Fintech Impact

In this 29th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira interviews Danish Yusef, the CEO and Co-Founder of Zensurance, a Canadian organization that manages the insurance needs of startups and small businesses. ●     01:09: – Zensurance helps small business manage and curate their insurance affairs.●     01:40: – Danish is a software engineer by trade, and worked as a developer at IBM.●     03:50: – Most people in the insurance industry have grown up in the industry— change is slow.●     05:15: – These days you can’t buy stock in insurance companies.●     07:30: – Zensurance is building internal risk models to assess the risk of a business type based on factors like industry, location, and size.●     10:40: – Zensurance started with technology companies, then they added construction, health care, consultants, cannabis, and sports—general liability and cyber insurance are popular policies.●     13:26: – Auto insurance could phase out in the next 10-15 years.●     21:10: – Zensurance currently works with about 25 insurance companies.●     26:03: – The Ryerson DMZ growth accelerator program was beneficial to Zensurance, and November 2016 was when the first round of funding came through.●     30:57: – The Zensurance team is about 17 people, only in Ontario and Alberta at the moment, and have helped over 5,000 businesses.●     32:15: – Danish is excited about the possibility of being able to automate advice. 3 Key Points:1. A small $500 insurance policy could be touched by eight different people before its   issued.2. Two-thirds of Zensurance customers by their services after hours.3. Zensurance started with technology companies, then they added   construction, health care, consultants, cannabis, and sports. Tweetable Quotes:“Zensurance helps small business manage their insurance.” – Danish Yusef. “We (Zensurance) work in the property and casualty insurance space, not the life, and health and benefits.” – Danish Yusef.“Auto insurance is probably going to go away in 10 or 15 years. So the industry is betting on cyber security taking the place of auto insurance, because half of all premiums are on the auto side.” – Danish Yusef. Resources Mentioned:Facebook – Jason Pereira’s FacebookLinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedInhttps://www.finally.technology/ – Website for Finally TechnologyDanish Yusef – LinkedIn for Danish YusefTwitter – Twitter for Danish YusefZensurance – Website for Zensurance  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this 28th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, Jason Pereira interviews Eva Wong, the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Borrowwell. As a Canadian credit score and lending recommendation engine, Borrowwell helps people manage their credit score and gives them advice on how to apply for credit cards and other solutions to improve their credit.●     01:14 – Borrowwell was the first company to give Canadians their credit scores for free.●     02:07 – Eva Wong doesn’t come from financial or business background.●     04:20 – When you carry a balance on a credit card you are actually borrowing money on their previous purchases but on every purchase after that—at over 20%.●     04:50 – Borrowwell offers loans from ($1,000-35,000) online that can be customized interest rate (under 6% into the mid-20%) based on their credit score.●     07:00 – They are funded by Equitable Bank, a few angel investors, and VCs that include White Star Capital and Portage.●     09:21 – Many people are unfamiliar with their credit file and advice.●     13:11 – They currently have 45 teams members in Toronto after starting 3 years ago and have over 500,000 members that they serve.●     14:47 – They work with about 40 partners and most of the largest banks.●     18:09 – Factors for determining interest rates for their loans include: credit scores, debt service ratio, credit utilization, and the loan amount.●     20:56 – Information is updated once a month.●     22:54 – Diversity is slowing improving.●     26:00 – Eva is excited about the impact that Borrowwell is having.3 Key Points:1. Borrowwell helps consumers by giving them a free credit score, offering a loan product, along with credit advice.2. Borrowwell offers a loan product online that can be customized interest rate (under 6% into the mid-20%) based on their credit score.3. There are currently 45 teams members in Toronto working for Borrowwell and over 500,000 members that they serve.Tweetable Quotes:-     “At Borrowwell, our mission is to help Canadians make great decisions and credit.” – Eva Wong.-     “If you look at bank profits by country…if you look after China Japan, and the U.S., all of which have much, much larger populations than Canada, Canada is the next.” – Eva Wong.-     “We just crossed 500,000 members, which we think makes us one of the largest Fintech companies in Canada. ”– Eva Wong. Resources Mentioned:● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook● Woodgate Financial – Website for Woodgate Financial● Eva Wong – LinkedIn for Eva Wong● @eva_toronto – Twitter for Eva Wong● Borrowwell – Website for Borrowwell Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this 27th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, Jason Pereira interviews Davyde Wachell, a Stanford graduate in artificial intelligence and the CEO of Responsive AI. ●   01:26 – The integral trust of clients comes from: service excellence and actionable insights. ●   02:30 – Davyde studied AI before it became overwhelmingly popular. ●   03:20 – Responsive AI identifies through aspects of who the client is or where they are in their life, that could be acted on to help both the client themselves and the enterprise serving the client.●   08:50 – Davyde believes that Canadian institutions and culture have a specific way of looking at innovation, which Is very consensus-driven ●   11:16 – 2017 and 2018 were the years of “fake news.”●   17:25 – How do you make sure people live up to the policy?●   18:41 – The future for the company is to see how wealth management can add value for clients and financial advisors. ●   20:14 – Process automation and AI create the chance to create better outcomes and push away tasks that slow down the workflow. ●   21:25 – Human beings using AI tools will outperform raw AI and raw human beings. ●   26:17 – Davyde foresees that the AI hype will calm down in the next three years and people will realize transfer learning and complex heterogeneous problems aren’t easily solved with AI.3 Key Points:1. The integral trust of clients comes from: service excellence and actionable insights. 2. Responsive AI technology is only for wealth management serving mass affluent and high net worth clients. 3. Humans that use AI tools will outperform raw AI and raw humans. Tweetable Quotes:-   “Those of us tracking wealth tech know that digital is a big story, and it’s expected to reach $4.6 trillion by 2022.” – Davyde Wachell. -   “Wealth is built on trust. And our clients will trust us when we serve them well and they feel taken care of, and when they trust our judgement.” – Davyde Wachell.-   “What our AI looks at is identifying through aspects of who the client is or where they are in their life, that could be acted on to help both the client themselves and the enterprise serving the client.” – Davyde Wachell.  Resources Mentioned:● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook● Woodgate Financial – Website for Woodgate Financial● Davyde Wachell – LinkedIn for Davyde Wachell● Responsive AI – Website for Responsive AI Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this 26th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira has an interview with Don Whalen, the Co-Founder and CEO of PreciseFP, a Unites States-based questionnaire company. PreciseFP makes it easy for financial advisers to make custom questionnaires that integrate into various utilities. ●01:03: – PreciseFP is involved in gathering data and engaging.●02:14: – Don started off in IT for a company called SAP.●04:49: – PreciseFP is highly customizable for financial advisors through a secured process.●08:14: – Advisors initially thought that clients wouldn’t fill out the questionnaires and that older people would feel alienated—neither was the case.●14:47: – PreciseFP’sonly competition is “Google Docs, paper, and PDF.”●15:35: – Canada, United States, and the United Kingdom are among locations with PreciseFP access.●18:50: – Version 5: simplifying the interface, client surveys, more template library content, and IPS.●21:42: – The current price for PreciseFP is $60 a month for a one-user seat and ID sharing isn’t allowed—$30 per additional user.●26:09: – The company has 10 members, and mostly are developers.●27:11: – Don is excited about talking to advisors, and listening to the way PreciseFP has transformed their business. 3 Key Points:1.PreciseFP is a data gathering and a client engagement platform that has been around for 12 years.2.Two initial fears of PreciseFP that proved to be wrong: clients wouldn’t fill it out and older people wouldn’t want to use it.3. Version 5 of PreciseFP will have data quality measures. Tweetable Quotes:-“The power of our system, of our platform, the advisor can make the experience custom.”– Don Whalen.-“We have to keep that client data complete, but also current.”– Don Whalen.-“I would steer advisors away from our competition, which at the end of the day, is Google Docs, paper, and PDF.”–Don Whalen. Resources Mentioned:● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn● https://www.finally.technology/– Website for Finally Technology●Don Whalen– LinkedIn for Don Whalen● PreciseFP – Website for PreciseFP Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Summary:In this 25th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, Jason Pereira interviews Richard Arundel, the North American General Manager for Currencycloud, that is a solution for international exchange online through a series of APIs. Richard discusses his involvement in the company and the ways in which it is expanding.Show Notes:●01:11 – Currencycloud offers a payment software that enables companies to optimize their payment process.●03:01 – Currencycloud began in 2012.●07:26 – They are a B2B company with customers that include AirHelp.●13.27 – They charge a small percentage based on the flow.●17:02 – Very often companies don’t know what kind of exchange fees that are being charged.●18:02 – Obstacles that Currencycloud has faced: defining who these are, their value proposition, and how fast customers, could be serviced, and getting compliances right.●19:39 – Compliance has been an opportunity not a threat to Currencycloud.●23:09 – Currencycloud can send payments to pretty much any unsanctioned country, and they have local payout options in over 30 countries, and there are 40 different currencies they can currently process.