Shaping Wealth

This month’s BeFi Brief is all about the future of human advice in an AI-powered world: what gets automated, what becomes more valuable, and why the best advisors will be defined by their ability to guide clients through emotion, uncertainty, and change. Here’s what’s shaping the conversation: 🔹 Why AI makes human advice matter more 🔹 How empathy and EQ can set advisors apart 🔹 What markets reveal about client behavior 🔹 Where to find us next: Kitces.com Webinar, the CFA Institute Wealth Leadership Forum 2026, and Morningstar Investment Conference 2026 The future of advice won’t be won by mechanics alone. It will belong to the guides who help clients make sense of their money, their emotions, and the lives they’re trying to build. Read the May BeFi Brief. #ShapingWealth #BehavioralFinance #HumanFirstAdvice #WealthTech

Most investors know what they should do. So why don't they do it? The break down between instinct and evidence is where advisors earn their value, not by chasing performance, but by helping clients stay grounded when uncertainty feels overwhelming. This month on Chopping Wealth, Brian Portnoy, CFA sits down with Benjamin Felix of PWL Capital Inc to unpack behavioral biases, the psychology of "income investing," and why indexing still gets misunderstood — even by people who know better. Watch now: https://lnkd.in/evRmur8h #ChoppingWealth #ShapingWealth

Looking forward to attending The Globe and Mail Wealth Leadership Forum on June 8 in Toronto. Brian Portnoy, CFA will keynote a timely conversation on AI, empathy, and the future of human advice. He'll explore the possibility that AI may not diminish human advice, but instead create a new era of human flourishing, if we’re willing to bring the imagination, investment, and collaboration it requires. Grateful to Pablo Fuchs, Lisa W., and the Globe Advisor team for bringing together such an important conversation for Canadian advisors. See you in Toronto. #FutureOfWealth #GlobeAdvisor #CanadianAdvisors

Most AI tools in wealth management are built around efficiency. They summarize, automate, organize, and speed things up, which all matters. But what about effectiveness? Advice isn’t delivered through tasks. It’s given through trust, timing, emotion, context, and the quality of the conversation between advisor and client. That’s where Lydia comes in. She’s designed as the behavioral and human layer of the advisor workflow, bringing timely, personalized, emotionally intelligent insights into the moments that matter most. The future of advice won’t just be about doing more faster. It’ll be about helping advisors show up more human, at scale. See Lydia for yourself: https://meetlydia.ai #ShapingWealth #Lydia

Are advisors relying too much on AI and losing the forest for the trees? AI can process information and handle complexity, but advice is never just math. It’s also story, behavior, trust, and meaning. The real opportunity is using AI to help advisors show up with more clarity and context, while keeping clients as the heroes of their own stories. Brian Portnoy, CFA sat down with ETF.com's Dave Nadig and Zachary Conway of Seeds to explore how AI can support the many roles an advisor plays without replacing the human judgment, emotional context, and authenticity that make advice resonate. Watch here: https://lnkd.in/eRYXTFnW 

Retirement changes more than the financial equation. It changes the emotional one, too. In this edition of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘳𝘰𝘱, we explore why spending can feel harder than saving, even when the resources are there. After years of building, preserving, and planning, the shift into using wealth can bring up uncertainty, hesitation, and even guilt. Spending in retirement doesn’t have to feel like loss. When it’s connected to purpose, values, and the life someone actually wants to live, it can become a meaningful part of the next chapter. Watch Now: https://lnkd.in/gtPTjpCF #TheDrop #BehavioralFinance

A meaningful client conversation starts before anyone says a word: with understanding what matters, knowing where to go deeper, and showing up ready to listen with thoughtful intention. Lydia helps advisors prepare for those moments with behavioral insights, better questions, and support that carries across the workflow. Less second-guessing. More presence. More connection. See Lydia for yourself: https://meetlydia.ai #ShapingWealth #WealthManagement #Lydia

What if the real goal of wealth isn’t more, but enough? Brian Portnoy, CFA recently joined Mike Nilson on 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 podcast to explore the idea of funded contentment and what it means to align money with purpose, priorities, and better decisions. Don't miss this conversation about why wealth is so much more than a number on a balance sheet, how our earliest experiences shape our financial beliefs, and why so many of us are wired to keep chasing more even when enough may already be within reach. Listen here: https://lnkd.in/gwfmZKnh

Lydia was just featured in Kitces.com latest AdvisorTech roundup. This inclusion highlights a broader shift across the industry: a move beyond optimizing portfolios and workflows and toward something it’s largely ignored: how clients actually think, decide, and behave. That's where Lydia sits, and it’s exciting to see that perspective gaining wider recognition. Read more: https://lnkd.in/g5Md_4Z4 Meet Lydia: meetlydia.ai 

This month’s BeFi Brief is all about the conversations shaping the future of advice: what clients really want, what they avoid saying out loud, and what only human advisors can help uncover. Here’s what’s shaping the conversation: 🔹 Why funded contentment may be the real goal of wealth 🔹 How Lydia is bringing client behavior into the AdvisorTech conversation 🔹 What clients really want from advisors: trust, generosity, and genuine understanding 🔹 Where to find us next: Milken Institute Global Conference and The Globe and Mail Wealth Leadership Forum 2026 Money matters most when it’s in service of something bigger: purpose, connection, belonging, and a life well lived. Read the April BeFi Brief. #ShapingWealth #BehavioralFinance #HumanFirstAdvice #WealthTech