:00:00 Future Marketing Forecast01:31 End of Influencer Era04:35 Guides Over Glamour06:31 Depth Beats Performance09:10 Vulnerability Builds Trust13:55 Long Form Counterbalance17:39 Human Connection Premium18:48 Community as the Offer21:41 Trust as New Currency25:57 Email List and DiversifySTAY CONNECTED:Discover the Human Design chart of your business, and how it's naturally designed to create momentum, visibility, and aligned clients. Run the Right Chart: Free chart and trainingSUBSCRIBE on SubstackFOLLOW on InstagramFOLLOW on FacebookSUBSCRIBE on YouTubeReady to use your Spiritual Gifts to attract soul-aligned clients? BOOK a Soul Blueprint Intuitive Business AssessmentLeave a review for Soul Alive Radio (and we'll read it on the air!)
Something has been shifting. You've felt it, even if you haven't had language for it yet.In this episode, Sonia G drops into the teaching that has been moving through Starborn Leaders and Temple of the Flame, the rebirth of wholeness. Not a rebrand. Not a pivot. A full transfiguration of every layer of identity that no longer belongs, making room for the version of you that came here to lead, to create, and to build something that has never been done before.Sonia breaks down why this last year has felt so hard for so many, what the June solstice 2026 actually means energetically, why the grids on the planet are finally ready to hold a fuller, higher level of consciousness, and how to stop fragmenting yourself in order to fit into containers you've already outgrown.This is the teaching for anyone who has been feeling flat, depleted, or like they're doing all the right things and still moving through mud. Your purpose is not lost. It's been waiting for you to be safe enough to receive it.In this episode:Why discomfort and turmoil always precede a new level of purposeWhat the rebirth of wholeness actually means and why it's different from healingThe grids on the planet and why this solstice is a genuine thresholdHow to stop running outdated identities you created in 2020Why building empires at the cost of your nervous system is the old constructWhat it means to lead, create, and build from wholeness instead of survivalLinks mentioned:Rebirth of Wholeness four-part experience including Dance of Light digital accessMallorca Solar Eclipse Retreat, August 11-14, 2 spots left!Star Money MillionaireStarborn Leaders on InstagramStarborn Leaders YouTubeLet's connect!Email us at hello@starbornleaders.com
On this episode of Bone Talk, BHOF CEO Claire Gill is joined by Dr. Mary Bouxsein, Professor at Harvard Medical School and a leading researcher in bone health and biomechanics, to discuss groundbreaking advances that could transform osteoporosis care. Their conversation explores how the SABRE initiative is reshaping osteoporosis drug development, the growing role of artificial intelligence in fracture prediction and screening, and why greater awareness and participation in research are essential to improving bone health outcomes for millions of people.
Bill Armstrong's first season as a college head coach could hardly have gone better. Taking over at McNeese State University, Armstrong led the Cowboys to a 28–6 record, a Southland Conference Tournament Championship, and the program's third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. Despite being in his first year leading a Division I program, Armstrong seamlessly transitioned into the role, building on McNeese's winning culture while putting his own stamp on one of the nation's top mid-major teams.What made McNeese especially unique was its relentless defensive identity. Armstrong's philosophy centered around applying pressure for the full 40 minutes, with the Cowboys utilizing a full-court press that consistently disrupted opponents and forced mistakes. The results were staggering, as McNeese finished among the national leaders in multiple defensive categories, including turnovers forced and steals, establishing itself as one of the most difficult teams in the country to play against. The defensive mindset reflected Armstrong's coaching background, which included successful stops at University of Mississippi, Louisiana State University, and Baylor University, as well as a national championship-winning run at Link Academy.Rather than taking a step back after a historic season, Armstrong has positioned McNeese for another strong run. The Cowboys added seven high-major transfers this offseason, bringing even more talent and depth into a program that has already proven it can win at a high level. With Armstrong's system firmly in place and an upgraded roster entering the year, McNeese appears primed to remain one of the most dangerous mid-major teams in the country and a serious contender for another NCAA Tournament berth.Available wherever you get your podcasts. Follow & subscribe @Notevend2 Enjoy the episode!
In this episode of Multifamily Talks Live, host Krista Hurley is joined by Amy Dreyfuss, SVP of Data & Analytics, and Rich Hughes, SVP of AI and Innovation at RealPage, for a conversation on the next era of revenue management. Together, they explore the evolving role of AI in forecasting, leasing, renewals, and operational decision-making. From the fundamentals of revenue management to the future of connected intelligence and agentic AI, this discussion offers practical insights for operators looking to improve efficiency, build trust in AI-driven workflows, and prepare for an increasingly data-driven future.
In this episode, Justin Ergler and Keith Maziarek sat down with Zach Posner, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of The Legal Tech Fund — the largest dedicated investor in legal technology globally, with 80+ portfolio companies spanning software sold into law firms, corporate legal departments, and consumers. Zach also leads the Fund's annual summit, widely considered the "Davos" of legal tech, and is currently steering a 15-year forecasting initiative mapping where the market is headed next. Few people have a wider-angle view of where legal tech capital is flowing, and why. Here are 3 takeaways that stuck with us: 1. The best products pass the "what would you miss?" test. Zach's filter for a great investment isn't revenue first, it's attachment. Would the user be genuinely upset if you took the software away? He uses email as the example: people will defend an old Gmail account like it's part of their identity. That same emotional stickiness, not flashy ARR growth, is what separates legal tech that lasts from legal tech that's just well-funded. 2. The investment rubric is being rewritten every 3-4 months, not every 1-2 years. Zach walked through how the old "Moore's Law" cadence for tech improvement has collapsed for AI, from a ~24-month doubling cycle to roughly 4 months today. That pace is forcing investors to rethink old metrics: ARR (annual recurring revenue) is now sharing the spotlight with newer signals like experimental revenue, since some products are going from $0 to $2M in months, not years, purely on trial usage, before anyone's even sure it'll stick. 3. Pricing won't go to zero, and clients don't actually want it to. A great exchange on whether AI will commoditize legal services down to nothing. Zach's take: clients aren't trying to take a $100K legal bill to zero, they want it to come down modestly and they want more value for what they pay, not a race to the bottom. The real opportunity for legal tech and law firms alike is getting sharper at articulating and pricing that value, not just cutting hours. There's a lot more in this one: how Zach evaluates founders and "founder-market fit," why the legal tech market got oversaturated and what comes next, how general counsel may be the biggest catalyst for change in the industry, and yes, some friendly trash talk about the Ravens, Hoosiers, and Tar Heels along the way.
Friend of the show Damichael Cole, Grizzlies Beat Writer for the Commercial Appeal, joins Josh to dive into the biggest storylines revolving around the Grizzlies this summer:
Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming retail, but are retailers giving away too much decision-making power to algorithms? On this episode of The Voice of Retail, host Michael LeBlanc welcomes back retail strategist, educator, speaker and author Carl Boutet to the podcast to discuss his latest book, The Flip. Drawing on more than three decades of retail experience and his work advising organizations around the world, Carl offers a thought-provoking perspective on how AI is reshaping retail strategy, customer engagement and business leadership. The conversation begins with Carl's unique vantage point as a global retail observer. Fresh off another teaching engagement at the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, Carl shares insights from Southeast Asia's rapidly evolving retail landscape. From super apps and mobile commerce to experiential shopping destinations and high-energy retail environments, he explains why emerging markets are often leapfrogging traditional retail models and creating new opportunities for customer engagement. Michael and Carl then explore one of the most important topics facing retailers today: the growing influence of artificial intelligence on decision-making. Carl argues that while AI can dramatically improve efficiency, it also poses the risk that businesses become increasingly dependent on algorithmic recommendations, potentially sacrificing the creativity, differentiation, and strategic judgment that make brands unique. At the center of the discussion is Carl's new framework outlined in The Flip. He introduces the four forces that he believes are fundamentally reshaping commerce: automation, optimization, contextualization and immersion. Together, these forces are changing how retailers attract customers, personalize experiences, manage operations and compete in increasingly digital environments. The discussion extends beyond technology into the future of retail itself. Carl shares observations from his travels across Asia, highlighting how retailers are creating energy-rich destinations that blend shopping, entertainment, food and community. These experiences offer important lessons for North American retailers seeking to remain relevant in a world where consumers increasingly have unlimited digital choices at their fingertips. Michael and Carl also examine the rise of AI-powered customer discovery, the future of search and marketing, the growing importance of trust, and why retailers must think carefully about where human value creation fits inside increasingly automated organizations. Carl explains why curiosity, organizational adaptability and a relentless focus on core business fundamentals remain essential leadership capabilities despite the rapid pace of technological change. Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025 and 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael's cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.
In this episode, Executive Chairman Adam Stewart invites listeners into an exciting new chapter for three of Jamaica's most beloved Sandals resorts: Sandals Montego Bay, Sandals Caribbean Cay and Sandals South Coast. As these iconic properties undergo their Sandals 2.0 transformation, Adam shares why this moment is so meaningful — not only for the brand, but for Jamaica, the island where the Sandals story began. From fresh new dining concepts and beautifully reimagined accommodations to the thoughtful details designed to make every stay feel even more special, this conversation offers a first look at what guests can expect from the next era of Sandals in Jamaica.