●24:51 – The size of the market and opportunity excite Richard about his industry.3 Key Points:1. Obstacles that Currencycloud has faced: defining who these are, their value proposition, and how fast customers, could be serviced, and getting compliances right.2.The challenge is how to partner with banks and make customers aware that there are options.3.Currencycloud can send payments to pretty much any unsanctioned country, and they have local payout options in over 30 countries, and there are 40 different currencies they can currently process.Tweetable Quotes:-“If I am giving up the payment process to these banks or to these other third-party people, then I lose complete control over a.) my customer experience and b.) the cost for the customer, which also affects their revenue.” – Richard Arundel.-“There are companies out there that charge 2.75% or 5%. But often you don’t know what you’re being charged.”– Richard Arundel.-“When we originally set the company (Currencycloud) up, Fintech was really just a buzzword. But now it’s I guess more of a movement, more of a thing. We were lucky enough that we were dealing with some really interesting customers from day one.”– Richard Arundel.Resources Mentioned:●LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn●Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook●Woodgate Financial – Website for Woodgate Financial●Richard Arundel – LinkedIn page for Richard Arundel●Currencycloud – Website for Currencycloud Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Summary:In this 24th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, Jason Pereira interviews Charlie Conron, the CTO, and Co-Founder of Life Design Analysis, an online tool for analysis and illustration of different insurance policies and products available to customers. Life Design Analysis is both a sales tool and tracking tool that allows financial advisors to track their policies and mine the data.Show Notes:●01:09 – LDA is designed to help advisors service existing policyholders as well as present new opportunities.●01:44 –Charlie Conron went to school for mechanical engineering and has been self-taught in coding.●05:00 – LDA noticed an opportunity to streamline the big pool of fragmented data that was available.●11:10 – LDA has some Whole Life capability in the system and has built an interface with every carrier software.●13:23 – Ways LDA clients typically use their software: the PDF for digital report, reports on laptops or tablets, and a sharable proposal as a leave-behind piece.●18:04 –LDA has built an easy way to request from the carriers to get information for inforce policies.●20:16 – About five carriers have kits feeds for inforce data.●24:23 – Life Design Analysis is working on integrations with Cronos, Blue Sun, and Razor Plan.●25:21 – The LDA team is approaching 10 members with people in London Ontario, Toronto, and in British Columbia.●26:09 –The biggest challenges have been the cooperation of some industry partners, and the quality of data.●32:22 – Charlie is excited about the education about robots and the consumer experience getting smoother.3 Key Points:1. Charlie Conron’s stepfather Larry Kinlin, the Founder of Life Design Analysis, is a 50+financial veteran.2. Life Design Analysis solves the problems of how to present insurance so it’s more understandable to the consumer and they offer sales and compliance options for advisors. 3.The ways LDA clients typically use their software: the PDF for digital report, reports on laptops or tablets, and a sharable proposal as a leave-behind piece.Tweetable Quotes:-“We (LDA) really wanted to be your go-to software for the complete insurance sales process, so whether it’s a prospect or serving an inforce client.” – Charlie Conron.-“Critical illness rates are built into the system. They are a great comparison contrasting a T10 to a 75.” – Charlie Conron.-“Because a lot of new proposals come through our system, we’ve added this ability to mark a policy as sold, which will save the entire renewal schedule.” – Charlie Conron.Resources Mentioned:●LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn●Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook●Woodgate Financial – Website for Woodgate Financial●Charlie Conron – LinkedIn for Charlie Conron●LifeDesign Analysis – Website for Life Design Analysis Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the 23rd episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, and Jason Pereira interviews Ben Styles, the General Manager of product and Partner Development for Xero, one of the world’s leading online accounting software programs. Learn more about Ben’s work with Xero, and how the company is impacting the Fintech industry.●02:56 – Xero started with the concept of a single ledger in the cloud, then an account or a bookkeeper for a small business able to work in this space in real time.●03:45 – Ben Styles has been focusing his energy in digitizing businesses and products.●06:12 – Xero zeroed in on removing manual entry.●09:21 – In two of Xero’s core markets there are between 500-1000 small businesses joining Xero a day. the small business owners, the people that work in the small businesses, and the accountants and bookkeepers that work for those small businesses.●18:18 – Picking partners is a challenge the Xero has, as most businesses do.●22:25 – Xero is weary about totally digital currencies.●23:12 – Nations where Xero has high penetration like Australian and the U.K. they are seeing many small businesses that have suppliers or customers that are also Xero customers.●24:42 – Ben is excited about the realization amongst small businesses about how powerful running their entire business in the cloud can be for them for growth and company management.●30:46 – Workflow Max is an important tool for accountants and bookkeepers to run the workflow within their accounting practice.●31:49 – Projects software is about is about real-time time tracking and job managing of billable work, and making it available on mobile and desktop.3 Key Points:In two of Xero’s core markets there are between 500-1000 small businesses joining Xero a day.Xero is now at 1.4 million small businesses globally.Xero has customers in 180 countries. We’ve got operations in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, London, San Francisco, New York, Denver, and now in Canada.Tweetable Quotes:-“Having the single view of the ledger was going to be the core of solving cloud accounting.” – Ben Styles.-“We (Xero) are now at 1.4 million small businesses globally.” – Ben Styles.-“We’ve (Xero) got customers in 180 countries. We’ve got operations in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, London, San Francisco, New York, Denver, and now in Canada.” – Ben Styles.Resources Mentioned:●LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn●Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook●Woodgate Financial – Website for Woodgate Financial●LinkedIn– Ben Styles’ LinkedIn●Xero– Website for Xero Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this 22th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host shares a recording of his presentation at the Wealth Professional Summit on Leadership and Technology that occurred on May 30th, 2018 in Toronto at The Westin Harbour Castle. Jason’s discussion covers a series of tech tools that are of use to financial planners and advisors. Show Notes:●     01:06: – Technology Tools for Practice Management and Efficiency is the name of Jason Pereira’s talk.●     01:42: – A trend in the FIntech space is Application Programing Interface (API) that allows systems to communication with each other like Facebook to Google.●     02:51: – Zapier focuses on creating APIs.●     03:50: – Canadian-based Hootsuite allows you to preprogram social media content and does his podcast for under $100 per episode.●     06:34: – ScheduleOnce allows people to see your availability for meetings and request a meeting and SalesForce.com for CRM and data platform.●     08:53: – Ring Central is a voice over internet protocol company that will allow you to have a standardized phone system but also allows you to call from your work number from anywhere.●     12:02: – Woodgate Financial at IPC Investment Corporation sends clients 4 things: 1.) Invoice, 2.) Access to a personal financial management platform 3.) Online Questionnaire 4.) Risk-assessment Question●     13:15: – Fathom is a reporting and visualization tool that produces stunning reports for business profitability.●     14:00: – Honest is a personal financial management platform that does data aggregation, relationship tracking, data vault, and secure communication channel.●     15:40: – Precise FP is an online questionnaire and is a FinaMetrica risk-tolerance questionnaire.●     18:15: – Finally Technology is a company Jason and his partner launched to solved Fintech Technology problems, including a CRA data-scraping tools for SalesForce.●     21:44: – Jason created an Insurance Needs Assessment Tools spreadsheet.●     24:41: – Last Pass is a password management system to place all your passwords in a digital locker.●     27:19: – Google Authenticator is is a software token that implements two-step verification options.●     28:29: – Slack is for collaboration and SalesForce chat for chatting through SalesForce.com.●     31:00: – The future of financial planning is letting AI handle client data points and focus on human relationships and needs.●     35:34: – Where are you feeling pain?3 Key Points:1. Ring Central is a voice over internet protocol company that will allow you to have a standardized phone system but also allows you to call from your work number from anywhere.2. Woodgate Financial at IPC Investment Corporation sends clients 4 things: 1.) Invoice, 2.) Access to a financial management platform 3.) Online Questionnaire 4.) Risk-assessment Question.3. Fintech Technology problems, including a CRA data-scraping tools for SalesForce.Tweetable Quotes:-   “So you know how we talk about goals-based planning in this industry? Guess what, we can actually have goals-based reporting for the first time.” – Jason Pereira.-   “The invoice I send them (clients), it’s actually done through our accounting system Zero. Zero is a cloud-based accounting system, that frankly is a million times better than anything I have ever used before.”– Jason Pereira.-   “The reality is that data rights are one of the biggest contentious issues in the world right now.”– Jason Pereira.Resources Mentioned:● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn● https://www.finally.technology/ – Website for Finally Technology Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During the 21st episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira interviews Othalia Doe-Bruce, the Public Relations Officer for One Ledger, that creates an API level so that blockchains can communicate with each other. The discussion revolves around what One Ledger has to offer, how it is being funded, and the Blockchain Hub education group. ●     01:24: – One Ledger technology is trying to resolve the issues related to blockchains not being able to communicate with one another.