It’s the 2nd go-around of this interesting project… to find the Ultimate stack for the Ultimate advisor.
It’s a bit tougher this time around. Things are literally changing day-by-day, or at least week-by-week.
My goal is to recommend a stack that will last at least a year and then publish it in a book… so you know it’s legit.
I hinted at this in a previous post, but imagine all your clients up and left… and you had to start over from scratch. The reason I’m using this as the starting point is that when you have clients and ways of doing things, it’s a lot harder to build “The Perfect Stack.”
But we have Zero clients. Zero expectations. 100% pure potential.
Let’s begin.
The Problem:
The problem is that there are 600+ choices of software (i.e. advisortech) to run your firm and they are evolving more rapidly than ever right now.
Which means (and I discussed this with Michael Casciano on our recent podcast), that even the full-time AdvisorTech consultants are not able to keep up with everything going on.
Myself included.
But I’ve staked my name on this Ultimate task, and I enjoy it and I have—dare I say—the Solution.
First things first, we are going to have some prospects and we’ll need to set up meetings with them, so we’ll need an email address and a calendar:
Email / Calendar / Documents
There are two main choices here: Google or Microsoft.
I’m recommending Google Workspace (formerly Gsuite):
If you’re already on Microsoft, no need to change, but if you’re starting from scratch… I like Google better.
Next, we’ll need a phone number. Not absolutely necessary (some people just use their cell they already have), but if you want to separate church and state, ahem - personal and business… you’ll need a business phone - preferably one custom-made for financial advisors.
Phone / Texting
I recommend CurrentClient:
For a quick demo of CurrentClient, check out my podcast with Dustin Belliston starting at 37:09:
Several of these tools build on each other kind of like Old MacDonald had a farm…
Gsuite, CurrentClient… what’s next?
Scheduler / Video Meetings
This one is a slam dunk - Zoom is simply the best video meeting platform and now it has its own scheduling tool as well:
However, if your scheduling needs are a bit more complicated, Calendly paired with Zoom is also excellent.
With email, calendar, phone, zoom… now we just need some prospects!
LinkedIn + Become Unforgettable
I think LinkedIn is the best “free” prospect database out there:
Identify your niche
Connect with them
Comment on their posts
Start writing your own posts
Start conversations in the DMs…
Sounds easy, but in reality… it’s not far short of rocket science.
And this is where “Become Unforgettable” comes in. This is the fastest, cheapest, most powerful way I’ve seen financial advisors get results on LinkedIn:
It’s a Skool community and course with a single purpose… to bring you bucketfulls of prospects using LinkedIn.
Now it’s finally time to tie all these together with a Modern, AI-Native, easy-to-use CRM… and one that integrates with Google Mail, Calendar, Zoom, CurrentClient AND has a built-in AI notetaker.
CRM
Now you could stick with a legacy CRM like Salesforce, Redtail, or Wealthbox and overlay them with an AI notetaker like Jump/Zocks… but we’re trying to make good decisions here :), and we’re building from scratch, remember?
Slant CRM is my favorite and integrates beautifully with Google / CurrentClient so your emails, meetings, texts, calls, notes, action items, and even accounts flow in.
For a quick demo of Slant CRM by the founders Thomas Clawson and Max Metcalf, check out this podcast starting at 25:13:
I like to say they built a better CRM in less time than it took Wealthbox to build it’s notetaker - 2025 was a hopping year, let’s leave it at that.
For an alternate AI-native CRM, I’d also like to mention Altitude CRM by the folks at Bill Good Marketing:
You can view a demo of this CRM at 34:11 in this podcast with Frantz Widmaier:
You now have all the core pieces needed to run an advice business… or do you? What about billing?
We’ll get to Custodian and Compliance and Financial Planning tools in Part II, but I’d like to take an alternate path for a minute.
Advice on assets, a.k.a. AUM billed at 1% is still quite a popular billing method, but what is this “business of advicing”, especially given the rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence?
I’ve had quite a few podcasts discussing this topic, most notably with James Conole, CFP® of Root Financial, Dennis Moseley-Williams, and Kyle Van Pelt of Milemarker.
They’re all basically saying that Advice is about Transformation, life-changing counsel, discernment, judgement… and often… Transformation happens in community with others seeking similar outcomes.
Community
…and is why I’ve been promoting Skool as the #1 advisortech solution—a place to facilitate conversations, teaching, transformations, community… with a group of people (potentially prospects and clients) all seeking a similar outcome.
Imagine you’ve identified the exact group of people that you most resonate with, that you most enjoy working with, that you’re able to help achieve their desired outcomes… and then you get to hang out with them in a community - on 1:1 calls, group calls, sharing resources, updating best practices.
You can join mine as an example of what this looks like - in my case, helping advicers navigate the complicated world of advisortech, chat with other advisors and with tech founders, ask questions, listen to various experts…
Join AdvisorTechBook LIVE! community
Another great aspect to building a community as part of your prospect/client experience is to have what I consider to be the best prospecting method “post-LinkedIn”.
The Niche Video Podcast in a Community
Advice boils down to conversations - conversations with prospects and conversations with clients - why not just have some of them in public! Share the work you do via conversation in a video podcast.
Skool, Substack, YouTube
You can host these conversations in your Skool community or on Zoom or Riverside or even Substack Podcasts - post them out to YouTube and start building a video library of conversations, i.e. life stories that your prospects can watch on their own time to begin to learn about the work you do.
Here’s an example of how I’m doing this with Skool, Substack, and YouTube.
Two final categories, and I’ll wrap up Part I of the Ultimate Stack:
Website
Eventually, you’ll need a website, and my recommendation is Taylen Sather’s aryze design built on Webflow:
And lastly, some bookkeeping/accounting.
Business Checking / Accounting
You could go with the standard choice of Quickbooks Online, or you could go with some newer options like:
Thus concludes Part I of the Ultimate Stack.
Leave your comments, concerns, snide remarks and all the above below or join the community and let’s hash it all out together!
To Your Epic AdvisorTech Journey,
Joe
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.