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Have you ever wondered why some teams just click while others struggle with missed deadlines, poor communication, and growing frustration?

Does it feel like your clients are on an emotional roller coaster whenever the market experiences a significant pullback? As a result, do you find yourself receiving more calls from concerned clients?

Do you control your day, or does your day control you? If you're unsure, one way to tell is by looking at how your days unfold and how you react to what happens. Do you start each morning with the best intentions, knowing precisely what you want to accomplish, only to reach the end of the day wondering where the time went—and realizing you didn’t achieve your goals? If so, chances are, other people are controlling your time.

Have you ever wondered how successful advisors keep reaching the next level? Some people might say that it is about luck, while others might say it’s about skill. I believe that it really comes down to one simple but powerful thing that successful advisors apply each and every day. It’s all about having efficient and productive business habits!

Do you ever feel stuck in your career, wondering how to get to the next level, but you just can’t find the right solution/s? While having the right tools and techniques help, it’s not the first step to reaching goals, having a growth mindset is. You see, everything starts between your ears. And, developing a growth mindset isn’t just a good idea, it’s the foundation for achieving long-term success in this business!

Have you ever sat down, grabbed the phone to start prospecting, and hesitated to dial because you were unsure of how individuals might respond or were worried about what to say? Or maybe, you've thought about all the potential objections a prospect could throw at you and wondered if reaching out is even worth the risk. In either case, know that you are not alone.

Do you feel connected to your clients? Or, maybe a better question is, do your clients feel connected to you? If you don’t have a systematic way of connecting with them, the answer is probably “no”. And if that's the case, know that you are not alone.

Are you feeling burned out in your business? Does it seem like the more you do, the more needs to be done and it feels like you can never catch up? You may be already burned out and have no idea how to bounce back. Does this sound like you?

[Digital Vaults continue to rapidly evolve from a “nice-to-have” virtual equivalent of a safety deposit box for critical advisor and client-facing documents into a “must-have” technology to power a more engaging and competitive advisor and enterprise-wide service model. Such is the nature of technology that requires the ongoing development of robust applications which are driving advisor and wealth management tools and capabilities, ultimately changing the face of the industry for the better.

Digital Vaults are a good example to explore as to how they have developed from simple storage and basic functionality to enterprise solutions built for compliance and operations efficiency, and now, with the advancements of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Model (LLM) technology, to quickly summarize documents, extract critical information, provide contextualized action items, offer actionable insights and analytics, and much more. This evolution is materializing into a more comprehensive servicing and enterprise engagement strategy that can transform financial institutions and wealth management firms into delivering modern, high-touch wealth and advisory relationships by providing better insights, deeper engagement, and more value across all stakeholders and family members in the client relationship.

To better explore this advisor technology evolution and AI-powered Digital Vaults, we reached out to Institute members Daniel Kenny, Chief Executive Officer, and Kristian Borghesan, Chief Marketing Officer, of FutureVault – a category and industry leader of Digital Vaults and pioneer of the Client Life Management Vault™. Having developed their Digital Vault technology platform into a best-of-breed solution for the wealth management industry, we asked questions to better understand how they developed their Digital Vault technology and where they see this technology going to power deeper advisor–client relationships and enable better holistic family financial outcomes.]

Hortz: Can you share with us your experiences in how Digital Vaults have been evolving in their development and benefits for the financial services industry? How did they go from a “nice-to-have” to a “must-have” in the industry?

Borghesan: There are quite a number of factors and reasons that have contributed to the evolution of Digital Vaults, namely Digital Vaults-as-a-Service like FutureVault, moving from a “nice-to-have” into an absolute must-have component and critical piece of the everyday technology stack.

“ You only have two choices when it comes to caregiving: plan or panic…The lack of a plan can tear a caregiver’s life apart…This book will help families overcome objections that relegate extended care planning to stressful crisis planning.”– p.3

As a leading expert and evangelist on the topic of Caregiving in the U.S. and the potentially devastating ramifications on a family’s finances and emotional cohesiveness, Carroll Golden’s latest book,How Not To Pull Your Life Apart Caregiving: Overcome Challenges and Objections to Planning Conversationsis an essential resource for every family to plan for an inevitable part of life.

Carroll Goldenspeaker,best-selling author,and Executive Director, NAIFA Centers of Excellence, including theLimited & Extended Care Planning Center, reveals in her book how it is painfully clear that many families and their financial advisors are unfamiliar with the evolving needs or personal dynamics involved in extended or long-term care until it is too late. Few participants involved in this highly charged process have the knowledge or experience to create an organized approach.