A podcast for wiser investing and stronger living. Success in the markets and in life requires sound investments — in our portfolios and our personal wellness. A weekly show, Invest Well, Be Well explores the principles of long-term investing, behavioral finance and peak performance with top-performing investment professionals and cross-industry leaders. Hosted by investment executive Rusty Vanneman and seasoned journalist Robyn Murray, each episode offers practical strategies for building wealth and prioritizing well-being, so you can make better decisions, grow your resilience and elevate your life. In this episode, we spoke with Eric Clarke, the founding CEO of Orion Advisor Tech. Eric Clarke launched the firm in 1999 to provide portfolio accounting software to help independent financial advisors scale their businesses. Eric retired as Orion’s CEO in 2023 and continues to serve as an active member of the Board of Directors. Over Eric’s nearly 25 years of leadership, the firm grew and evolved into Orion Advisor Solutions - a premier provider of wealthtech solutions for fiduciary advisors. Today, Orion supports over five million technology accounts and thousands of independent advisory firms with an integrated suite of fully connected, disruptive technology and investment solutions on an open architecture platform. Eric guided Orion through seven major acquisitions between 2018 and 2022 and integrated these critical pieces of cutting-edge wealthtech into Orion’s ecosystem, including FTJ FundChoice, Advizr, Brinker Capital, HiddenLevers, BasisCode Compliance, Redtail Technology and TownSquare Capital. By integrating these disparate systems, Orion addressed advisors’ biggest pain point – disconnected technology. As a visionary leader and prominent voice in the financial advisory industry, Eric is at the forefront of advancing and transforming the RIA and wealthtech industries. He has written frequent articles that have appeared in InvestmentNews and The Journal of Financial Planning. Eric has received numerous industry awards including WealthManagement’s CEO of the Year for 2022, ThinkAdvisor’s IA25 multiple times, received a Luminaries award in 2022 and an InvestmentNews’ Icon & Innovators Award in 2019, and led the Orion team to four Wealthies Awards in 2023. Eric earned his Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Information Systems from Brigham Young University and Master of Business Administration from their rival at the University of Utah.
Tune in to hear:
In this episode, we discuss Eric’s career, the importance of servant leadership, the future of Fintech and how to maintain perspective and resilience during life’s most challenging times.
Quotes
“One of the things that my father used to tell us when we were growing up and involved with different businesses, even outside the family RIA business, is he would tell us: ‘don’t ever ask someone to do something that you’re not willing to do yourself.’ In essence he installed a servant leadership value inside of us, as well as our family business, right away…When my father was running the business, it never really felt like we were working for him as much as he was there to be supportive of us.” - Eric Clarke
“All of the things that were difficult, as we were building and growing the Orion business, were also opportunities…When you solve those challenges, those challenges your competitors will face as well, hopefully you and your team are coming up with ways to innovate and create some opportunities to win [and to create] some additional competitive moats around the business.” - Eric Clarke
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