Michael Halloran is the Head of Business Development at MaxMyInterest, a company revolutionizing how clients optimize their cash assets. With a history of launching banking solutions at Morgan Stanley and being part of the first online bank in the UK, he brings a wealth of experience to FinTech. Michael focuses on building relationships with wealth management firms, providing tools that enable clients to earn higher interest rates on FDIC-insured savings accounts. His innovative approach to banking technology and customer experience makes him a leading voice in the financial industry.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
[1:57] Michael Halloran reveals why cash is an overlooked asset class and how to maximize returns
[4:05] MaxMyInterest's streamlined process for opening high-yield savings accounts
[7:52] Why keeping an emergency fund is essential for individuals
[11:30] The importance of retaining bank benefits
[14:17] Comparing money market funds to FDIC-insured accounts
[17:22] How financial advisors can add value to client relationships with MaxMyInterest's offerings
[23:22] Demystifying common myths about the security and operations of online banks
[28:06] The role of AI in improving customer experience and operational efficiency at MaxMyInterest
In this episode…
Have you ever thought about how your cash could work harder for you, earning returns that could make a substantial difference in your financial well-being? What if you could enjoy the security of FDIC insurance with interest rates that keep up with inflation? Would you dare to venture beyond your traditional bank to discover the potential of online savings?
Business development leader Michael Halloran delves into the inner workings of intelligent cash management that uncouples high returns from the need to give up existing banking relationships. He dives deep into the advantages of online banking and how it contrasts with traditional brick-and-mortar institutions. He clarifies the misconceptions that often hold people back from optimizing their savings and shares insights on the use of artificial intelligence within finance to enhance customer communication and experience.
In this episode of The Customer Wins, Richard Walker interviews Michael Halloran, Head of Business Development at MaxMyInterest, about maximizing your cash assets. Michael shares how integration with financial advisors can significantly benefit clients. With a focus on simplicity, security, and maximizing returns without compromising on FDIC insurance, his expertise in the evolving world of FinTech paints a promising future for savers.
Resources Mentioned in this episode
Quotable Moments:
"We help customers win by earning more on their cash, which is often the overlooked asset class."
"With Max, you keep your bank but take advantage of online banking that offers much higher interest rates."
"We think of cash differently. It should be about life, not just your investment portfolio."
"Every time you walk out your door, you're taking a risk. It's about being smart with online banking security."
"People like to do business with people they like. We focus on building that relationship with advisers and their clients."
Action Steps:
Evaluate your cash assets and reconsider if they are working effectively for you in terms of returns. This action can lead to increased earnings on savings, which is important for financial growth and combating inflation.
Research online banking options and their benefits over traditional banks, including potentially higher interest rates and digital conveniences. Online banks often offer more competitive rates and can be more convenient, addressing the need for strategic personal finance management.
Assess the security protocols of any online banking platform to ensure that your assets are protected. As cybersecurity threats proliferate, ensuring the security of financial platforms is vital for safeguarding personal wealth.
Discuss with a financial advisor about integrating services like MaxMyInterest into your financial plan without sacrificing current banking benefits. Advisors can offer personalized insights that align with individual financial goals, ensuring a balanced approach to managing assets.
Consider utilizing artificial intelligence tools to optimize communication and processes within your own business or financial management. AI offers efficiency and enhanced customer experience, which can lead to improved business operations and customer satisfaction.
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Episode Transcript:
Intro 0:02
Welcome to The Customer Wins podcast where business leaders discuss their secrets and techniques for helping their customers succeed and in turn grow their business.
Richard Walker 0:16
Hi, I'm Rich Walker, the host of The Customer Wins where I talk to business leaders about how they help their customers win, and how their focus on customer experience leads to growth. Some of our past guests have included GovernGPT, Jiffy.AI, Surge Ventures, and Practice Intel. Today, I'm speaking with Michael Halloran, Head of Business Development at MaxMyInterest also better known as Max, and today's episode is brought to you by Quik! the leader in enterprise forms processing.
When your business relies upon processing forms, don't waste your team's valuable time manually reviewing the forms, Instead, get Quik! using our Form Xtract API, simply submit your completed forms and get back clean, context-rich data that is 99.9% accurate. Visit quikforms.com to get started. Alright, I'm really excited to introduce our guest today. Michael Halloran is the head of business development and partnerships, where he manages the business development team that identifies and builds relationships with wealth management firms for MaxMyinterest, again, known as Max.
Prior to max Michael worked at Morgan Stanley, where he helped launch banking solutions. He began his career as a consultant at Gemini consulting where he worked on the team behind the launch of the UK is first online bank. How cool is that? Michael, welcome to The Customer Wins.
Michael Halloran 1:32
Great, thanks, Rich, I'm thrilled to be here. It's always great to talk to someone about our business and talk about how customers win.
Richard Walker 1:39
Yeah, you have a very different business. So I'm excited to get into that. So for those who haven't heard the podcast before I talk with business leaders about what they're doing to help their customers win, how they build and deliver a great customer experience. And the challenge is to grow in their own company. Michael, let's understand your business a little better. How does your company help people.
