What Is RIA Oasis?

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This is the Transition To RIA Vendor Profile Series where we take a look at the solution providers powering the RIA model. On this episode:

Vendor name:

RIA Oasis

Vendor category:

Tech Implementation

Episode host:

Brad Wales

Episode guest:

Kristen Schmidt

Vendor contact info:

Website

Full Transcript:

Brad Wales – Hi, I’m Brad with Transition To RIA, and this is the Transition To RIA Vendor Profile Series where we take a look at the solution providers powering the RIA model. On today’s episode, we’re answering the question, “What is RIA Oasis?” And to help us with that is Kristen. Kristen, thank you for joining us.

Kristen Schmidt – It’s a pleasure to be here. Thank you.

Brad – So we’ll dive into the details and get into the nitty-gritty of what all you offer. But at that high level, that proverbial elevator pitch, what is RIA Oasis?

Kristen – I tease a lot and say RIA Oasis is a company name, but it’s actually me. It’s me and my outsourced providers. I am a tech consultant in the independent RIA space. We have a lot of titles, don’t we? We hear a lot of those thrown around. So to make it simple, I help firms implement tech or optimize their tech. When I talk about tech, what does that mean? CRM, portfolio management, financial planning, client experience, all the quick win tools, document management and storage.

Then there’s the one everybody’s talking about right now, AI tools, AI note takers, AI summary tools. So I work in all areas of technology when it comes to RIAs. I help firms choose the right tech, implement the right tech, or optimize it. They have it, but they’re not using it right. I also help firms build processes around their practices within the technology.

So I’m definitely a one-stop shop when it comes to helping firms elevate and become more efficient.

Brad – That’s wonderful. There’s a lot to unpack there which we’ll dive into. I agree as I walk advisors and teams through the process of maybe establishing their own RIA that there’s all the pieces you have put in place including the tech stack. The tech stack is often one of the most expensive parts of running an RIA outside of maybe real estate and personnel and so it’s tough that you see folks go and spend perhaps tens of thousands of dollars a year and then they’re not really maximizing what they’re paying for. Maybe they’re not aware of how to make it work more efficiently or they don’t feel they have the time to figure it out, let alone maybe train team members. And so it sounds like that’s a big part of what you do.

If you could separate those out, what does that look like both from someone coming in that, for better or worse, they’re walking away from enterprise technology at their wirehouse firm so they need a new slate of tech and then also perhaps that existing RIA that has built out a tech stack of some sort and has reflected on the fact that there’s maybe more they could be doing with that?

Kristen – Yeah, I think you broke those out into two really, really good dilemmas that firms come across. So firstly, for any advisor or group of advisors that is starting to consider breaking away or has broken away from a wirehouse you’re absolutely right. One, it’s I know what I want because I don’t like what I’m using at my current firm. Or two, I’m feeling really lost because even though I have all this independence now, I’m looking at the Kitces map and I don’t know what to do. I’m stuck, right?

I love Michael Kitces and I am a huge, huge follower and I fan geek him and Craig Iskowitz as a group who help make that map every month. The challenge is, it doesn’t narrow anything. So when firms are looking to break away, one thing they’re trying to figure out is cost. You mentioned that, right? They’re trying to figure out efficiency.

A lot of where I help is what do I need now versus what can I afford to wait for later. And I think that’s a really big piece for breakaways as you’re thinking. So what are those core pieces?

I picture it as building your house, right? We need the walls, we need the ceilings, we need the floors, we definitely need some furniture. Are we worried about the wallpaper? Maybe not right now, right? And when can we choose that wallpaper and when is it important? So it’s about when you’re choosing your tech, or you’re confused on which choices to make.

Also, which integrates the best? I do a lot of work on integrations. Just because a vendor says they integrate, I’m sure they’re not lying to you, but it’s not as sexy as we all think it is. So oftentimes, we use generic terms in the industry, and I help translate all those for you. So when somebody says, it’s a single sign-on, yeah, that’s great. I already had the tab open. Right?

What does this mean for the data? Kristen, where is the data going? How can my staff see all the data in one place? I do a lot of that work as you’re trying to strategize what your tech stack looks like.

Talking about that other bucket you mentioned, there are a lot of firms that come to me that say we’re growing and we feel like we’re grown out of the tech we currently have. I will tell you right now, 80% of the time, I don’t move them. I want to be very clear, I would rather not implement anything new. I don’t want to stop your business and I don’t want to delay your growth.

Most of the time I am helping you become more efficient in what you have. But if you’re interested in moving, I am somebody who can help you assess, find a new system, and move into it depending upon what type of tech it is, because I do work in all of tech.

