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The Shape of Wealth Management to Come
Envestnet Breakdown, The Official AI Notetaker Webinar & Robinhood's Path of Disruption
Jud Mackrill
April 19, 2025
Happy Easter weekend from Spietz Switzerland.
I'm sitting down typing this next to a piece of furniture older than the United States while my family gets ready to head to Lauterbrunnen.
As the global markets continue to ebb and flow in the wake of uncertainty, being in a place that has stood stable and endured the changing world around it is a lesson in mindset and longevity.
This week, I’m digging into my record collection and focusing on an important and inspirational shift in wealth management—one that we can embrace in spirit or choose to fear.
Here’s this week’s Connected Advisor.
The Shape of Wealth Management to Come
On the Pod: How Envestnet Is Redefining Scale and Accessibility 🎧
Webinar Invite: How Can Wealth Management Compete with AI?
Milemarker On the Road ✈️
The Shape of Wealth Management to Come
It was the summer of 2001. I had just finished my first year of undergrad, floating through life without much of a plan. Most of my classmates went back to their hometowns, picked up internships, or checked the next box on their life roadmap.
Me? I wasn’t so clear.
I went home for two days before realizing that “home” no longer fit. I packed up and headed back to campus, where I spent the rest of the summer working odd jobs and touring the country with friends’ bands. It was chaotic, uncomfortable, and wildly fun. We slept wherever we could. Ate whatever we could. And somewhere in that mess, I was introduced to a band that changed the way I thought about creativity: Refused.
Refused wasn’t just another punk band. They were building a rebellion inside the rebellion.
Their album The Shape of Punk to Come fused hardcore with jazz, electronica, spoken word, and glitchy weirdness. It was messy and technical. Loud and thoughtful. Totally disinterested in staying inside the lines.
When asked why they made it, vocalist Dennis Lyxzén said:
“We were bored of the scene. The scene had rules. We didn’t want rules.”
That line still hits.
Because today, wealth management has its own “scene.”
Its own rules.
Its own aesthetic.
And just like punk in the late ’90s, the formula is getting tight. Too tight.
When Disruption Doesn’t Look Like You
I spent 2000–2003 promoting and designing for punk, hardcore, and indie artists (bands like Further Seems Forever, Underoath, Dashboard Confessional, Noise Ratchet, and a million other bands you may or may not have heard of).
DIY everything. Built from scratch. Rarely any label money. Just raw energy and a belief that things could be done differently — and better.
It’s why The Shape of Punk to Come hit me so hard.
It’s also why I can’t ignore what companies like Robinhood are doing in wealth management.
Robinhood didn’t grow up with our playbook. They didn’t wear the suit. They didn’t write the RIA pitch deck. But they’re coming for the same retail client.
Let’s start with the recent obvious:
They acquired TradePMR, gaining access to over 350 RIAs and $40B in assets.
They launched Robinhood Strategies, offering professionally managed portfolios with tax-efficient features and real-time market insights.
They’re expanding into private banking, offering estate planning, tax advice, and concierge-like services to Robinhood Gold subscribers.
And all of this is being delivered through an interface built for digital natives, which has proven more effective than legacy custodians today offer regarding user adoption.
For Less Than One Starbucks Drink
Robinhood Gold costs $5/month.
That’s the cost of entry to:
Premium research
Lower-cost margin borrowing
Larger instant deposits
…and now, actual financial advice(ish).
Yes, $5 a month is now a competitor to your firm.
It’s not a threat to every advisor. But it is a shift in expectations. Robinhood isn’t copying RIAs — they’re creating an alternative for people who don’t want any of the formalities of an advisor.
This is the shape of wealth management to come:
Less friction.
More productized.
More personalized — without a person.
When Help Becomes Dependency
To be fair, many advisors have built incredibly successful businesses with the support of custodians. Referral programs, platform guidance, soft dollar support, integrations — all of it has played a major role in helping advisors deliver deeper, more meaningful value than a custodian ever could.