●     02:29: – Othalia has been working in the investment management field for over a decade and became interested in blockchain and Bitcoin.●     03:22: – One Ledger was founded by David Cao, an engineer architect from China.●     04:06: – The benefit of interoperability between blockchain networks is being able to pick and choose between the different features that each may have.●     08:25: – Polymath is a partner of One Ledger and one of the biggest VCs in Asia has already invested in the company.●     12:11: – One Ledger isn’t currently monetizing, but it plans to do so in the future.●     13:25: – One Ledger is planning to do an ICO and have already begun preselling and will offer the ICO publically in the near future.●     16:30: – They are targeting B2B and clients that can help them monetize the platform after the ICO.●     18:27: – The challenge for One Ledger has been finding blockchain developer talent.●     19:41: – Blockchain Hub at York University provides a plethora of adaptive courses to meet the current needs of the industry.●     22:44: – One of the most prominent consulting groups for blockchain in the United States is students at Berkley.3 Key Points:1. Polymath is a partner of One Ledger and one of the biggest VCs in Asia has already invested in the company.2. One Ledger will be a decentralized platform, and essentially, it will belong to the token holders and the community.3. One Ledger is targeting B2Band clients that can help them monetize the platform after the ICO.Tweetable Quotes:-   “For One Ledger, we have…as a partner Polymath, another type of blockchain platform. And what Polymath is trying to do is facilitate the issuing of securitized tokens.” – Othalia Doe-Bruce-   “The beauty of block chain is that it is a decentralized platform, right, so One Ledger will be a decentralized platform, and essentially, it will belong to the token holders and the community.” – Othalia Doe-Bruce-   “Blockchain Hub is a non-profit organization affiliated with York University, and that’s primarily education and then research and commercialization of blockchain start-ups.” – Othalia Doe-Bruce.Resources Mentioned:● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn● Twitter – Twitter for Othalia Doe-Bruce● One Ledger – Website for One Ledger Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this 20th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, Jason Pereira is actually the one getting interviewed this time by his colleague, financial advisor Guy Anderson. The goal will be to identify and define the acronyms, nomenclature, and tech speak that is typically used in Fintech Impact, and in the industry at large. Consider this Fintech 101. ●02:38 – API: stands for application protocol interface. APIs are rules or a language that a company puts out there for something else to talk to its programs.●05:10 – AWS: stands for Amazon Web Services for cloud computing. Companies that use AWS include: Netflix, and Dropbox.●08:37 – GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation, a series of data regulations and digital rights established by the European Union. ●17:36 – Whatever you put online, consider there forever. Stupid things posted in the past could prevent you from getting certain jobs in the future.●18:02 – Platforms: technological systems that allows other people to build other functions over top of it.●20:31 – Narrow AI is artificial intelligence that essentially focuses on one task, like Apple Siri. Machine learning is throwing a ton of data at a computer system for it to mine and look for patterns of recognition that the human mind can’t recognize—teaching itself to learn as new data comes in.●27:00 – Blockchain: the underlying architecture and code of every cryptocurrency that exists, creating a timestamp and transaction data that is resistant to modification of the data, and is an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties.●34:11 – Cryptocurrency transactions aren’t instantaneous but they are ultra-fast compared to bank transactions: which are “controlled ledgers.”●34:49 – So much of the financial system before cryptocurrency has been based on trust.●35:50 – You have to convert money into cryptocurrency coins, transfer those coins to who you are doing your transaction with, and then they convert it back to money again.●37:36 – You can send money anonymously from other users with cryptocurrency anywhere in the world because they are sent to private keys, and there are also public keys.●37:50 – People can create their own cryptocurrencies relatively easily.●42:20 – Bitcoin has implications for impacting anti-money laundering. 3 Key Points:1. API: stands for application protocol interface. APIs are rules or a language   that a company puts out there for something else to talk to its programs.2.You have to convert money into cryptocurrency coins, transfer those coins   to who you are doing your transaction with, and then they convert it back tomoney again.3.You can send money anonymously with cryptocurrency   anywhere in the world because they are sent to private keys, and there are   also public keys.Podcasts that explain Crypto & Blockchainhttps://tim.blog/2017/06/04/nick-szabo/http://investorfieldguide.com/hashpower/ Tweetable Quotes:-“APIs allow integration across different modules.” – Jason Pereira.-“I think I once saw a survey that something between 40-60% of all cloud services offered on the internet are offered through AWS .” – Jason Pereira.-“Europe typically looks at it (technology) from a consumer-first standpoint. As opposed to the North American attitude of looking at it from a business-first standpoint.” – Jason Pereira. Resources Mentioned:●LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn●Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook●Woodgate Financial – Website for Woodgate Financial  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the 19th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, and Jason Pereira interviews Eric Arnold, the Chief Executive Officer at Planswell, an online financial planning software platform that is really targeted at individual consumers, helping customers implement their financial self-planning. Eric shares how Planswell was started, its capabilities, and ways in which it continues to expand.●     01:36 – Eric began his career starting many businesses including tea at shopping      malls, driveway sealing, independent music distribution, children’s birthday parties, and window cleaning.●     03:11 – Eric and his wife moved to Toronto from Aurora for her to attend the University of Toronto and he took on a job as an investment advisor at Wood Gundy.●     06:14 – In 2016, investor dollars went into building up Planswell and have since made over 30,000 financial plans for people—about 20,000 in the last six months.●     07:12 – The client experience begins with clients hearing about Planswell from ad campaigns or referrals, going through about 40 questions in 3 or 4 minutes, and they are then walked through their strategy plan.●     10:56 – The 3 Pillars to Implementing a Plan: Acclimation of investments, Insurance, and Mortgages.●     12:00 – Planswell Portfolios is a stand-online PM, a no-call a robo advisor license.●     12:45 – On the insurance side, Planswell is a fully licensed insurance brokerage essentially, it’s called an MGA in the industry, which is the highest relationship that you can have with insurance manufacturers●     17:06 – A lot of the plans Planswell have implemented were before they were even onboarding.●     20:13 – Currently, Planswell has about 50 team members, doubled from last year, and next year the staff should increase to between 100-150.●     20:56 – Over 25% of the potential investors Planswell has pitched to have invested.●     25:20 – The general feedback from the financial advisor community is that many are uneasy about their futures.●     26:50 – The demographics of Planswell skew a little older and coming from high net-worth brokerage and homeowners. The average client age is 40 years.●     29:46 – About 5% of advisors are actually making plans for clients.●     32:12 – Everyone is on a salary and receive performance incentives to get them excited about onboarding clients effectively and efficiently.3 Key Points:1. Planswell has since made over 30,000 financial plans for people—about 20,000 in the last six months.2. The client experience starts with clients hearing about Planswell from ad campaigns or referrals, going through about 40 questions in 3 or 4 minutes, and they are then walked through their strategy plan.3.The 3 Pillars to Implementing a Plan: Acclimation of investments, Insurance, and Mortgages.Tweetable Quotes:-     “Planswell is a way to figure out what you need to do on a monthly basis to maintain your lifestyle into the future.” – Eric Arnold.-     “We are like a fully licensed insurance brokerage essentially, it’s called..an MGA in the industry, which is…the highest relationship that you can have with insurance manufacturers. – Eric Arnold.-     “We definitely see a future where there are probably still a lot of advisors. I don’t see a future where top advisors are making $3 or 4 million a year, I don’t think the financial institutions thinks that either.” – Eric Arnold. Resources Mentioned:● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook● Woodgate Financial – Website for Woodgate Financial● LinkedIn – Eric Arnold’s LinkedIn● Planswell – Website for Planswell Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the 18th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, and Jason Pereira interviews Anthony Stich, the Chief Operating Officer of Advicent, the largest provider of financial software in the world. Anthony shares information reguarding Advicent’s product line which includes NaviPlan, the power of their advancements and influence, and the ways in which they are able to service their clients. ●  01:06 – Advicent is the financial software developer that created NaviPlan. They                    are in seven countries and on four continents. They also have client portals, advisor dashboard, and API technology.●     01:31 – They have about 100 enterprise clients, about 60 of which are blue chip clients, and service about 100,000 users.●     02:03 – Advicent’s roots trace back to 1969 by Gus Hansch, a CFP referred to as “The Father of Financial Planning.”●     03:18 – Anthony Stich began with Advicent, which is a name comprised of advice + enterprise, four years ago, and his career began in marketing first.●     04:25 – NaviPlan, by user counts, and adoption rates, is the biggest financial planning software in the world with a cash flow first priority.●     06:56 – NaviPlan’s average enterprise contract length is between 10-12 years.●     10:30 – NaviPlan is highly customizable thanks to building their portal on top of                    APIs.●     14:08 – Figlo is Advicent’s European tool, available in five countries, with an office in Rotterdam outside of Amsterdam. Figlo used the APIs first.