I also have firms who have broken away. Let me just tie all this together for you. They have broken away. They made some decisions because they were in a rush and there was so much to do. You’re running a business. You have your own book of business with your clients. You want to make sure your clients are okay. All of a sudden you’re 200 million, 300 million, half a billion and you’re looking and going, I don’t think I made the right choice. Now you couldn’t have known better, right?

So I have a lot of firms who are growing or are finally settled and they’re deciding we need to look at something or we need help from a third party to really get the pros, the cons, the challenges, the value out of what we might be seeking. I also work with very large firms, firms who have said, I’ve been using XYZ tech for 15 years. It’s time for a change. Or we are actually growing out of this. Or we’re adding something. We have a gap. Let’s use an example of gaps.

We’ve been doing risk using our paper PDF for 15 years, right? It’s time for a risk software, or risk tolerance software, a vendor of some sort. We generate our IPSs, our investment policy statements, through Word and PowerPoint. I need something that’s more powerful and automated. I hear a lot about AI tools. How do I implement that? What are the compliance ramifications surrounding it?

So I have a lot of octopus legs as you can tell, but I think that whether you’re breaking away or you’re established, the reassessment of if the tech stack is working for you is extremely overwhelming without outside help.

Brad – Yeah, and let’s not forget advisors teams, their full-time job is not being an expert in technology. You have the luxury. This is all you do, paying attention to all the changes and you make a great point on AI. If we thought there’s been change over the last 5-10 years, the next 5-10, I think it’s just going to be accelerated exponentially with AI.

The Kitces tech map is interesting. For those that are not familiar, you should definitely check it out. Michael Kitces puts it out and he updates it monthly on his website. It’s a one-pager, right, which now it’s incredibly unruly to draw it on one page, but it’s little logos of all the different tech solutions categorized. If you look at that, it’s two things. It’s a wonderful thing because there are hundreds of options on there. So it’s like, wow, I have hundreds of really cool tech solutions to choose from.

Well, that’s also a challenge to have hundreds of really cool tech solutions to choose from. And so I like the fact that you can help people not be overwhelmed by that. And I’d equate it to a financial advisor helping a client choose mutual funds. There’s thousands of mutual funds. And for a client that doesn’t know any better, that can seem overwhelming. For an advisor that pays attention to these things, they can help narrow that field. And clearly, that’s what you’re doing for folks.

Kristen – Yeah, I joke about that a lot and say as long as that map is going out, my business keeps running because it just creates more questions. It’s an amazing industry. I’ve been doing this for 20-plus years. I think I’m close to 25 years now. And the categories have all changed. Nothing has slimmed down. So ironically, I get questions all the time about, well, everything’s consolidating, right?

Orion has bought things and Envestnet buys everything and there’s different companies merging. And the answer is, yeah, but. The problem is the but at the end there, right? Yeah, but we have other tools that are still emerging, whether they are, startups or others. But when those companies converge or merge, they now are entering into an all-in-one capability.

No  one in the industry has defined all-in-one, by the way. It’s a phrase we use, but I struggle with it because I mean, all-in-one what? Okay. There’s no definition for that. Not every all-in-one has the same features, functionality, or even sits in the same bucket on the Michael Kitces’ map. So that’s where I think the confusion lies. We also have so many financial planners and advisors who want to make sure that they are not having FOMO. Okay.

We can call it very nicely and say, they want to make sure they’re using the best tools. Best of breed is what we used to say. Now it’s just FOMO. You want to make sure you’re not using something that is from 1982.You also want to make sure your friends know that you’re using something fancy and modern. I appreciate that. But I am the Italian woman who comes into the room, type A, who’s going to say, so what? What are you going to do with it? Right?

We have bling disease. We just had some big conferences go on. There was the Schwab Impact Conference not too long ago. I had a lot of advisors reaching out and saying, I saw some really cool stuff. How many of those advisors have actually sat down and implemented anything that they got from that conference, right?  So we have bling disease. We think it looks good.

Also, we have an epidemic of executives who buy tech. They are not the ones who use the tech. Let’s be real. You’re not the ones using it. So that is kind of like telling somebody to go buy you a pair of jeans. Could you imagine? Could you imagine if somebody gifted you a pair of jeans? As a woman, no thank you. I already have goosebumps. And no matter what gender you are, you would never do it for anyone. So why would the owner of a company buy something and then not be a user of it and not know if it’s making an impact in the business?

