Recorded live at Wealth Management EDGE, host Ryan Nauman welcomes Nate Lenz, co-founder and CEO of Concurrent, to discuss shifts in wealth management and the rise of NextGen advisors.

Lenz explains Concurrent’s platform model supporting independent wealth managers by handling middle and back office functions while preserving advisor autonomy, and highlights growth to supporting over 90 firms, plus newer RIA Capital Partners and Platform-as-a-Service offerings.

They discuss the aging advisor workforce amid rising demand for advice, AI as a productivity and entrepreneurship enabler rather than a job threat, and the increasing importance of human relationships as some services become commoditized. Lenz shares findings on nextgen expectations—mentorship and clear career paths over remote work—and describes Concurrent’s campus recruiting, internship program, training curriculum, and 18-month operational rotation.

Connect with Ryan Nauman:

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Learn more about Concurrent here.

00:00 Podcast Welcome

00:33 Live From Edge

01:35 Meet Nate Lenz

02:01 Concurrent Platform

03:07 Advisor Talent Crunch

06:01 AI Opportunity Debate

08:44 AI Boosts Productivity

10:27 Human Element Matters

12:14 Next Gen Expectations

13:48 Internships Recruiting

16:23 Training Rotation Paths

18:22 Attracting Young Advisors

20:49 Wrap Up And Links

Welcome to the Adjusted for Risk podcast.

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Join myself, Ryan Mallman, as I bring

together financial markets, investments,

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economics- Let's get started … wealth

management, and life to help investment

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professionals make sense of what's

happening and prepare for what's next in

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order to make more informed investment

decisions on behalf of their clients.

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This podcast is for informational

purposes only and should not be

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relied on for investment decisions.

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Welcome, everyone, to Zephyr's

Adjusted for Risk podcast.

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We are recording on location at the Wealth

Management Edge Conference in Boca Raton.

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It's been a great conference so far.

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Uh, great conversations, great

content, great insight, and we are

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just getting started as my next

conversation is gonna be great also.

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I'm really looking forward to it.

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There's been a big shift taking place

in wealth management space over the

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years, and it involves the next gen

financial advisor, and how they are

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changing the way firms do business,

service their clients, and service their

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financial advisors and support them.

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Well, I have on the perfect guest

to talk about this, the trends

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in the space, and so much more.

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But first, this episode is sponsored

by the award-winning Zephyr, which

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helps investment professionals

make more informed investment

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decisions on behalf of their clients.

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All right, enough from me.

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Let's go ahead and bring

on the star of this show.

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I'd like to give a very

warm welcome to Nate Lenz.

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Nate is the co-founder

and CEO of Concurrent.

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Nate, thank you so much

for coming on the podcast.

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Yeah.

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It's an honor to have you on.

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Second time.

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Second time.

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We were here- Two-part

guest … same location last year.

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Exactly.

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Um, it's an honor to have you on.

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Can you just tell us real quickly

again about yourself and Concurrent?

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Absolutely.

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Yeah, no, it's, it's

great to be back, Ryan.

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I appreciate you, uh, having me on again.

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So, um, at Concurrent, the way to

think of us, just in a nutshell, is

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we are a, a platform for and strategic

investor in independent wealth managers.

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And so we support financial advisors.

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Our role is to own the middle and back

office, keep them focused on their

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clients, uh, and be able to bring them

the scale and resources that a firm of

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our size can bring to the table, uh,

while allowing them to maintain, you know,

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autonomy and ownership of their business.

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And so think of us as a platform model.

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But with that, you know, we're supporting

now over, over 90 firms around the

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country, um, that are operating.

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Our core business, uh, is where the

advisors are under our ADV, so they're

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ac- acting as IARs of Concurrent.

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Um, but we've also, over the last

18 months, have, um, started to

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build a RI- what we call our RIA

Capital Partners business, as

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well as our Platform-as-a-Service.

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This is where we're working, making

minority investments in third-party

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RIAs, and then extending elements of

our platform to them on an a la carte

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basis as a service to support their

business, uh, and allow them to keep pace.

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And, and so, um, it's

been, it's been great, man.

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The growth has been great over the

last year since we talked last.

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But I think you've, you've touched on

a phenomenal point, which is, um, this,

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I'll call it declining supply of, of

financial advisors due to the aging

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demographics in the space paired with

the increasing demand, uh, for advice.

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And so I think we're at a really

interesting crossroads where being

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able to attract, uh, develop and

retain talent is going to be a key

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determining factor for success.

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So excited to dive into

that a little bit with you.

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Yeah, Nate, I agree completely.