Dr. Yashbir Singh sits speaks with Dr. Imon Banerjee to explore how multimodal data and fair AI techniques are reshaping cancer imaging and clinical decision making. The conversation dives into bridging computer science and medicine, tackling bias in healthcare AI, and what it takes to translate innovation into real patient impact. Radiology: Imaging Cancer
In this episode of Partner Perspectives, a special miniseries within the Look Forward podcast, the conversation explores one of the most foundational yet rapidly evolving forces in modern investing: indexing. Drawing on S&P Global and Vanguard's joint research, Partner Perspectives: Unlocking Potential Ahead, this episode examines how market concentration, changing corporate leadership, and expanding index tools are reshaping the way investors access markets and build portfolios. Tim Edwards of S&P Dow Jones Indices opens with a historical perspective on U.S. equity concentration—noting that by mid-2025 the 10 largest companies in the S&P 500 accounted for nearly 40% of the index's market capitalization, a level not seen since the mid-1960s. He explains how enthusiasm around AI, technology, and productivity has fueled today's market leaders, while also showing that concentration is not static: Over time, equity markets undergo a constant "changing of the guard," as old leaders fade and new giants rise. His core message is that broad, capitalization-weighted benchmarks remain powerful because they adapt alongside the market rather than trying to predict its future winners. The episode then shifts to Jim Rowley of Vanguard, who traces how indexing has evolved over the last 50 years—from the first simple S&P 500 index mutual fund to today's far more targeted landscape of sector, size, style, and total-market strategies. Rowley explains how investors increasingly use "passive for active" approaches to build portfolios with precision, while emphasizing that investors should look beyond labels and understand the underlying methodology of any index they own. He also points to direct indexing as the next frontier, offering greater customization for tax-loss harvesting, ESG preferences, and factor tilts. Chapters: [00:00] - Introduction to Partner Perspectives and the evolution of indexing [02:00] - Tim Edwards on concentration in the S&P 500 and why this moment matters [04:30] - The role of AI, technology, and market optimism in today's top companies [06:10] - Looking back to 1965: what happened to the prior top 10 giants [08:00] - How a small number of stocks drive a large share of long-term market growth [09:55] - The "changing of the guard" and how concentration evolves over time [11:20] - Does underperformance by today's giants threaten the broader market? [13:10] - Why broad cap-weighted benchmarks like the S&P 500 remain resilient [15:20] - Jim Rowley on the launch of the first index mutual fund and why it was revolutionary [17:10] - How index investing expanded from simple market access to targeted exposures [18:20] - Using "passive for active" in portfolio construction [20:00] - Why index methodology matters more than the label on the fund [21:55] - A small-cap example: how similar index labels can produce very different outcomes [22:50] - The future of indexing: direct indexing and portfolio customization [24:20] - Why traditional index funds remain central in a more differentiated market [25:00] - Key portfolio takeaways for investors and advisors [26:00] - Final reflections and where to find the full research This podcast was authored by a cross-section of representatives from S&P Global and in certain circumstances external guest authors. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent and are not necessarily reflected in the products and services those entities offer. This research is a publication of S&P Global and does not comment on current or future credit ratings or credit rating methodologies.
In this episode, ACEC's Jeff Urbanchuk sits down with Jack Hsueh of Autodesk to explore how engineering firms can deliver more with constrained resources through digital project delivery. From connected data and collaborative workflows to automation and digital twins, they discuss how technology is transforming project execution across the industry. Jack shares insights from major initiatives like the LA28 Olympics and PennDOT, highlighting the importance of object-level data and interoperable systems to reduce rework, save time, and improve outcomes. The conversation also dives into the evolving role of AI in AEC, including automation, augmentation, analysis, Autodesk's AEC data model, the Model Context Protocol (MCP), and the Autodesk Assistant bringing context-aware AI directly into design tools. The episode concludes with practical advice for firms looking to build capacity and resilience: treat digital delivery as a business strategy, invest in digital literacy, create repeatable processes, and pilot AI with clear governance.
Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping the media landscape, but what does that actually mean for podcasting? On this episode of The Podcast Advertising Playbook, Heather sits down with Jeanine Wright, Co-Founder & CEO of Inception Point and former executive at Simplecast, AdsWizz, and Wondery, to unpack what AI-generated audio could mean for creators, advertisers, and the future of content itself.Why AI-generated podcasts are emerging now, and what problems they solve for creators and media companiesThe balance between human creativity and AI execution in modern content productionHow Inception Point approaches accuracy, discoverability, and avoiding a flood of “good enough” contentThe evolving conversation around ownership, IP, and breakout AI-generated personalitiesWhat AI-native podcasting could mean for advertisers, audience targeting, and dynamic listener experiencesFrom production economics to authenticity in advertising, this conversation explores how podcasting may evolve as AI becomes part of the creative process.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
On today's episode, Dr. Mark Costes catches up with longtime friend and returning guest Joshua Scott, owner and CEO of Studio 8E8, for a wide-ranging conversation on growth, leadership, AI, and the realities of scaling a people-driven business. Joshua shares the vision behind Studio 8E8's new 11,000-square-foot headquarters, including the long road from finding land to building a dedicated production studio and collaborative team space. He and Dr. Costes also reflect on the annual Murph workout, the discipline of fitness, and the lessons that carry over into entrepreneurship. The conversation then turns to AI's growing impact on marketing, where Joshua explains why technology should make agencies more human, not less, by freeing teams to focus on strategy, measurement, client relationships, and better decision-making. They also unpack the challenges of hiring, leadership, client service, and protecting trust as a company scales. Be sure to check out the full episode from the Dentalpreneur Podcast! EPISODE RESOURCES https://s8e8.com https://www.truedentalsuccess.com Dental Success Network Subscribe to The Dentalpreneur Podcast
Nishat Mehta, CEO of Lexitas, joins Jennifer Simpson Carr to discuss how AI and technology-enabled litigation services are reshaping the legal industry. From deposition summaries and case triage to client pressure, access to justice, and the future of the billable hour, the conversation explores why law firms can not treat technology adoption as optional. Nishat offers law firm leaders a grounded and strategically honest look at where AI is creating real value. To our listeners: Audio issues during this recording impacted its sound quality, but we're publishing the episode because Nishat's insights are too valuable not to share.
Corey Gloor, the voice of the Tulane Green Wave, joined Sports Talk. Gloor discussed the start of Will Hall's tenure leading the Green Wave.
How do companies create entirely new markets—and why are the best organizations rethinking profit, trust, and corporate purpose? Join us for a thought-provoking conversation with Bruce Cleveland, author of Market Engineering, and Eric Ries, author of Incorruptible. We'll explore what “Market Engineering” really means and why companies must actively shape markets to stay ahead, why trust has become one of the most valuable assets an organization can build, and how mission-driven companies outperform during times of disruption. We'll also discuss why the era of shareholder primacy is being challenged, what comes next for corporate leadership, and how AI governance, healthcare, climate markets, and corporate accountability are reshaping the future of business. If you care about the future of leadership, innovation, and building enduring companies in the AI era, you won't want to miss this one.
Pride Month is underway, marking a season of celebration that's become a mainstay for some brands. But earning the trust of LGBTQ+ audiences goes far beyond rainbow merch or a few social media posts. This week on the Modern Retail Podcast, special projects editor Melissa Daniels interviewed LGBTQ+ marketing specialists Matt Tumminello and Matt Wagner of Target10. Their conversation centers on earning trust with LGBTQ customers long before it's time for a Pride collection, starting with the ways companies used to show up and how that's changed over the years. The conversation gets into: How "Pride marketing" is in its third act as cultural winds change How earning trust with LGBTQ+ consumers takes more than a one-time campaign Winning strategies that start with authentic moments and messages
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Daniel is joined by Jay Dawani, co-founder and chief executive officer of Lemurian Labs, where he leads the company's mission to reinvent AI infrastructure for greater efficiency, accessibility and performance. With a background spanning AI system architecture, hardware-software co-design and performance optimization,… Read More
Hour 4: Murph and Markus are back with a packed episode, discussing the Giants' struggles and the upcoming MMA league founded by Scott Coker. The guys dive into the world of mixed martial arts, chatting with the pioneer behind the new league, who shares his vision for the future of the sport. This episode is a must-listen for both Giants fans and MMA enthusiasts. The hosts discuss the Giants' recent losses and the potential moves they could make to turn their season around, including the possibility of trading Robbie Ray and giving Trevor McDonald a chance in the bullpen. They also talk about the importance of building stars in the MMA world and how Scott Coker's new league plans to do just that. Scott Coker, the founder of the new MMA league, joins the show to share his insights on what makes a successful MMA promotion. He talks about his experience with Strikeforce and Bellator, and how he plans to bring a new level of excitement to the sport. The guys also discuss the differences between boxing and MMA, and how the latter has evolved over the years.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hour 4: Murph and Markus are back with a packed episode, discussing the Giants' struggles and the upcoming MMA league founded by Scott Coker. The guys dive into the world of mixed martial arts, chatting with the pioneer behind the new league, who shares his vision for the future of the sport. This episode is a must-listen for both Giants fans and MMA enthusiasts. The hosts discuss the Giants' recent losses and the potential moves they could make to turn their season around, including the possibility of trading Robbie Ray and giving Trevor McDonald a chance in the bullpen. They also talk about the importance of building stars in the MMA world and how Scott Coker's new league plans to do just that. Scott Coker, the founder of the new MMA league, joins the show to share his insights on what makes a successful MMA promotion. He talks about his experience with Strikeforce and Bellator, and how he plans to bring a new level of excitement to the sport. The guys also discuss the differences between boxing and MMA, and how the latter has evolved over the years.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa break down the biggest trends they're seeing in early-stage adtech deal flow, including the rise of chatbot and LLM ad networks, integrated marketing platforms, creator infrastructure, and a renewed wave of innovation around mobile apps. They discuss why mobile remains such an attractive market, what kinds of startups are emerging in each category, and where investors and operators are spending the most time right now. The conversation then shifts to the next phase of the Outcomes Era — where simply claiming “outcomes” is no longer enough and companies need differentiated data, supply, or technology to prove it.
