Former TAPO honoree Josh Itzoe is now spending his days helping other 401(k) advisors with fiduciary responsibility and workplace retirement.
As the Founder & CEO of FiduciaryWor(k)s and its FiduciaryRx platform, he focuses on developing insights, research, technology, fiduciary consulting, and practice management coaching in the areas of fiduciary responsibility and workplace retirement.
It seems he’s constantly launching new products and enhancements all geared toward making life easier for advisors—and he talks about the rewarding transition and his busy agenda in this week’s 401(k) Specialist Pod(k)ast.
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Transcription
Brian Anderson: [00:00:00] I am Brian Anderson with 401k specialist and this is the 401k specialist podcast. Today, we got another high profile personality in the retirement space in Josh Itzo. Who has transitioned from being a very successful 401k advisor to now helping advisors through the services of his relatively new company fiduciary works And its fiduciary rx platform It has attracted plenty of attention and big name advisors since its launch many of whom have called it a game changer These days he’s focused on empowering advisors with modern technology to diagnose prescribe and improve fiduciary wellness And we’re going to talk about some of his new initiatives today.
Welcome back to the 401k Specialist Podcast, Josh.
Josh Itzoe: Thanks, Brian. I, uh, I’m looking forward to it. Congratulations to you.
Brian Anderson: No, thanks very much.
Josh Itzoe: New role. That’s great. Appreciate it. Appreciate it.
Brian Anderson: Well, I remember you telling my colleague, John Sullivan, former colleague, John Sullivan, in an article last year that, uh, you love the collegial component to what you’re doing now with fiduciary Rx.
Helping advisors [00:01:00] that you’re no longer competing against. Are you still having a blast supporting all these advisors and has this next chapter been even better than you thought it would be?
Josh Itzoe: Yeah, it’s it’s it’s been an incredible ride so far. I mean it started a little bit slower just admittedly, um, I don’t think I Uh, knew going in how hard it was going to be to kind of walk away from, you know, the, the firm I co founded and, and helped build in this, this transition.
But, uh, the reasons that I left, uh, have really come to fruition. The vision I originally had around, um, instead of being an advisor, really pivoting to support advisors. It’s been incredible. Um, we had a great 2022. Um, we just crossed over, uh, 60 firms on the platform and, um, uh, you know, the way I kind of like to describe it and, and I have, I I’ve had an incredible, like, I love my customers.
Um, I love being able to, to work with them. I’ve made a ton of new relationships, people that I never knew before. And it’s [00:02:00] been, it’s been great. It’s really gratifying to build things when, when advisors, um, you know, a lot of times with 401k plans, it’s. tough. You’re trying to convince plan sponsors to actually take a meeting or to hire you.
And it’s been really neat just to build something that advisors have, uh, really embraced. Like you said, a lot of firms that I think, uh, would view it as a game changer. And Just the interaction. I spend a lot of my, a lot of my hours during the week in a lot of cases, advisors reaching out to me and just want to idea share or catch up, or maybe they have a question about the technology that I can help them with, but invariably it turns into, you know, conversations like, Hey, let me get your opinion on this, or let me get your opinion on that.
And, you know, I made a ton of mistakes over the years. I got a few things wrong. And so it’s been really neat. Um, to, to have those con and, and, and one unexpect I actually have, I have a Um, kind of for emerging and advisors, younger advisors. [00:03:00] And, um, I’ve got a good number of next gen advisors that are using the platform and what’s neat is, you know, at this kind of stage in life, I’m kind of an old man in the game now, but, but being able to help these younger advisors, um, Probably avoid some of the landmines and mistakes that I made, um, has been really, really cool.
So, uh, I’m building this tribe and, uh, it’s, it’s exceeded kind of what my expectations were.
Brian Anderson: Interesting. Okay. Well, we see you’ve been very busy at fiduciary works lately with lots of new updates and innovations being introduced near the end of 2022 and into early 2023. Can you tell us a little bit about all the recent activity?
Josh Itzoe: Yeah. You know, when it, when the platform first launched, it was kind of known as the scoring and gamification engine with fiduciary RX and, and, um, which was great, but, you know, I always had a bigger vision. I wanted to move it from just being kind of a, [00:04:00] a tool in, let’s say, you know, from, from that perspective to more of a practice management platform.
And. You know, we’ve, we’ve, I have an incredible development team of four developers that, that I work very closely with and I kind of come up with the ideas, um, and, and figure out the problems I want to solve. And then I go to them and they, they, they, they build it and they’ve been phenomenal. But, uh, you know, we’ve, we’ve invested a lot in the platform and kind of my goal has always been.