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I think- There's some talks out there

that there's a lack of talent coming

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in from college, from universities.

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I tend to disagree.

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Or even if there is, I tell people,

if they listen to me, that it's

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a great opportunity right now.

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Like, if you, if you have an interest

in financial services, wealth

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management- It's huge … especially

if you're younger, um, you're

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probably in technology, you like

technology We're soon might be a

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technology-driven industry 100%.

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I mean, just looking out at the, uh,

exhibit hall here, you know, I think

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90% of the booths around us are, are

different technology companies, and it's

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awesome to see just the, the progress

that's being made and what's being

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created and, and how it's able to empower

advisors to do more for their clients.

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And it's, um, yeah, it's moving fast.

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So I do think, you know, the fact

that a lot of these recent college

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graduates, uh, have grown up in a

world where AI is a thing, and they're

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using it on a day-to-day basis, I

think the, the uptake of a lot of

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these new resources is gonna be much

faster, and so yeah, no doubt there's

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a huge opportunity for those folks.

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And they will be much better

positioned since they know AI.

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They're better at technology

than I am right now.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Because I- on some of the term,

it takes me forever to learn.

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It's like- Yeah … I'm still

just using a, uh, basic chat.

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Yep, yep But, um- It's,

uh- … it's fine It's good.

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We, we recently onboarded, um, kind

of an enterprise AI solution that's

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been, uh, it's been a game changer.

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So- Yeah … I was joking 'cause you

asked a little bit of my background,

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but before we launched Concurrent in

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succession and acquisitions group at ReJ.

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So again, working with financial

advisors as they were looking to

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facilitate succession plans for their

business, whether internal or external.

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Um, so that's really where

I grew up in this space.

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So this, this topic hits close to home.

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Um, but when I left ReJ, I actually

left to start a consulting business,

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um, again, working in a very similar

capacity, um, just on my own.

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And, um, you know, I was joking, uh, with

one of our colleagues the other day, if

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these tools were available, I don't know

if Concurrent would exist because the

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ability to have a conversation, produce an

output, leveraging AI, leveraging the AI

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note takers, just so much more efficient.

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Yeah.

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So I might still be doing consulting-

… um, which is my first love, but I

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don't know if, uh, yeah, that's,

that's the jo- the running joke.

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So you bring up a really good point.

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Do you think people and firms-

Yeah … are a little bit too concerned

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about rather than thinking of it as an

opportunity- Mm-hmm … and leveraging

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AI, they focus too much on the negative,

like, "Oh my gosh, it's gonna flood

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for financial advisors, it's gonna

take over, and, and we're done"?

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Yeah.

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I mean, look, I, I don't think … You

start to think about this idea of a rising

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demand for advice, and you think about,

like, the generational wealth transfer,

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and, you know, I don't think … I do

think there are generational differences

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that are impacting the uptake of AI-like

solutions, and I do think it's not like

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all of the assets in this generational

wealth transfer are gonna go from

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baby boomers to millennials tomorrow.

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You know, you've got this dynamic

where you've got really a horizontal

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wealth transfer first, where it

goes to the surviving spouse.

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Then again, really the next generation

in play is Gen X I, I, so this idea

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that everyone is gonna prefer just

interfacing with, you know, with

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a ChatGPT-type solution to asking

questions about financial advice,

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I think is a little bit overblown.

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Like, I don't think we're

gonna see this massive shift.

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Um, it's similar to, like, the,

you know, again, like the TD

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Ameritrade, E-Trade stuff back in

the day, and then robo-advisors.

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There's … I know those are the common,

you know, um, connections, but I do

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think, like, at the end of the day,

this is a human-to-human business.

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We talk a lot about the fact

that it's really, it's people and

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technology paired together, and so

I think it's gonna be a huge win.

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And in fact, when you think about,

like, the independent financial

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advisor space, um, I think what

this does is it really allows more

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advisors to, to go independent,

to be able to do more with less.

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So I think you're gonna see people

talk about this, "Oh, there's gonna

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be this huge wave of unemployment.

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AI is coming for every job."

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I actually think this will create kind

of a, a boom of entrepreneurship, 'cause

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it's gonna be … it's gonna lower the

barriers to entry to be able to launch

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a business, and, and why would our

space be any different in that regard?

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So I'm, I'm bullish on it.

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I, I completely Uh, if you're not

bullish on it, then you're gonna be

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left behind- Exactly … I think.

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And- Exactly … and just use it.

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I don't … If it's, you know, a simple

chat, you know, agent- Sure … or

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something like that, or if you go all

in and it's more of a workflow- Yeah

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… piece, um … Because you know what I feel

is gonna happen is these younger clients,

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when the great wealth transfer- Yep

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trickles down- Yep … they're gonna go,

"Hey, advisor A, how are you using AI?"