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Mindy Diamond on Independence: A Podcast for Financial Advisors Considering Change
With Rafael Loureiro, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Wealth.com Rafael Loureiro on why estate planning is shifting from a static legal exercise to an AI-powered, advisor-led planning process. In Summary Estate planning has traditionally operated outside the core advisor workflow—handled through attorneys, revisited infrequently, and often disconnected from the broader client relationship. Louis speaks with Rafael Loureiro, Co-Founder and CEO of Wealth.com, about how AI is beginning to change that model. The conversation explores how advisors can use tools like Ester to surface planning gaps, stay ahead of client changes, and deliver a more continuous planning experience. For advisors, the broader implication is strategic: as investment management becomes increasingly commoditized, integrated planning and ongoing coordination may become a far more meaningful differentiator. The Storyline Most advisors already discuss estate planning with clients. The challenge is what happens next. In many cases, the process still moves outside the advisor relationship: clients are referred to an attorney, documents are created, and the estate plan becomes something revisited only after a major life event or liquidity event forces an update. Louis and Rafael explore why that structure is starting to break down. Rafael's own estate planning experience following the sale of Emailage to LexisNexis exposed how fragmented the process could feel, even for highly engaged clients working with sophisticated advisors. That experience ultimately became the foundation for Wealth.com and its AI-powered planning platform, Ester. The discussion focuses less on AI as a headline topic and more on how it changes advisor workflow in practice—from document interpretation and planning summaries to surfacing next actions and helping advisors stay proactively engaged as client circumstances evolve. For advisors thinking about the future of planning, the conversation raises a larger question: if financial planning itself becomes increasingly standardized, where does the next layer of differentiation come from? Topics Covered Continuous estate planning AI-powered advisor workflows com and Ester Advisor-led estate planning Family office-style client service Trust and estate attorney collaboration Estate planning for mass affluent clients AI agents in wealth management Dynasty Financial Partners integration Advisor differentiation beyond investment management > Download a transcript of this episode… Listen and Learn Highlights for Advisors Why did Rafael decide to build Wealth.com? (06:04) Rafael explains how his own estate planning experience after a liquidity event exposed major disconnects between advisors, attorneys, and clients. Why did Wealth.com choose an advisor-led model instead of direct-to-consumer? (14:28) The platform was designed around the belief that advisors (not marketing campaigns) are best positioned to initiate estate planning conversations with clients. What does “continuous estate planning” actually mean? (20:13) Rafael describes a system where client life changes, tax events, and asset activity can trigger proactive advisor engagement rather than periodic document reviews. How does Ester move beyond document summarization? (32:30) The platform now identifies planning opportunities, prepares tasks and reports, and increasingly helps advisors automate portions of the planning workflow. Why are enterprise firms and large banks adopting platforms like Wealth.com? (24:57) Many firms were already producing estate planning summaries manually for ultra-high-net-worth clients. AI allows those capabilities to scale much more efficiently. How should advisors think about the role of trust and estate attorneys going forward? (26:50) Rafael argues that AI enhances – not replaces – the attorney relationship by improving efficiency and reserving more sophisticated matters for specialized legal expertise. What may differentiate advisory firms as planning becomes more commoditized? (38:02) The discussion points toward responsiveness, coordination, personalization, and deeper client integration as the next major competitive layer for advisors. Key Takeaways Rafael believes estate planning is shifting from a one-time legal exercise to a continuous planning process supported by AI and advisor engagement. Wealth.com was intentionally built as an advisor-first platform rather than a direct-to-consumer business. Ester's AI capabilities now extend beyond summarization into identifying planning gaps, surfacing opportunities, and preparing advisor workflows. Many firms are using estate planning as a way to deepen relationships and expand into more family-office-style service models. AI may allow advisors to serve more clients while maintaining a higher level of personalization and responsiveness. Trust and estate attorneys remain critical for complex situations, but AI can improve efficiency and help clients arrive better prepared. Advisors who fail to expand beyond investment management risk competing in an increasingly commoditized landscape. https://youtu.be/BDI6XbEz_4E Quotable Moments “When AI moves from simply organizing information to helping drive decisions, estate planning stops being a periodic task.” “Investment management is becoming table stakes. Financial planning is becoming table stakes.” “Why does it have to be that way? Now with AI, why can we not have continuous estate planning?” “It is the intangibles.” “My goal is to empower the advisor.” Related Resources Human Intelligence in the Age of AI: Why Recruiters Still MatterArtificial intelligence can analyze firms and deals. It can't replace the insight and advocacy that help advisors make the right move. The Future of Prospecting: How AI Is Powering the Next Era of Advisor GrowthFINNY Co-Founder Eden Ovadia shares how AI is transforming advisor prospecting: automating outreach, matching advisors with ideal clients, and freeing time for deeper human connection. A forward-looking conversation on what growth will look like in the next era of wealth management. Rafael LoureiroCo-Founder and CEO Rafael Loureiro is a technology entrepreneur and product-focused executive with more than 20 years of experience across startups, growth-stage companies, and Fortune 500 organizations. He is Co-Founder and CEO of Wealth.com, a leading estate and tax planning platform powered by proprietary AI and purpose-built for financial institutions. Under his leadership, Wealth.com has expanded into a comprehensive planning platform, embedding deterministic AI to deliver precise, auditable outcomes across estate and tax workflows. Prior to founding Wealth.com, Rafael served as Chief Technology Officer at Emailage, a global fraud prevention SaaS company acquired by RELX in 2020. He is a member of the Forbes Finance Council and has been recognized across the industry, including CEO of the Year honors and Forbes' Top AI Founders to Watch. Originally from France and raised in Brazil, Rafael now resides with his family in the Phoenix metro area. NOTE: The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Diamond Consultants. Neither Diamond Consultants nor the guests on this podcast are compensated in any way for their participation. View the transcript of this episode… Why AI Matters Now: Filling the Estate Planning Gap with Wealth.com A conversation with Louis Diamond and Rafael Loureiro, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer at Wealth.com. Louis Diamond: Welcome to the latest episode of our podcast series for financial advisors. Today’s episode is Why AI Matters Now: Filling the Estate Planning Gap with Wealth.com. It’s a conversation with Rafael Loureiro, the firm’s Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer. I’m Louis Diamond and this is the Diamond Podcast for Financial Advisors. Mindy Diamond: At Diamond Consultants, we help elite advisors identify the right environment for their businesses to thrive, whether that’s at a wire house, boutique, or independent firm. With nearly three decades of experience, we’ve guided thousands of advisors and represented more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in assets transitioned, and each year, one in four advisors managing a billion dollars or more who change firms are our clients. Our process is education driven and based on building relationships, starting as your strategic partner well before you’re even thinking of a move. To schedule a confidential conversation, call us at 908-879-1002. Wondering why advisors change firms and where they’re headed? Are transition deals going up or down? Those very questions and more inspired us to create our annual Advisor Transition Report. It’s the award-winning data-driven resource designed for advisors that connects the dots between the motivations around movement and the firm’s appetite for top talent. Arm yourself with the knowledge you need to make smart decisions. Download your copy at diamond-consultants.com/transitionreport. Louis Diamond: In the wealth management world, estate planning has largely lived in a separate lane. It’s a topic advisors may raise with clients then hand off to an attorney and eventually a set of documents come back, filed away, rarely revisited, and often disconnected from the rest of the planning process. That structure has been in place for a long time and for the most part, it’s gotten unquestioned, but when you step back, it creates a gap between what do clients expect from their advisor and what actually gets delivered when it comes to estate planning. Rafael Loureiro, co-founder and CEO of Wealth.com, ran straight into the gap after a planning event of his own which should have been a coordinated process, felt fragmented, manual, and surprisingly opaque. And likewise, I recall the same type of disjointed experience in my own estate planning process. It’s experiences like these that became the starting point for building Wealth.com. What makes this story interesting isn’t just that they’re using AI but how they’re using it inside the estate planning process, and it’s how AI allows the model itself to change from a one-time legal event to something that evolves alongside the client, from static documents to a system that can actually interpret, update, and surface what matters, from a disconnected handoff to something the advisor can actively lead. In my conversation with Rafael, we get into how that plays out in practice, how tools like Ester move from summarizing estate documents to identifying gaps, to prompting next steps, and eventually preparing action on behalf of the advisor, because when AI moves from simply organizing information to helping drive decisions, estate planning stops being a periodic task and starts to look more like a continuous part of the advice process. So let’s dive in. Rafael, thank you for coming on our show today. Rafael Loureiro: My pleasure, Louis. Thank you for having me here. Louis Diamond: Of course. Let’s jump in and in researching you and speaking to you in the past, I got to admit, you had a very different path into the wealth management industry probably than anyone I’ve ever interviewed. So can you walk us through your background briefly and early professional endeavors? Rafael Loureiro: Absolutely. The accent that you hear is Brazilian. So I’ve been in the US for 25 years. I’m a software engineer by trade, came here as a HMB, been involved with different companies over the years and then most recently before Wealth.com. I was a chief technology officer with a fraud prevention company, nothing to do with wealth management, but by selling that company, it’s how the Wealth.com story started. Louis Diamond: Perfect. And I was referring to also some of your early career endeavors even before founding your last company, if you’re comfortable sharing that. Rafael Loureiro: Yeah, absolutely. I’ve been involved with four different startups in different spaces. One of them was in, if you remember all the way back to 2008, the real estate prices, the first startup with foreclosures. So when houses went into foreclosures, me and my partner, we created a system to index that. I also had work on a photo album company. It became a lifetime business. It’s still running. I was the CTO and I did my share of consulting. I used to work for Accenture, Avanade, and then a home builder Fortune 500 companies. So I have a ton of experience in the technology space before Wealth.com. Louis Diamond: Perfect. And you mentioned the last business that you started that I believe sold to LexisNexis. Can you walk through what that business was? Rafael Loureiro: Yeah. So I did not start the business. I joined the business before Series A. The person that started the business, Rei