Michael Braun
I’ve worked nearly every side of financial services. Planning, banking, and advisor distribution. Each one led me to the same conclusion. Great advisors are held back by dated tools, and I’m an operator working to change that.
I operate at the intersection of financial services, advisor relationships, and technology.
Right now, I’m focused on the intersection of wealth management, technology, and business development.
I’m building relationships across the advisor and WealthTech ecosystem, and exploring how technology can help advisors deliver more personalized, tax-efficient, and goal-driven outcomes for their clients.
My background spans financial planning, business banking, advisor distribution, and startup growth. That full range is exactly what I draw on every day.
Away from the desk, it’s continuous learning, fitness, investing, and building real relationships. I’m always working to get sharper as an operator, leader, and communicator.
If you’re building something interesting in WealthTech, financial services, advisor technology, or AI, I’d love to connect.
The questions on my desk right now
Where my curiosity is pulling me, and the themes I think will shape the next chapter of wealth management.
Finance background, builder’s instinct
I’m Michael Braun, a finance professional based in Minneapolis, working where wealth management meets technology.
My path has run across the industry: financial planning at Northwestern Mutual, business banking at JPMorgan, and advisor distribution at Thrivent Asset Management, where I supported advisors across Michigan, Ohio, Florida, and Georgia on portfolio construction and investment strategy.
Everywhere I went, the pattern repeated. Talented advisors doing great work, held back by fragmented, dated technology. That’s the problem I’ve decided to spend my career on.
Today I’m a WealthTech operator focused on getting modern portfolio tools into the hands of independent advisors. I’m also pursuing my CFP® through The American College of Financial Services, with a target exam date of March 2027.
Professional snapshot
I’ve lived every side of the advice business
Most operators come from one world. My edge is having worked across several, and seeing exactly how they connect.
I’ve sat across from the client
Financial planning and business banking taught me what people actually worry about with their money, and how trust gets earned, one conversation at a time.
I’ve backed the advisor
As a wholesaler, I supported advisors across four states on portfolio construction, investment strategy, and growing their practices.
Now I build the platform
In WealthTech, I turn that ground-level understanding into tools advisors will actually adopt, and the distribution that gets them there.
Client, advisor, platform. A full-stack view of the advice business is rare. That intersection is where I create value.
Independent advisors shouldn’t need a dozen vendors to deliver institutional-grade portfolios. The tools should work as one system, built around the advisor. Putting that within reach is the work I care about most.
The advice gap is a technology gap. People get worse outcomes less because their advisor is worse, and more because the tools behind that advisor are.
Distribution decides everything. In financial services, the product that reaches advisors and earns their trust beats the better product that never does.
Personalization is the next decade. Direct indexing and tax aware portfolios move real customization from the ultra wealthy to everyone else.
Relationships outlast products. Technology turns over fast. Trust, earned slowly, is what actually creates long term value.
Turning that conviction into product
Right now, that means Wallace for Advisors, where I lead growth as Chief Revenue Officer. It’s the clearest version I’ve found of what advisor technology should be.
Why this, why now.
Independent advisors deserve the same technology the largest institutions take for granted. This is my shot at delivering it, and the clearest test of the operator I’m working to become.
I own growth, distribution, and partnerships: getting the right tools in front of the right advisors, and making sure what we build actually gets adopted.
See what we’re buildingWhere I’ve been
Four corners of financial services: planning, banking, asset management, and now WealthTech. Each one sharpened the same conviction.
Sat across the table from individuals and families on planning, retirement strategy, and insurance. This is where I learned how trust actually gets built, and how people really make decisions about money. Recognized among Northwestern Mutual’s top 200 interns nationally.
Developed and managed banking relationships with business owners, professionals, and high net worth clients across lending, deposits, cash management, and wealth solutions. I saw firsthand how the largest institutions serve, and sometimes underserve, the people behind the business.
Covered advisors across Michigan, Ohio, Florida, and Georgia as an internal wholesaler, partnering on portfolio construction, investment strategy, and growing their books. My first full view of the business from the advisor’s side.
Building Wallace’s go-to-market engine from the ground up, focused on advisor relationships, pipeline development, and scalable growth within the independent advisory ecosystem. It brings together everything I learned at the client, bank, and advisor level, turned into a platform advisors will actually adopt.
What working across the advice business taught me
Four roles, four vantage points, four lessons I carry into everything I build now.
People don’t buy plans, they buy confidence. The spreadsheet matters far less than whether someone trusts you with the thing they’re most anxious about.
Scale and intimacy pull against each other. The largest institutions win on reach and lose on closeness. There is a real opening in that gap.
The best product rarely wins on its own. The one advisors understand and trust does. Adoption, not features, is the scoreboard.
Software only counts when it reaches the desk. Building and distributing are not two jobs. They are the same job, done well or not at all.
A few things I’m convinced of
The operating principles that shape how I work, who I work with, and what I build.
Distribution is a product feature.
The best technology loses to the okay technology advisors actually adopt. How something reaches people matters as much as what it is. That’s the part I obsess over.
Trust compounds like capital.
Relationships are the real moat in financial services. I play long games with the people I work with. It pays off slowly, then all at once.
Technology should disappear.
Advisors shouldn’t manage software; they should serve clients. The best tools get out of the way and let the expert be the expert.
Outcomes over optics.
After tax, after fees, after everything else, the only results that count are the ones a client actually keeps. The rest is noise.
Where I spend my energy
The places where my finance fundamentals and operator instincts compound.
Wealth & Planning
- Wealth Management
- Financial Planning
- Retirement Planning
- Asset Allocation
Indexing & Tax
- Direct Indexing
- Tax-Loss Harvesting
- Portfolio Construction
- Portfolio Customization
Growth & Technology
- AI & WealthTech
- Advisor Distribution
- Sales Leadership
- Business Development
When I’m not building, I’m usually training, deep in a book or the markets, traveling, or investing time in the people around me. I think the sharpest operators are well-rounded, so I work at being one.
Good reasons to start a conversation
The topics I tend to talk about most. If any of these are on your mind, the door is open.
WealthTech & Advisor Tech
Where the industry’s tools are heading, and what advisors actually need from them.
Distribution Strategy
Getting financial products and platforms in front of the right advisors, the right way.
Business Development
Partnerships, go-to-market, and early stage growth inside financial services.
Financial Services
Planning, banking, and asset management, from someone who has worked in all three.
Partnerships
Fintechs, RIAs, and platforms looking for a thoughtful way to work together.
Career Conversations
Honest notes with people building careers at the edge of finance and technology.
Let’s trade notes on where this is going
For RIAs, wealth managers, fintech founders, or industry partners interested in advisor technology, direct indexing, or portfolio innovation.