Jack Sharry: Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week’s edition of WealthTech on Deck. On this podcast, we examine where wealth management is headed from a variety of angles: how firms grow, how they scale, and how better technology, operating models, and leadership can improve outcomes for clients, advisors, and firms. Today’s conversation sits right at the intersection of several forces reshaping our industry: the rising complexity of clients’ financial lives, the growing need for holistic advice, the changing expectations clients have around digital experiences and personalization, and of course, the growing role of AI in helping advisors work smarter and serve clients better. My guest today is Mike Perry. Mike is Head of Client Solutions and Wealth Management at Guardian. Mike is responsible for driving growth of Guardian’s wealth management offerings through Park Avenue Wealth Management and helping expand Guardian’s sales channels, including its career agency network. Before joining Guardian, Mike held senior leadership roles at Nuveen, UBS Wealth Management Americas, and Merrill Lynch. I’ve known Mike for a long time, and when I saw he joined Guardian, I couldn’t help but think to myself: How did a wirehouse guy find himself at a mutual life insurance company? So I reached out to find out why, and as we’ll learn, Mike brings a unique perspective to our favorite conversation: What does the future of advice look like? Mike has seen wealth management from multiple angles: wirehouse, asset management, product and platform development, distribution, advice, and now the transformation of a major insurance-based organization into a more connected, modern wealth platform. Today, Mike and I are going to talk about how holistic, protection-first planning is evolving, why this matters now as financial lives become more interconnected, where AI is actually adding value in wealth management, how firms can use technology to empower advisors rather than replace them, and why strategic partnerships are becoming essential. So, Mike, great to have you on board. We’ve got a lot to talk about. You’re doing some very cool things, and I’m glad to have you aboard.

Mike Perry: Great to be with you, Jack. It’s always great to catch up and chat.

Jack Sharry: Mike, let’s start with your path to what you’re doing today. You’ve had a distinctive career across some of the most important institutions in our industry. You’ve seen wealth management from a range of vantage points: advice, product, distribution, and enterprise leadership. Walk us through your journey in wealth management. What drew you to the business? What shaped your perspective along the way? And what ultimately led you to the role you now have at Guardian?

Mike Perry: Out of business school here in New York, I first cut my teeth in equity derivatives. At the time, Merrill was building a business to help individuals protect their stock positions. Many corporate executives were accumulating securities and needed ways to hedge those positions. We were also working on structured notes and finding ways to provide market exposure with downside protection. For me, it was all about problem-solving. It was an innovative area at the time, and I enjoyed working with advisors and clients to solve real issues and seeing the impact that had on their lives. I’m an engineer by education, so that problem-solving orientation has been a theme throughout my career. At Merrill, because those solutions were distributed through advisors, I got to know advisors very well. In my opinion, it’s one of the hardest jobs out there. What I learned is that products solve a specific issue, but there’s always a bigger picture. I became interested in understanding how solutions ultimately landed with clients. Throughout my career, I continued to see how different capabilities within a firm make their way to clients. Sometimes that worked beautifully, and other times it didn’t. Over time, I realized the industry is constantly innovating to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and ultimately create better outcomes for clients. But as soon as someone innovates, others replicate it, and the cycle continues.

Jack Sharry: Tell our audience about Merrill One. Many listeners are fans of what you built there, and I think it was a seminal point in your career.

Mike Perry: If you go back to the origins of the separate account business, asset managers managed individual accounts while wirehouses often maintained separate operational infrastructures. That duplication drove costs. Looking at Merrill Lynch’s scale, we saw an opportunity to eliminate inefficiencies by bringing in models while having the platform handle account opening, trading, and administration. To do that, we created our own RIA structure to support that process. Those were the early days of model-based investing at scale. Once you introduced models, it became much easier to integrate them into broader portfolios, provide customization, and create a more efficient infrastructure. The result was lower costs for clients and a more competitive offering. Looking back, I’m proud of how it started, and Merrill has continued to evolve and build on that foundation.

Jack Sharry: It was definitely a breakthrough and changed the industry. You’ve done similar kinds of things at UBS and Nuveen. Now you’re at Guardian, and what you’re building feels equally transformative. Tell us what attracted you to Guardian.

Mike Perry: The conditions here are great for building and problem-solving. One thing I’ve learned over time is that products matter, but what clients really need is trusted advice from an advisor. That’s where the real value is created. What attracted me to Guardian is its planning culture. The traditional protection business, including disability insurance and life insurance, has always been anchored in comprehensive planning. This isn’t a transactional insurance business. It’s deeply rooted in planning. In traditional wealth management, advisors often engage clients once they’ve already accumulated assets. At Guardian, because planning begins earlier in people’s lives, especially around protection needs, advisors are engaging with clients at foundational moments. That creates an opportunity to combine protection-first planning with a much broader conversation about a client’s overall financial life. Guardian has long been excellent at the protection side. The investment side historically played more of an accommodation role. Our opportunity is to bring everything together. Additionally, we don’t have massive legacy systems slowing us down. That means we can move more quickly and deploy more modern technology without spending years solving technology debt issues.

Jack Sharry: I think many people don’t realize Guardian played a role in the early development of eMoney.

Mike Perry: That’s right. While Fidelity owns eMoney today, it was originally part of Guardian. It’s a reflection of our planning culture. We don’t need to be a technology company ourselves. What matters is using technology to deliver better advice.

Jack Sharry: One thing that stands out is this protection-first approach. Explain how that works.