Carvalho, he’s actually Wealth.com chairman. So the team is still together. The US, San Francisco, New York, offices in Sydney, Singapore, London. We serve clients like Coinbase, grew very fast and then got acquired by LexisNexis in 2020 during peak COVID. Think about, we literally signed the documents, popped the champagne on March 2020. No vaccine. Louis Diamond: Oh, my God. Rafael Loureiro: We literally popped the champagne and we all went back home to work from home because that was the guy that’s from LexisNexis. Through that experience, selling a company, one thing you usually do, it’s a big liquidity event and estate planning is always related to big moments. You get married, someone in your family die, you have a new kid, you have a liquidated event. So I work with a financial advisor. They’re amazing. They helped me with financial planning, wealth management, saved me a lot of money insurance. But when it was time to do the estate planning, Louis, my experience was, “Hey, Rafael, we always work with this lawyer, go talk to the lawyer.” And then it was a completely broken process. First, because it was COVID and I had to go see the lawyer face-to-face. That was weird right there. Second, because I was expecting the lawyer to know everything about me because my advisor knows everything about me, know about my life situation, know about liquid event, know about my kids, rental houses, everything and then the engineer. I know what I told the lawyer, but do I know for sure that everything I told the lawyer end up in the document? No, I don’t. Long story short, otherwise it is a long story, we’re having a virtual coffee. I don’t know if you remember everyone, big beard, long hair, everyone working from home, and then somehow all the Emailage C-level team and founders, the co-founders, we start complaining about state plan. Even another example, my chairman, the Wealth.com chairman, Emailage CEO, Rei Carvalho, he was like, “Hey, Rafael, I’m done with the summer heat in Arizona. I’m moving to Denver. I’m going for cooler weathers.” Literally the moment he moved to Denver, he gets a call from his estate planning lawyer, welcome him to Denver and saying, “Hey, we need to update your documents. “But I just spent thousands of dollars creating my documents.” “Yeah, but you live in a new state, you have to optimize your documents.” At that moment, Louis, we’re like, “Where there’s a problem, there is an opportunity,” and the company was born. Louis Diamond: I find the best company origin stories, it’s you have that, you have a personal experience or a moment where you have a realization that there’s a problem that you have that others might have as well, so let’s create a business around solving this problem. It was legitimately at that point, it wasn’t a long burn, we’re going to research, we’re really going to think about this, it was just all of the core team that was fortunate enough to have a big liquidity event were complaining and commiserating about a similar problem on estate planning and then that launched into, let’s build a company, let’s build a platform, a product to solve this problem? Rafael Loureiro: Yes and no. We saw the opportunity. We had just finished selling a company. It takes a lot from you and your family to create a company and to sell a company. Before we started a new company, we said, “Hey, look, we feel like there is something here, but let’s do the proper groundwork, make sure that the market is right, that there is a need that it’s not only us complaining about these.” I’m going to say that we spend a good three month, we have vision document together, doing a market research and then we got excited. Literally my wife who was not super excited in the beginning said, “You guys just sold a company. You’ve been racing 100 miles an hour for the last seven, eight years and you guys going to do this again.” But I love it. It’s part of my DNA. I love the challenge. I love to build and it is a big problem. When you look at the US market, 67% of the population don’t have estate planning. You have to ask yourself, why? Is that because it costs too much money? Is that because people don’t know enough about estate planning that they don’t do it? Is that because people don’t have to think about that? So the opportunity is there. We did the groundwork. We got the team together, at least some of our eight players. We went to Altus Capital, that’s the same venture firm that led the Emailage series B and we said, “Look, we have a vision, we have a team and we believe the market is ready for it. There is no dominant player and it is blue ocean.” And then they gave us the initial funding, them and my chairman, and then we went from having an idea to launching the product in May 2022. Louis Diamond: Wow, that’s amazing. Before we dive into the rapid growth and what the platform looks like, et cetera, can you just give us a quick overview of what Wealth.com looks like today? Who are you serving? Who are you selling to and where does it fit into an advisor’s value proposition or their advice stack, if you will? Rafael Loureiro: Absolutely. So Wealth.com we empower financial advisors to provide a family office experience to their clients starting with estate planning and tax planning. What I’m trying to solve, Louis, is my situation. I want my financial advisor to be the hub of my needs. So if the need is financial planning, wealth management, insurance, estate planning, tax planning, I need my financial advisor to be aware of all these verticals, right? Because I know if something happens to one of us, my financial advisor is my person. He or she’s going to get my call from my wife and say, “Hey, am I all right?” I want to empower the financial advisor with all the tools to provide that family office experience to their client. So that’s first, we started by providing doc migration. So think of this, you are mass affluent client, between half a million dollars all the way to 10 million dollars. You don’t have your revocable trust, your will, your power of attorney, your advanced healthcare directive, your guardianship documents. We do that. We create those documents. You go to the workflow on the Wealth.com platform if you have an advisor, I need to make that clear, we’re not direct to consumer business. You have to have an advisor. So you go to that workflow and at the end of the workflow, you get the documents. Those are legally optimized, all the documents. The document you get in California is going to be completely different from the document you get in New York, from the document you get in Florida. I just want to make that point clear. What we noticed, Louis, working with these advisors is if you look at the average advisor, if you look at his or her book of business, 80% is mass affluent. So think lawyers, doctors, firemen, 20% high net worth. Usually the high net worth clients, ultra-high network clients, they already have the documents. They already paid $20,000 to have those documents draft and we were not doing anything for them. So in 2022, we had that light bulb moment even before LLMs. OpenAI launched in 2022, we actually used the Bertha model before OpenAI, but I know I’m digressing. Let me get back here. So I was not doing anything for these high net worth, ultra-high net worth clients. So we had this idea, what if we use AI to read their existing plans, all their grants, LATs, all this sophisticated irrevocable trust, connect to all their assets and then provide a summary of everything they have in place? So that was the idea in 2022. Can we do it? And we did it and that became Ester and that became our family office experience. So just to summarize, we help the advisor clients regardless where they fall in the wealthy spectrum. They don’t have the estate planning documents, we create them. If they already have the estate planning documents, we use AI to read this documents, summarize them and provide insight and observations. “Hey, here are ways that you can optimize these documents.” That’s what we do. Louis Diamond: It’s so valuable. I wish I met you a month ago because I went through a very expensive estate planning exercise with an estate planning attorney and my own personal experience is exactly the same that you had. It’s expensive. I have no idea what I was signing. It was a long questionnaire and it wasn’t driven necessarily by my advisor. They gave me the idea to get updated estate plans, but it was a disconnected process. So this makes a ton of sense. I think let’s pull on the thread of being a direct to advisor company rather than trying to pull an end around the advisor and going directly to a consumer. Why was that an important design decision for you? Because I would assume the total adjustable market might be a little bit bigger if you’re going direct to a retail client that may or may not have an advisor versus going directly to a business, an RIA, a wealth management firm, et cetera. Rafael Loureiro: Yeah. What we notice working within these spaces, something triggers you to do your estate planning. I’m not going to ask why you decide to do yours now, but usually it’s related to death in the family, a kid going to college, you buy a new house, you have a new baby, you’re getting married, you get a divorce. Direct to consumer, you have to find the client at that moment for them to consider estate planning as an important thing to do. There’s actually surveys. I think Fidelity put a survey out, that says family is the main reason why people do estate planning. And the second reason is the advisor. So if you work with a financial advisor, most likely he or she’s going to make you do your estate planning. So we did not want to be on the direct to consumer place spending millions and millions of dollars in marketing. We’d rather spend millions and millions of dollars in AI and technology and serve the advisor and empower the advisor to have this conversation and go to you and say, “Hey, Louis, how is it possible that you don’t have your estate planning document? Let’s do this now.” And I know this is uncomfortable. There’s another survey that came out recently saying that some of the advisors don’t want to talk about that. It’s still a hard subject to approach, but we have to have this conversation. Louis Diamond: I would say it almost sounds like an advisor not wanting to talk about their fees. Let’s not talk about that because it’s uncomfortable and no one wants to hear about it. Rafael Loureiro: Oh, you have to have it because they saw a huge lack of education. For example, one thing that we come across all the time, and I know it’s minor, is kids going to college. “Oh yeah, my daughter’s going to college. I don’t have to do anything.” Yeah, you do. She needs an advanced healthcare directive because if you don’t have one and something happens to her, you cannot just go to the hospital and ask for information. They won’t give it to you. We need to educate our clients. We need to do a better job. And I think advisors play that role and we want to empower them to talk about estate planning and tax planning. Louis Diamond: It makes sense. It’s a brilliant strategy because instead of advisors selling against Wealth.com as like, “I can do better and I have a estate planning guy I can refer you to,” it’s you’re working alongside them and you rely upon the advisor to provide the education to be the trigger moment. And I know again, from personal experience, if my advisor didn’t suggest that I should update my estate planning documents because I moved states, I wouldn’t have done it. It’s not like a fun thing to do. It’s an expense, et cetera. So that makes a ton of sense. You’re partnering with the hub or the influencers, if you will, of who’s driving estate planning in this country. It’s a great strategy. Rafael Loureiro: And you said something very important and I want to highlight, the world is very different after COVID. Before COVID, some of these advisors, all their clients were in the same city. I had one estate planning lawyer to help my clients, right? But now with after COVID or during COVID, people moved. “Oh yeah, I’m not living in a farm. Oh, I moved to Montana. Montana is beautiful. I saw Landman or Yellowstone. Now I’m leaving Montana. Landman is in Texas.” How? Now you don’t have estate planning lawyer in Texas. You don’t have estate planning lawyer in Montana. With the right partnership with Wealth.com, now you can serve all your clients regardless where they are in the US because we are present in every jurisdiction and we have lawyers in every jurisdiction. So we empower you to serve clients regardless where they are in the US. Louis Diamond: Very cool. And how about the pricing model? You don’t have to say what it costs, but is it one license that a firm is buying on behalf of their entire client base or is there an incremental cost for each client? And I’m