Somewhere Over Georgia

I’m writing this at 30,000 feet, heading home from a day trip to Birmingham. It’s late. It’s been a full but really impactful day.

We’re at the last breath of summer. Leaves are starting to flip colors in the northern corners of the country. Q4 is right around the corner. And in wealth management, that means one thing: everything’s kicking into gear.

Right now, firms everywhere are facing the same truth—they don’t own their data. And that lack of control is costing them. At Milemarker, we’ve been betting for years that this shift would come. And now it’s here.

This week, I’m pulling from a different arena: boxing. Watching Bud Crawford dismantle Canelo reminded me why balance matters. Twelve rounds. Adjusting your strategy, collecting yourself for 60 seconds, and then getting back in the ring. That’s the fight. That’s the business.

Balance is the thing everyone knows they need, but rarely master. It’s the cobbler’s kids without shoes. Its advisors have the key details of own businesses out of whack while they deliver excellently for their clients.

So—let’s step into the ring. Here’s this week’s Rising Tide.

1. What Balance and Bud Crawford Can Teach Wealth Management Firms About Winning Championships

2. Next Mile: Turning Tax Records into Wealth Management Strategies 🎧

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

4. Introducing Milemarker DevTools

5. Revenue Optimization Workshop

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

7. Milemarker On the Road ✈️

What Balance and Bud Crawford Can Teach Wealth Management Firms About Winning Championships

This past weekend, I made a promise to my 11-year-old son, Simeon: he could stay up late and watch the Crawford-Canelo fight.

I’m not really a boxing guy. I had my share of fistfights growing up (never lost—crazy long reach helps). But I can appreciate the sport.

For us, this fight mattered. Canelo Álvarez is one of the most decorated fighters alive. Terence “Bud” Crawford is a Nebraska kid—a hometown hero—who has quietly become one of the most complete boxers of all time. When he moved up to challenge Canelo at super middleweight, most thought size and power would win.

But balance beat brute strength.

Crawford didn’t rely on one punch or one stance. He switched styles, adjusted rhythms, countered power with precision. After 12 rounds, the judges scored it 116-112, 115-113, 115-113, unanimous for Crawford. He’s now the undisputed super middleweight champion of the world.

Seventy thousand fans in Allegiant Stadium and 41 million watching on Netflix witnessed the same truth: balance is what wins at the highest levels.

The Wealth Management Parallel

Wealth management firms aren’t stepping into a ring in Las Vegas. But they are competing—harder than ever—for clients, talent, and market share.

Many firms lean on one strength: maybe retirement planning, estate law, or investment management. That strength can carry them a long way. But eventually, they bump into their own version of Canelo: a challenge where one dimension isn’t enough.

That’s when balance matters.

• Recruit better. Your next level won’t come just from the current roster. You need people who raise the standard, who fill in the gaps you didn’t even see.
  

• Train better. Championship firms don’t rely on past wins. They professionalize: repeatable playbooks, deeper skill development, more efficient processes.
  

• Outsource wisely. Not every capability should be built in-house. Partner where it accelerates you, outsource where it saves time, and free up energy for what matters most.
  

• Professionalize where it counts. When it comes to advice, client experience, compliance, or reporting—the areas that define trust—you don’t dabble. You lead.

Balance doesn’t mean watering down your strengths. It means leveling up the other spokes of your wheel so the whole thing can spin faster without wobbling.

Moving Up Weight Classes

Crawford moved up two divisions to face Canelo. He didn’t just bring power up with him—he brought adaptability. That’s why he won.

Firms that grow beyond $500M, $1B, or $5B in AUM face their own version of “moving up weight classes.” Complexity multiplies. Client needs expand. Competitors sharpen.

If you don’t expand your balance, you plateau. If you do, you compete—and win—at a level most firms never reach.

The Missing Ingredient: Measurement

But here’s the key: you don’t know if you’re balanced unless you measure.

Crawford knew when his punches were landing and when they weren’t. He adjusted in real time because he had a sense of scale, timing, and effectiveness.

Firms need the same. Every spoke of the wheel—talent, training, outsourcing, technology, client experience—should be measured.

• Scale: Do you know how much capacity you truly have? How many clients per advisor, how many workflows per staffer, how much room before systems break?
  

• Gaps: Can you see what’s missing? The services you can’t deliver, the roles you don’t have, the processes that stall growth?
  

• Profitability: Are you clear on where you’re hitting hard—and where you’re just shadowboxing? Which services are profitable, which clients are net contributors, and which drain resources?

Without measurement, balance is just a feeling. With it, balance becomes a strategy.

The Challenge

Balance is not natural. Most of us lean on what we’re good at and stay there. The truth is, greatness comes from deliberately adding what you don’t have—and proving it with numbers.

That may be a partner. A strategic hire. An acquisition. Or a service provider who strengthens a spoke of your wheel. But it must also be a scoreboard, so you know where you stand every round.

At 2:23 a.m., Simeon and I were celebrating Crawford’s victory before crashing for a few hours of sleep. But the real win was the reminder: balance beats specialization when the stakes get high.

And for wealth management firms, the stakes have never been higher.

This is your time. Recruit better. Train better. Outsource wisely. Professionalize relentlessly. And above all, measure everything—so you know how hard you’re hitting, where you’re weak, and when you’re ready to move up weight classes.

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: Turning Tax Records into Wealth Management Strategies

Episode 110: On this week’s episode, Kyle Van Pelt sits down with Kevin Knull, CEO of TaxStatus. With more than 30 years in financial services and fintech, Kevin has led growth and innovation at companies like MoneyGuidePro, YCharts, Symetra Financial, and Hartford Leaders.

Kevin talks about how TaxStatus leverages access to IRS data to help financial advisors get a complete picture of a client's financial life. He explores the opportunities this presents for organic growth, building relationships with COIs, and providing better, more holistic advice. From his early days in the U.S. Coast Guard to leading FinTech and advisory firms, Kevin shares how his career has been fueled by one mission: delivering better advice and better outcomes.

(00:00) - Intro

(02:01) - Kevin's money moment

(04:42) - Why "better advice, better outcomes" is harder than it looks

(06:15) - How tax data can serve as the foundation for holistic advice

(09:27) - How TaxStatus can access clients’ IRS data

(11:13) - Consent, compliance, and how advisors can use IRS data responsibly

(13:01) - Turning tax data into organic growth opportunities

(16:20) - Partnering with CPAs and COIs through smarter data sharing

(19:16) - The importance of a standardized process for data collection

(24:28) - The role of AI in the future of the industry

(31:22) - Kevin'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.

Revenue Optimization Workshop

RIAs know fee billing is stressful. Calculating and collecting is hard enough, but documenting, analyzing, and aligning those fees with firm goals adds another layer of complexity.

Join us on Tuesday, September 30th at 11:30 ET for this powerful conversation on how to untangle this complexity and optimize your revenue. 

In this webinar, you’ll discover how to:

• Take control of your most critical revenue metrics

• Eliminate inefficiencies and data silos

• Align your revenue operations with growth goals

You’ll hear from:

• Lacey Shrum, Founder & CEO of Smart Kx

• Jud Mackrill, Co-Founder of Milemarker

• Jessica Perez, VP of Growth at Milemarker

Don’t let preventable inefficiencies hold back your revenue—reserve your spot today and take the first step toward more confident, growth-aligned revenue operations. (Can’t make it live? Respond to this email and I will make sure you get the recording)

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 22-23 - Spokane, WA

2. October 1-2 - New York, NY

3. October 4-8 - Salt Lake City, UT

4. October 28-29 - Boston, MA

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