Tag: Artificial Intelligence
Why Human Connection Is the Real AI Strategy with Reed Colley (Ep. 31)

Why Human Connection Is the Real AI Strategy with Reed Colley (Ep. 31)

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Summary:

In this special live episode of PRess Play: The StreetCred Podcast, Elena Krasnow sits down with Orion Advisory Technology President Reed Colley at Orion Ascent in gorgeous San Diego, California.

Reed reflects on his more than 20-year journey in wealth technology, from building Black Diamond to helping scale Summit and guiding it through its merger with Orion. The conversation digs into what makes Orion Ascent a standout event, touching on real-time collaboration, community building and a genuine commitment to listening to advisors about what drives value. Reed speaks to the importance of empowering clients through technology while keeping the human element at the heart of financial advice. He also shares key announcements from Orion at Ascent, including an expanded collaboration with Anthropic and the rollout of the enterprise version of Denali AI.

We cover:

  • What makes Orion Ascent unique and the beauty of real-time collaboration
  • The major inflection point advisor technology is facing today 
  • Centering human connection in building an AI strategy 
  • How advisors can use AI to create deeper, more powerful client relationships 
  • Reed’s personal passions and love of the outdoors
  • …and much more!

Don’t miss this conversation on how technology and human connection are coming together to shape the future of advice.

Topics:

(0:27) Welcome to this special episode of PRess Play, live from Orion Ascent

(0:42) Sunny San Diego

(1:32) Reed’s 20+ year career in wealth technology

(1:57) Building Black Diamond

(2:27) Summit’s growth and eventual merger with Orion

(3:12) An almost baseball player turned wealthtech innovator

(3:57) What makes Orion Ascent unique as an event?

(4:02) The opportunity to collaborate in real time

(4:47) How Orion is building real community

(5:27) Understanding what drives value for financial advisors

(5:52) Listening to clients in order to empower them

(6:22) A major inflection point in the technology revolution and future of financial advice

(6:32) “A little thing called AI”

(6:47) How advisors can use AI to create deeper and more powerful relationships with clients

(7:27) Focus on the human connection and lean into that as a strategy

(7:57) “If you’re not already using AI, start using it”

(8:15) Orion’s enterprise level Denali AI

(8:35) AI is a very supportive companion, sometimes too supportive

(9:20) Orion’s expanded collaboration with Anthropic, the core engine behind the Denali platform

(10:12) Creating the right structure and compliance around data

(10:47) Human-first, AI-powered

(10:59) Time for our play segment!

(11:07) What Reed would be doing right now if he wasn’t at Orion

(11:49) Reed’s favorite things to do for fun: the importance of family and spending time outdoors

(12:46) Moment of gratitude

(13:47) There’s three versions of every scenario, your version, someone else’s version and the real version

 

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Connect with Reed Colley:

 

 

About our Guest: 

Reed Colley joined Orion in January 2025 as President of Orion Advisor Technology following Orion’s acquisition of Summit Wealth Systems. As co-founder and CEO of Summit, Reed recognized the need to humanize wealth management by creating a modern, digital and mobile experience for advisors and their clients. Prior to Summit, Reed founded and served as CEO of Black Diamond Performance Reporting. He also founded calendar analytics platform Copilot, Do Something Great Today, and FlightPath Inc. Reed holds a Bachelor of Science with degrees in Engineering and Economics from Vanderbilt University, where he was a starting pitcher on the baseball team.

Publishing Tags: PRess Play, StreetCred PR, Podcast, Financial Journalism, Financial Media, Elena Krasnow, Wealth Management, WealthTech, Advisor Technology, Financial Advisors, RIA Industry, Artificial Intelligence, AI in Wealth Management, Financial Technology, Future of Advice, Innovation in Finance, Orion Ascent

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Storytelling, Trust & Financial Journalism with Diana Britton (Ep. 27)

Storytelling, Trust & Financial Journalism with Diana Britton (Ep. 27)

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In this episode of PRess Play: The StreetCred Podcast, hosts Elena Krasnow and Jimmy Moock are joined by Diana Britton, executive editor of WealthManagement.com and host of the award-winning podcast The Healthy Advisor.