So I’m also a huge proponent of getting everyone’s opinions from these firms. I really dig in deep with your staff to understand are we using it or are we just using it because they said so? And there’s always a why behind it. Why are we using this? I think it’s really important to make sure everyone’s educated to the why we are using Holistaplan because for this segment of clients, we need to do some tax optimization work and the other systems aren’t as good at doing it so quickly. Okay?

And this is why we’re only using it for this 10% of our clients. Or we are using this section of the Orion system for these type of clients because, and when you start to do that, your staff start to adopt a lot better. So I agree with you, lots of epidemics out there. So far, the value is defining things. I would say that’s our mantra for today, right? Defining what you’re using it for and defining the impact it has.

Brad – I’d say not just defining it, not just identifying it, but I would say you kind of handhold people through it. You actually figure it out and implement it.

A maybe not perfect analogy I gave a while back is I bought a new washer and dryer which these things are now all super fancy and cost a lot of money. My washer and dryer somehow connects the internet I guess and they talk to each other. I don’t even know why they would need to do that. There’s some steam setting you can hook up.

Guess how much of that I’ve actually hooked up at all. And I paid for that stuff. But if someone magically could stand there with me and force me to go through it in one hour or whatever, and help me understand what I’ve already paid for, I might use it to its maximum capabilities.

I think we just see that a lot, folks. Again, you’re investing tens of thousands of dollars into these tech products. I’d venture to say sometimes you’re using less than half of the features of that technology.

Kristen – Easily. You’re absolutely spot on. And it really resonates with me. I like your example. I use the example of we all have cell phones. How much of it are we using? And sometimes you’ll see a friend who’s using the Notes app. You’re like, you use the Notes app? I use the Reminders app. And it’s all personal. But the way we use things is important.

It’s interesting what you said about what I was thinking. When I have prospects that come to me interested in working with me or learning more about what I do, when they say X vendor is too expensive, my answer is, no, they are actually fair market value. It seems expensive because you’re not using it enough or to the best of its ability to justify its cost.

Now, that can kind of bifurcate into two challenges. One happens a lot with portfolio management systems. If you are financial planning centric and you’re not sending quarterly performance reports, half of that system doesn’t seem valuable in your quotes.

It is valuable. You still need benchmarks. You still need scenario testing. You still need analytics. You still need to know the performance of those accounts. But you’re right. Compared to 10 years ago when all we did was send a performance report, it’s a little different now. So you will have to pay more for a standard system that you only use in your business 50% of the time.

The opposite of that is I should be using a system closer to 80%, but we only use it 40%. A good example would be a CRM. I use it like a Rolodex. I still run all my birthdays in a spreadsheet. When you start to open Excel, this is my biggest tip, if you open Excel, I want you to look at that Excel and say, where should this data be?

If you’re updating cells in a spreadsheet, where should that data be? Should it be in the financial planning tools? Should it be in the CRM? And should we be updating it in a system, not in a spreadsheet? So that is actually my number one question that I ask prospects when they’re a little bit leery about where they should start with projects. And I always say, if Excel shut down tomorrow, how much of your business would?

Brad – Excel and I hate to say it, Excel and Outlook. Some are running their CRM as Outlook. I’m not trying to knock anyone, but in today’s world, that’s not how you run a CRM.

Kristen – It’s not, you’re right. So that usually impacts people to the point where, even on a Zoom call, they’ll have some facial expressions. I’m like, I get it. It’s an important piece of the business, but where should it be? So we do a lot of work with that which is educating you on what the systems can do, but you know what that does, right? It changes your process.

So it means that you have to redefine how your staff works and how the executive management team works. And that’s where it gets hard. I started telling you, I’m a tech consultant, right? That’s where this gets a little weedy is we work on the business to then echo it into the tech, which oftentimes takes a lot of work.

Brad – And where do you see a size practice where that can be hard to define? Are we talking in AUM, are we talking number of clients, are we talking number of team members? So however you want to define it, just give people a perspective. Where do you typically see you’re able to provide the most value?

It’s clearly not someone that’s not in the industry, that’s just completely starting from scratch, that doesn’t have any clients. As great as it would be to hire someone like you, that’s probably out of their scope. On the big side, maybe they have some in-house expertise. So where’s that sweet spot that you found you’ve been able to add the most value?

Kristen – Yeah, you’re right. I work with firms of all shapes and sizes, from breakaways that are individual advisors trying to start a smaller practice, or what I would call a lifestyle practice, all the way up to multibillion dollar firms that are 30, 40, 60, 80 people. I work with all of them. So just to be clear, people ask me this all the time, so let me just put it out there.

