Blair duQuesnay, CFA and CFP, is an investment advisor at Ritholtz Wealth Management, where she works with the firm’s clients to create sustainable financial plans and investment strategies. She is also writes the financial blog, “The Belle Curve,” and will be appearing at the “Wealth/Stack: Investing + Tech = The Future Of Advice” conference September 8-10 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Ritholtz Wealth Management is putting on the conference; the event is described as “created by advisors for advisors.”
ETF.com: Would you explain your role at Ritholtz Wealth Management (RWM)?
Blair duQuesnay: I’m a client-facing investment advisor. So I do financial plans for clients. I talk to people interested in becoming clients of the firm and then become their advisor.
I’m also a blogger. I write the blog “The Belle Curve,” and blog about financial planning topics and investing. So it’s a dual role. I also serve as a member of the investment committee.
ETF.com: You’re based in New Orleans. Are your clients all in the Louisiana area? Do you have a territory, or is it national?
duQuesnay: Not necessarily. I work with clients all over the country.
ETF.com: How many advisors are at the firm that are in your role, and how many people work at RWM?
duQuesnay: We have 31 employees and 17 advisors.
ETF.com: Tell me a little bit about the WealthStack conference.
duQuesnay: Wealth Stack is a new conference. We’ve done a few conferences in the past, but this is our first collaboration with Informa. And yes, this is a brand new conference by advisors for advisors.
There’s a dual component though. It’s also for fintech firms looking to introduce their technology to advisors. There’s going to be a competition on best new financial technology inside the conference.
ETF.com What kind of fintech are we talking about?
duQuesnay: We have speakers from some of the top technology providers in the industry, such as Orion Advisor Solutions, which provides performance management software that also does billing for clients. It’s also the client portal. So that’s a huge one.
We have speakers from some of the custodians such as Dani Fava of TD Ameritrade.
Wealth manager firms can have a back shop like Shirl Penney’s Dynasty, and it’s all through one provider, or they have 10-12 different providers, and everything from performance management to marketing, email management, data collection and account aggregation. There’s so many technologies out there trying to make what we do to serve clients easier and faster. And it’s moving faster than we can really keep up with.
ETF.com: What’s behind the name WealthStack?
duQuesnay: There are two tracks of the conference. There’s the wealth side talking about how to provide wealth management services to clients. That could be investing related, process management related, how you run your firm, and everything from succession planning to how to brand yourself on social media, to what to invest in. And then the stack side is the technology aspect of the conference, because you need your technology stack.
