Burt White: 'If We Lose the Humanity, We're Toast'

Technology can be a powerful asset, but that isn’t what’s driving organic growth for financial advisors.

So suggests Burt White, managing partner and chief strategy officer at Carson Group.

“The magic has never been about the machine,” White tells ThinkAdvisor in an interview. “It’s what the machine enables humans to do.”

Less than two years after joining the firm from LPL Financial, his job has evolved into running Carson’s day-to-day operations. White, who worked at LPL for 14 years, was managing director and chief investment officer.

At Carson, inorganic growth is “supercritical,” White says. There, mergers and acquisitions activity has accelerated during the past three years, as it has for its advisor partners.

In the interview, White — based in Charlotte, North Carolina — talks about client and advisor trends and what they mean to investing. He also declares that artificial intelligence “is going to change everything” — but that “if we lose the humanity, we’re toast.”

Here are highlights of our conversation:

THINKADVISOR: What’s your role at Carson Group?

BURT WHITE: I joined as the chief strategy officer. But over the last two years, I’ve evolved into running the day-to-day strategy and operations of Carson.

Ron Carson is still the CEO, but the entire organization reports up to me. 

Is Carson Group doing anything unique?

One thing is working on exit planning for entrepreneurs starting to sell their business. 

And we’re investing in the second generation of leaders because succession is more than just a transfer of work. We need to make sure that they’ve got that next battery for growth.

We have a next-gen program hiring right out of graduate school as well as folks that are changing careers. We’re putting them through a program so they can get their CFP. 

That will allow [our] financial advisors to delegate some of their smaller or less sophisticated clients and focus on growth.

How can advisors, in general, grow organically?

There’s a sea of sameness out there; everybody wants to replicate each other or [brag], “My lineup has one more mutual fund than yours.”

That’s not what’s driving organic growth going forward.

And tech isn’t the answer. The magic has never been about the machine. It’s what the machine enables humans to do. 

We’re focusing on integration processing and great customer service because that ends up creating efficiencies.

Why is organic growth so important?

Clients are getting older; consequently, there are fewer folks that drive the economy. So we’re not likely to get outside macro help like we have had over the last 10 or 20 years. 

We help our financial advisors to isolate and insulate their time so they can focus on what they love to do, which for most is talking with clients, and then outsource all the stuff that doesn’t make them happy.

How critical is inorganic growth to Carson?

Supercritical. M&A — to supplement our organic growth — has really been accelerating for our firm in the last three years and also for all our financial advisors.

Three years ago, we didn’t do M&A. This year, about half of our revenue growth will come from firms we have either acquired by M&A or will do so this year. 

In the industry, what current client trends are most important? 

One is diversity. By age 85, two out of every three Americans are women.