You know, I think, um, I think retirement advisors, I wrote an article, you know, for you guys a few months ago about, you know, uh, FinTech and there’s some really cool FinTech tools that are coming online for retirement plan advisors. A lot of times retirement plan advisors kind of, um, uh, we just didn’t have a lot of great, a lot of great tools.
There were tools that were out there that were good, but, but hadn’t maybe been updated that much. Um, and I saw a real sweet spot for building a platform that, um, could be more modern and could be innovative. And [00:05:00] my vision was never just to build a scoring gamification tools, to build a practice management platform.
And we’ve invested a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of money in expanding that. And. The past six weeks in particular, we’ve launched some really cool features and functionality. And so, you know, I always viewed the platform as a, what I would consider to be a growth platform, but with a lot of the, the more practice management features, we’ve got a cost management module with some really cool stuff.
I just did a partnership with FI 360 and integrated some of their data. So, um, to, to, uh, enhance the cost management module, we just rolled out a committee management module, um, for things like, you know, Being able to do minutes in five, you know, meeting minutes in five minutes instead of 30 minutes or 40 minutes and ability to track milestones and accomplishments, really cool stuff.
And so my, my goal, I want to be the most innovative and, and the, the FinTech platform in the retirement space, that’s rolling out features and functionality and enhancements faster than everybody [00:06:00] else. And so we’ve been, we’ve been, um. It’s funny. I think in some ways I may have overwhelmed a lot of my my clients and customers because every week or two, it’s like, hey, here’s what’s new.
Here’s what’s new. And it’s a testament to my development team. But the feedback from advisors when they see what’s there and just being able to create efficiency and scale and consistency and create lift within their practice. really, really neat. And so I’ve been spending a lot of times announcing and then reaching out to everybody and saying, let’s grab some time.
Let me show you what the platform can do now. It’s far more evolved than people who saw it even three months ago. So it has been busy. Um, I’ve been busier probably than I’ve ever been in my career, but I’m having more fun and feeling more purpose driven and inspired, um, than I ever have. And, and, Just the ability to, I love building product.
I love hearing from advisors, finding what their challenges were, tapping into my own experience. That’s been the feedback I think [00:07:00] from a lot of advisors is when they see it, they’re like, Oh, you totally were an advisor because I’m not really a technology person trying to come up with a solution, but having never lived the life, the fact that I lived the life, a lot of the stuff I built.
Was to solve problems I had, but now getting feedback from advisors and saying, well, can you do this? Or could you do that? And then being able to go back and kind of sketch out and say, yeah, what if we could do that? Go into the development team. They build it. Feedback’s been awesome. So it has been busy.
There’s been a flurry of announcements. We have some really cool stuff that’s coming over the next. two to three to four months that I think is going to blow advisors minds.
Brian Anderson: All right. Well, I want to talk about one of those, one of those new products. You just introduced a new product called FeeMetrics to help advisors comply with the DOL’s PTE 2020 02 requirement.
Um, tell us a little bit about the story of how that came about.
Josh Itzoe: Yeah. So, so that I never, I didn’t really set out to, to build that. I had an advisor that, uh, is a [00:08:00] good friend of mine who’s a wealth advisor. He’s got a, you know, Um, a really good shop, three people down in Charlotte. Uh, he and I were in the same class, um, that started at Morgan Stanley 20 years ago, and he reached out to me a few months ago and he just said, Hey, Josh, like you should build a tool around this DOL.
rollover compliance. He’s like, it’s killing me right now. I don’t know anything about the 401k space. I have this form. My compliance attorney did. I got a spreadsheet and I’m trying to figure out fees and he’s like, it just takes a ton of time. He’s like, it’s really cumbersome. You should build something to help guys like me.
And I said, well, show me what you’re doing. And he did. And, you know, within 10 minutes, I was like, I could totally automate this process for you. And so really I built it mainly at first for him, just cause the cool thing with what I do now that I know that I can build product is, I mean, if you looked at my whiteboard, I have like seven different ideas up on my whiteboard.
Now I’m just like, Hey, let me find, [00:09:00] let me find things to, um, problems to solve. But he, I told him like, let me, let me work on it. And. I was able to, within a couple of months, come up with a really good solution. Um, that really makes it easy. And it’s probably primarily focused at these small wealth shops, you know, the bigger firms, they’ve got processes in place, but a lot of these small fee only independent RIAs that are more wealth focused are really struggling with the, the, with compliance.