●     15:51 – Adviser Briefcase is their marketing and communication engine that has about 700 documents that have been reviewed by FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority).●     17:01 – As far as integration, Advicent is enterprise-first with back offices with all the core processors of the top five custodians.●     23:35 – Advicent has about 300 team members, most are in Milwaukee Wisconsin, the Fintech capital of the world. There are also members in Toronto, Winnipeg, about 50 in Rotterdam, and scattered throughout the United States.●     30:36 – The mission state at Advicent is to enable everyone to understand and impact their financial future, and it is about the end client.  3 Key Points:1. Advicent has about 100 enterprise clients, about 60 of which are blue chip   clients, and service about 100,000 users.2. NaviPlan’s average enterprise contract length is between 10-12 years.3. Advicent has about 300 team members, most are in Milwaukee Wisconsin,   the Fintech capital of the world, the rest in here are also members in Toronto,   Winnipeg, Rotterdam, and throughout the United States. Tweetable Quotes:-   “We’ve built a portal on top of APIs. What we’ve done is decoupled the user experience from those engines itself. And by doing so, we’re allowing larger enterprises and institutions the ability to use that API within their ecosystem.” – Anthony Stich.-    “We’ve given them the keys to the kingdom. We have unlocked the powerful calculations of NaviPlan, and allowed people to access them and put them wherever they so choose” – Anthony Stich.-    “Not only are we thought leaders in consulting our partners through these regulatory challenges, we are also developing in advance.” – Anthony Stich. Resources Mentioned:● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook● Woodgate Financial – Website for Woodgate Financial● LinkedIn – Anthony Stich’s LinkedIn● Advicent – Website for Advicent Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 17th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira interviews Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf, Founder and CEO at Flinks, a Canadian-based data aggregation software company that pulls data from various financial institutions, allowing third parties to use that data. Over the course of the discussion, Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf explains how Flinks began, what products they are offering, and how the data aggregation world is taking shape.●     01:02: – Flinks began about 16 months ago in Montreal, connecting software with financial institutions as a data mover.●     01:37: – Before Flinks, Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf was a tech consultant for lending companies, working on origination automation.●     05:30: – One of the products that Flinks is launching is called Behavioral Score, analyzing consumers transactional behavior with their consent, and providing risk assessment scores—think of it as Credit Score 2.0.●     07:38: – Flinks doesn’t have any plans to use identifiable data for now, focusing more on the behaviors of the data of the end users.●     12:16: – Flinks doesn’t currently work with that many start-ups or financial institutions. The average clients are Canadian software companies with between 30-150 employees, and they service a total of about 8 different market segments.●     14:46: – They have experienced a lot of openness from financial institutions, but there is often a lack of communication and plan direction within institutions.●     18:28: – Two major recent events helped change regulators’ perceptions financial aggregation or financial data access: 1.) Composition Report Borough in December 2017 stating regulators should more openly except financial aggregators.2.) The mention of open banking in the financial budget.●     21:30: – As of now, Flinks is self-funded, with about a million dollars raised from friends and family to maintain control.●     22:14 – Flinks was incorporated in December 2016 and generated its first revenue in May 2017.●     23:02: –They have grown from three founders to a team of 27 people and have put a lot of effort in developing company culture and core values.●     24:46 – They aren’t planning a consumer portal but will have online forms and it will be a B2B product.●     25:25 – Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf is excited about the opportunities that the industry is making available.3 Key Points:1. Flinks is launching a Behavioral Score, analyzing consumers transactional behavior with their consent, and providing risk assessment scores—think of it as Credit Score 2.0.2. The average Flinks clients are Canadian software companies with between 30-150 employees, and they service a total of about 8 different market segments.3. Flinks is self-funded, with about a million dollars raised from friends and family to maintain control.Tweetable Quotes:-   “I think what we can say about the Canadian market is that, because we have a small amount of financial institutions covering a high percentage of the population, it makes us basically work a lot on the quality side and the speed of the data.” – Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf.-   “The average Canadian has like about three different banks accounts from three different institutions.” – Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf.-   “Some financial institutions basically use aggregators but at the same time put in their terms and conditions that you should not share your information.” – Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf.Resources Mentioned:● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn● Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf – LinkedIn for Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf● Flinks – Website for Flinks Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the 16th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, and Jason Pereira interviews Peter Demangos, the Co-Founder of Collage, a human resources benefits technology platform that works in tandem with broker partners. Peter explains how Collage was created, the ways in which it is pushing technology in the financial advisement and human resources spaces, forward, and the ways they plan to scale.●     01:06 – Collage aims to assist mid-sized companies in Canada with 200 employees or less, but the average tends to be 20-100 employees.●     02:28 – Peter’s original passion began with health and wellness at the corporate level that led him to the benefits space.●     03:18 – PDF Employee Benefits that focuses on health and dental is a company that Peter started and which he still runs today.●     08:09 – Collage works with all of the insurance companies across Canada.●     11:21 – The Collage team has been complimentary with each partner bringing vital skills to the table. Fund-raising, hiring and figuring out the right process were extensive and intensive procedures.●     15:11 – The reaction from advisors in the benefits space was a lot of questions, but also a lot of support.●     23:39 – Collage is between 30-35 employees now, with their headquarters in Toronto and a support and sales team in Montreal.●     25:50 – There are about 20,000 employees on the platform, the average customer is around 40-50 employees.●     26:41 – The more noise in the space is bitter-sweet. Customers realize they need to take action and competitors add clutter for customers to sift through.●     28:10 – Peter is excited about advisors that don’t add value phasing out and seeing the ample opportunities to assist the strong and committed advisors.3 Key Points:1. Collage solves all of the HR, payroll, benefit, and administrative related tasks for small to id-sized businesses.2. Collage is between 30-35 employees now, with their headquarters in Toronto and a support and sales team in Montreal.3. There are about 20,000 employees on the platform, the average customer is around 40-50 employees.Tweetable Quotes:-     “Collage is an all-in-one HR platform built specifically for the mid-sized market in         Canada. For us, mid-sized means 200 employees and below.” – Peter Demangos.-     “The reality is the more noise breaks the feeling of customers, now they recognize      that they need to do something about their HR. ” – Peter Demangos.-     “I’m very proud of the advisory space that we have in Canada, and the relationships       and the trust that exists between clients and the advisor.” – Peter Demangos.Resources Mentioned:● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook● Woodgate Financial – Website for Woodgate Financial● LinkedIn – Peter Demangos’s LinkedIn page● Collage – Website for Collage Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During the 15th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira interviews Pauline Shum Nolan, the Co-Founder and CEO of Wealthscope, an online tool for accessing portfolios. Pauline shares the creation and opportunities available with Wealthscope, which digs beyond performance, into various parameters like factor-based investing, fees, and long-term projections of income.●  01:09: – Wealthscope is a web application, looking to “open the black box in retail wealth management.”●     02:18: – Pauline began as a professor of finance for the last 25 years, and worked with the university penchant plan for the last 14 years the on the institutional side.●     04:40: – Wealthscope has a free B2C version for students, and investors, but will launch a premium version for investors that are willing to pay for more customized opinions through a subscription.●     08:01: – Wealthscope built in analytics for proof of concept which allowed them to raise some pre-seed money for an in-house IT team. Downside protection is a big focus.●     09:06: – Wealthscope has a proprietary portfolio scorecard that rates and grades risk-adjusted performance, downside protection, income, fees, and diversification including exposures. ●     12:15: – They are crafting the accumulation phase for retirement planning and are working on the drawdown phase.●     13:52: – As far as grading for fees, if you are paying 2.5%, you are getting a poor mark.●     16:06: – They use supervised machine learning with about 25 asset classes for Canada, and build different portfolios factoring in human capital.●     21:06: – Data sources that Wealthscope is drawing from include: subscriptions to Exchange Traded Securities and Morningstar, and the use of a risk- tolerance survey.●     26:03: – Wealthscope is currently a team of 10, including Pauline’s two business partners—one being an angel investor.●     28:30: – It is important for investors to understand what is driving the risk.3 Key Points:1. Wealthscope has a proprietary portfolio scorecard that rates and grades along five dimensions: risk-adjusted performance, downside protection, income, fees, and diversification including exposures. 