I am a monthly-retained consultant. My monthly costs are based on the projects and I am happy to draft scopes for all and anyone who’s interested. The monthly retention is based on the project, the amount of time you need from me and the amount of time the project will take. Oftentimes people are hiring me for multiple projects at a time or consecutive projects once they realize that I can work in all areas.

But as we look at the breakaways, you’re absolutely right. They don’t need me that much and they don’t have the capacity, right? And they’re not trying to grow a billion dollar firm. So I have very simple engagements that are call packages and things where you can DIY it with the help of me, where I can still be an impact, but more on a lower level. The sweet spot for me as a firm, traditionally anywhere is between 300 and 500 million, six to 12 people.

And again, it could be a $200 million firm and it could be a $900 million firm, right? It’s hard to know. Why is that the sweet spot? I call it too big to be small and too small to be big. What has worked for you to get to this point might not work for you to grow, or you’re feeling like the systems are failing you.

OK, I wish all these systems did this. I need more. Or firms come to me very often and say, well, if I just get the right systems, then I don’t have to hire more people, right? I have to educate them a lot. The more systems you have, the more people you need. The systems do not replace the people. And I think we’re finally realizing that. And usually in that sweet spot is when all of that stuff starts to sweep out a little bit. It’s exciting to grow that big, but it’s also very overwhelming.

Brad – You sometimes say that the messy middle can be tough. You grew to a certain point but then more people, more clients; it’s a different animal to kind of grow out of that. So I can certainly understand where there’s a need for value at that point.

You did reference briefly but just to kind of clarify for folks of how you operate, and then I want to get into what that initial reach out looks like if someone reaches out to you, so you work on a monthly retainer basis. So is that where we recognize we have a need and you say, hey, this is probably like a six-month kind of engagement or are there some folks that you’re essentially kind of permanently engaged to that you’re helping for various things?  What exactly does that look like and is that priced out, I believe you said, on a per-month basis? What does that typically look like?

Kristen – Yeah, so I am a project-based consultant. So everyone comes to me with some type of pain point. I always say you’re working with a consultant because something hurts enough. You either don’t know what you don’t know, or it’s hurting enough in the firm, or I feel like I can’t do this alone anymore. And so when that happens, I jump in and we identify what the biggest pain point is.

Now, ironically, what advisors think is their biggest pain point might not be my opinion of what the pain point is, right? Sometimes we avoid our biggest pain points. We don’t realize how much it’s hurting us.

But once we agree on what those projects are, I then come back with a scope of work for the project. And depending upon the project, we usually start with a smaller project, six weeks, eight weeks, more research assessment, something a little bit simpler so we’re not jumping into something so huge.

Once I’ve done an assessment, it might be a CRM assessment or a financial planning assessment. Some firms ask me to do a full tech stack assessment. So can you look at everything I use just a little bit to tell me if I’m on track and where my gaps are? And so those engagements are usually no more than two months.

From there, you’ve worked with me for a couple of months, and then we really start to prioritize our projects and how much I’m going to be involved in working with your firm.

You’re absolutely correct, some firms do a project and then they say, Kristen, we need a break. We did it, we’re proud, we need to live in this for a while. Almost all of my clients come back at some level. They’re ready for more, they wanna do more. I do have clients I’ve been working with for years. I’ve been doing this besides all of my other career paths in the industry for eight years. And so yes, I have some clients that work with me monthly.

It’s kind of like having a workout coach. You show up if you see a call with Kristin on the calendar. And they save all of their little questions. It happened a lot for Schwab Impact. A lot of my advisors for their monthly call were like, can I pick your brain? I talked with Zocks, and I talked with Jump AI, and Schwab was telling me about this new program.

And so you can use me as the “we don’t know what we don’t know” help. But a lot of the firms are using me regularly. I have one firm I work with right now that I’m on about eight calls a week, spending about 30% of my time with them. Depending upon what you need from me and how much capacity you have for the change that you’re looking for, we make it work.

Brad – So that starts with a conversation, right? We’ll talk contact info shortly. But for the moment, say someone is listening to this, this is resonating, they’re recognizing, hey, maybe I do need help because I’m starting from scratch, I’m transitioning, or I haven’t existed in practice for all the reasons we’ve stated, there could be a lot of value here. So they reach out. What happens in the first conversation to try to figure out where you might be able to help or not?

Kristen – Yeah, they’re welcome to go to my website and book a call from the site. I’m always available for chatting with anyone interested. I always in those calls, in those discovery calls, I set the stage with the disclosures. That is, we’re not going to solve world peace in a half-hour conversation, and I’m always willing to have more conversations. Once people start to talk with me, they start to share where their pain points are.

