David Canter is trading his laptop for a guitar—at least for part of the inaugural Future Proof Festival in Huntington Beach, California. The executive vice president and head of the registered investment advisor (RIA) segment at Fidelity Institutional’s Clearing & Custody Solutions is slated to join his bandmates onstage, where they will perform as the group Hi-Fidelity. 

 

The group, started in 2011, covers a range of rock, reggae and jam band hits. I sat down with David and between riffs of some of his favorite tunes (yes, he was playing guitar and singing during the interview), he shared how to connect with an audience, what he’s learned from blending his personal and professional pursuits and how the Grateful Dead inspires better leadership.

 

Future Proof: Most attendees at Future Proof will know you from your work at Fidelity, but you’re really making your appearance at the festival as a musician.

 

David Canter: It’s funny you say that. I haven’t been quiet about my musicality. I love music. 

 

Live music provides such a great chance to commune with people. It’s really a way of bringing people together. 

 

That’s why I’m so excited about Future Proof. This event is about more than just the function of wealth management. It’s about bringing community to it all. Offering live music and other creative outlets fosters a sense of community and culture.

 

FP: You’ve been playing music since you picked up a clarinet at age 9, which you later swapped for a guitar when you were a teenager. What are the risks and rewards of performing at Future Proof?

 

David: I deeply appreciate the team aspect of playing in a band and other members of the band have all achieved a level of mastery. I view myself as a credible musician, but I’d say that what I bring to the band is a sense of cohesion. A band is a collection of individuals, just like any team, any business, any company. What I love about our band is that we all gel. 

 

The easy risk to cite is that you worry you aren’t very good. You always worry that you’re not going to satisfy the audience. But I think we’ve gotten to a place where we feel that we’re a credible act. We probably have at least 50 songs we could just pull out of a hat, immediately.  

 

[At this point David broke into a few bars of the song “867-5309 / Jenny” by Tommy Tutone.]

 

We also want to be good participants at the broader festival. We love the feeling of helping to make events more successful. 

 

FP: If you need a vote of confidence, you’re booked to perform at a four-day festival in Huntington Beach, California, that’s already drawing comparisons to SXSW. Would you say you’re booked more for music than for speaking?

 

David: Not quite. They’re almost equal, with the edge going to speaking. I’ve done a heck of a lot of speaking, because people want to hear about our business perspective. But it seems like they really get more enjoyment out of hearing the music.

 

By the way, you should know we play all original songs—made famous by other artists.

 

[David laughed and played a few bars of the song “Deal” by the Grateful Dead.]

 

I’m excited about the chance to surprise and delight the audience and stretch creatively. I’m also excited about seeing these Wall Street-type, wealth management people rock out.

 

FP: One of the aspects I see advisors continually trying to balance is the intersection of their personal and professional personalities. Do you see Hi-Fidelity blurring the lines between who you are professionally and who you are personally? How do you navigate that intersection?

 

David: It goes right back to traveling up the value stack. It goes back to authenticity. 

 

If you can find a way to connect with others that’s broader and more emotional than just the functional elements of your profession, you’ll have better outcomes. The best advisors, the best business professionals, can carefully integrate their personal life and their charitable life into their professional life.

 

FP: You’re a huge fan of the Grateful Dead. What do you think the band’s guitarist and singer, Jerry Garcia, would like about Future Proof? 

 

David: Jerry wasn’t exactly a perfect person, but he had this mindset that you shouldn’t strive to just be the best at what you’re doing; you should strive to be the only ones that do what you do. 

 

I think that’s what he would like about Future Proof. It’s about creativity. It’s about imagination, specialization, doing something no one else is really doing. 

 

To my knowledge, no one else is doing a wealth management event that infuses creativity, the arts and music. It’s a crossover event and I think that’s awesome.

 

You know what else I think he would love? Even though the Grateful Dead was not a surf band, he’d love that it is happening in Surf City, USA. 

 

FP: What album does every advisor need on their playlist? And what’s your favorite song?