Because let’s be honest:
The custodian can’t sit in your client’s kitchen.
It can’t understand their legacy, their community, their fear, or their faith.
That’s your lane — and it’s where you shine.
But somewhere along the way, that support from custodians turned into an assumption.
That they’ll always be there. That they’ll help us grow. That they owe us something.
Which brings us to a sharp reminder from Matt Sonnen.
The Custodians Don’t Owe You Anything
As Matt Sonnen, COO of Coldstream Wealth Management, writes:
“Custodians don’t owe us anything.”
He explains that while RIAs benefit from critical services — custody, reporting, technology, even occasional client referrals — expecting those services to include growth strategy or free marketing is a misplaced bet.
“Did we really start RIAs simply because we assumed the custodians would be our primary source of new clients? I don’t think so.”
The truth? That’s never been the deal.
Custodians serve millions of accounts, thousands of firms. They’re not competing with you intentionally — they’re just operating at a scale where your practice isn’t the priority.
Your growth? Your client experience? Your value proposition?
That’s always been your job.
So What’s the Shape of Wealth Management to Come?
It’s smaller.
More specific.
More creative.
More rebellious.
It’s founder-led and conviction-driven.
It’s obsessed with design.
It’s built for a generation that doesn’t automatically trust the system.
The future won’t be built by firms trying to look like the last one that sold for $500 million.
It will be built by those who, like Refused, are bored with the scene.
______________________
On the Pod: How Envestnet Is Redefining Scale and Accessibility
Episode 089: On this week’s episode of The Connected Advisor, Kyle Van Pelt talks with Molly Weiss, Group President of Wealth Platforms at Envestnet—a 20-year financial services veteran who drives Envestnet’s end-to-end technology and solutions ranging from portfolio management, financial planning, performance reporting, and digital account management tools.
Kyle and Molly explore the critical role of configurability in building scalable technology, the evolving landscape of UMA, and how advisors are blending custom portfolio construction with third-party management. Molly shares what’s ahead at Envestnet’s Elevate conference, how AI will empower—not replace—advisors, and why personalization and access to alternatives are shaping the future of wealth management.
(00:00) - Intro
(01:48) - Molly's money moment
(04:20) - Common challenges faced by firms of all sizes
(06:09) - Molly's perspective on “scale” in the financial industry
(07:50) - What to expect at Envestnet Elevate 2025
(11:48) - How Envestnet leverages third-party asset management
(14:52) - The multifaceted role of advisors
(18:17) - Managing diverse investment solutions
(22:14) - Speakers at the Envestnet Elevate 2025 conference
(24:19) - Envestnet's focus on ultra-high-net-worth clients
(25:48) - The future of financial advice
(30:23) - Molly's thoughts on alternative investments
(33:36) - Molly's Milemarker Minute
⚡️Bookmarks
Webinar Invite with the Top Firms in AI: How Can Wealth Management Compete with AI?
You’ve seen the headlines. AI is coming for everything — even your clients.
But here’s the truth: great advisors aren’t being replaced. They’re being redefined.
Join us for a powerful live webinar:
How Can Wealth Management Compete with AI?
You’ll learn how leading firms are:
Leveraging human-first insight in an AI-saturated world
Combining tools like Zeplyn, Zocks, and Jump AI with advisor intuition
Outperforming robo-solutions through personalization
Staying agile without losing the personal touch that clients trust
The future isn’t man vs. machine — it’s about advisors who know how to harness the machine.
Don’t get disrupted. Get ahead.
Milemarker on the Road
Catch my team on the road at the following events or cities:
April 14-15 - New York, NY
April 24-27 - Orlando, FL
April 28-29 - Tampa, FL, Csenge Advisor Summit
Aprill 29-30 - Boston, MA, Tiburon
May 5-8 - New York, NY
If you’re in any of those cities and want to arrange a meeting time, reply to this email, and we’ll get something on the calendar.
Jud Mackrill