Inside WealthTech – from the technology powering the advisor’s stack to the WealthTech companies defining the industry, we deliver the stories and strategies behind smarter advice. Each episode features candid conversations with industry leaders about the technologies, ideas, and partnerships transforming the way advisors serve clients, grow their practices, and redefine financial outcomes.
In this episode, filmed live at Future Proof 2025, the Envestnet team sits down with Dustin Courts, Director of Business Development at Brighton Jones, to discuss how advisory firms are redefining value beyond portfolios, why client experience now sits at the center of WealthTech decisions, and what it takes to scale holistic advice without losing the human connection.
Read on for a snapshot of the conversation, or watch it in full, here.
Client experience is your firm's differentiator
For years, an advisor’s value proposition lived on the account statement. Performance, portfolio construction, and product selection were the most visible proof points.
Today, Courts says that baseline has shifted.
Clients increasingly assume competent investment management is a given. What differentiates advisors now goes beyond what they manage and centers on how the relationship feels over time.
“If you rewind 20 years ago, it was, ‘How are you investing my dollars?’ Today, I view that as table stakes.”
Courts believes this shift reflects a broader change in client expectations. Investors still expect strong outcomes across investments, tax, and financial planning, but those capabilities are no longer sufficient on their own.
Clients want to feel understood, supported, and connected throughout the advisory relationship.
“How are you making me feel?” Courts asks. “How do they feel connected to the brand? How do they feel connected to the community?”
In this environment, experience becomes a strategic consideration, not a soft one. Firms are judged less on returns alone and more on responsiveness, consistency, and how well advice integrates into clients’ lives.
That broader standard is pushing advice both on and off the balance sheet.
“On the balance sheet is our job and why we’re getting paid,” Courts says. “But how are we really connecting that balance sheet with outside of it?”
That question has direct implications for WealthTech decisions. Technology is increasingly evaluated not just on efficiency or features, but on whether it supports more intentional, human-centered advice at scale.
The firms adapting fastest are those treating client experience as an operating discipline, not a branding exercise.
Clients want holistic advice based on personal goals
“Before we ever get into portfolio construction or product, it starts with what makes you happy.”
As client experience becomes a defining measure of advisor value, it changes where advice begins.
Rather than leading with optimization or returns, advisors are increasingly expected to start by understanding what clients want their wealth to support.
Courts frames this as a shift in how advice is delivered, not a departure from technical rigor. Clients increasingly expect holistic financial planning that seamlessly integrates investments, tax strategy, and estate planning. But increasingly, they want help aligning those decisions with how they actually want to live.
“What brings you joy?” he asks. “What’s your richer life?”
This represents a meaningful evolution in the advisor role. Advice is no longer confined to financial mechanics. It extends into priorities, time, and purpose, requiring advisors to connect financial decisions to broader life outcomes.
Courts acknowledges that this approach can feel unfamiliar for advisors trained in a more product-focused era. But he argues that understanding what matters most to clients ultimately makes the technical work more effective.
“Slow down to go fast,” he says, emphasizing that this approach makes advice more integrated and more actionable, not less technical.
Technology will be judged by its impact on people
“Advisors want to understand two things. What is the client experience like? And what is the experience for the advisor and the team?”
As firms add more technology to their stacks, the definition of “good tech” is changing. Features still matter, but they’re no longer the primary measure of value.
Courts says technology decisions are increasingly evaluated through a human lens. Advisors want to know how systems affect clients. But just as importantly, they want to know how technology supports the people doing the work behind the scenes.
“Talk to the staff,” Courts advises. “Those are the people opening accounts. Those are the people taking client phone calls.”
Operational friction often shows up first with support teams. Account opening, paperwork, signatures, and turnaround time may seem routine, but they shape how clients experience the firm, especially when something goes wrong.
“Using tech to get paperwork out the same day and get it signed,” Courts says.
This perspective reflects a broader shift in WealthTech. Rather than accumulating tools, firms are being pushed to align technology with how they actually operate, ensuring systems support collaboration, responsiveness, and consistency.
Across the industry, platform-based approaches like Envestnet’s Wealth Management Software are designed to help firms connect planning, data, workflows, and reporting so technology supports people, not just processes.
For Courts, that clarity of purpose matters more than the number of tools in use.
“It really comes down to knowing who you are as a company and what you’re trying to solve for,” he says, adding that AI is increasingly where that people-first approach to technology gets tested in practice.
AI to improve workflow efficiency while preserving the human element
“It’s little things like that that make life easier.”
AI is often framed as transformational, but Courts takes a more grounded view. Its value isn’t in replacing advisors or redefining relationships; it’s in quietly removing friction from everyday work.
To make that concrete, Courts points to one of the most common pain points in any advisory role: returning from time away and trying to catch up on communications and context. In his own workflow, he describes using AI to quickly synthesize what he missed and get back into motion.
“The CoPilot was able to get me up to speed like that,” Courts says.
For advisors, those gains matter because they translate directly into time: time to prepare, time to respond, and most importantly, time to spend with clients. Courts says AI’s best use cases create capacity for more human interaction, not less, “freeing up our advisors’ time to spend more time with clients,” as he puts it.
Courts also emphasizes that the goal isn’t automation for its own sake. AI should never come at the expense of client engagement. Instead, its role is to support advisors in delivering more thoughtful, consistent advice without increasing cognitive load.
This reflects a broader WealthTech reality. AI succeeds when it operates in the background, improving workflow efficiency while preserving the human elements clients value most.
Track client sentiment, not just investment returns
“We survey our clients all the time.”
As firms focus more intentionally on experience and well-being, measuring success becomes more complex. Traditional performance metrics still matter, but Courts says they only capture part of what clients actually value.
To fill that gap, he emphasizes the need for feedback that is frequent and actionable, not occasional or anecdotal.
“We understand what’s going well, what’s not working well,” Courts says.
He also points to surveys and client scoring as a way to make the “experience” measurable, but only if firms treat that data as something to respond to, not just collect. The goal is transparency in real time and a discipline of continuous improvement.
“We’re a culture of feedback,” he says.
For Courts, that feedback isn’t meant to replace the relationship. It’s meant to strengthen it by prompting more candid conversations about what clients need and whether the firm is meeting them where they are.
“Clients are looking for that human connection,” he says.
Tracking sentiment over time helps firms adjust, improve, and stay aligned with evolving client expectations, especially as the definition of value shifts from outcomes alone to the full experience of advice.
Rapid-fire reflections
As part of Inside WealthTech’s lightning round, Courts shares his quick perspectives on several industry topics.
- AI in advice: Courts says it’s a tool to improve efficiency and free up advisor time, not replace relationships.
- Crypto: “Crypto is here to stay,” but firms must approach adoption thoughtfully and manage risk.
- Alternative investments: Demand is moving down-market, requiring balance between access and fiduciary responsibility.
- Relationships over transactions: “It’s not about winning the deal. It’s about winning the relationship.”
Across his responses, Courts consistently returned to the same idea. Long-term success is built on trust, clarity, and follow-through, not transactions.
Stay Inside WealthTech
Watch the full episode of Inside WealthTech with Dustin Courts to explore how client experience, holistic advice, AI, and operational discipline are reshaping the advisor operating model.
And make sure to follow Envestnet on LinkedIn for upcoming episodes featuring industry leaders redefining wealth management through technology, data, and collaboration.
Learn more about Envestnet’s wealth management technology platform and how it supports scalable advice delivery, unified workflows, and team-based advisory models.