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Yeah, yeah.

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And if you say no- Exactly.

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That's- Very- Exactly.

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'Cause they're gonna be using it, you

know- Yeah … in their day-to-day.

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Like, and so it's the … And they

see … I mean, it's been amazing

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to see the productivity gains, just

even of little things like, um,

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going through and creating, you know,

illustrations and proposals and, you know

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Again, going back to I'd still be

doing consulting if this existed

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10, 12 years ago, um, you know?

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And, and a lot of the work that we do,

because all of our firms are independent,

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they own their own businesses, they're

grappling with all of these issues.

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So it's, okay, how do I start to create

career paths for my junior people?

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How do I create paths to equity ownership?

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I'm thinking about, you know, selling

a portion of the business to them.

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How do I do that?

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Um, how do I create alignment?

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And so a lot of the work that

our team does with our firms is,

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is really heavy-duty consulting.

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It's, it's understanding what they're

trying to accomplish, uh, understanding

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what arrows we have in the quiver,

and then coming up with solutions that

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allow them to create that alignment

with their team members and, uh, and

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make sure that, you know, that they're

setting up their business to be durable

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and sustainable over the long term.

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Some of the things, like you go have

one of those conversations, we use

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our AI notetaker, you know, which

we use Ox as our primary tool there.

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Yeah.

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That, you take the transcript from that,

you dump it into Claude Enterprise.

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That'll create … You, you prompt

it for 10 minutes of like, "Here's

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all the thoughts I have on how to

construct this, and I want to pull in

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elements from this deal that we did

before and this deal," and it produces

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That's exactly what we need.

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So what would've taken … You

know, we'd have to call, you

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know, our outside legal counsel.

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This, like you could do that now in

15 minutes following a phone call.

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So I do think, uh, now if you think

about the parallel to that of an

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advisor working with their end

client, you know, that's having

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that has complex planning needs and

things of that nature, I just think

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it's going to, you know, rapidly

increase their ability to, um, expand

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the scope of what they can provide.

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Yeah.

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I completely agree.

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And I also think, too, it's gonna make

relationship building even more important.

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100%.

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'Cause a lot of that stuff, like

maybe the investment management,

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some financial planning- Mm

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it's gonna be commoditized-

Yeah … a little bit.

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Yeah.

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So being able to have relationships- 100%.

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That is, that is by far the biggest thing.

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Th- that human element

is what's irreplaceable.

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And, and again, you know, with

clients, this is, it's, it's their

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entire financial lives, right?

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That's what they're conversing

about, and that's what they're going

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and seeking guidance for, and I,

I have a hard time believing that

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that will be replaced by a computer.

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But, you know, one of the analogies that

I use a lot internally with our advisors

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is let's kind of break down what you

do on a scale of, like, one to five.

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Oversimplify it.

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One being, like, the most

reactive service-oriented stuff.

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You know, two is where you start to

get more proactive service-oriented,

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scheduling reviews, things of that nature.

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Three, you get into, um, like the planning

process, starting to put together the

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financial plan and gather the data

and investment research and trading.

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You know, and four is meet with clients,

and five is prospect for new ones.

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The problem is, I think historically,

most advisors have had to do

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steps one and a half to five.

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You know?

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Um, we say, "Look, you should

really be focused on four and five."

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I think this will just, uh, further

enable that to be the case, um,

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where maybe we haven't had that,

that capability in the past.

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Completely agree.

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It'll be interesting to see it play out.

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I'm excited for it- Yeah … even

if a robot replaces me.

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I'm still, like, kind of excited

for it to see what happens.

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We've seen some of our colleagues

create, like, AI versions of themself.

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I haven't gone … You know, it's-

Yeah … our team hasn't created that yet.

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That'd be scary.

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I, I don't- I don- I don't know if

I'm ready for that one Yeah, I'm

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not … That's a r- I don't think

the world is ready for that one.

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Um, so, uh, what type of expectations do

next gen advisors have of their firms?

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How are those expectations of their firm

different than the older generations?

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Sure.

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Um, it's interesting, and I had the

opportunity to participate in a think tank

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yesterday here at the conference that was

really focused on next gen a- advisors.

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And what they had is they actually

had three, um, current students that

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are doing internships in financial

planning, um, that were on a panel and,

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and there was also some data, uh, that

they were, that they were utilizing

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from a survey of the FinServ Foundation.

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And, and it was interesting

'cause what we were

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What I was surprised by was kind of our

perception versus their reality in terms

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of, like, what they're looking for in a

firm and what, what's important to them.

