It's 3:24 am and I'm somewhere over Arkansas.

I’m currently flying back from San Diego on a red-eye that's doing its best to remind me why I shouldn’t book these flights. Sleep is a lost cause at this point—my white noise playlist gave up on me about an hour ago. So here I am, tapping away on my iPad, counting down the 70 minutes until coffee and solid ground.

This week was absolutely packed. Future Proof has grown into something unprecedented—it's not just big, it's redefined what an industry event can be. Going back to the tired conference center circuit in Orlando, Vegas, and San Diego isn't going to cut it anymore.

Between sessions, I caught Bush live for the first time. They helped reshape rock and grunge in the '90s with those droning riffs that somehow embed themselves in your brain for decades. You know the ones—songs you haven't heard in 20 years that come flooding back note-perfect.

There's a line from their track "Glycerine" that's been stuck in my head all week, and it's become the focus of this edition of Rising Tide. Time to switch off the white noise, cue up "Sixteen Stone," and dive in.

1. Street Art, Kobra, and the Lesson for Advisors

2. Next Mile: How Entrepreneurs Can Prepare, Plan, and Protect Their Wealth 🎧

3. Milemarker Wins 2025 WealthManagement.com Industry Award for Innovation Data Engine

4. Introducing Milemarker DevTools

5. Wealth Management’s Data Workshop: From Chaos to Clarity

6. Milemarker On the Road ✈️

Don't Let the Days Go By - How Wealth Management Needs to Rethink Change

Tuesday night on the Huntington Beach boardwalk, I found myself standing with a few thousand other industry folks watching Gavin Rossdale and Bush tear through three decades of hits. The salt air, the crowd energy, the nostalgic pull of songs that defined the '90s—it was exactly what you'd expect from a Future Proof evening.

Then they played "Glycerine."

That chorus hit different this time: "Don't let the days go by... I couldn't change, though I wanted to."

Standing there, I realized that's exactly the trap most wealth management firms are caught in.

The Glycerine Trap

Rossdale's lament in "Glycerine" is about wanting to change but feeling unable to. It's about watching time slip away while stuck in patterns that don't serve you.

Sound familiar?

Most wealth management firms want to change. They see technology-first competitors gaining ground. They understand that client expectations are evolving. They genuinely want to deliver better, faster, more scalable solutions.

But they're caught in the Glycerine trap: "I couldn't change, though I wanted to."

The Shipping Problem

Here's what I see across our industry: firms that want change desperately but can't seem to execute it.

I run a software company. My engineers and designers ship every single day. Features, fixes, improvements, iterations. The output is relentless, and we're still learning how to capture and communicate all of it effectively.

Most wealth management firms operate differently. They're incredible at processing information—constantly absorbing data on markets, economy, client situations. The communication flow is massive.

But here's the gap: the packaging, articulation, and solution delivery of all that information. Scaling it. Making it technology-driven rather than human-dependent. That's one of the hardest deltas for firms to cross right now.

Breaking Free

Some companies refuse to get stuck in the Glycerine trap. They see the challenge as an opportunity to build fresh from the ground up.

Take Farther—they've built their technology on top of their portfolio accounting but wrapped it in a proprietary context that completely redefines the advisor technology experience. This foundation enables them to adopt a fundamentally different approach to communication and delivery. They can ship solutions instead of just wanting to.

While many firms are singing "I couldn't change, though I wanted to," companies like Farther prove that you can change if you're willing to rebuild your foundation.

The Choice

Every day, firms face the same choice Rossdale sang about: will today be the day I actually change or will I stay in the comfort of what’s known.

The firms currently winning market share have figured out how to escape the familiar. They've learned that wanting to change isn't enough. They are building systems that make change inevitable. They ship improvements faster than annually. They iterate based on client feedback instead of perfecting in isolation. They've made change a daily practice instead of the outcome of an annual meeting.

Your Next Move

What do your clients need you to change? Not the comprehensive platform overhaul. Not the perfect solution. Just the next logical improvement that proves change is possible.

