RIAs That Excel at Technology Do Not Look Like Tech Firms Technology should be used to enhance the advisor-client relationship but should never stand between the advisor and the client.
I had the privilege of participating in Dimensional Fund Advisor’s recent Applied Business Strategy Workshop with DFA’s Regional Director, Charles Savari. The opening question Charles posed during our session was, “What does a firm that excels at technology look like?” This led to an interesting conversation where I pointed out that, in my view, many RIAs are putting too much emphasis on technology and not enough on the relationship with the client. As I said during our conversation, we don’t ship products in the RIA industry it is a service business. Technology should be used to enhance that relationship but should never stand between the advisor and the client. To that end, I strongly believe RIAs utilizing technology to its fullest extent, ironically enough, do not look