Wealthbar & Snap Projections with Tea Nicola (CEO) & Pawel Brzeminski | E103

In this 103rd episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host welcomes Tea Nicola, Co-founder and CEO of Wealthbar, and Pawel Brzeminski, Founder and CEO of Snap Projections, to talk about what led to their companies’ partnership, fintech’s rise and the financial planning industry’s move towards technology, and more.

Episode Highlights:

● 00:46: – Wealthbar is one of Canada’s first robo-advisors.

● 01:18: – Snap Projections is a financial planning platform for advisors.

● 02:38: – Tea was interested in Snap Projections after using it herself for years as a solution to having to do calculations in Excel and then manually transfer data over into reports for clients.

● 04:33: – Pawel was interested in the relationship because he wanted a partner to help grow and improve the platform.

● 06:44: – Snap Projections has helped Wealthbar grow because it has been helpful to own software that allows advisors to work more efficiently and effectively service more clients.

● 08:15: – Pawel believes Snap Projections has added a lot of value for advisors over the years, including estate planning. In the future he’d like to develop APIs.

● 11:11: – Tea’s vision is for a platform that automates routine tasks but has a human safety net to help you understand your finances.

● 13:09: – Tea envisions her advisors as salaried employees on the same level as her developers as opposed to the current model of advisors as sole proprietors of their business.

● 17:33: – Pawel intends to reduce friction and heavy lifting for advisors by providing recommendations to advisors while acknowledging that no one algorithm can account for all scenarios.

● 21:19: – Snap Projections has between 600-700 feature requests on their list right now.

● 21:40: – Pawel wants to spend more time exploring issues around stress testing.

● 22:03: – Algorithms are better at doing the heavy lifting but a human still needs to be involved to make sure the recommendations apply to a client’s reality.

● 24:21: – If Tea could change one thing about the industry it would be that the average Canadian’s financial literacy level would go up tenfold.

● 25:45: – If Pawel could change one thing it would be to change the backend of financial planning software to focus less on the individual and more on the household.

● 28:26: – The biggest challenge Tea has faced in scaling Wealthbar to where it is today would, again, be the issue of financial literacy.

● 29:33: – Pawel’s biggest challenge in scaling Snap Projections was lack of resources.

● 32:40: – What most excites Tea is the way the industry is changing and moving towards more technology, including AI.

● 35:33: – Pawel is most excited by helping people and seeing the impact he’s making.

3 Key Points
1. The ideal robo-advisor platform would automate routine tasks while allowing clients to speak to a human for deeper understanding and specific issues.
2. Increasing the level of financial literacy among the population is crucial for the growth of fintech.
3. Canadian tax code poses a challenge for advisors because of its focus on the individual rather than the household.

Tweetable Quotes:
● “I’ve always had this vision in my mind of a busy mom walking into her house with a bunch of groceries and getting a push notification from Wealthbar... and she can react to it with one button and at the same time have access to an advisor if things aren’t clear enough.” –Tea Nicola
● “It’s all about making planning pleasant and easy to use. We don’t have to use all the complex tools with lots of inputs. It’s all about making sure that information that we’re using to make decisions is right in front of us.” –Pawel Brzeminski
● “FInancial planning and investment management is a slow and boring process. If it’s exciting, you’re doing it wrong.” –Tea Nicola

Resources Mentioned:
● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook
● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn
● FintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech Impact
● Wealthbar Website – https://www.wealthbar.com/
● Snap Projections Website – https://snapprojections.com/
● Tea Nicola Twitter: https://twitter.com/teanicola?lang=en
● Pawel Brzeminski Twitter: https://twitter.com/pawelwb?lang=en