Because here's what that Tuesday night on the boardwalk reminded me: the days are absolutely going by. The choice is whether you spend them stuck in what has been—wanting to change but feeling unable to—or whether you build systems that make change inevitable.

Don't let the days go by. And don't wish for change without taking action.

Rising Tide is written by Jud Mackrill. Have thoughts on this week's edition? Hit reply—I read every response.

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On the Pod: How Entrepreneurs Can Prepare, Plan, and Protect Their Wealth

Episode 109: On this week’s episode, Kyle Van Pelt sits down with Tiffany Irving, Senior Vice President and Wealth Advisor at Mesirow Wealth Management. Tiffany specializes in working with high-net-worth individuals, families, and non-profit organizations by providing comprehensive wealth management advice and customized asset allocation strategies to help them accumulate, grow, protect, and distribute their wealth.

Tiffany shares her work with business owners and her passion for empowering women in finance. From the challenges of working with busy entrepreneurs to navigating wealth transfer and the evolving role of women in financial planning, she offers valuable insights on preparing, planning, and protecting both personal and business wealth. Tiffany also shares her perspective on technology, growth strategies, and the future of consolidation in the RIA space.

(00:00) - Intro

(01:28) - Tiffany's money moment

(03:49) - How Tifanny succeeds in communicating with business owners

(05:24) - How Mesirow helps business owners

(06:54) - Helping business owners prepare, protect, and plan their wealth

(09:21) - What it takes to attract the next generation of investors

(11:55) - Tiffany's thoughts on the great wealth transfer and women in finance

(16:44) - Leveraging technology to serve clients better

(18:01) - Mesirow's growth strategies and marketing approaches

(19:56) - Tiffany's outlook on the future of the industry

(23:38) - Tiffany's thoughts on the consolidation happening in the industry

(26:41) - Mesirow's core values

(27:56) - Tiffany's Milemarker Minute

⚡️Bookmarks

Milemarker Wins 2025 WealthManagement.com Industry Award for Innovation Data Engine

We’re honored to share that Milemarker has been recognized at the 2025 WealthManagement.com Industry Awards, taking home the win in the Innovation – New Applications category. This award highlights the impact of our Firm Intelligence platform, which unifies data across 130+ wealth management systems to give advisory firms a single source of truth.

This recognition validates what we’ve believed from day one: advisory firms deserve complete control over their data—and the ability to scale without compromise.

Introducing Milemarker DevTools

We’re excited to announce the launch of Milemarker DevTools—a command-line toolkit built to help wealth management firms deploy analytics, metrics, and automations in minutes, not weeks.

DevTools gives engineering, operations, and advisory teams the power to move from idea to insight instantly, with enterprise-grade security and governance built in. From one-command deployments to reusable KPIs and custom search indexes, DevTools is designed to scale with your ambition.

Read more about Milemarker DevTools here:

Wealth Management’s Data Workshop: From Chaos to Clarity

Drowning in data but struggling to make it work for you?

Let’s fix that—together.

🗓️ Tuesday, November 11 | 1:00–4:30 PM MST
📍 Candy Factory | Denver, CO
💵 $575 per seat

Save 50% by using Code Jud50 at checkout. 

Join Milemarker’s CTO and Lead Data Scientist for a half-day, hands-on workshop built for RIAs and broker-dealers who are ready to cut through the noise, prepare for AI, and scale with confidence.

You’ll discover how to:

• Unlock your warehouse + data lake so your team can trust and use firm-wide data.

• Simplify integrations and streamline connections across your tech stack

• Apply AI tools like OCR and natural language to your existing systems

• Deliver insights to advisors, execs, and compliance—without bottlenecks

If you’re ready to turn data chaos into clarity and build a scalable, high-performing firm…

Reserve your seat now

Milemarker on the Road
Catch my team on the road at the following events or cities:

1. September 18 - Birmingham, AL

2. September 22-23 - Spokane, WA

3. October 1-2 - New York, NY

4. October 4-8 - Utah

If you’re in any of those cities and would like to arrange a meeting time, please reply to this email, and we’ll schedule something on the calendar.

Jud Mackrill