For registered investment advisor (RIA) firms looking to expand their reach or impact, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are popular vehicles for growth. Every RIA acquisition poses its own set of complexities, with countless platforms and processes to reconcile. Yet from the client’s perspective, the value of consolidation comes down to one simple question: What does…
For advisory firms using Salesforce Financial Services Cloud (FSC), visibility into client interactions is crucial. However, Salesforce does not natively provide a consolidated activity view across all household members, objects, and activity owners. As a result, firms often struggle to see all interactions across household members in one place. In fact, we previously discussed these…
We recently attended a wealth conference focused on registered investment advisor (RIA) growth strategies. Across the presentations and panel discussions, several themes consistently emerged: organic growth pressure, referral optimization, operational scalability, customer relationship manager (CRM) adoption, and efficiency driven by artificial intelligence (AI). The industry is clearly shifting from relationship-based “accidental growth” toward intentional, measurable,…
Even in its most basic form, Salesforce is a powerful tool. Yet many registered investment advisors (RIAs) reach a tipping point soon after the initial implementation, data migration, and training. As wealth management firms grow, manual workflows, spreadsheets, and inconsistent processes can quickly become operational bottlenecks that slow business momentum and increase risk. RIAs need…
Increasingly, and understandably, registered investment advisors (RIAs) are asking important questions about the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in wealth management and Agentforce: Are we behind? How are other wealth firms using Agentforce for their business? How are individual advisors using AI with their clients? What’s the current adoption of Agentforce? As we kick off…
Registered investment advisors (RIAs) operate in an increasingly complex environment. Client expectations are rising, compliance demands are growing, and differentiation in a competitive landscape is critical. As firms grow, the technology that once served them well begins to fall short, prompting many RIAs to make a strategic switch to Salesforce Financial Services Cloud (FSC). Why?…
Welcome to the Salesforce Agentic Enterprise It was only two short years ago, at Dreamforce 2023, that Marc Benioff took a cautionary stance toward artificial intelligence (AI), using his keynote address to warn that AI could lead to a dystopian future. This year, the emphasis on hallucinations or the need for AI governance was completely…
Training That Scales: How ShellBlack Helped a $29B RIA Train for Today — and Tomorrow Training is one of the most critical — and often underestimated — factors in successful Salesforce adoption. This was especially true for a large registered investment advisor (RIA) firm based in New York with $29 billion in accounts under management…
Salesforce launched Financial Services Cloud (FSC) in 2016 as a managed package tailored specifically for wealth management firms, registered investment advisors (RIAs), and other financial services organizations. This initial version provided an industry-specific data model and pre-built features designed to streamline client management, householding, and financial account tracking within Salesforce. In 2019, Salesforce began moving…
ShellBlack is celebrating its 15-year anniversary, so it seems appropriate to share how it all started, as well as some key decisions (and mistakes) made along the way that have shaped our success. A little background first … I was introduced to Salesforce in 2005 by a former boss and mentor who had started a…