throwing a lot at you. And then third part of the question is, are you seeing advisors charge directly for the Wealth.com estate planning output or are folks wrapping it into their fee as just a value added service as part of their planning and comprehensive wealth management process? Rafael Loureiro: Very good question. My goal, our goal, has always been we want to make estate planning available, democratized estate planning, make it more accessible to the population. So the way we charge is we charge the advisor annual recurring fee. We do not charge per document. I want you to provide estate planning to all your clients. That’s our goal. I don’t want you to think, oh, but that’s going to cost me money. No, all your clients set them all up with estate planning. Are they charging? It depends. So the way I’m going to say this is, I’m going to say that 60% of my advisors are charging not for the documents because they’re not lawyers, they’re charging to help educate you on estate planning. You as a client, you have to go to the process yourself to get the documents. So that’s where an advisor would send an invitation to Wealth.com. You and your wife or your partner, you’re going to go to the workflow and you’re going to get the document at the end. But the advisor is going to set up a call with you, the advisor is going to help you collect the documents. The advisor is going to educate you why estate planning is important. And some of them are charging for this. Some of our advisors, more on the high net worth, alternate high net worth space, you already charge a very good fee to provide your service so they probably provide Ester output, I should say, as a value added service. It depends on the use case. Louis Diamond: Makes sense. So I’ve heard you talk in interviews about a major gap in estate planning between client expectations and what a client is expecting, hoping to get with estate planning, especially when it comes to interacting with their financial advisor and what is actually fundamentally delivered by advisors. So I’m curious, why is there a gap and why do you think that gap has existed for so long? Is it as simple as people don’t like talking about death and it’s expensive or is there a deeper answer? Rafael Loureiro: I think it’s all of the above and your experience is amazing. You pretty much, you are the typical client. You took long to do it. It costs you a lot of money. You’re now like, next time you have to do an update, you’re going to wait five to 10 years to do it because we spend thousands of dollars to get it updated. Why does it have to be like that? And now with AI, and that’s what I think is going to change a lot in the next five years, is why can we not have continuous estate planning? What I mean by that is work with your advisor. I have connection to all your assets. I have connection to CRM. I have connection to your bank account. If you give me access, I don’t need password, but you can actually connect all your assets, I have connection to the portfolio management platform. So as you live your life, as you get married, as you buy a property… You finally decide to buy a property in Tahoe, I get these pings and then I can empower your advisors to say, “Hey, go talk to Louis and say, hey, it’s time to update your estate plan.” Or a rental property outside your home state in California, you need to update your… Or he has just crossed a tax threshold or he just got married or he just had a new beneficiary. My goal is to empower the financial advisor to provide more and more value to this relationship. I’m not trying to replace the financial advisor, but I’m trying to empower him or her to give you more value so him or her becomes more critical for your relationship. Why people haven’t done estate planning I think is a lack of education, is the fear of the cost. “Oh, I have to talk to a lawyer. Oh my gosh, that’s going to cost me $5,000.” I want to make this easier. I want to make this simple. I want to empower the advisor to demystify estate planning and tax planning, make it more accessible, bring the estate planning more to the middle. What I mean by that is why is this estate planning exclusive to the high net worth, ultra-high net worth? Because in that space, 90% of the people have estate planning, 90% of the people. It’s the fear of the cost, I think, and then people don’t want to think about that. Louis Diamond: Yeah. I think that’s exactly right. Yeah. It very much sounds like it’s a win-win. It’s like a next best action type event where you’re giving an advisor on a silver platter a way to add value, which is what I think every advisor wants to do and then it’s a massive value add to the end client. My guess is you don’t have much friction in delivering those sorts of insights to advisors that they can then deliver to their clients. Rafael Loureiro: I would say if you’re not doing it, there is a big risk. You’re going to lose your clients to people that are doing it and they are providing the family office experience. Yeah. Louis Diamond: Yeah. What about the competitive landscape for Wealth.com, whether it’s other FinTechs that are attempting to do something in the space or even just the legacy advisor, the estate planning attorney in town or an advisor’s preferred T&E attorney. How do you think about the competitive landscape in the trust and estate world today? Rafael Loureiro: There are competitors. From day zero when we came in, there were competitors. I don’t see an incumbent. I think now we have became the incumbent. I think there is a segment of the market, just to paint a picture, one third of the advisors are going to retire in the next 10 years. So there is a segment in the market where to your point, they already work with a estate planning lawyer. That’s not a bad thing. They’re like, “Oh yeah, I get leads from this lawyer. My clients are all located in my neighborhood. I don’t need to provide out of state estate planning,” then we’re not going to get there.” But at the same time, if you look at our growth, we’ve been growing and that’s why we just raised a series B, our growth is out there to prove it, we’ve been tripling the company size every year. There’s a need, there’s a demand. Financial advisors are waking up. They are in a very competitive market. They need to provide more to the clients because I feel like investment management, it is becoming table stakes. Financial planning, it is table stakes. So what else can I offer my clients? And that’s why you see some advisory firms offering BillPay. I file your taxes. I’ll get your estate planning done. You got to differentiate yourself. We’re seeing the need. If you look at our penetration, we have now 2,000 firms on the platform and the firms go from independent, a small SMB advisor with one or two advisors in the office, all the way to the top three, three out of the top five banks in the US. We are there, right? Louis Diamond: Wow. It’s interesting. Let’s talk about that. So on the bank side, it’s typically not a segment that is ripe for technological disruption or external tools like this to come in and make a dent. How are banks and very large platforms thinking about Wealth.com? Is it a similar kind of buying journey or decision that an individual RIA or an individual advisor would make or is it a little bit different? Rafael Loureiro: It’s a little bit different. So without mentioning names, these banks, some of these banks that work with high net worth, ultra-high net worth clients, they were providing this summary report that Ester put together, they were, before Esther, but it was taking them 30 to 50 hours. All human labor to put one together, Excel, Visa, PowerPoint, 30 to 50 hours. Even to these very expensive, very wealthy clients, they were only doing once a year. “Hey, here’s your report.” “Oh yeah, but I just sold the house in St. Barts. Can I get a new update?” “No. Next year you’re going to get the update.” I’m not even kidding. It was serious. So they were doing the work, but it was all labor-intensive. Now with Wealth, a much better output, I should say, it’s take minutes. And instead of only reserving these to the very, very wealthy clients, now they can go downstream and offer this to their mass affluent clients and then high net worth clients. They’re all seeing the need. They’re all waking up because they were doing the work, but it was all labor-intensive, like I said, all manual before and they want to automate. Louis Diamond: Very interesting. I definitely want to spend some time talking about Ester. You mentioned it a few times, but before that, I’d say two very real strategic areas that a firm might take on when it comes to estate planning. The first one is a lot of very successful advisors, they cultivate amazing COI referral relationships with attorneys and usually the attorneys are T&E attorneys for obvious reasons. Have you gotten pushback or have you seen that because of Wealth.com, these advisors now are referring less business to these high-powered trust and estates attorneys and then they’re not able to grow their business as much in return. That’s one question if you can weigh in. Rafael Loureiro: I have not heard that. And just to clarify, I think with Wealth, having Wealth as part of your tool framework, you’re going to be able to serve more clients and still leverage your trust estate attorney. And I’ll explain how. For example, we know how to stay our lane. So let’s say you go into the workflow and as part of the workflow, you say, “Hey, I have a special needs child.” At that moment we say, “Stop. Let me put you in touch with a lawyer.” You can decide to use your own lawyer or you can use one of in our network. We have lawyers in every jurisdiction, but it’s up to you. We focus on the revocable trusts and the wealth. If your client requires something more sophisticated, you can still use Wealth.com to map out the client’s situation using Ester. You’re going to be able to see everything they have in place at that moment and then use your relationship, your trust and estate lawyer to make the document update. So I think what we are doing is reserving the most complex case for the trust and estate lawyer if a document needs update, but I don’t think you are breaking that relationship. That relationship will stay there and you’re still going to have that lead exchange, but I don’t have any numbers to answer your question. Louis Diamond: I think that makes sense. It’s not like with Wealth.com, at least not yet. It’s not like there isn’t a role for a T&E attorney and especially for more complex esoteric type situations, an advisor could still refer some of their relationships to a T&E attorney, but they’ll come armed with better information. And also with more clients getting involved with estate planning, there’s also conceivably more opportunities that they can refer out to an estate planning attorney in turn. Rafael Loureiro: Can I use that? You did a much better job than I did. Exactly. Exactly what you said. The difference is now your advisor, your clients are going to be much better informed, that they know exactly what they need from the lawyer. So yeah, 100%. Louis Diamond: Perfect. And then the other one, which is I’d say less commonplace, but it’s a trend. The trend, and you hit on it, that as investments are becoming commoditized or not as differentiated, advisors are being called on to offer more and more services, whether it’s tax preparation in-house or bill pay or picking up clients’ dry cleaning, et cetera. But I think a big area that I’ve seen firms invest in is an in -house trust and estate attorney. Do you think Wealth.com is taking some of the sizzle out of that in-house service or is it just different? Is it two different use cases? Rafael Loureiro: It’s two different uses cases and we actually sell to that use case where if you have your trust estate attorneys in-house, we actually leverage them and they become users on the platform. Going back to my previous answer, now with Wealth.com, you’re going to be able to serve more clients with estate planning. You can actually route some of the use cases back to your trust estate team through Wealth.com. They do whatever they have to do and then you’re able to serve more clients. An example, trust and estate lawyers, they had to read the documents before Wealth.com. They would spend countless hours reading a hundred-page documents. Now with Esther, we do the summarization. We show your trust estate team where all the information was extracted. So instead of reading one document per hour, you’re going to be able to read three documents per hour and visualize the client estate plan and be able to optimize it because we’ve provided insights and suggestions and then the trust and estate lawyer can provide their own and say, “Hey, no, I agree with this one,” or “I think we should also do this.” I think