 

David: This is an easy one. The Beatles’ album “Revolver” is perhaps one of the greatest albums ever made. 

 

My favorite song of all time and one that inspires me is the Grateful Dead’s “Ripple.” It’s such a beautiful song with so many instructive lyrics. It’s a leadership ballad: not everyone’s going to follow you, because the path might be yours alone. 

 

FP: I can’t wait for more later this year! What should attendees expect to hear when you hit the stage in September? 

 

David: The rock hits are fun. I love crowd pleasers. We’ll probably play some Prince and Red Hot Chili Peppers. We might do some reggae. We’ve been known to play some Bob Marley. And you know, it wouldn’t surprise me if you heard a song from The Beach Boys, too. 

With more than 1,000 attendees already signed up to attend, the Future Proof Festival is easily the most anticipated event on this year’s wealth management calendar. Over the coming weeks we will be sharing a preview of what’s to come, featuring interviews with entertainers, advisors and executives who will be in Huntington Beach, California, from September 11-14, 2022.

Our first interview is with “Downtown” Josh Brown, CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management and author of The Reformed Broker blog. He is an on-air contributor at CNBC and has more than 100,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, The Compound. 

Here’s what he had to say about the four-day Future Proof Festival, his deep hatred of branded thumb drives and why this is the wealth management event the industry needs.

Future Proof: What is the Future Proof Festival? 

Downtown Josh Brown: The Future Proof Festival is a wealth management festival that feels like your favorite live event. 

We asked ourselves, “What are the things that can’t be replicated online? What are the things that people actually really care about and look forward to—and look back and remember?”

“Where is the real impact?” 

It’s almost entirely about the personal connections people make. Networking is the number one reason you should go to an event. The connections formed at a great event are the number one thing you take with you. 

We want to put great people on stage and we want to have an atmosphere that’s fun and engaging. Most importantly, we want to facilitate people meeting with each other and exchanging ideas with a drop dead gorgeous backdrop and experiences that will be like nothing that they’ve ever had at any other wealth management event. 

You can’t do this on LinkedIn. You can’t do this on Twitter. The relationships you create online will never be as meaningful as those formed in-person.

FP: I’ve heard you draw comparisons between SXSW and Future Proof. What’s going to surprise attendees at this conference?

 

Downtown: The boardwalk’s not going to look like your typical exhibitor hall, for starters. The whole thing will be outdoors. The booths are going to be more like brand activations—something you would see at a concert. 

The types of companies that are going to be exhibiting and sending people are going to be a little bit livelier. The types of companies that have agreed to sign on to something like this, in its first year, are going to be a little bit more on the adventurous side. And quite frankly, the brands that want to make an impact at Future Proof are going to have to adapt to us. 

FP: What do you mean by that? 

Downtown: We’re going to have the younger end of the spectrum of advisors at this event. The young advisors who are coming probably are not interested in collecting pens and stress balls.

This is the new live event environment that financial services companies and software companies that cater to our space are going to have to get accustomed to. They’re going to have to do things that are high impact, memorable and visually appealing. 

It’s a new era. We’re past the pandemic. We’re past the exhibit halls and the dreary hotel ballrooms. All of that is over. The future is about experiences. 

FP: Okay. But there’s still going to be swag?

Downtown: I hope so, but by God, it better not be branded thumb drives. I will take a table full of branded thumb drives and dump them into the ocean. 

I’m just kidding. I will not pollute the ocean. 

FP: A lot of advisors enjoy going to conferences in their niche, some even more than attending actual advisor conferences. How is Future Proof addressing all the niches of finance?

Downtown: It’ll be a mass-attended event, but with a lot of niche events happening within it. 

This was Advisor Circle CEO Matt Middleton’s vision from the beginning: There are all these groups that cater to advisors, like trade organizations, custodians and tech firms. Why not just carve out a space for all of these groups at our own event? That way they can have their own onsite mini events. 

It’s also not strictly advisors in attendance.

High net worth investors will be there, plus a lot of people from asset management and fintech. Some people attending just want to be on the cutting edge of what to do with their wealth. 