2. They use supervised machine learning with about 25 asset classes for   Canada, and build different portfolios factoring in human capital.3. It is important for investors to understand what is driving the risk.Tweetable Quotes:-   “At Wealthscope, we’ve launched the beta of the B2C version, which is free.” – Pauline Shum Nolan.-   “You (Wealthscope) are the first true second opinion service I’ve seen that is completely objective, as you are not tied to product in any way. That within itself is something that has been sorely mission from the marketplace.” – Jason Pereira.-   “Risk management over the long-term is a lot easier, and a lot more important as returns.” – Pauline Shum Nolan.Resources Mentioned:● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn● Pauline Shum Nolan – LinkedIn for Pauline Shum Nolan● Wealthscope – Website for Wealthscope Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During the 14th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, interviews Paolo Sironi, Fintech thought leader and author who currently works at IBM Watson Financial Services at the IBM Industry Academy. Paolo shares information that he has gained about our relationship with money, how it is changing, and the ways in which Fintech plays a role in that relationship.●01:06: – Paolo Sironi is Italian, splitting his time between Frankfort Germany and Milan Italy.●01:19 – Through his role at the IBM Watson Financial Services at the IBM Industry Academy, he works with a 100-person team worldwide that engaged in conversations with the Fintech industries.●03:35 – Paolo began his career in banking as the head of quantitative business management for financial institutions for about 15 years, then moved to Germany in 2008 pushing towards Fintech, and in 2012 IBM brought his Fintech and brought him into their fold.●10:00 – The global financial crisis demonstrated to a lot of investors that the regulators have to toughen the rules so that more value is transferred to the investors.●12:56 – Companies have the opportunity to revise their business model from transaction volumes to services with added value for the clients where the relationship is more valuable than the experience.●16:09 – Silicon Valley missed the ball when it has come to Fintech because they approach it with the same psychology that makes customers purchase through Amazon.com, and they think this equally applies to financial and insurance products.●22:22 – Paying is more engaging than posting pictures because it is something we all have to do. ●29:27 – IBM uses the phrase “cognitive” instead of “artificial intelligence” when referring to A.I.●33:31 – What clients buy from financial advisors is not performance or risk, the client pays for the comfort of making a financial decision. That’s why they need a conversation, which builds trust.●38:02 – WeChat, a multi-purpose Chinese social network got a license this year to sell investment funds directly.●39:29 – Disruptive innovation is when an industry is saturated and customers don’t understand the value proposition any longer—and someone comes along offering a cheaper and/or simpler to use solution. While sustaining innovation is offering an improved version of your product.●48:37 – With the goal of retirement, you have to make many decisions before: saving, investing, insuring, lending, and donating.●50:40 – The next global financial crisis may be triggered by retirement because our retirement system is very imbalanced everywhere. Investing will need to start earlier.●52:07 – Paolo Sironi has written several financial technology books: “FinTech Innovation: From Robo-Advisors to Goal Based Investing and Gamification,” “Modern Portfolio Management: From Markowitz to Probabilistic Scenario Optimization,” and “MiFID II: Value-Generation for Investors.”3 Key Points:1.The United States is where technology was born. Europe focuses on regulation. China concentrates on the business model.2.Digital is a “pull” technology because it is demand-driven and investing and insurance is a “push” technology because it is offer driven.3.Disruptive innovation is when an industry is saturated and customers don’t understand the value proposition any longer—and someone comes along offering a cheaper and/or simpler to use solution. Sustaining innovation is offering an improved version of your product.Tweetable Quotes:-“In the U.S., in particular, technology was born, and still this is the case largely speaking. Europe likes regulation which is important. China is the business model.” –Paolo Sironi.-“This industry has to change from a transaction mechanism where you make money by selling products which have an embedded commission or fee, into packaging those products into something which is called advice that the clients are willing to pay for transparently.” –Paolo Sironi.-“The cost can bite your sandwich, while the risk can eat your lunch.” –Paolo Sironi.Resources Mentioned:●Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook●LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn●Paolo Sironi– LinkedIn for Paolo Sironi●Website – Website for Paolo Sironi Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During the 13th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira interviews David Katz, the Executive Vice President of Benecaid, a traditional health benefits platform where he runs a separate division called Honeybee their digital platform for their delivery of benefit solutions for advisors, underwriters, lawyers, and end-to-end users. David shares his journey to the creating of Honeybee, how it has progressed, and the industry problems that it is addressing.●     01:31 – Honeybee is designed to allow employers to set up benefits account for their employees, health and allowance accounts, and the employees can use those account to personalize their benefits.●     01:54 – David started his career as a lawyer practicing corporate commercial law for a little over four years.●     05:39 – He really enjoyed the marketing and customer acquisition side.●     06:01 – David focused on building an online community with Porfolios.com or professional commercial artists for advertising projects—with over 80,000 creatives on the platform. ●     10:41 – People using learn about benefits once you get your first job.●     12:52 – When he looked at Honeybee the focus was on the problems that they have to solve: rising cost of benefits, multigenerational problem, lack of perceived value of these plans, and an employer’s culture.●     17:17 – Companies can get to Honeybee a number of ways, but it starts with the advisor, who can have Honeybee on a tablet, do a video conference, or just send a link to a client who can self-serve.●     17:47 – Employers provide some information about size and demographics of their company, match them with products, have them configure their group into “hives,” the employer sets up a health account, pick or not pick a dental plan, decide if you will add more for family, and funding for each hive.●     26:32 – Bundling has made things easier for Honeybee.●     29:03 – Allowance categories adds benefits for items such as kids, fitness and pets.●     33:48 – Their offer network which gets create by the employee works similar to affiliate marketing networks. ●     35:39 – Honeybee has a per employee per month fee for the company from about $12.50-$20 with a portion of that going to the advisor.●     38:34 – Honeybee wasn’t funding through bootstrapping for through VCs.●     41:22 – Obstacles have stemmed around product, coming from the carriers.●     44:31 – David Katz is excited that they can integrate with every form of business productivity software.3 Key Points:1. Honeybee focused on the problems that they have to solve: rising cost of benefits, multigenerational problem, lack of perceived value of these plans, and an employer’s culture.2. Data sharing is a huge component of where Honeybee is going, but in a measured way.3. The steps for Honeybee set-up include: employers provide some information about size and demographics of their company, match them with products, have them configure their group into “hives,” the employer sets up a health account, pick or not pick a dental plan, decide if you will add more for family, and funding for each hive.Tweetable Quotes:-   “Honeybee is designed to allow employers to set up benefits account for their employees, health and allowance accounts, and the employees can use those account to personalize their benefits.” –David Katz.-   “You really have to think hard about distribution, and really understand what sells online, what transacts offline, and where the different value points are.” – David Katz.-   “Nothing gets on our platform if it doesn’t help the employer.” – David Katz.Resources Mentioned:·        Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook·        LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn·        Honeybee – Website for Honeybee Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Summary:During the 3rd episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira interviews Pawel Brzeminski, the founder and CEO of Snap Projections, a new and exciting Canadian software solution to assist financial planners. They discuss the scope of Snap Projections, as well as tools and challenges facing the Canadian market.●     01:31 – Snap Projections is a financial planning software for Canadian financial advisors, investment managers, and financial planners.●     02:12 – Pawel came to Canada over 15 years ago and has a technical background in software engineering,●     03:45 – In late 2014, he started building the product, and launched in May 2015.●     06:34 – There are a lot of complex moving pieces with preparing financial plans for clients that Snap Projections assists with in order to make the progress simpler.●     09:30 – The software was made to be effective, easy to use, easy to communicate to the client, robust, accurate, transparent, customizable, and interactive.●     13:38 – After entering data, users are able to copy a scenario and test it out.●     17:45 – Funding is a challenge company has faced, being that they are independent without any equity partners in it. They also have over 500 feature requests on their list.●     23:59 – Wealth transfer involving “baby boomers” is causing people to ask themselves if they will have enough money to live off of.●     24:40 – Snap Projections has a sustainability feature to calculate how much they can spend to live a long-term sustainable lifestyle.●     28:14 – They try to focus on monitoring what financial advisors need, not what their competitors are doing, because they don’t want to make the same mistakes that they may make.●     29:33 – Snap Projections’ podcast is called “Growing Your Financial Advisor Practice” and Jason Pereira is on episode 6.3 Key Points:1. The software was made to be effective, easy to use, easy to communicate to the client, robust, accurate, transparent, customizable, and interactive.2. Wealth transfer involving “baby boomers” is causing people to ask themselves is if they will have enough to live off of.3. They try to focus on monitoring what financial advisors need, not what their competitors are doing, because they don’t want to make the same mistakes that they may make.Tweetable Quotes:-   “Europeans and people in Canada here, and the U.S. as well, they think about money differently…for example, there is not a lot of credit card use in European.” – Pawel Brzeminski.