Michael Halloran 1:57
Of course, I'd be glad to explain how that works. So we are a FinTech company. But we're a different kind of FinTech company that really focuses on the independent financial adviser market, although we can support customers who come to us in different ways. And what we help customers do is we help them win by earning more on their cash. And it's interesting, because we work in the wealth management space, predominantly. A lot of people think of cash as like, oh, that's sort of uninteresting, and we actually obsess over it. And what's interesting is that we think of cash is the overlooked asset class. So everyone's focused on the 60/40 model over alternatives, different kinds of, all the different kinds of innovations that are going on in the marketplace.
But at the same time, we think a lot of people are just sort of whistling past some of the biggest opportunities. And so we think that's true, both for financial advisors, as well as clients. And so how we help them win is really by accessing the much higher interest rates paid by online banks. So we see ourselves as part of the sort of e-commerce revolution why things are often much better deal purchase online versus a large, big box store. And so we help them earn today rates up to 5.36%. And the funds are FDIC-insured. Everyone loves this sort of feel-good factor and the confidence that knowing that something's FDIC insured, so it's not some kind of shaky construct, it's money that's in your own bank accounts.
And that we help them win by sort of identifying this opportunity, and then taking advantage of it. So they're earning a lot more than they might have been otherwise, leaving their money at their large brick-and-mortar bank.
Richard Walker 3:41
Man. Yeah, there's a lot of talk about cash. I mean, especially in my household, my wife is so risk averse. She wants to have a lot of cash on hand at all times. But with inflation and interest rate changes, you don't necessarily get bang for your bucks. Exactly. Okay, so but how does it actually work? If I have a traditional brick-and-mortar bank, am I transferring the money out to this online bank? What am I doing?
Michael Halloran 4:05
Yeah, now be glad to clarify how that works. And just stepping back a little bit, I think one thing that's helpful to understand is that a lot of people think of cash differently. We like to say it's the one asset class that everyone has, everyone has cash. So it's how do you think about it? So, interestingly, for those that have a taste of modern portfolio theory and efficient frontier, is it really how a lot of advisors think about you should be fully invested, you should take care of your risk, and so forth. we're firm believers in that as well. But what I think is important to note is that people are not a portfolio. I mean, you and your wife, you're a household.
So, you're not a chart, you know, there's a truth that you need to look at. And so as a result, sometimes we have to reframe the conversation and we're b2b business because we're often speaking to the advisor initially, and then we have to explain into them some of the concerns you raised, which is well, due to inflation and just cash doesn't earn a lot, so we have to think about the long term. So we don't want to hold too much cash. So that's the concern of cash drag, you don't want too much cash in the portfolio, because you don't want to lower the overall expected rate of return. However, what we would like to point out is that people do not bring most of their cash to their advisor. In very unusual situations, like the ultra-high net worth a family office, that sort of thing, they're a very different story. But for a typical client of a financial advisor, say, with a $2 million, maybe a $4 million portfolio, the amount of cash they're keeping is, according to the Capgemini, World Wealth Report, north of 22% of their total financial picture, and that excludes the value of their home.
Whereas the advisor might be thinking in terms of the portfolio, where we know that just from the research, and what advisors tell us and custodians is that it's single digit percentages, it's three 4% 2%, it's there for sales. It's there for trading purposes, to cover the piece of the advisor and so forth on. But so what we emphasize then is that you have to reframe it don't think of cash in terms of your portfolio, think of it in terms of your life, and people. And especially in the United States, I lived overseas. In Europe, they have what's called universal banking. So people do everything with one institution, in the United States, culturally, we're a little different.
We'd like to have our relationship with someone who maybe looks after our money that we're investing, but maybe have a different relationship with your local bank, there are different companies, maybe you'd like to do a little investing on your own, maybe it could be any one of a different set of stories. But we'd like to put ourselves in the sort of shoes of the client, who is often keeping some of that cash off to the side, it's not invested, it's sitting there at home, it's like your wife, are you thinking? Well, you know, we need to have an emergency fund. That's sort of table stakes. Most people the different, we don't give financial advice. We work with people that do. But you can just look out there, most people say, you should keep six months, or sometimes some people say 12, some people say more of your monthly expenditures in cash. So that's just your emergency fund in case if something were to happen at your company, there was a part of the illness, that sort of thing.
Richard Walker 7:30
Part of what you're saying, though, is that the advisors view of the cash is limited to the portfolio, you're saying there's an opportunity that they're missing in a lot of instances where the household has cash in other places, for whatever reasons, they think they need it, it's outside the portfolio. I mean, that is totally true of myself, our portfolio doesn't have cash, I don't have cash on the portfolio, we have cash in our bank.
Michael Halloran 7:52
Exactly. I think that's right. But at the same time, you would think and we work with a lot of financial planners who do see the full picture because they use tools that require clients to enter in everything. At the same time, a lot of advisors may think they have everything because maybe they did a questionnaire, they had a form, in which they said, tell us about your life. And they put in that information. But again, because we're Americans, and not Europe, people tend to say, well, I'm going to tell them about this, but I'm just gonna leave a little bit scrolled over here, because that's my little I use that to do some trading on E-trade. I don't want to talk about that. I don't want him thinking that I have to move everything to him or her. So, yeah, you're absolutely right. The money that's held away. That's really where we're trying to help people win.
