Ep 303: Pivoting From 'Robo' Investment Management To Financial Planning In South Africa With Louis van der Merwe
Financial Advisor Success
Michael Kitces
4.8 • 696 Ratings
🗓️ 18 October 2022
⏱️ 93 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Louis van der Merwe is the Director of Wealthup, an independent advice practice based out of Cape Town, South Africa that oversees the U.S. equivalent of almost $600 million in assets under management for 115 households. Louis and his partner initially developed a robo-advice technology prototype that automated client services, but after it failed to gain traction, they pivoted to a “fully human” financial planning practice instead.
Listen in as Louis shares his journey of developing—and then pivoting away from—the robo-advice prototype that he built with his partner, as well as why he ultimately decided to leave the firm he was at after they refused to purchase the prototype despite being interested in it. We also discuss why Louis feels that his young age gave him an advantage when starting his own firm, why he feels that running his firm is just as challenging today as it was when he first started, and how his definition of success has changed from the early days of his career.
For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/303
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Financial Advisor Success Podcast, where you go behind the scenes with financial planner, |
| 0:08.4 | speaker and consultant Michael Kitsis to hear stories of how leading financial advisors |
| 0:13.6 | navigated the inevitable challenges that arise on the path to success and get insight |
| 0:18.7 | from leading industry consultants about how to break through to the |
| 0:22.1 | next level in your advisory business. And now here's your host, Michael Kitsas. Welcome, everyone. |
| 0:29.1 | Welcome to the 303rd episode of the Financial Advisor's Success podcast. My guest on Tays podcast is |
| 0:34.7 | Louis von Nemerva. Louis is the director of wealth up at independent advice practice based in Cape Town, South Africa, |
| 0:41.2 | that oversees the U.S. equivalent of nearly 60 million in asset service management for 115 client households. |
| 0:47.6 | What you think about Louis, though, is how he and his partner, in anticipation of a shift in the financial advice industry |
| 0:52.8 | towards more automated client services nearly 10 years ago, |
| 0:56.0 | developed a robo-advice technology prototype to help clients in South Africa have their investments managed at low cost, |
| 1:02.0 | which then struggled to gain traction with consumers and inadvertently gave them the inspiration |
| 1:07.0 | to launch their own fully human financial planning practice instead. |
| 1:11.6 | In this episode, we talk about how after four months of development, the Robo Advice prototype |
| 1:16.4 | that Louie and his partner created were not seeing the rate of success they'd hoped, as most |
| 1:20.4 | clients weren't completing the process because they actually wanted and needed more investment |
| 1:24.1 | advice than what self-directed technology could offer and made them realize what |
| 1:27.6 | consumers really needed was better financial planning. We also explore how even though the auditing |
| 1:32.7 | firm or Lewy and his partner were employed were very interested in this robo prototype they built, |
| 1:37.0 | they refused to purchase the product, which led Louis to a crossroads that ultimately led him to |
| 1:41.4 | make the decision to leave the firm and start his own financial planning practice. And how even the Lewin as partner built their business based on how they could |
| 1:48.2 | offer better portfolio management services to their clients initially, they've now decided to |
... |
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