FP: What’s got you most excited about Future Proof? 

Downtown: It’s got a crossover feel to it. When you get a group of advisors in a room, there’s a lot of groupthink that goes on. We want to shatter that.

It’s high time advisors went out and actually met with their public. 

Future Proof is not just a room with 500 financial advisors in it. We’re encouraging advisors to walk out—literally into the sunshine—and interact with people from technology, people from art and culture and fashion, music and software. 

FP: What types of communities will be created at Future Proof?

Downtown: Let’s say you’re a younger advisor, or a newer advisor. Let’s say you work for a team or you started your own thing or you recently went out on your own. Whatever stage you’re at, you’re going to interact with 10 or 20 people just like you. They’ll be from different parts of the country and different walks of life. They will have been trained at maybe a different type of firm. But you are going to meet people who are in the same situation, facing the same decisions about software and compliance and custodians. 

You’re going to have substantive one-on-one, two-on-one, five-on-one conversations with your peers. They’re all going to be there. They’ll be from all over the country. That’s game changing for a lot of young advisors, especially.

Then the layer above that is a whole group of very experienced, very talented RIA executives, brokerage firm teams and wirehouse teams. They are people that have done this already, successfully, and have a lot of knowledge to impart. 

The layer above that is this opportunity to see what the cutting edge looks like. All of the exhibitors are leaning into the Future Proof theme. Whatever they’re bringing out to show the crowd is whatever their newest stuff is. 

I really want people to go home feeling like they’re going to be a part of the future and they’ve gotten a sneak preview of it. 

FP: It’s hard to imagine, but for advisors who are asking themselves, “Is this conference for me?” How would you answer that question? Why is attending Future Proof going to be worthwhile? 

Downtown: If you see what we’re saying about this event and you’re on the fence, it’s probably not for you. If you want to drink lukewarm stale coffee and sit through another ESG panel sponsored by an ESG mutual fund, you could do that. 

But what we’re going to do is going to change people’s lives. I don’t say that flippantly. Literally my life has been changed by the events I attended.

I was a failed stock broker trying to become a financial advisor. I went to a series of events that were life changing. They changed my life because of the people I met and the inspiration I got from listening to what those people had to say. 

That’s what we’re doing. We’re giving the next generation an opportunity to have their lives changed by in-person experiences and networking. 

So if you’re on the fence, maybe we’ll see you next year. This isn’t for you. But if you see what we’re doing and what we’re talking about and you are immediately excited, then you’re coming. I think that the people who belong there will be there. 

Technology is transformative, disruptive and impacts our lives in countless ways. Perhaps no other industry is embracing the drive to update and upgrade the tools and technologies evolving our industry more than the wealth management ecosystem. 

 

From the early days of crunching numbers on a giant IBM machine, investors have been obsessed with using technology to improve investment outcomes. That same desire still exists, but through a much wider lens. 

 

Today, fintech has revolutionized its presence by creating digital solutions, improving inefficiencies and reshaping the way financial advisors interact with and provide services to their clients. But with countless products and providers in the marketplace, how do you keep pace?    

 

The answer is simple … at Future Proof’s FintechX Demo Drop! 

 

Future Proof is looking to showcase the newest and latest innovations that will shape the future of the wealth industry. To ensure we can cover the entire spectrum, complete our open application form. We want to see and hear what you’ve been working on, what problems you’re looking to solve and how it will help push our collective industry forward. 

 

The deadline for applications is July 8, 2022. There is no cost to apply and no cost to demo your tool at Future Proof should you be selected.* 

 

Our judging committee, a panel of industry experts, will hand-select 10 tech providers from the applications we receive to demo their latest solutions, based on creativity, outside-the-box thinking, and the ability to create a real impact for the Future Proof audience. 

 

Join us in Huntington Beach, California, Sept. 11-14 as we explore the intersection of money, tech, culture and impact. 

 

*Future Proof does not cover the cost of travel and accommodation for those participating in the FintechX Demos.