you’re going to optimize the use of your trust estate team. You’re not going to get rid of them. No. Louis Diamond: It’s more so you’re automating the high value differentiated work. It also kind of sounds like, I don’t know when eMoney or MoneyGuidePro came into the mainstream, but it’s almost a difference between a paraplanner for a firm, manually creating pie charts in Excel and PowerPoint and analyzing a bunch of stuff and then eMoney and MoneyGuidePro and NaviPlan and all these companies come about and all of a sudden a lot of the work is automated. And it’s not like a paraplanner is out of work. They just become the experts, the users of the platform and they can allocate their attention to higher value, more bespoke work rather than we’ll say more of the factory kind of below the line things that was taking up a lot of their time. Rafael Loureiro: Absolutely. I like to use the analogy of the shoemaker. In the past, the shoemaker would make one shoe. It would be a beautiful shoe, but he would make one shoe a week or every two days. Now you have specialized agents. All that agent does is read estate planning documents. All that agent does is enriching the documents with insight and observations and looking to all the legal law changes that happened recently. So now you’re able to still make the same high quality shoe, but just at a higher volume. And you have a lot of dedicated workers doing one thing and doing one thing extremely well. So my goal is to empower the shoemaker. My goal is to empower the advisor and with a thousand analysts, a thousand paraplanners. So just making my job more efficient. Louis Diamond: I love it. You fit in Ester a good bit. It seems fairly clear what Ester’s doing. Sounds like an amazing value add. Just given the pace of AI innovation and I don’t think anyone knows where it’s going, but what are you most excited about Ester being able to do either now or in the future and what’s the vision if you can project out a year, which seems like an eternity in AI time, what’s on the dream board for what Ester’s going to be able to do for your Wealth.com clients? Rafael Loureiro: As a technologist, I love this question. I see AI in three distinct phases. You had the first phase of Ester in 2022, 2023 when we launched, which was summaries. It was amazing summarizing data. Some of these clients, Louis, think about this, some of these clients, they have 13 documents in place. They had every type of irrevocable trust you can imagine plus a revocable trust in place. They had very complicated assets, very complex assets. So Ester was amazing in summarizing. That was phase number one. Phase number two is now being able to augment. You read the data, you see an opportunity and you create a task that’s right there in front of the advisor saying, “Hey, I think you should reach out to this client and include this report with some of these observations. Click this button if you agree.” You still involve the advisor, the human is still in the loop. And that’s what we are with Ester right now. We do that. We assess the data, we see the opportunity, we involve the advisor, advisor get involved and say, “Yes, let’s do this,” and click a button, an email is triggered, our report is attached. Here we go. The third phase and that’s coming next and very soon is now you have an agent acting on the behalf of the advisor. I still want to make sure, and I want to make this very clear, I don’t want to get myself in trouble, the devices always evolve, but you have all these specific agents, that’s tax planning agent, that’s the estate planning agent, work independently, connected to the world, extremely well-trained with thousands and thousands of documents that we’ve seen over the years, finding opportunities, creating the tasks, creating the emails, creating the report, having everything ready to go, just waiting for the advisor to say, “Do it.” And we do this enough to the point where the advisor is going to say, “All right, you don’t need my permission anymore to do this specific task. Go.” You connect to the IRS, you download the text transcript, you crunch to this data, you create a report and it’s ready to go. The other thing too is I want to be able, my goal in the next year, a year and a half, is I want to continue estate planning. Up to this point, estate planning has been exactly like you described. You go to a lawyer, you pay thousands and thousands of dollars and those documents start collecting dust in a shelf somewhere while you live your life. And being from this space, that’s not how it works. There is new legislation being passed OBBA became like you crossed tax threshold, you have liquidated events, you get married, you get divorced, you buy real estate property, so on and so forth and that document is already stale. Why does it have to be that way? Now with AI, now with the technology we have in place, it won’t be. I promise you. Louis Diamond: Very cool. That’s exciting. That sounds like the perfect evolution of AI from summary, just here’s something you can read quickly to suggesting action, to then taking action. It does seem like the flow that it’s been and I’m sure there’s 15 other flows from here that we don’t even know yet. Or you probably do because you’re in this, but for me, I can’t even imagine what phase four and five are going to look like for you. Rafael Loureiro: Yes, it’s exciting. Louis Diamond: Definitely is. I saw, when I was doing some research for this that Wealth.com announced a fairly major strategic partnership with Dynasty Financial Partners, embedding Ester into their Dynasty desktop. What do you think this partnership says about where the business is going and how do you expect advisors to really take advantage of this in practice? Rafael Loureiro: It was a new development. We’re super excited about the Dynasty Financial Partnership. Before, if you look at before this partnership, we would have to empower advisor one by one with a Wealth.com license. With this partnership with Dynasty, every advisor in the Dynasty family or using the Dynasty desktop is going to be able to use Ester. So they’re going to be furnished with an AI intelligence that they can ask any estate planning questions, they can get tax planning questions answered. They’re going to be able to upload their clients’ estate planning documents and get a summary with opportunities, with everything that they can do for those estate planning documents. I think it fits perfectly well for enterprise IRAs, wire houses, this solution. Instead of doing one by one, you can actually have AI for all your advisors at once answering their most basic questions and taking action. That’s literally like the agents I was trying to describe. So that’s just the first step in that direction and we’re super excited about this. Louis Diamond: Very cool. Let me ask you another one. So you said earlier that as investment management becomes more commoditized that advisors not only have to offer more services and provide more value, but they also have to differentiate from the advisor or the firm across the street to provide more family office services, if you will. But let’s say, and this will be great for you, Wealth.com becomes like air that everyone’s breathing. It almost becomes like financial planning tool, e-Money. It’s commonplace. Now it’s commoditized across the space, it’s not a differentiator anymore to offer financial planning. As Wealth.com expands more firms work with the platform, what do you think is the next layer or next level of differentiation that your clients then can point to if it’s no longer maybe a couple of years from now that we use Wealth.com that we help with estate planning? Rafael Loureiro: Wow, that’s an interesting one, and approach my wife and bring ideas and suggestions. For me, if I can make that happen where the financial advisor is helping with my taxes, so when it’s tax time, we just have to have a one-hour meeting and we’re ready to click a button and have everything done, that can help me with BillPay. And think about like high net worth and ultra-high net worth people where it becomes extremely complicated to do BillPay properly because you have to pay from the right account, from the right trust. If they can take this off my plate so I can focus 100% in my business and my family, it’s mission accomplished. If that means that they’re going to walk my dog to make this happen, I know I’m exaggerating here, but pick up my laundry like the example you use, I think you’re going to have to do this. That in my mind is how these financial advisors survive the AI revolution. It is that personal relationship. It’s knowing me well. It’s spending more time with me than once a quarter. And with AI, with the right AI, and I know AI, there’s a lot of smoke in this space and very little fire, but with the right agents, with the right workflows, one advisor is going to be able to serve more than a hundred clients. Because right now the ratio is a hundred clients per advisor, maybe you’re going to be able to serve like 200, 250 well. Serve them well, knowing them well, knowing them personally. I think that’s going to happen in the next couple of years. Louis Diamond: I think that’s right. It’s more so like the intangibles that an advisor has. Their secret sauce isn’t going to be necessarily we offer these seven things. It’s going to be, I really get you. I understand you. It’s the advisor’s personal relationship and empathy with that client and all the years that they’ve known them. And then it’s just using all these different tools to aid that relationship. It kind of sounds like that’s what you’re saying. It’s all the other stuff that advisors do that might be different today, over time, people catch up and that becomes commoditized similar to we offer financial planning and that’s a differentiator. Now it’s, if they don’t offer financial planning, it’s a problem. Rafael Loureiro: Yeah, 100%. You got it. Yes, it is the intangibles. That’s perfect. Louis Diamond: Okay. I got two more questions for you. What’s one thing you wish more advisors understood about estate planning that they still miss today? Rafael Loureiro: I think there is an education component. Just deploying Wealth.com and expecting is going to work with your clients. It’s not like that. You need to be willing to have the conversation like your advisor did it with you. You need to have the tough call and say, “Hey, are you ready? Do you have estate planning in place? Why not?” And then having that conversation. Louis Diamond: And I would imagine too, it’s also cool, I got all these documents so instead of it getting locked in the safe or locked in the drawer, it’s also incumbent on the advisor to explain the documents. “Hey, these are a bunch of stuff in here that whatever, we don’t have to get into, but here’s the four key things about this document that you should understand. The power of attorney we’ve nominated is your father-in-law. Your proceeds are going to get distributed one-third to your son, a quarter to your daughter,” et cetera. It’s going to be those things and translating the documents into real words that clients are going to understand. Rafael Loureiro: 100%. That is critical because I’m a software engineer, I’m not equipped to be reading a hundred pages document and trying to understand everything that’s there without … Now with AI, you can actually ask Claude to summarize and Gemini to summarize it, but that was not the case three years ago. So that education component is critical. And some of my advisors are actually very successful, I should say. A smaller firm in this case, I’m not going to say the names, I don’t have that permission to say their name, but they are actually doing these estate planning webinars as a lead generation. Because clients are curious about this. Sometimes if you don’t ask them, you’re never going to know, but they’re probably very curious about estate planning. They’re probably very concerned they don’t have the documents in place. Even the ones that have the documents, they’re probably concerned that they need an update and they haven’t done it. So by doing this webinar, they feel more comfortable just going to the event. They know they’re not going to be the center of attention and then asking a question or hear people asking questions. Some of my most successful clients are actually using webinar as a lead generation to explain state planning. Louis Diamond: It’s a great idea. It’s like you’re empowering the advisor to talk more about estate planning. It’s no longer this bugaboo that was too complex or not in their swim lane. It’s empowering them to lead with, it sounds like. Rafael Loureiro: 100% Louis Diamond: Amazing. And last question, if you were an ambitious advisor building a new firm from scratch today, what would you tell them to focus on to create a more durable, harder to