Future Proof 2023 weathered a rare LA rainstorm and a shower of 'skepticism,' but grew by two hotels, 109 sponsors, 1,200 attendees and 16,000 micro-meetings -- and it's only the beginning
The hard-to-pigeonhole 'wealth' super event in Los Angeles evolved and is still on track for 10,000 attendees in 2025; a Future Proof branded event in the Colorado Rockies is set for March.
11 min read
Brooke's Note: I know people who have never recovered from the stress of planning a single wedding – all those ages, personalities, expenses and logistical details. So here's an overdue shout-out to Matt Middleton for pulling off Future Proof for a second year – and never letting us see him sweat. The rest of us were busy complaining about RIA events, and he went and did something about it. I talked to at least a dozen people from across the spectrum about attending. The takeaway was that it vastly exceeded expectations, which ranged from low-medium to super-high on the arriving flight. As a B2B journalist, I have also been grateful to Matt for telling us the straight dope – including the imperfections – on the event as a business enterprise. And I appreciate that he sees it as a “learning opportunity.” Events aren't known to learn much from year-to-year. One more thing: As a Californian, I feel like I need to apologize for the September rain, even if it failed to put a damper on the event. It won't happen again!
Future Proof rocked RIAs and the industry for a second year thanks to a tailwind of FOMO (fear of missing out).
A headwind of skepticism and an actual Los Angeles rainstorm didn't subtract from the dizzying success – despite the dazzling challenge that lies ahead.
“Last year was a [cash-burning] investment, and certainly it was building the concept. We [achieved] proof of concept," says Advisor Circle CEO Matt Middleton. "This year was proof of scale, and we made a profit."
The three-day event, produced by Advisor Circle in Huntington Beach, Calif., Sept. 10 to 12, wowed crowds, who filled six hotels, and showed its concept evolving into an enterprise as it concluded Phase II clinical trials.
“I think they probably have another year or two of FOMO (fear of missing out) to work off, but I will definitely be interested to see how they continue to innovate and keep it fresh down the road,” says RIA Zack Hubbard, director of financial planning and participant engagement with Greenspring Advisors, in Towson, Md.
Though Future Proof dodged a sophomore slump, mixing business and pleasure – outdoors, erring toward fun, erring toward youth – was still a blessing and curse.
“We're still met with a skeptical lens,” Middleton says. “Because we had such tremendous success last year, people doubled down on skepticism because they believed year one was a fluke.”
Free, flowing
Informa breakaways, including Middleton, and power-blogging RIA duo Josh Brown and Barry Ritholtz created Advisor Circle in 2020, which owns Future Proof, an event company. See: Future Proof bursts onto the RIA event scene by taking over four big hotels and a half-mile of beachfront without the taint of 'pay-to-play' speaker slots
The event leaped from four hotels to six hotels to shelter the additional 800 attendees, pushing overall attendance to 3,000. Revenue jumped thanks, in part, to 185 sponsors, up from 76 last year. Sponsorships range from $10,000 to $500,000 and each package is “completely customized,” Middleton says.
Yet for whatever lens you look through, it all flows in a frictionless manner familiar to RIAs, says Tim Welsh of Nexus Strategy.
They appreciate open architecture, scale, lack of channel conflict and the overhang of a custodian, publication, trade group or a company using the event to push its interests, Welsh adds.
“That is the beauty; it is not owned by any custodian or tech company or asset manager. They let advisors interact and industry information flow freely, without filters,” he adds.
Not having a natural customer base or membership constituency and marketing budget also means that Future Proof needs to pull its own weight to draw participants and revenues.
‘Speed dating’
The event did not meet all of its business benchmarks, and Future Proof is determined to see a big leap next year in its performance metrics. It hopes to hit 10,000 attendees the year after that.
The event company made its most noted leap almost out of thin air.
More than 16,000 one-on-one “speed-dating” meetings were held in a giant tent the size of a football field.
There were more than 300 reasons for setting up a meeting, and it wasn't always about sales. For instance, in the questionnaire, everyone answered dozens of questions about hobbies, where they went to college, grew up, etc, he says.
“There were so many reasons for the meeting. It didn't have that buyer-seller marketplace. You break down a lot of the awkwardness of bumping into someone," he adds.
Advisors could also choose to be part of the “hosted program.”
Asset managers and fintech companies looking to meet with a decision-making advisor set up meetings. Advisors who signed up for this program got a free conference, which ranges from $495 to $1,000, and a $750 travel reimbursement.
In exchange, they needed to agree to eight 15-minute meetings with a select group.
Future Proof bursts onto the RIA event scene by taking over four big hotels and a half-mile of beachfront without the taint of 'pay-to-play' speaker slots
Valuable insights
Both RIAs and vendors had to agree to a meeting. An RIA wasn't required to meet with a particular vendor, Middleton says.
“You don't want them to feel like they're being pushed and that wouldn't work for the advisor or the service provider.
" We'll incentivize the advisor to take these meetings, and we'll give them the tools to decide who they want to meet with and we'll remove the friction around service providers meeting with advisors,” he says.
Of the 1,350 RIAs who attended, 420 participated in the "hosted" program. “You only get meetings with people you want to meet. It's a double opt-in,” Middleton explains.
Hubbard was concerned about participating in the program.
“I, admittedly, was nervous it would be a bunch of wholesalers - no offense to wholesalers - trying to sell me investment products. But I actually had a ton of truly valuable and insightful meetings with people that I otherwise probably never would have met.”
He says the hosted program “was definitely worth it.”
