The WealthStack Podcast
00:19:04 · Shannon Rosic
[00:19:04] S0: So you bring up an interesting point, and I'm sure you've heard this. I know I have, especially in the conference circuit is advisers grappling on how to staff their future advisory firm. Because what does this evolution of AI mean for how firms structure their teams? Are we headed towards a model where advisers just are going to need fewer people, or are we going to see an entirely different structure or even roles emerge out of this?
00:19:32 · Brad Johnson
[00:19:32] S1: I think both. The first thing I would think if I was a team member out there, and this applies to me too as a cofounder here, it isn't a question of if you should embrace AI, you must. So from a... Your own career track, it would be like the the computer comes out and I'm like, no. I'm not a computer guy. I'm gonna stick with the yellow pad. I probably wouldn't have a lot of employment opportunities today in finance. So this is a bigger leap than that. And so I think embracing it, learning it, there's all kinds of YouTube videos out there. Now, once again, not plugging your client's data in there. You've got to know the dos and don'ts, but I have seen massive efficiency gains inside of Triad already just by we have empowered our team to use AI. This... That's another big thing is it's when you're in college and you're working on an essay. It's like, wait, am I supposed to use AI or am I not? Am I gonna get in trouble for it? So the first thing I would say for business owners, have a AI use policy, which most firms don't at this point. So your team knows the dos and don'ts of what's allowed, what isn't. But then empower your team and say, hey, we are an AI enabled firm. Here's the areas where we recommend using it. And what's wild when you have a great team, they're gonna come up with things you never thought of. So whether it's a lunch and learn, hey, what are some projects people are working on? A little show and tell. We've done that a few times inside of Triad. And the next thing, you've got a 24 year old that's been using chat for three years. What if we used it for this? Great idea. Let's build it. So I just think it exponentially increases the output for those that embrace it. And so I do think you can build things with less people, but I do think for the right team members that embrace it, now you're getting 10 times the work out of one individual. So the way I think about business, I don't want less people. I want same people, more output. Right? So it goes philosophically to the build. But I think those that are using AI, we're just seeing exponentially more output. So it's basically keeping us from having to hire more people in the future. We're able to build more with the same people.
00:21:47 · Shannon Rosic
[00:21:47] S0: I know that you've actually talked about bringing in an executive assistant into your business, and that's actually fundamentally changed the way you've operated. So I know we're talking tech and AI a little bit, but I'm curious around what was maybe the turning point when you realized you were actually becoming a bottleneck in your own business and, therefore, you needed to bring someone in? Because I think there's an interesting debate there because it brings up that intersection question around AI and human support. Right? Because as tech gets better at handling administrative tasks, some might argue that the need for human assistance will obviously diminish. But I feel like there's certainly a difference between automating an individual task and having someone who understands the business, can really anticipate those needs, and make sure things actually get done. So how do you think advisors should determine what belongs with AI and what belongs with a human and maybe where the combination of the two actually creates the greatest value?
00:22:47 · Brad Johnson
[00:22:47] S1: So my my take on that, Shannon, is at this stage, we're recording this towards the end of twenty twenty six. So a year or two from now, it could all change. Who knows where it goes? But at this stage, AI is a great complement to a great human. Yeah. There are some things that it could replace, but I'm not confident, especially in our industry right now because as as we sit here today, 10/23/2026, read an article this morning, all of a sudden banks are cutting back that AI agents are basically logging into bank accounts, making transactions that aren't approved. Okay. So imagine if that was your client's bank account. Imagine if it was your client's PII sitting in your inbox because you've enabled like an AI EA. Right? That's not a good look. In fact, you might not be in business if that happens. So I'm not putting a business and finance at risk by adopting too early and then things go haywire that I can't control, and now I'm out of business. So an EA specific to that role, I believe it's the number one missing role in finance. If you look at every Fortune 500 CEO, they have an EA, maybe multiple EAs. In finance, you look at some of the largest producers, largest firms in the country, almost EA's a nonexistent role. So why is it here and not here? I believe it's because most financial advisers weren't ever coached on why they need one. So inbox management, scheduling, bookkeeping, like all the things that bog you down, I wouldn't even wanna do this job without an EA. I look right now, like over to my right, my wife has substate volleyball today. Actually, tomorrow. High school football tonight, substate volleyball tomorrow. She's a high school coach. I would have always had the intention to go get some balloons, a card, good luck, and then life would have happened, and I would have woke up Saturday morning and said, oh, shoot, I forgot to do that because I was slammed all all week with work. Now, the intention is matched by the action, and that's a great EA, proactive, get ahead of it, make you sure up... Show up on the business side how you want to, make sure you show up on the life side how you want to. And so, obviously, to our approach here, but huge proponent of EAs in this business.
00:25:12 · Shannon Rosic
[00:25:12] S0: Love that. One thing I find interesting is that, to your point, we spend so much time talking about the ROI of technology, but far less time talking about the ROI of an adviser's time. So if I'm spending hours on tasks that could be automated or delegated, there's an opportunity cost that doesn't necessarily show up on a traditional p and l. So how should firm leaders be thinking about the economics of their own time, and what are maybe some of the biggest mistakes advisers making when deciding what they should personally own versus hand off?
00:25:47 · Brad Johnson
[00:25:47] S1: So I used to do this coaching exercise, and it was the... It was like the number one thing when I would coach somebody on this, their jaw would drop and they'd be like, I never thought about it that way. But here, I'll give you the simple version of how to do it. Take your total revenue as a firm last year, and then top line, and divide it by 2,000. And if you do that, basically, that gives you a very rough estimate of your hourly wage as a founder. Right? Now, granted that you're not taking into account payroll and all of that, But a very simple way, and two... Why two thousand hours? That's if you worked forty hours a week and took two weeks of vacation. As we know, many advisers take much more vacation than that throughout the year. So that means the number's less, which means the number's even higher than the number you just calculated. So let's just say that number is 500 an hour. And then look at your calendar. And I will pretty much guarantee you there is a lot of stuff on there that if you hired somebody for $500 an hour, you'd be like, that was the worst hire of all time. Why am I paying them that much? The truth is you are paying them that much because it's you doing it. And so when you start to look through a different filter and say, wow, checking emails for two hours every day, focusing on somebody else's to do list because that's what email is getting in the way of me actually doing my to do list, which is worth exponentially more than that because if you're actually sitting with clients, your time is much more valuable than $500 an hour. And so once people start to understand that, it cracks open the idea of maybe I should write a check and never do that again the rest of my life. And those are the the fastest highest growth firms in the space. They do not spend time on activities or tasks that are below their hourly wage. And a lot of advisors still do, and that's what's getting in the way for their growth.