replicate future-proof business? Rafael Loureiro: That’s a great question because the factory floor of a hundred years ago, is no longer work. If you have a chance to start from the beginning, it’s a new world. It’s a new world for companies like ours. Even for companies like ours that are in the bleeding edge of technology, everything is changing with AI. How I organize my teams is changing with AI. So I would say select Wealth.com. No, that’s … I’m kidding. I’m kidding, but yes, I’ll say select the right tools, use AI properly, it’s no longer a headcount game. I’m not saying you’re not going to need help, you’re going to need help, but make sure the tools are talking to each other because it is a new age. It’s an agent about speed, about being able to offer more service quicker, about increasing the relationship, the intangibles, to your point. It’s no longer once a quarter call to your clients. So if I had the chance to do everything again, if I had a chance even to start Wealth.com again, it’s different how you organize your team in this age of AI. AI is going to be bigger than the industrial revolution. Trust me, the shockwave is huge. To your point earlier in this call, we’re getting a big jump every month. It’s no longer every year, every month there is something new coming from AI. So if you start your firm again, select the right partners, select the right tools and then hit the ground running. Louis Diamond: Perfect. That’s amazing. Rafael, this has been so fun. I learned a ton from you. You just have a way of storytelling and I absolutely love the why behind Wealth.com, the personal experience that probably a lot of listeners have had as the light bulb moment. And instead of just complaining about it, you actually took action and now are creating the future of estate planning, empowering advisors to offer estate planning to their clients, getting more folks in this country set up with trust and estates and wills, et cetera. So I think it’s amazing what you’re doing and I’m very excited to continue to watch your success. Rafael Loureiro: Thank you. Thank you for the opportunities and just to do a final plug, estate planning, tax planning, stay tuned. There is more coming. Louis Diamond: There we go. Thanks so much. Rafael Loureiro: Thank you. Mindy Diamond: As a financial advisor, you hold yourself to the highest standards of integrity, honesty, and credibility. You are successful because you take your professional responsibility seriously and are dedicated to your clients. But are you living your best business life? Are your goals aligned with your firms or could a better option exist? Should I Stay or Should I Go? is a book written with you in mind it’s a self-guided journey that walks you through the key steps that we take with our advisor clients. This strategic thought process and roadmap to professional self-discovery is designed to help you ask the right questions and think critically and objectively, whether you’re considering change or not. Learn how to get your copy at diamond-consultants.com/thebook. Why AI Matters Now: Filling the Estate Planning Gap with Wealth.com A conversation with Louis Diamond and Rafael Loureiro, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer at Wealth.com. Louis Diamond: Welcome to the latest episode of our podcast series for financial advisors. Today’s episode is Why AI Matters Now: Filling the Estate Planning Gap with Wealth.com. It’s a conversation with Rafael Loureiro, the firm’s Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer. I’m Louis Diamond and this is the Diamond Podcast for Financial Advisors. Mindy Diamond: At Diamond Consultants, we help elite advisors identify the right environment for their businesses to thrive, whether that’s at a wire house, boutique, or independent firm. With nearly three decades of experience, we’ve guided thousands of advisors and represented more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in assets transitioned, and each year, one in four advisors managing a billion dollars or more who change firms are our clients. Our process is education driven and based on building relationships, starting as your strategic partner well before you’re even thinking of a move. To schedule a confidential conversation, call us at 908-879-1002. Wondering why advisors change firms and where they’re headed? Are transition deals going up or down? Those very questions and more inspired us to create our annual Advisor Transition Report. It’s the award-winning data-driven resource designed for advisors that connects the dots between the motivations around movement and the firm’s appetite for top talent. Arm yourself with the knowledge you need to make smart decisions. Download your copy at diamond-consultants.com/transitionreport. Louis Diamond: In the wealth management world, estate planning has largely lived in a separate lane. It’s a topic advisors may raise with clients then hand off to an attorney and eventually a set of documents come back, filed away, rarely revisited, and often disconnected from the rest of the planning process. That structure has been in place for a long time and for the most part, it’s gotten unquestioned, but when you step back, it creates a gap between what do clients expect from their advisor and what actually gets delivered when it comes to estate planning. Rafael Loureiro, co-founder and CEO of Wealth.com, ran straight into the gap after a planning event of his own which should have been a coordinated process, felt fragmented, manual, and surprisingly opaque. And likewise, I recall the same type of disjointed experience in my own estate planning process. It’s experiences like these that became the starting point for building Wealth.com. What makes this story interesting isn’t just that they’re using AI but how they’re using it inside the estate planning process, and it’s how AI allows the model itself to change from a one-time legal event to something that evolves alongside the client, from static documents to a system that can actually interpret, update, and surface what matters, from a disconnected handoff to something the advisor can actively lead. In my conversation with Rafael, we get into how that plays out in practice, how tools like Ester move from summarizing estate documents to identifying gaps, to prompting next steps, and eventually preparing action on behalf of the advisor, because when AI moves from simply organizing information to helping drive decisions, estate planning stops being a periodic task and starts to look more like a continuous part of the advice process. So let’s dive in. Rafael, thank you for coming on our show today. Rafael Loureiro: My pleasure, Louis. Thank you for having me here. Louis Diamond: Of course. Let’s jump in and in researching you and speaking to you in the past, I got to admit, you had a very different path into the wealth management industry probably than anyone I’ve ever interviewed. So can you walk us through your background briefly and early professional endeavors? Rafael Loureiro: Absolutely. The accent that you hear is Brazilian. So I’ve been in the US for 25 years. I’m a software engineer by trade, came here as a HMB, been involved with different companies over the years and then most recently before Wealth.com. I was a chief technology officer with a fraud prevention company, nothing to do with wealth management, but by selling that company, it’s how the Wealth.com story started. Louis Diamond: Perfect. And I was referring to also some of your early career endeavors even before founding your last company, if you’re comfortable sharing that. Rafael Loureiro: Yeah, absolutely. I’ve been involved with four different startups in different spaces. One of them was in, if you remember all the way back to 2008, the real estate prices, the first startup with foreclosures. So when houses went into foreclosures, me and my partner, we created a system to index that. I also had work on a photo album company. It became a lifetime business. It’s still running. I was the CTO and I did my share of consulting. I used to work for Accenture, Avanade, and then a home builder Fortune 500 companies. So I have a ton of experience in the technology space before Wealth.com. Louis Diamond: Perfect. And you mentioned the last business that you started that I believe sold to LexisNexis. Can you walk through what that business was? Rafael Loureiro: Yeah. So I did not start the business. I joined the business before Series A. The person that started the business, Rei Carvalho, he’s actually Wealth.com chairman. So the team is still together. The US, San Francisco, New York, offices in Sydney, Singapore, London. We serve clients like Coinbase, grew very fast and then got acquired by LexisNexis in 2020 during peak COVID. Think about, we literally signed the documents, popped the champagne on March 2020. No vaccine. Louis Diamond: Oh, my God. Rafael Loureiro: We literally popped the champagne and we all went back home to work from home because that was the guy that’s from LexisNexis. Through that experience, selling a company, one thing you usually do, it’s a big liquidity event and estate planning is always related to big moments. You get married, someone in your family die, you have a new kid, you have a liquidated event. So I work with a financial advisor. They’re amazing. They helped me with financial planning, wealth management, saved me a lot of money insurance. But when it was time to do the estate planning, Louis, my experience was, “Hey, Rafael, we always work with this lawyer, go talk to the lawyer.” And then it was a completely broken process. First, because it was COVID and I had to go see the lawyer face-to-face. That was weird right there. Second, because I was expecting the lawyer to know everything about me because my advisor knows everything about me, know about my life situation, know about liquid event, know about my kids, rental houses, everything and then the engineer. I know what I told the lawyer, but do I know for sure that everything I told the lawyer end up in the document? No, I don’t. Long story short, otherwise it is a long story, we’re having a virtual coffee. I don’t know if you remember everyone, big beard, long hair, everyone working from home, and then somehow all the Emailage C-level team and founders, the co-founders, we start complaining about state plan. Even another example, my chairman, the Wealth.com chairman, Emailage CEO, Rei Carvalho, he was like, “Hey, Rafael, I’m done with the summer heat in Arizona. I’m moving to Denver. I’m going for cooler weathers.” Literally the moment he moved to Denver, he gets a call from his estate planning lawyer, welcome him to Denver and saying, “Hey, we need to update your documents. “But I just spent thousands of dollars creating my documents.” “Yeah, but you live in a new state, you have to optimize your documents.” At that moment, Louis, we’re like, “Where there’s a problem, there is an opportunity,” and the company was born. Louis Diamond: I find the best company origin stories, it’s you have that, you have a personal experience or a moment where you have a realization that t
From Profit21 and ERP consolidation to AI-powered knowledge capture, Renata Morgan shares how modern distributors are evolving beyond "the way we've always done it." What happens when one of the biggest names in HVAC manufacturing invests in independent distribution? A new entity emerges, swiftly followed by conversations around safeguarding the distributor's company culture, autonomy, and institutional knowledge. Jason connects with Renata Morgan, president of Rheem Northeast Distribution (RND), a collection of four manufacturer-owned distributors, to learn more about Rheem's foray into this side of the channel. They discusses innovating under an established brand umbrella, retaining critical process knowledge as experienced employees retire, and giving back to the professional community. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Applied AI for Distributors 2026 HARDI BLUE HAWK Epicor Prophet21 RECOMMENDED EPISODES Agentic AI and the Future of Distribution with Ian Heller of Distribution Strategy Group CONNECT WITH JASON LinkedIn CONNECT WITH RENATA Rheem Northeast Distribution LinkedIn *** Distribution Talk is produced by The Distribution Team, a consulting services firm dedicated to helping wholesale distribution clients remove barriers to profitability, generate wealth, and achieve personal goals. This episode was edited by The Creative Impostor Studios Special thanks to our sponsors for this episode: Motivate, the #1 Distributor AI Automation Platform. Mention Distribution Talk for 50% off of installation. INxSQL Distribution Software, integrated distribution ERP software designed for the wholesale and distribution industry. Connected Peers, connecting key employees in distribution's leading organizations.