“I was nervous about the nature of the meetings I would have to take, but the majority of meetings I had were highly valuable.”
‘Screaming’
Clifford C. Cornell, a new advisor at Bone Fide Wealth LLC in New York, also participated in meetings and says he gained a sense of community among advisors.
“Our firm works from home, which I absolutely love, but it makes connections within the industry somewhat tough outside of using apps.
"I was able to increase my network within the industry tenfold while at Future Proof.
"I found mentors, people in similar positions as myself and even got to speak to some of the people I look up to most in the industry that I otherwise would not have,” Cornell says via email.
The speed-dating scene was described in numerous ways by participants, who all used the word “screaming” because there were so many people meeting in the football-sized tent.
Wendy Timmons, vice president of development of RIABiz, described it as “the ‘Hunger Games' networking mosh pit.
"Nothing like screaming at the person across the table from you with 798 of your closest friends.” The system was set up through the app, which was “the best,” Timmons says.
Story Timeline
“Everyone loved it despite all losing our voices partaking after 6 cumulative hours.
"Being able —following the connect—to click ‘initiate follow up’ and receive an email five minutes later with contact info was awesome.”
Making connections
Despite the emphasis on quantity, Cornell said the quality of the interactions was high, too.
“ I leveraged these quick meetings into what I believe and hope will be career-lasting connections.
"I was able to engage with firms that interested us from the services they offer; firms and people we currently deal with, as well as familiar connections I have made through X/Twitter and LinkedIn,” Cornell says.
RIA Danika Waddell admits she went into the event with hesitance. “I came in relatively skeptical but was incredibly impressed. My biggest takeaways had to do with the smaller group conversations and one-on-ones with various industry professionals.”
Future Proof spent 'millions' and got a 'gazillion permits' in 2022 and the VC-backed 'Reformed Broker's' festivus is on track for 10,000 attendees by 2025
Learning opportunity
“Because it’s completely outdoors, you kind of never know what the weather will provide. The common theme from last year was we needed more shade, and it rains less than 1% of the year.
"But on opening day, I was onstage, and it rained. Still, it was just as good as ever. There's an element of surprise that people are excited about," Middleton says.
“Year two was bigger and better than year one for those who attended year one. It was something completely different,” Middleton says. “There was a huge learning opportunity.”
Not that the outdoors seems optional at this point.
The exhibition space weaves along the boardwalk of the beach and the exhibit booths include beach activities such as a virtual surfboard ride and mini-golf.
“If it all boiled down to one thing, I actually believe it was the atmosphere," Cornell says.
"The general camaraderie amongst the industry -- something I had never been subject to before -- had to be my favorite part. Everyone at the event was willing to have a thorough conversation about any topics you had questions about.”
He believes that Future Proof will only continue to grow from here, pointing out that Middleton and Brown are “very in tune to what the industry wants, needs and the constant change the industry is seeing in real time.”
True measure
Timmons says the atmosphere created memorable moments. “One of my favorite conversations was with a millennial RIA who looked like Beyoncé RIA Barbie. Her name was Athena. A wealth management goddess indeed,” she says.
Welsh, who has attended many conferences, including Future Proof last year, points out that the event was much larger, and even better than last year.
“They doubled the size of the event, and the boardwalk was at least a quarter mile long with more vendors and exhibitors.
"To me, that is the true measure of an event – whether or not the RIA ecosystem wants to be there, pays up as they get return on investment.”
Welsh says the 15-minute ‘breakthru’ meetings were a clear advance from the hit-or-miss of hanging out at a booth.
The content held the “usual set of topics," Welsh points out.
Future Proof fielded an array of industry leaders across subsectors of the RIA business – with bits of news.
Joe Duran spoke about the Goldman acquisition and his new venture.
Bill Capuzzi of Apex, Sarah Levy of Betterment and Kunal Kapoor of Morningstar spoke as well. Orion's Eric Clarke spoke about artificial intelligence.
One attendee who's been in the business 30-plus years said the conference exceeded his expectations but the choice of interviewers from outside the industry meant the questions were "all softballs.'
Timmons says the main stage presentations “were not dry.”
“Morningstar had LPGA golfer Michelle Wie West and investor Tori Dunlap at their booth as guest speakers on the same day. Each approached financial freedom in a very different way.
Michelle drew a much more traditional crowd; Tori drew a younger crowd, Timmons says.
Moving forward
Middleton says his firm will continue with the breakthrough meetings and innovate each year.
“We're building a scale that's never been seen before, and we're constantly investing,” he says.
Next year, they've already secured six hotels and hope to secure four more, and the event space will be larger, too, Middleton says.
“The breakthrough meetings will get bigger, and we'll probably double the amount of meetings we facilitate,” he says.
He anticipates they'll likely have a meeting area that will grow from the size of a football field to two football fields.
“We improved significantly from year-one to year-two, and we anticipate much of the same for next year.”
Future Proof is also setting up a smaller event, Mar. 25 to 27, at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.
Middleton says it will be different. It won't be completely outside - given the unpredictable nature of March weather in Colorado. But there will be outdoor events, such as hiking and skiing. The Future Proof branded event will be limited to 500 attendees.
This year's sponsors included Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors, Allspring, Morningstar, Orion, Capital Group, FLX Networks, Fidelity, Altruist, BlackRock, JPMorgan Asset Management, Pershing, among others, according to its website.
The event will return to the same spot next year from Sept. 15 to Sept. 18.
Rely on RIABiz? Tell Google.
Naming us a preferred source puts our reporting first in your Top Stories and AI Overviews. Takes one click, and only you see the difference.