-   “Education actually, the advisor can help increase the financial literacy of the client…the refer ability goes up.” – Pawel Brzeminski.-   “We both have the “Baby Boomer” population in Canada and the U.S. And that wealth transfer that we’ve been hearing about in this industry forever is finally starting to happen.” – Jason Pereira.Resources Mentioned:● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn           ● Snap Projections – Website for Snap Projections           ● Pawel Brzeminski – LinkedIn for Pawel Brzeminski           ● Podcast for Snap Projections – Snap Projections podcast featuring Jason Pereira Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Summary: This is the 11th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, and Jason Pereira interviews Clayton Feick, the Vice President of Sales and Business Development at Quandl, a big data company in the financial space that sells data points to vendors. Forbes has names Quandl one of the top 50 Fintech companies to watch. Clayton shares information about what separates Quandl from their competitors, how they are providing value in the fintech space, and what exactly alternative data is. ●     01:41 – Quandl is the leading provider of alternative data in the world. They also                    provide financial and economic data.●     02:04 – Clayton has been involved with Quandl for about two years, and spent a                    decade at Thomson Reuters prior to that.●     02:31 – Quandl is a proudly Canadian company, based in Toronto.●     03:56 – Alternative data is information that has never been used before in capital                    markets or in financial services, and packaging it up or extracting insight                    from it can give an investor an edge.●     08:19 – Quandl launched a product around the tracking of Tesla sales.●     15:18 – They have a smart data science team that try to think like a hedge fund                    while evaluating data, with half Quandl’s team focused on data                    engineering, data science, and development.●     22:55 – There are huge possibilities to use data for government, sociological                     studies, and how humanity actually acts—not how we claim they act.●     26:21 – Quandl has billions and billions of API calls every month, and store all their                    data in the cloud. They have revenue-sharing agreements with vendors.●     31:46 – Two venture capital firms that participated in their two fund-raising rounds:                    August Capital and Nexus Ventures.●     32:31 – They are constantly focusing on finding new forms of data that is insightful                    and unique.●     36:33 – Quandl gets excited when they find new data sets that the world has never                    seen before.●     37:40 – The Economist wrote an article called: “Data is the new Oil.” Data is everywhere, and news to be properly mined and refined to be as useful as oil.●     38:00 – Quandl was the only Canadian firm on Forbes’ Top 50 Fintech companies                    list for 2018. 3 Key Points:1. Alternative data is information that has never been used before in capital markets or in financial services, and packaging it up or extracting insight from it that can give an investor an edge.2. Quandl has over 250,000 individuals that are consuming data from us on a regular basis.3. Quandl was the only Canadian firm on Forbes’ Top 50 Fintech companies list for 2018. Tweetable Quotes:-     “We have over 250,000 individuals that are consuming data from us on a regular       basis.” – Clayton Feick.-     “More and more firms are making the decision to get into alternative data, get into       the technologies behind it and data science.” – Clayton Feick.-     “You see some of the regulations in Europe around MiFID II and sell side firms need       to now charge for their research, it can’t be bundled with trading commissions.” –&nbsp

Summary:In this 10th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, Jason Pereira interviews Aly Dhalla, the CEO and Founder of Finaeo, a platform to help independent advisors make their job easier with digital toolkits connected to a back office to work through their front office needs—from prospect to policy in one workflow. Aly shares what Finaeo’s goals are, who their core audience is, and their technological prospective to financial planning.●     02:01 – Aly Dhalla introduces what Finaeo is.●     02:31 – Aly shares information about his professional background as a financial advisor.●     04:20 – Finaeo began delivering quotes via chat bot to provide them on demand.●     06:00 – Three targets for Finaeo include:                    1.) Early advisors who are 0-2 years in the industry looking for infrastructure.                    2.) Growth stage advisors with 3-5 years in the industry making $75,000-$125,000 annually in income.                    3.) Advisors towards the end of their career that are looking to exit in 3-5 years.●     06:59 – Finaeo software process involves an initial needs analysis form for an advisor’s client, who can then log into the software and use the opportunity builder stage. The system sets up auto reminders.●     11:45 – Finaeo currently does logic-driven data analysis, mining it for patterns.●     15:52 – Finaeo is willing to partner with their competition.●     17:29 – Connectivity with carriers is the number one issue that Finaeo is facing●     19:17 – They will remain very focused on insurance distribution.●     23:52 – Bionic advisor manta stands for the culmination of human and machine, with machine taking over computation, administration, and workflow. The human component handles building relationships and giving advice.●     26:33 – Finaeo is free for advisors to work with the CRM software.●     29:38 – Clients tend to find Finaeo through referrals, blogs, eBooks, podcasts, and webinars.●     31:33 – As far as capital they have raised, the first $250,000 came from financial advisors, another $500,000 from the tech community and industry influencers. Their partner that lead their seed round of $2.25 million became Impression Ventures.●     35:54 – Their first product was built by a single engineer in three months●     38:26 – Faneo’a team is currently 14 full-time people (11 in Toronto, 3 in Vancouver) and are looking to grow to 20 by the end of 2018, with most of them in engineering.3 Key Points:1.  Three targets for Finaeo include:                    1.) Early advisors (0-2 years in the industry)                    2.) Growth stage advisors (3-5 years in the industry)                    3.) Elder advisors (looking to exit in 3-5 years.)2.  Bionic advisor manta stands for the culmination of human and machine,     with machine taking over computation, administration, and workflow. The     human component handles building relationships and giving advice.3.  Finaeo’s first capital was $250,000 from angel financial advisors, another $500,000 from the tech community, and their partner that lead their seed round of $2.25 million became Impression Ventures.Tweetable Quotes:-    “Our end-state goal is to be digitally bolted onto every insurance company and provide an open Amazon-style marketplace, where advisors can pick and choose from a suite of products.” – Aly Dhalla.-    “We think that machine learning is going to drive the next generation of advisor, and help them scale.” – Aly Dhalla. -    “Technology is the future of distribution, is the future of compliance, is the future of communication with clients.” – Aly Dhalla. Resources Mentioned:● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook● Woodgate Financial – Website for Woodgate Financial● Finaeo – Website for Finaeo● LinkedIn – Aly Dhalla’s Linke

Summary:In this 9th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Rona Birenbaum, a Toronto-based financial planner, and the CEO of Viviplan, a Canadian Robo planner that uses technology to more effectively provide financial planning to clients and a better price point. They chat about how Rona came to create Viviplan, what it aims to do for financial planning, and how it is growing.01:09 – Rona sums up Viviplan.●01:27 –Viviplan came out of Rona’s experience as a fee only financial planner for over 20 years.●02:37 – Viviplan was accepted into the Ryerson DMZ-BMO Fintech Accelerator program in the summer of 2017.●04:27 – Clients go through a rigorous but friendly onboarding process to gather the information to develop a comprehensive, tax-sensitive, goal-driven financial plan●07:03 – The onboarding is all developed in-house.●09:13 –Public relations coverage in The Globe and Mail and MoneySense has helped get the word out marketing-wise—along with podcast appearances.●11:33 – To handle that overflow of inquiries and interest Viviplan is hiring another full-time planner.●13:27 – College graduates trained for financial planning are coming to the realization that the only available jobs are sales jobs.●18:14 – Viviplan doesn’t have in-house implementation, and they want to keep product and advice separate.●20:58 –For the comprehensive plan clients get feedback, education, information, and direction on all aspects of their financial life. There are also lighter plans for people with less questions, without a full analysis.●23:14 – Feedback from early users has been enthusiastic.●26:17 – The biggest challenge is money. Rona is currently financing the company personally. Also, she desires the right partner that will fit in smoothly.●29:26 – She is excited about building out a network of trusted professionals nation-wide.3 Key Points:1. Viviplan clients go through a rigorous but friendly onboarding process to gather the information to develop a comprehensive, tax-sensitive, goal-driven financial plan2.College graduates trained for financial planning are realizing that the only available jobs are sales jobs.3.Viviplan doesn’t have in-house implementation, and they want to keep product and advice separate.Tweetable Quotes:-“In order to do planning, you’ve got to sell.” – Rona Birenbaum.-“Technology in my view, will not replace the need for people in financial planning.” – Rona Birenbaum.-“We want to build out a platform of trusted professionals, vetted professionals, that our clients can then go to, and feel confident that they’re going to get the service to they need to implement what we have recommended.” – Rona Birenbaum.Resources Mentioned:●LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn●Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook●Woodgate Financial – Website for Woodgate Financial●Viviplan – Website for Viviplan●Twitter – Rona Birenbaum’s Twitter page Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Summary:During the 8th episode, Jason Pereira, interviews a colleague of his by the name of Zaheer Merali. Zaheer is an entrepreneur, investor, and consultant to several start-ups and has worked with many technology companies. Jason talks with Zaheer about the past and present evolution of financial planning solutions.