Mike Perry: Our planning framework is called the Living Balance Sheet. eMoney powers the experience underneath, but our advisors helped design the process around real client conversations. The framework helps advisors meet clients where they are in life. For a newly married couple or a young family, one of the biggest risks is income disruption. Protection becomes central to the planning conversation. Protection products naturally lead to conversations around long-term commitments and goals. When clients go through underwriting, share financial data, discuss family dynamics, and talk about health, the advisor relationship becomes incredibly deep and meaningful. That creates a strong foundation for broader financial planning and investment discussions over time. Instead of waiting for clients to accumulate significant assets, we can begin helping them much earlier in their journey and continue serving them as their needs evolve.

Jack Sharry: You’ve rebranded Park Avenue Securities as Park Avenue Wealth Management, and it seems to reflect a broader strategic shift. How does that connect to your vision?

Mike Perry: In practical terms, it happens naturally through the planning process. Advisors do their work inside the planning software. As they help clients assess protection needs, they naturally uncover opportunities to discuss investments, growth, retirement goals, and broader planning issues. In many traditional wealth management models, insurance is outsourced or treated as secondary. We think that’s leaving a major part of a client’s life out of the conversation. By bringing protection and investments together, advisors can provide holistic advice while also expanding their business opportunities across the full client relationship. We’re seeing similar convergence in the workplace environment as well. Employees care about retirement plans, benefits, protection, and investments. Clients don’t view these issues separately, and increasingly technology will help connect them. Our belief is that advisors want to be positioned to address the full spectrum of client needs.

Jack Sharry: One thing that really caught my attention was Guardian’s investment in Avantos, where SEI, Vanguard, and others have also invested. Talk about that partnership.

Mike Perry: For us, Avantos represents much more than a vendor relationship. It’s a strategic partnership. Like many firms, we’ve accumulated different applications over time. The opportunity is to connect those systems and create a more unified advisor experience. What excites us about modern AI technology is its ability to integrate information across those applications much more quickly. We’re rebuilding our advisor workstation, AdvisorLink, around AI-native capabilities. Imagine an advisor conducting a Teams or Zoom meeting. Instead of taking notes and manually entering information into planning systems or account-opening forms, AI can capture and route that information automatically. Tasks are generated, workflows move forward, and advisors spend less time on administration and more time helping clients.

Jack Sharry: It sounds like you’re really trying to expand advisor capacity and make great advisors even better.

Mike Perry: Exactly. This isn’t just about AI. It’s about freeing up time. When advisors have more time, they can spend it prospecting, serving clients, and providing advice. The same is true for support staff. Rather than eliminating roles, I think AI allows staff to move closer to clients and provide higher-value services. The real unlock is having AI agents handle repetitive work across systems while people focus on the more meaningful, client-facing activities.

Jack Sharry: One of the other themes I noticed is your emphasis on partnerships. What role do partnerships play in transformation?

Mike Perry: We don’t believe organizations can move quickly enough on their own. Instead of defaulting to building everything internally, we believe in partnering with best-in-class firms. You can see that approach in our investment partnerships and in our technology strategy. Partners are innovating across many clients and many use cases. By working with them, we benefit not only from their technology but also from their expertise and experience. Transformation requires a different mindset and a different set of skills than running the day-to-day business. The right partner can help accelerate that journey.

Jack Sharry: As we come toward the end, what are the key takeaways you’d like listeners to remember?

Mike Perry: Innovation is essential. Technology and efficiency improvements are table stakes. But ultimately, none of this is really about technology. It’s about helping people improve their lives. Financial planning is increasingly complex. We don’t have enough advisors, and clients need more help than ever. Technology can support advisors, but it doesn’t replace the trusted relationship between advisors and clients. At Guardian, that’s why we’re focused on protection-first, holistic planning. We believe planning conversations lead to better outcomes. Innovation matters, but only if it helps advisors serve clients more effectively.

Jack Sharry: After more than 250 podcast episodes, I can say this is a genuinely unique story. The industry often talks about differentiation, but your protection-first approach feels fundamentally different. Ultimately, AI, planning, investments, retirement, group benefits, and protection all need to come together. Technology will play an important role in connecting those dots, but advisors remain at the center of delivering guidance and helping clients make informed decisions.

Mike Perry: I completely agree. Technology will increasingly connect workplace solutions, investments, banking, benefits, and protection into a more complete client picture. The power comes from combining rich client data with advisor expertise. There’s simply too much information for any individual to process manually. AI can help organize that information and allow advisors to deliver better advice based on a richer understanding of the client. That’s what’s most exciting to me.

Jack Sharry: One final question. When you’re not thinking about strategy, technology, AI, and transformation, what do you do for fun?

Mike Perry: I like to think through difficult questions while riding my bike. I’m a serious endurance cyclist. I’ll often take a single question with me on a ride, and by the time I’ve finished a two- or three-hour ride, I’ve usually worked through the answer. In fact, next week I’m heading to Colorado for a long cycling event. Outside of work, most of my time is spent with family and riding.

Jack Sharry: That’s great. Mike, thank you. This has been a fascinating discussion. What stands out to me is that the future of wealth management isn’t just about better technology. It’s about using technology to support a more connected form of advice, one that brings together protection, planning, investments, and human judgment in a more unified way. It seems like you’re in the right place at the right time and making a meaningful difference for Guardian, its advisors, and its clients. For our audience, thank you for tuning in. If you’ve enjoyed today’s conversation, please rate, review, subscribe, and share WealthTech on Deck. We’re available wherever you get your podcasts, and you can find all of our episodes at WealthTechOnDeck.com. Mike, thank you again. It’s been a real pleasure.

Mike Perry: Thanks, Jack. It was great being with you.

Jack Sharry: Thank you, sir.