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And, you know, you start to look at

things like mentorship is, like, top of

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the list, and, you know, remote work.

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You would've thought that there's

this huge push for remote work.

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They're like, "No, we wanna be in office."

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Yeah, that was, like, very low priority,

was remote work opportunities, and on

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the panel they even made the comment

of, like, "No, we want to be in office.

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We want the opportunity to network

and to learn and so forth."

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So it's interesting 'cause I think

there is a, like, stereotype of, like,

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oh, the next generation is afraid

of sales and, you know, they're not

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motivated and, and they're entitled.

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And it's like, I, I think what

you're seeing and, and what we're

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hearing in these conversations

is that's really not the case.

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They're not afraid to,

to roll up their sleeves.

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Now, I do think, um, you know, our

industry has done a poor job of, I

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think, bringing folks, finding that

talent and bringing it into the space.

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You know, one of the things that

we've been really focused on that's

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been a great source of hiring for

us has been our internship program.

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So we just had, uh, 10 interns start,

uh, mid-May, uh, in our office in

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Tampa, and then, um, we've also

opened up … We do, with that

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internship, it's a 10-week program.

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Um, we do a week of kind of training,

which is more get to know Concurrent,

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understand the firm, all the different

parts, how do we make money, what's

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the, you know, what's the business

model and so forth, and then they're

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broken into their individual departments

that they've been hired into.

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What we've done has been very intentional

about the departments that participate

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in that they have to have a full-time

opportunity available And so for us,

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this is really like a 10-week extended

interview to get to know these people.

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Um, and, and so what we found is

that it's been a great way for us

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to get to know them, them to get to

know us and the business, and decide

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if this could be a good long-term

fit, and we've made some really good

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hires over the last couple of years.

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But in order to…

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So those 10 applicants, we had, we had

over 300 applicants for those 10 spots.

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But that was a result

of us going on campus.

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And so, you know, we've

been, like, within our…

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We're based in Tampa, so we've

got the University of Tampa

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right across the, the river.

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We've got University of

South Florida close by.

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Um, University of Florida,

we've built a good relationship

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with their planning program.

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But, you know, we had members of our

team going on campus, doing career

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fairs, doing things like that.

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So I think it's one of those things where

it's not that the talent's not out there.

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There's…

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It's out there.

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Um, one of my football coaches in college

used to always, I think it was a John

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Wooden quote that he stole it from, but

it's, it's not difficult, but it's hard.

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You know?

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It's not complex.

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There's not…

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It's not rocket science to

figure out where to find it,

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but you have to go do it.

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And so I think that's what we've

found, um, a high degree of success,

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and it's led to some phenomenal

hires over the last few years, uh,

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across a variety of our departments.

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But, a- and Nate, to that point

too, if it was easy- Mm-hmm

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everybody would do it.

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Exactly.

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Right?

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So I love what you guys are doing.

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I'm a firm believer in, in education.

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I remember when I got into the

industry, Nate, years and years

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ago, out of college, uh, it was…

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I, my first job was at Piper Jaffray.

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Okay.

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A prominent regional brokerage

firm in, in Minnesota, and

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they used to do a university.

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Yeah.

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A Piper University.

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Okay.

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So they bring on 20 local, uh,

recent grads- Mm-hmm … and they

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would do a three-month university.

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Everything that you need to know.

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Yep.

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And I don't see that happening very often.

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You guys are doing that at Concurrent.

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Mm.

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Yep.

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Um, may- you know, maybe

more firms need to do that.

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Yeah.

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And it's not, to, to your point,

like, we do weekly lunch and learns.

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What we've also done is we've opened

up tho- that week of training, as

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well as the weekly sessions that we

do with all of our department heads

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over the course of the summer, to all

of our advisor offices in the field.

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So any of our advisor offices that

are bringing on interns, we're

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supporting them with job descriptions

and, and being able to, to help them

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connect with local universities.

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But let's say they do decide to

hire an intern, they're also able

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to put them into our program.

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So they'll send them down to Tampa for

the week of training, they'll participate

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virtually on all of those weekly calls,

and we've kind of created a curriculum

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for them over the course of the summer.

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Um, so I think that there's,

you know, there's the training

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element of that program.

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One of the things that we've also found

to be pretty successful is, you know,

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as a, as a full-time opportunity with

Concurrent, we've created a 18-month

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operational rotation, where the new

hire would spend six months on our

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transition team, six months on our

base camp team, which is like custodial

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ops, and six months on our central

operations and planning team, and get

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kind of a diverse experience across

those operational departments, uh,

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which lays a, a really good foundation

no matter where they ultimately land.