I do a very quick intake. How big are you? What’s your AUM? How many people do you have? What’s your custodian? And we start kind of just talking about your tech. The minute you mention your tech, you will start telling me what you like or what you don’t like. And if you don’t, I will ask you.

And that starts to create a really good discourse between all of us as we’re having that conversation. Oftentimes we speak multiple times because I bring a lot to the table. You have to decide if you’re ready, if you have the capacity. If your staff is ready to do homework.

I am a doing consultant, not just a talking consultant. So I think that’s really important. We’re going to talk for a while for me to learn, and then I’m going to start giving you things to do. I am not the one who does the work. I’m the one who project manages and directs and oversees and also recommends what you need to do. But let’s say we’re cleaning up your CRM, your staff does the work in the CRM. I just jump in and oversee them doing it.

So it just takes some talking. Some advisors talk with me and they go away for a couple months and then they come back and they say, okay, it hurts too much or I’m ready and we keep moving. So it’s all custom. Every one of my engagements is customized from the scope of work to the amount of time to the goals that we’re assessing because everyone’s firm is different.

Brad – I think there’s so much value in, to put it bluntly, pushing people along, right? So there’s, yes, you’re helping them figure stuff out. Yes, you’re sharing your expertise, but someone literally has to spend time with maybe certain members of the team to learn and start doing something in, for instance, the CRM.

And the reality is, the advisors or team members on their own are probably not going to do it because it’s busy, time escapes. And I think there’s a lot of value there, not just the expertise, but actually moving it down the field.

Kristen – Yeah, no, I appreciate you saying that. It happened just because of the holidays, right? So I had some calls yesterday, and one of my clients was like, I knew you were on my calendar for a Monday, and I shouldn’t have done that. Because I do. I create the accountability. I create the check-ins. And there’s really no excuses after you’re working with me.

We use the vendors as the excuse a lot, which I appreciate. I’m paying Black Diamond this much money, and they never showed me how to do this. Well, I paid almost $2,000 for my iPhone. Nobody at Apple has contacted me to tell me how to use it, right?

But I did it. I figured it out. The problem is having a middleman to really keep you accountable, tell you what to focus on. And so yeah, I do bring that to the table. But I think that a lot of firms are really struggling with where to be focusing. And I hope that I can bring value to those firms.

Brad – Yeah, hence that’s a big part of the focus and then the actual implementation. So this has been helpful for folks that do want to reach out to and connect with you. You mentioned the website, but if you could give the domain for it so people know how to find it. And then I think you said a book a call, but if you could just rehash with that.

Kristen – Yeah, absolutely. It’s riaoasis.com. You can also find me on LinkedIn. So I’m on LinkedIn all the time. So you’re welcome to message me if you’re looking to connect. I think what’s really important, what I want to make sure that I say before we go is I think that your business and my business has a lot of similarities in a sense of where we can help advisors.

So what usually happens when I have people thinking about transitioning or breaking away or going under a new umbrella, so they’re moving houses, I think where firms get stuck is, do I think about Kristen and the tech stack first or do I think about Brad and how I’m doing this first, right?

And they don’t know if they should pick the home, but if they do pick the home, what if the tech isn’t ready? So I just wanna make sure that people are aware that they, you, and I can also adjust to that.

I work with a lot of different consultants, so I work in tandem with them. I’m currently in four engagements with four different consultants because sometimes you need different specialties. So we always work with advisors depending upon their timelines and their challenges and scenarios. So there is an opportunity to be working with both decision makers as consultants, that can bring value as well.

Brad – Yeah, I often talk about how the ecosystem support and the RIA model has evolved tremendously over the last five, 10, 15 years. And part of that is just having experts like you, and I’ll pat myself on the back, like myself, but that go a mile deep on a particular subject.

Yeah, if someone’s looking for marketing help, Kristen is not the person to help you with that. But when you need technology help, you have someone that that is their entire focus, their entire world. Kristen has the luxury that that’s the only thing she has to spend her time paying attention to is that one kind of vertical. So I certainly see value in that. I try to mirror my own business on that.

Kristen – Same. It’s a crazy luxury, isn’t it?

Brad – It is good, and luxury is the word I use. I say I have the luxury of only having to pay attention to how to transition to the RIA model. I don’t have to worry about being a marketing guru or a technology guru because those in and of themselves are expert areas.

But, Kristen, with that, I appreciate you coming on. Thank you for all the helpful info, and we’ll put the contact information in the show notes so people can find that as well. So thanks again for coming on.

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