●   01:08 – Zaheer works primarily with venture funds and start-ups in the Fintech space and healthcare.●   03:15 – He studied in school for seven years in the consulting space: strategy consulting across North American in multiple industries like renewable energy, healthcare, mining, media, insurance, and fast food.●   03:40 – Zaheer worked for seven years at Scotia Bank with some time spent in wealth management.●   05:29 – We have gone from one financial platform to tech stack and service stack solutions.●   11:19 – Several new software stacks are built as a backend with an API to a frontend.●   12:24 – Extreme growth in financial planning software is exploding.●   17:50– Blockchain is here to stay, offering new ways of working with back office systems. ●   22:24 – There is value in honing in on one problem and developing it further.●   23:45 – You can’t transfer money between banks in the United States and Canada on weekends is because the servers aren’t open—they keep bankers’ hours.●   28:50 – The automation of workflows is leading to efficiency gains.●   31:10 – What is our career path in financial planning?●   35:08 – We are seeing compression on how much customers are willing to pay, what kind of fees can be charged, and what services need to be included.3 Key Points:1. Some popular financial planning software in the United States didn’t exist three years ago, some that two years ago had 2-3% market share, and today has close to 10% market share.2. There is a ton of value in picking off one problem to work on and expanding that piece.3. You can’t transfer money between banks in the United States and Canada on weekends is because the servers aren’t open.Tweetable Quotes:-  “Many of the new software stacks you’ll see are basically built as a backend with an API to a frontend.” – Zaheer Merali.-  “We sometimes take the easy route of mistaking consistency of look and feel as an indication of quality.” – Zaheer Merali.-  “Blockchain is here to stay.” – Zaheer MeraliResources Mentioned:● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn● Zaheer Merali – Zaheer Merali’s LinkedIn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Summary:In this 7th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Yon Perullo, the CEO of RiXtrema, a United States-based fintech that specializes in helping financial advisors build their practice and assist with the fiduciary responsibilities that they face in their practice.Show Notes:●01:01 – RiXtrema started in risk-management in the financial advisement space and evolved into many areas of fiduciary risk management.●01:32 –Yon began his career as a Director of Quantitative Analytics at FactSet and moved to managing hedge funds and mutual funds.●03:29 – Yon came to RiXtrema as an early adopter.●04:11 – RiXtrema created the Portfolio Crash Test for advisors to load their portfolios for their clients to get robust scenario testing.●10:48 – One of the tools that was developed out of the Portfolio Crash Test is called the IRA Fiduciary Optimizer.●13:40 –The 401kFiduciary Optimizer is another tool that RiXtrema developed that can, among other things help advisors prospect, to help for new customers.●18:10 – One of the big selling points behind RiXtrema’s fiduciary tools are that participants have potentially better outcomes at lower costs.●21:49 – The acquisition of Larkspur included their Planishere software that is a searchable, online database of qualified plans,●22:22 – The Executive Tab which is a list of the executives at the firm that you are trying to reach.●25:59 –The Annuity Optimizer allows advisors, or anybody, to compare an existing annuity and the cost of rolling into another annuity.●34:27 – Yon’s role currently is to pull the reigns back a little on development, and focus on integrating what they have already created, and leveraging it into other avenues.3 Key Points:1. RiXtrema provided the Portfolio Crash Test for advisors to load their portfolios for their clients to get strong scenario testing.2. RiXtrema’s acquisition of Larkspur included their Planishere software that is a searchable, online database of qualified plans.3. The Annuity Optimizer makes it possible for advisors to compare an existing annuity and the cost of rolling into another annuity.Tweetable Quotes:-“Clients want simplicity in the way their workflow happens.“ – Yon Perullo-“We just launched something in the two tools that we are calling the Executive Tab, which is a list of the executives at the firm that you are trying to reach.“ – Yon Perullo-“The paradox of choice: everybody wants to have all the options available to them.Then they are just going to default to whatever is easiest.“ – Jason Pereira.Resources Mentioned:●LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn●Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook●Woodgate Financial – Website for Woodgate Financial●RiXtrema– Website for RiXtrema Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Summary:In this 6th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Shawn Brayman, the CEO of PlanPlus, a prominent Canadian source of financial planning software. Jason and Shawn discuss how PlanPlus has grown, their focus on research, and how to evolve financial planning services ethically for their customers.Show Notes:●     01:23 – PlanPlus is Canadian-based company doing financial planning with a                     multi-currency, multi-jurisdictional, and multi-lingual global platform—                     focused on research and best-practices.●     02:48 – PlanPlus spun out from a larger Hewlett Packard ISV back                    in about 1985.●     05:14 – PlanPlus acquired FinaMetrica from Australia, the home of risk tolerance                    testing.●     05:49 – In 2001, PlanPlus went to the cloud early.●     06:42 – They have planners in 20-30 counties and about 50 that are supported                     with the software.●     11:34 – The merger with PlanPlus and FinaMetrica currently involved 60-70 of                    PlanPlus’ clients using FinaMetrica.●     21:10 – Fintech is a redefinition of how we can apply technology.●     26:33 – Millennials are used to immediacy. If Amazon can ship purchases in the                    same day, why does it take so long to pull together data for financial                    planners?●     30:30 – Amazon is talking about getting into checking accounts.●     32:27 – PlanPlus’ has a research commitment to focus on science and not personal                    biases.●     38:42 – The Journal of Financial Planning and the Financial Services Review by                    the Academy of Financial Services are the key industry journals.●     40:07 – Canada is in the bottom 10% on planet Earth for what they charge in                    embedded fees.●     44:15 – In Australia, only 25% of financial planners pass the competency test. 3 Key Points:1 PlanPlus acquired FinaMetrica from Australia, the home of risk tolerance  testing.2. Millennials are used to immediacy. Data for financial planners needs to catch up to that faster speed.3. The Journal of Financial Planning and the Financial Services Review by the Academy of Financial Services are the top industry journals. Tweetable Quotes:-     “Basically, PlanPlus was actually a spin-out from a larger Hewlett Packard ISV back       in about 1985.“ – Shawn Brayman-     “Customer-wise, we have planners or advisors…running around 20 to 30 different       countries.“ – Shawn Brayman-     “Canada is in the bottom 10% on planet Earth for what we charge in embedded        fees.” – Shawn BraymanResources Mentioned:● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook● Woodgate Financial – Website for Woodgate Financial● LinkedIn – Shawn Brayman’s LinkedIn page● Twitter – Shawn Brayman’s Twitter page● PlanPlus – Shawn Brayman's Twitter page Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Summary:In this 5th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Cato Pastoll, the Co-Founder and CEO of Lending Loop – an alternative lending source. Lending Loop mixes peer-to-peer lending with crowdsourcing along with artificial intelligence. Find out the story from Cato Pastoll about how in 15 months Lending Loop has managed to give out over $16 million in loans – and has an average monthly business growth of 20%. Show Notes:●     01:02 – Lending Loop is an online lending marketplace. They connect                    Canadian investors that are looking for more attractive returns on their                    savings with small businesses that are looking for a more affordable source                    of financing. ●     01:34 – Both of Cato’s parents were small business owners, which taught him the                    difficulties in finding financing. These lending platforms have been popular                    in the UK since 2005 and since 2008 in the US, but not in Canada. Lending                    Loop started in 2016.●     04:00 – Marketplaces aren’t easy to start or scale – and it has been hard to do in                    Canada because of the regulatory hurdles.●     05:14 – Lending Loop lets you sign up as a lender or a borrower. They curate                    applications, review them, and make sure they are credit-worthy. Only 10%                    approval rate, over $16 million lent and about $2 million per month with a                    20% monthly growth rate.●     06:24 – Loans are crowdsourced, you can pledge as little as $25 towards a loan.                    You can build a portfolio with $2,500 across 100 different companies if you                    wanted to.●     07:44 – You are able to establish the criteria for the types of businesses you lend                    to. Their auto-lend platform will allocate your money for you. Regular bank                    deposits into Lending Loop are possible.●     08:45 – The rates range from 5.9% to the mid-20%.●     10:46 – QuickBooks is integrated with Lending Loop.●     13:12 – Lending Loop makes money from an origination fee of between 2.5 to 6.5%                   of the loan as a one-time fee, as well as a spread of a 1.5% annual fee                   on every repayment.●     14:20 – Businesses are given a letter grade based on the risk of repaying their                       loans – which also determines their interest rate, with worst percentage                    being only about 10% risk of default.●     16:33 – All of their success and all of their failures are posted directly on their                    website for full transparency. The largest loan to date has been about   &n