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'Cause I think at the end of the day,

and we saw this in the panel as well,

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I do think there is a reluctance,

especially for some of the recent

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grads coming out, to be kind of

handed the phone book, you know?

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Like, that, that was always how a lot

of our advisors grew up in the business.

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In the bullpen.

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In the bullpen, smiling

and dialing, right?

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Yeah.

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Um, I think there's an aversion to that

which contributes to this feeling of,

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oh, they might be entitled or so forth.

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But I think really what it, it is,

is it's a, you've got to instill

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confidence in them, and they're

gonna gain confidence through gaining

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competency, and that's only gonna

come through apprenticeship-style

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programs and getting kind of, you

know, live action opportunities.

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So I think finding ways to facilitate

allows them to establish that level

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of confidence in those, you know,

client interactions, which then gives

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them the confidence to make them

effective ultimately at prospecting

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and, and business development.

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Nate, that's awesome.

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So how do you…

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Mentorship is a big one.

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Mm-hmm.

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Are there other things that you guys

are using that- Maybe other firms

368

that are attracting the next gen.

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Is it technology?

370

You know, "Hey, we've got a cool

tech stack, we're leveraging AI."

371

Is that, like, uh, some types attractive?

372

You said office and office- Yeah … are

there any, is there anything you

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guys are doing to attract them?

374

Yeah.

375

I don't know if technology per

se is necessarily an attractant.

376

Like, I think in a lot of ways

that's kind of table stakes.

377

You know, a lot of- Yeah … a lot

of the … If you're in that kind of

378

upper echelon, um, you know, of, of

firms, like, that's almost a given,

379

'cause you're gonna have a good tech

stack and you're investing in that.

380

Um, you have to, to keep pace.

381

I do think, you know, that

culture of mentorship's important.

382

I think another piece is

understanding a clear career path.

383

So them being able to come in and

say, "Okay, hey, I understand where

384

I'm starting, but then ultimately,

what are my options, and how

385

do I grow in the role, and what

milestones am I expecting to hit?"

386

Um, I, I do think being able to

lay that out clearly is, is an

387

important element, 'cause then

they have very clear expectations,

388

um, of, of where they're going.

389

And then, um, the … You know, I would

say that the mentorship piece, you wanna

390

have some structure around it, but also

you don't want it to be overly structured.

391

And, and what we've found is that we've

also created mentorships opportunities,

392

not just at like, with, like, senior

management level people, but also maybe

393

someone that's a year ahead of them,

that's kind of walked in their shoes,

394

that's more of a peer than necessarily

a manager, but they're ask- able to

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ask really candid questions of how

have you dealt with these things,

396

and how have you gone through it?

397

And so creating kind of a loose

structure, but then really creating

398

an environment where they can have

really candid conversations with

399

someone that's, you know, relatively

a peer, um, I think has been, uh, an

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impactful way where they can feel really

comfortable and, and get some of the

401

guidance they need to, to really excel.

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I love that bec- And it ties it all back.

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Nate, we were talking about technology,

AI, you said it wasn't really the

404

biggest factor in it, but what is gonna

be a driving factor moving forward just

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for success of firms is relationships.

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100%.

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And that's exactly what you're

talking about with that- Yeah

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mentorship and aligning them with

the peers, that relationship.

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And because a lot of things you can

learn, relationship building is- Yeah

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Six years Exactly.

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100%.

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Nate, awesome conversation.

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Yeah.

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Really fun.

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I always enjoy talking to you.

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Absolutely.

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Seeing you at the Edge.

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I thank you again.

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Where can our audience get more

information about Concurrent?

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Yeah, yeah, poweredbyconcurrent.com,

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uh, or my individual LinkedIn page, Nate

Lenz, uh, our corporate LinkedIn page.

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Uh, any of those resources are a

great place to learn a little bit

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more about the Concurrent platform.

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Um, and, uh, and yeah, I'm excited, uh,

to participate on the panel later today

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on this exact topic, so it was a good,

uh, practice run- Yes … you know, to be

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able to get some of my talking points out.

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I don't think you need practice, Nate.

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You're, you're, you're a pro.

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You got it.

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You got it.

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Awesome.

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Awesome.

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Well, thank you, Nate.

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Yeah.

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Thanks, Ryan.

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And thank you everyone for listening

to this episode of Zephyr's

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Adjust Your Periscope podcast.

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You can watch all of our other episodes

on the Zephyr YouTube channel, Spotify,

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wherever else you get your podcasts.

440

Thank you very much, and have

a great rest of your week