 

Diana shares her journey from growing up in Los Angeles to building a career in financial journalism. She reflects on her early days covering pension plans, some of the standout stories she’s covered at WealthManagement.com and why trust between journalists and publicists is essential.

We cover:

  • Diana’s early inspirations and what eventually drew her into financial journalism
  • her experience writing about defined benefit pension plans
  • the issues surrounding 403bs and their lack of regulatory scrutiny
  • analogies and insights from Philip Palaveev, author of “The Ensemble Practice”
  • her perspective on AI in journalism and whether she can spot a ChatGPT-written pitch
  • the origin story of The Healthy Advisor and its human-centered mission
  • her personal passions, including Star Wars and a childhood dream of becoming an astronaut
  • and much more!

Diana’s journey highlights the power of trust, curiosity and connection in wealth management—don’t miss it!

 

Topics:

 

(0:15) Meet Diana Britton

(1:12) What’s for lunch?

(2:49) Never heard of a boca ribeye

(4:10) In N Out Burger reviews

(6:28) Diana’s background and growing up in Palos Verdes, LA

(7:14) Three summers in Cairo working with Sudanese refugees

(8:15) Her first foray into documentary filmmaking

(9:04) Journalism school: NYU vs. USC

(10:08) Working for Institutional Investors newsletter division

(10:37) Her experience writing about defined benefit pension plans

(11:28) The bug for financial journalism that led her to WealthManagement.com

(12:10) The openness of financial advisors to tell their stories

(12:45) First week on the job…Bear Stearns went under

(14:05) 401k vs. pension plans

(15:25) What makes for a story on pension plans?

(16:22) Looking under the hood of a teacher’s defined benefit plan

(19:35) One of the most memorable stories Diana has ever covered on 403bs

(20:25) 403bs and how they escape regulatory scrutiny; how the retirement system is failing teachers

(23:00) Shout out to Tony Isola!

(23:35) Diana’s go to sources: Joe Duran, Doug Fritz, Brian McLaughlin and others

(24:28) Incredible analogies by Philip Palaveev: describing the industry as “a monkey in a banana trap”

(25:46) “The Ensemble Practice”

(26:25) What is the “banana”?

(28:10) Technology adoption

(29:02) Wealth Management’s internal AI engine

(30:55) Can you tell when pitches are written with ChatGPT?

(31:45) What makes a story stand out to Diana: “We thought it was one way, but it’s actually this way”

(35:52) Worst interaction with a PR person (it wasn’t anyone at StreetCred!)

(37:25) The importance of respecting boundaries with journalists

(38:55) Shout out to David Armstrong!

(39:52) It’s not all bad—real relationships with journalists and publicists

(40:10) The importance of trust

(43:47) The origin story of The Healthy Advisor podcast and its important human-centered mission

(45:28) Impactful episode with George Kinder “The Father of Life Planning” on the art of mindfulness

(46:35) How do you meditate?

(47:52) Time for our Play segment!

(48:09) Dreams of being an astronaut and writing a letter to NASA

(49:20) Star Wars fandom and favorite movie

(52:05) They don’t make ‘em like they used to

(54:39) Moment of gratitude for the Wealth Management team

(56:57) Thank you to our listeners!

 

Connect with StreetCred PR:

 

 

Connect with Diana Britton:

 

 

About our Guest: 

Diana Britton is the executive editor of WealthManagement.com, covering independent broker/dealers and RIAs from all angles. She’s also the host of the Jesse H. Neal Award Winning Podcast, The Healthy Advisor, focused on advisor health and wellbeing. All told, she’s been at WealthManagement for almost 15 years, and so it’s fair to say, she’s seen it all.  Diana is a Los Angeles native native, and now lives in Rocklin, California.

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