Summary:Welcome to the 4th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, where Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews the CEO and Co-founder of Onist Technologies – Brad Kotansky. Onist Technologies is an Arizona-based online platform that allows users to aggregate all of their financial data and to be able to work with multiple professionals. Brad Kotansky breaks down exactly what Onist Technologies is and what they are creating for the financial technologies industry and consumers. Show Notes●     01:32 – Onist connects households and family members with their financial data,                    accounts, and documents and are allowing granular access. They are sort                    of like the company Mint on steroids.●     03:55 – Seed for Onist began with Brad’s Dad needing him to take care of his                    finances.●     06:04 – The business-to-consumer market is a focus, with 15-18% of current users                    not being consumers.●     06:56 – For financial advisors, it is not about beating the SMP, it is about risk                    tolerance – especially with elderly clients that don’t need high risk options.●     10:10 – Having the client map out who the key stakeholders are in the family offers                    optimum insight. Corporate organizational charts can be created within                    1-10 minutes that can be updated to save money.●     11:38 – Onist thinks about collaboration in two parts: connect clients to the platform                    and allowing for direct messaging – include clients and professionals.●     12:52 – CTO has 20 years of machine learning and AI experience.●     14:28 – One third of the United States population is over 50 years old. 20 million                    people are going to be added to that group in the next 10 years.●     15:08 – The 18-49 demographic will grow by 6 million in the next 10 years.                    Fintech’s focus is on millennials who are less intimidated by technology.                    The average age of a caregiver in the United States is 49.●     17:31 – Security and privacy are two separate areas for Onist. Personal data and                    asset data are stored in separate data bases.●     20:23 – Onist isn’t trying to go after the Mint market. Out of the 50+ market, 45%                   share their login info.●     21:14 – Onist tries to prevent elder abuse of accounts by being a read-only site.●     22:22 – Data access is a tricky topic and a major issue with different countries                    trying to push the envelope in that area.●     27:37 – Blockchain is a paradigm change that is in the process of happening. Chip                    technology and tap-to-pay happened earlier in Canada than the United                    States.●     30:52 – Security standards take time to change across the board.●     34:25 – Onist costs nothing for the platform for the moment, there will be a

Summary:During the 3rd episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Paul Resnik, Co-founder and Director at FinaMetrica. As a risk assessment company, FinaMetrica provides tools for financial advisors to figure out the risk tolerance of their clients. Paul Resnik shares his history in the industry, the uphill battles that FinaMetrica has faced, and what it will take to turn financial advising into more of a science than an art.Show Notes01:55 – Paul Resnik started FinaMetrica in 1994, but Paul has been in the industry                    for almost 50 years.●     02:17 – Changes in Australia occurred: the ability to consolidate investment                    products onto a single platform and people not being prepared for their                    portfolios crashing.●     04:25 – Risk asseement was met with hesitation back in 1994 and now. Planners                    often find it intrusive.●     07:26 – FinaMetrica took four fours to assemble the 25 questions used in their                    psychometric test – after trying out 150 questions. They have done almost                    1.2 million tests.●     09:08 – Men tend to be more risk tolerant than women. Financial workers and                    highly confident people tend to be more risk tolerant than their clients.                     Factors that tend to not have any impact are age, education, and                     experience.●     11:47 – FinaMetrica charges the most in the global marketplace for their risk                    tolerance test. Their clients tend to be personal financial advisors in the                    approximately 20 countries that they work in.●     12:17 – FinaMetrica starts with a 25 or 12 question questionnaire to measure                    financial risk tolerance juxtaposed against ethical, physical, and social                      tolerances to determine an average score and range.●     16:56 – They link results to portfolios that have ranked at a similar level against a                     range of scenarios including: nominal returns, highs and lows, adjusted for                    inflation, 10 worst falls, how long it took to crash and recover, and 10                    highest rises.●     21:56 – FinaMetrica, based in Australia, is merging with PlanPlus, a financial                    planning company based in Toronto Canada. 90% of FinaMetrica’s                    revenue is international. They integrated their systems roughly 10 years                    ago and have looked for joined clients.●     24:49 – The cost to implement FinaMetrica into their practice: $800-900 a year in                    various countries.●  &nb

Summary:In this second episode, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Kevin Kliman, CEO and Founder of Humi – an HR software company. Kevin shares the highlights of his journey, what his company Humi is seeking to accomplish, and Humi’s impact on the financial space.Show Notes00:41 – Humi is a fintech company because in addition to its subscriber model, they                    introduced payroll and becoming the group insurance broker for the                    companies that they deal with.●     01:24 – Humi acknowledges that Zenefits – a SAS company - created their                    business model: give away software and make money off of insurance                    sales.●     01:41 – Zenefits rose to a valuation of over $1 billion.●     01:46 – Kevin Kliman and Humi graduated from Y Combinator – one of the                    biggest incubators in the United States.●     02:42 – Kevin explains Humi as a cloud-based benefits, payroll and HR software,                    trying to solve the problem of time being wasted reconciling multiple                    isolated systems instead of running their business.●     04:54 – Humi is Kevin’s first tech start-up and he is not from the world of insurance                    and benefits. He is a licensed dentist and has experience building                    businesses and soft-ware based companies on the side.●     06:42 – Kevin Kliman became excited by the business model of Humi and met his                    partners: Matt Loszak the technical lead, Simon Bourgeois the COO, and                    Drew Millington the head of sales.●     09:16 – The payroll application stemmed from merging with a company that was                    already building it and it was attractive in its simplicity and being                    web-based.●     11:54 – Pricing model for companies coming on their is a SAS license fee with a                    nominal cost per employee per month. Companies that choose to                    make Humi their insurance broker will not be charged for the software.●     13:05 – The partner route is attractive to Humi, which has 30+ people, but it comes                    down to bandwidth.●     15:12 – Humi sees a lot of promise in being an end-to-end solution for both                    employers and employees.●     18:00 – The goal is becoming a leader in the HR, payroll, and benefits space, and                    revamping performance management for companies.●     20:05 – Humi’s team went from zero to 30 in 2-3 years.●     22:41 – Humi’s target customer has changed significantly from companies that are                    10-30 people from companies that are 50-200. Bamboo HR has been a  &nbsp

Summary:Welcome to the very first episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, with Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host of this show that offers expert insight into the Fintech world of financial technology. Today, Jason interviews David Nugent, the CIO and Co-Founder of Wealthsimple, Canada’s largest robo advisor and digital investment solutions for clients. Show Notes:●     01:10 – Wealthsimple is a robo advisor that started in the Fall of 2014, and now                    services about 60,000 clients with offices in Canada, United States, and the                    UK.●     01:34 – Power Financial is the main backer of Wealthsimple thanks to about $165                    million in capital with a millennial investor client base and B2B offerings.●     03:13 – David Nugent’s personal journey includes: starting out in the business at 22                    “asking businesses owners for their life savings” as an advisor and shifted                    from advice to technology.●     04:42 – Wealthsimple focuses on the customer experience. Most of the team                    comes from technology and design, less from the financial world –                    addressing problems from a usability standpoint. ●     05:11 – Millennials are great clients because they are at the start of their careers,                     have a lot of future earning power and life transitions ahead, and possible                    inheritances.●     05:59 – On the advisor side of the business, it’s how do you help advisors service                    more of those clients that are intimidated, while still allowing them do the                    planning.●     09:04 – The reaction to the advisor company towards Wealthsimple in the financial                    planner sector has really been onboard.●     10:13 – Wealthsimple is unique in that they are a robo advisor that operates in                    multiple counties. The UK has proven to be at the forefront of regulatory                    change.●     11:14 – The scope of size of the U.S. is that the financial industry in Canada is                     smaller than that of just the state of California.●     12:22 – There is a challenge in the cost of acquisition.●     14:56 – Wealthsimple has maintained a great relationship with Power Financial,                    who have made about a dozen acquisitions in wealth, insurance, bank, and                    credit card areas.●     16:40 – The average age of a Wealthsimple customer is 31.●     17:57 – As far as accounts in the United States, about 50 cents on the dollar has                    been allocated to socially responsible investing. ●     20:02 – One dollar accounts are possible to democratize investing and remove all     &nbs