And I did it more than anything to help him out and just see if I could do it. And when I showed it to him. He was like, this is, this is awesome. And, uh, I was like, great, this is a, a, a new product. And so it’s, it’s aimed at, at, at a certain, I think demographic and target market, um, but really streamlines the whole process in less than five minutes.
It creates a lot of scale and efficiency and consistency. Um, and the feedback so far has been. Really, really good. So I didn’t really set out like that wasn’t that. That was more of [00:10:00] just an advisor coming to me and saying, Hey, I have this problem. Like, do you think you can help me solve it and taking up the challenge to do it?
And, you know, um, uh, it’s been, it’s been really neat. The feedback has been, has been great so far. Um, Uh, with advisors and using it. And a lot of what I try to do is build technology that helps advisors work smarter, work faster, scale, be more efficient. Um, too many advisors do things just custom one off.
And so, um, being able to, if I can help advisors get time back, build capacity, build scale, that’s going to do a couple of things. It’s, it’s one, It’s going to help them most likely have time if they want to grow their practice or with them and their teams, it’s going to give them margin back. Um, and that might be growing their business that might just be having a better quality of life.
And this tool, I think, um, uh, for the market that it targets, the feedback so far has been really good. And I just, more than anything, I just like building, [00:11:00] I just like building product now and building solutions. So, um, I’m excited about few metrics. I think, um, you know, it’s a niche focused product, but, um, I think there’s a real opportunity for it to, to, um, help advisors that are struggling with the DOL, uh, rollover compliance, especially in the wealth side that are smaller shops that don’t have a ton of resources.
Brian Anderson: All right, great. Switching gears a little bit. Uh, it seems like you have no problem remaining highly visible in the retirement industry. You know, you’re extremely well connected. You’ve written a couple of books, speak at a variety of industry events. Just want to know what, uh, what your schedule is looking like in 2023.
Josh Itzoe: Yeah. So, you know, I, I do, I, one of the hardest things I will say, like, so why I really liked going back to that first question, like now I get to interact a lot with advisors, one of the biggest challenges in all transparency was, you know, I went from having a pretty incredible team and group of people that I was around every day and, and, and working with, uh, in that collegial aspect [00:12:00] within my firm.
I love now having a ton of advisors that I call both friends and customers and that I can interact with. Um, but, you know, it’s, it’s where we’re a, we’re a small team. And so, uh, the ability to get back out and meet with people face to face, I’m really, you know, I’m really excited about. So, uh, in two weeks, I think I’m going to see you out there.
Um, uh, we’re going to be at the Viking Cove. GRPA has rebranded as Viking Co, but they have a summit out in San Diego. So going to be headed out there and really excited to say, see friends and colleagues and meet new people. Oh, I’m going to be going to Napa as well and, and won’t miss that event. And then, you know, I assume probably wealth at work in the fall, but I’m really excited.
And I even have plans, you know, that’s just on the whiteboard right now, but. You know, at some point, probably not in 2023, but, but perhaps in 2024 is maybe to do some type of user conference, if you will, for fiduciary Rx and, and find a way to kind of bring the [00:13:00] tribe, uh, bring the tribe together. But, um, the, the opportunity is such an awesome community that we have within the industry.
It’s tight knit, um, uh, for the most. part. I think most people are all about connecting with one another, helping one another get better when we all a rising tide raises all ships when we can help each other get better. You know, there’s so much business that’s out there. You know, it’s more important to connect to compete in my opinion.
Um, And so, yeah, I’m going to be making the rounds and hopefully meet more advisors and, and, um, uh, you know, continue to kind of evangelize fiduciary RX and, and, uh, uh, hopefully get more firms that are using it to work smarter, work faster, and be a hero to their clients.
Brian Anderson: Excellent. All right. Well, thanks so much for joining us today and sharing your insights on the 401k specialist podcast, Josh.
Appreciate it.
Josh Itzoe: Thank you so much. Great connecting and, and, uh, love what you do with 401k specialists. And you guys are, [00:14:00] I’ve been so valuable in terms of championing, you know, the, the, um, the role and the benefit of, uh, 401k advisor specialists. And so great to be on the podcast and, and, uh, uh, just appreciate all you do in the industry.
Thanks a bunch, Josh.
Veteran financial services industry journalist Brian Anderson joined 401(k) Specialist as Managing Editor in January 2019. He has led editorial content for a variety of well-known properties including Insurance Forums, Life Insurance Selling, National Underwriter Life & Health, and Senior Market Advisor. He has always maintained a focus on providing readers with timely, useful information intended to help them build their business.