What does the future of CRNA education actually look like? In this episode of Airway Exchange, hosts Nickie and Greg sit down with Hallie Evans, DNP, CRNA, APRN, CNE, FAANA, to explore some of the biggest challenges and opportunities facing CRNA education today, including faculty shortages, mentorship, innovative teaching methods, competency-based learning, and the growing role of AI in healthcare education. Here's some of what you'll hear in this episode:
Tim and Nick Friedell discuss the main themes and interesting details from Steve Kerr and Mike Dunleavy's pressers. What will the next few years of the Warriors look like? To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In this episode, we welcome back Kieren James-Lubin to explore the evolution of blockchain infrastructure from the earliest days of Ethereum to the emerging world of "HardFi", programmable finance backed by real-world assets. The conversation also includes a special reveal from the team building the financial infrastructure backed by hard assets like gold and silver, offering listeners an early look at the launch of tokenized commodities and an on-chain collateral market. Long before institutional digital asset adoption, the team behind Strato was building Ethereum infrastructure for enterprises, governments, and global industrial organizations, helping launch one of the first Blockchain-as-a-Service offerings with Microsoft Azure and co-founding the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance. For over a decade, they have operated blockchain systems in production environments where reliability, compliance, auditability, and settlement infrastructure mattered. Remember to Stay Current! To learn more, visit us on the web at https://www.morgancreekcap.com/morgan-creek-digital/. To speak to a team member or sign up for additional content, please email mcdigital@morgancreekcap.com Legal Disclaimer This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice or a solicitation for the sale of any security, advisory, or other service. Investments related to the themes and ideas discussed may be owned by funds managed by the host and podcast guests. Any conflicts mentioned by the host are subject to change. Listeners should consult their personal financial advisors before making any investment decisions.
With wars raging and supply chains blocked, we’re in an era of geopolitical chaos. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi talks with Gerald Butts, chairman of the political risk consultancy Eurasia Group and former chief of staff to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. They discuss how investors and companies are responding to the energy shock, where the green transition might falter and who will emerge winners a decade from now. Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to Sommer Saadi, Mohsis Andam, Sharon Chen and Laura Millan. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In this episode of Healthcare Happy Hour, host David Saltzman sits down with Daniel Metcalf, president of CyberFin and co-leader of NABIP's Cybersecurity & AI Task Force, to discuss how cyber threats and artificial intelligence are rapidly reshaping the health insurance and benefits industry. Daniel explains why the task force was created, the growing risks facing agencies and clients, and how increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks are targeting both businesses and vulnerable consumers. The conversation explores practical steps advisors can take to strengthen cybersecurity, comply with evolving regulations, and prepare incident response plans. Daniel also shares insights into how AI is transforming agency operations, improving scalability and client engagement, while highlighting the importance of responsible adoption, data protection, and maintaining the human relationships that remain central to the advisor role.
In this episode of Aerospace Unplugged, our host Adam Kress is joined by Thea Feyereisen, Distinguished Fellow at Honeywell Aerospace, and Captain Steve Jangelis, Aviation Safety Chair at the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA).They dive into aviation safety from two vantage points, from the perspective of the pilot, and the other from someone who has studied pilots and helps design the cockpits they use.Together, they explore how aviation safety is rapidly evolving, the role pilots play in influencing safety efforts, the growing impact of artifiical intelligence and more. Episode Highlights:• The Evolution of Aviation Safety: Discover how aviation safety priorities have shifted in the past decade toward emerging risks and data-driven insights from aircraft and operations, and what that means for pilots and the role of human factors. • Airspace Transformation and Critical Need for Air Traffic Control (ATC) Modernization: Learn why ATC modernization efforts are crucial for the industry, and what changes must take place to make it successful.• Impact of Technology, Pilot Shortage and Fatigue: Learn how pilot shortages and fatigue are straining airline operations, and how technology, smarter scheduling and fatigue risk science can reduce workload and keep crews alert.• AI in Aviation and the Road Ahead: Explore how AI is being leveraged today to analyze flight and safety data, the pilots' perspective on AI as a decision-support tool and why it's critical to keep humans in the loop.
Stanley 1913 has moved far beyond a single blockbuster product. Graham Nearn, Chief Product and Sustainability Officer, PMI WW Brands, LLC (Stanley 1913), sits down with Jeremy Goldman to discuss how a brand with a century of history stays absolutely relevant in a trend-driven market. Inside the Episode: - The Credibility Ladder: Why every expansion must pass the four filters of quality, originality, invention, and mission to avoid overextending the brand. - Lifestyle Evolution: How the Vitalize collection and the new Clutch Bottle move the company beyond hydration and into everyday essentials. - Universal Truths: Adapting a global strategy to meet hyper-local needs, from car culture in the US to commute culture in Asia. - Circular Success: A look at the award-winning Take Back program that reclaims 96 percent of materials for the supply chain. - Predictive Learning: Using real-time social dialogue and data to inform the next move before the market catches up. Stop managing a blockbuster product. Start fueling the human experience.
Between the rise of AI and its ability to "clone" a coach, the whiplash of being on Threads and finding out your fave coach is kinda a Mean Girl, and the fall of celebrity coaches, there seems to be a crack in the coaching space.What's ACTUALLY going on? And perhaps most importantly, what's next?I share some off-the-cuff thoughts on how I see the online coaching landscape evolving in the coming months (and years tbh!)My predictions include pivoting to totally unexpected offers, the continued surge of IRL experiences, longer programs, "underground visibility", redefining what enough is, going back to school, and how building institutions ourselves could be the key to staying power.What do you think? Slide in my DMs and let me know or tag me on socials with your thoughts, I have a feeling this is a bigger conversation to be had amongst all of us...Connect with Chelsea:
For the full episode, subscribe here to Inside Call me Back. ____ Subscribe to Ark News Daily ____ This is a sneak peek from the members-only edition of Inside Call me Back, where Dan is joined by Ark Media contributor Amit Segal to discuss whether Israel's war with Iran can be considered a success while the regime and parts of the nuclear threat remain intact, and whether Israel today has a leader, political movement, or civic vision capable of defining the country's next chapter. In the full episode, Amit also takes on listener questions about: Netanyahu's responsibility for October 7 How long does he plan to stay in power? Trump's Gaza “Riviera” plan in hindsight Amit's thoughts on his father's controversial essay about Diaspora Jews Whether the country could be headed back into another cycle of repeat elections To hear the full conversation, subscribe to Inside Call Me Back here. Read Amit's father's piece here. More Ark Media: Want to join Ark Media? Check out our careers page for new openings. Explore Israel Votes Listen to For Heaven's Sake Listen to What's Your Number? Watch Call me Back on YouTube Newsletters | Ark Media | Amit Segal | Nadav Eyal Instagram | Ark Media | Dan X | Dan Dan Senor & Saul Singer's book, The Genius of Israel Get in touch Credits: Ilan Benatar, Brittany Cohen, Ava Weiner, Martin Huergo, Mariangeles Burgos, and Yuval Semo
AI is not your competitive advantage. It never was. And the entrepreneurs who stop chasing complexity and start doubling down on their humanity are the ones who are going to build the most successful, most fulfilling, most profitable businesses of the next decade. In this episode, Kelly unpacks the eight pillars of the activation era: the framework she has been developing through the Miracle Hour launch. This is not about AI tools, agents, or automation stacks. This is about what human productivity actually looks like when AI handles 98% of what we used to do... and where the irreplaceable value of a human being actually lives in a business. Kelly pulls back the curtain on the results from the Miracle Hour launch and live experience: her highest livestream numbers ever, highest sales conversions ever, and nearly a million dollars in wins generated by participants in 48 hours, and makes the case that all of it was built on the simplest foundation possible. If you have been making your business harder than it needs to be, this episode is your permission slip to stop. Timestamps: 00:45: The Miracle Hour book launch recap 03:00: Why Kelly believes this book was God's timing, and why the AI explosion made the Miracle Hour more urgent than ever 05:30: The conviction that complexity kills growth, and why Kelly has been simplifying everything while everyone else adds more 07:30: What the activation era actually means, what human productivity looks like when AI accounts for 98% of what we used to do 09:00: Applying precise intent and discernment instead of high volumes of output 10:30: Making authentic human connection your main competitive advantage 11:45: Why highly curated smaller settings are converting at 62% higher closing rates 13:00: Why buyers are moving to the top and the bottom and the middle is disappearing 14:30:: Why 84% of premium buyers prefer substantive materials like newsletters over short-form media 15:30: Analog interface: why premium buyers are taking purchasing decisions offline and what that means for your business 16:30: Prioritizing needle-moving work over busywork that creates an illusion of progress 17:30: Community-led growth Resources: Order The Miracle Hour book on Amazon and send your receipt to miraclehourbook@kellyroachinternational.com for instant audiobook access and an invite to the launch debrief on May 13th at 1pm Eastern: available on Amazon: https://a.co/d/05EfhMF0 Join Virtual Business School for just $97 a month, no contract, for guided Miracle Hour every Wednesday at 1pm Eastern, Closing Mastery with Kelly, monthly marketing masterclasses with Danielle, our exclusive community, full sales template bundle and limited-time content creation bonus: https://www.virtualbusinessschool.com/virtual-business-school Register for Substack Mastery on May 15th: https://accelerator.virtualbusinessschool.com/substack--92237
You don't have a strategy problem. You don't have a discipline problem. You don't have a manifestation problem. You have a space problem. The version of your business — and your life — that's trying to come through this season cannot land in a full vessel. And in this episode, I'm getting deeply honest with you about the sacred summer reset I'm doing right now, in real time, to make room for what's next. Because here's the truth I've watched play out in my life over and over again: every meaningful manifestation has been preceded by a release. The brand collaborations. The revenue milestones. The relationships. The identity shifts. Every single one of them came in after I cleared something out — never before. Manifestation is not a push. It is a pull. And the only thing standing between you and the era you've been calling in is what you're still holding. This episode is for the woman who has read every book, done every visualization, written every affirmation — and still feels like the next level of her life is taking forever to arrive. Let me show you why. Inside this episode: – Why decluttering is the most underrated manifestation practice on the internet (and the pattern I've seen in my own life that proves it) – The three layers of clutter most entrepreneurs only address one of — and why the layer you're skipping is the exact one blocking your next era – A behind-the-scenes look at what I'm personally clearing out of my business, my home, my friend group, and my self-talk this summer – The energetic reframe that changed how I approach every season: "What do I need to release?" instead of "What should I add?" – What I'm calling in once I finish — said out loud, named on the mic, made real Mentioned in this episode: