At Elevation Point, Laying the Foundation for AI Growth

“This approach directly solves a longstanding industry challenge,” Dickson said. “That is, advisors have been forced to choose between growth, autonomy and access to resources that best serve their clients. We’ve changed that equation, including on the technology front.”

Dickson was joined in the conversation by Milemarker CEO Jud Mackrill, who shares Dickson's view about the importance of proactive data management in the RIA industry.

As Mackrill emphasized, AI holds great promise in increasing the efficiency and efficacy of financial planning professionals. However, this foundation is only possible if the right data infrastructure is put in place to power those tools.

Here are some additional highlights from our conversation, edited for length and clarity.

THINKADVISOR: Jim, could you tell us the high-level story about how your chose to work with Milemarker? Did you consider other potential partners when it came to building out the long-term technology strategy?

JIM DICKSON: What I would say is that, as we have built Elevation Point over the past 18 or 19 months, we’ve always striven to be futuristic. I always like the phrase, “the future is now.” So, when we thought about the best way to build our technology platform, that was our philosophy.

I’ve known Jud for some time now and frankly he’s the MacGyver of wealth management technology, having been at Orion during its formative period and then moving on to various other successful and important ventures. We went to Milemarker with our vision, and they said they thought it was a really cool approach — but one that they could help us do even better than we had imagined.

The vision is for us to create a fully connected data ecosystem that can continue to evolve as we build the future of wealth management. We’re very confident that we’ve found the right partner for that mission.

Milemarker gives our firm the ability to create a unified view across our entire ecosystem of partner firms, our outsourced chief investment officer platform and every custodian and technology provider in between. That's game-changing, we believe.

THINKADVISOR: How would you summarize the last 18 months of growth for Elevation Point? Is it about what you expected?

DICKSON: Yeah, I think they're going even better than I had expected. I think the success comes from our commitment to building a platform where advisors can not only go independent, but also do so in a fully customized and adaptive way.

Not to be repetitive, but that’s the reason why we went with Milemarker to build out the technology and data strategy. Their platform allows us to customize our approach based on the individual partner firm and based on the customers they serve.

THINKADVISOR: Jud, can you give us your thoughts on this new partnership? It must be pretty interesting looking back over your career and how we’ve gotten to this point where AI is entering the space in a big way.

JUD MACKRILL: Yes, no doubt. It has been really interesting and fulfilling to be a part of the evolution of the wealth management business.

When I joined Orion way back in 2004 we were really just starting to figure things out, and the nearly 12 years I spent there saw the technology side of the industry develop in a really big way. It’s been transformative, and I believe we’re set for another major transformation as artificial intelligence comes into the industry.

In that context, what Elevation Point is going to be able to do to differentiate themselves is extraordinary, I believe. They're committed to building an truly AI- and data-driven platform that will have the power to transform the lives of advisors and advisors’ clients through a far more efficient and effective approach to delivering advice.

To make this vision a reality requires a fundamentally different approach to data management, and that’s what we’re bringing to this strategic partnership. This is a growth-oriented organization that understands the value of partnership over pure consolidation, but that model only works if you can see across your entire investment and planning universe in real time. We built Milemarker to solve exactly this problem.

Milemarker's platform will enable Elevation Point to aggregate portfolio data, performance analytics and operational metrics across multiple custodians, reporting platforms and back-office systems. Likewise, the integration supports Elevation Point's full technology stack, which includes Addepar, Orion, Vestmark and multiple custodial relationships. That's what a real forward-thinking advisory platform needs to be able to do.

DICKSON: I think that’s spot on. The way I like to describe the strategy is that we’re moving beyond the phase where advisors are living in the client relationship management portal. We’re going to be unlocking their data. It sounds like sort of a technical thing, but the reality is that this is a profound change of perspective in terms of how to operate an advisory firm and make the magic happen.

Look, you can go to any industry event and hear people talk about the potential power of AI agents and solutions in this space. They're right, of course, but frankly sometimes I chuckle a bit, because they’re kind of putting the cart before the horse. That is, if your data is not in good order and you don’t have a high degree of connectivity and visibility across all your advisors and your service providers, it's really almost impossible to run an effective agentic AI strategy.

Milemarker’s approach is fundamentally different. It’s about creating genuine data lakes that unify and connect all the important information an advisor could need across the front office, middle office and back office — and making that data actionable.

Pictured: Jud Mackrill and Jim Dickson