Richard Walker 8:36
Okay. So mechanically, though, what has to happen? Do I have to open an online bank account? Do I have to transfer money out of my savings or something that if I'm holding cash in a traditional bank? Does it go into a money market? What's actually going on?
Michael Halloran 8:50
Yeah. So yeah, so the way it works? First of all, thinking a bit from an advisors perspective, what we offer for them is, we're free to advisors, we are a tool that they, we can bring them ideas to bring to their, to their clients, which is like, Hey, did you realize that you could be earning, you know, 5% to 6% FDIC insured as a conversation starter. So we, we sort of generally think about our customers in terms of first the adviser and then their client. But to answer your question about how to get started, if you're the person who's going to take action here, so the actual end client, it's very simple. Usually, they've been invited by their advisor, there's a invitation that comes through.
And then what they simply do is they begin the process of opening some high-yield savings accounts. And those have rates that are higher than advertised to the general public. That's part of our magic is that banks, because we're not working with a cross-section of just everyone in United States. We tend to work with super savers people with a little bit more financial means. So It's not a sort of mass market solution, it's for people have meaningful levels of cash. Interesting fact, the average savings account in the US is about, I think it's about $16,000. And there's a median and all that. But we're routinely helping clients with 10 times that 20 times that. And while there are no minimum, so you can use Max with 50,000 40,000 80,000 nothing wrong with that, and you'll stolen the 5.36%.
But often, we're helping people open more. And so to get started, they begin that process, they're opening a high yield savings account. And here's what's clever about what we do is we've built integrations with banks, core banking systems, that sort of the jargon. So we have API's that actually make that account opening process, really simple. So just as quick and power solution by making something so simple in terms of the form, we make that whole account opening process, really simple. So you basically end up in about a minute and a half with two or three new high-yield savings accounts. And they just opened magically, you don't visit three banks website, you come to one place, you're checking a checkbox next to and most people seem to open two or three.
And you might ask why a wide open more than one, because we're a marketplace. So we're helping you win by the banks competing for your value and savings. So the highest rate on any given month goes the other your funds will flow to that highest rate. And so that's part of what we do and help people win.
Richard Walker 11:31
Okay, so I have a couple of questions that I don't mean to make you a financial adviser asking these questions, but I want some general education here on some of the concepts. So money market, it's typically a mutual fund-driven tool. How do you guys compare to a traditional money market account?
Michael Halloran 11:49
Yeah, no, here's an interesting, often misunderstood issue is that there are money market accounts. And then there are money market funds, or MMA is and MMS and then there's other variations within that. So a money market account, strictly speaking, is really a savings account that may have some additional features. So it's different product type. Often, you'll hear people talk about money markets as really more money market funds. And so a money market fund is a pooled investment vehicle, it's mutual fund is another way to often common term. So a money market fund is, where you combine your funds with a bunch of people, there's a quoted value to that fund and that asset value typically. And then where's that money, so that money is invested typically in treasuries could also be repurchase agreements, different things like that. So that's what a money market is.
And in fact, there are different flavors of money markets, there are so called prime funds and government funds. And this is, again, something that many advisors on board understand that a lot of their customers may not fully understand because it doesn't come up. So a prime fund, they think, well, it's a money market fund, but it's allowed to invest in overseas debt. So like an Italian company, that's borrowing money, that can end up in your money market fund. So you've got foreign exchange risk, you've got a company whose financial strength you don't know. And why would they put those into those prime funds? Well, it's just to boost the yield.
So people like to kind of go out a little bit on the risk spectrum. And so they say, look, I can get close to 5.3 on the market fund, but we'd say first, is that a government fund is that all just government securities, like treasuries, and that often will bring the yield down. And then more importantly, it will change the risk, because if it's a non-government fund, just a prime fund, it's subject to a 2% penalty, if you need to take the funds out in a moment of financial crisis, a lot of people don't realize that, can also be subject to gating rules, meaning you cannot access your fund for up to 10 funds for up to 10 days.
So if we have another financial crisis, the doors may shut, that you have this small door problem, or everyone wants to take the money out of that fund, and they can't let everyone out at the same time. So, that's helpful to understand about those other instruments that are out there.
Richard Walker 14:09
Yeah. Okay. And our money markets, FDIC insured, I mean, because that sounds like an advantage that you guys are offering.
Michael Halloran 14:17
Yeah, money market funds are not FDIC-insured. They are investments. So it's the FDIC that really guarantees your money when it's in a bank.
Richard Walker 14:28
Okay. Now, let's compare this to a traditional bank because banks, they really want to keep your money. Right there. They're offering you different types of perks. If you have a high level of cash, they're giving you incentives, like a percentage off your mortgage or off your car loans and things like that. So do you lose those purchases or money leaving that account? Are you going to face that kind of challenge?
Michael Halloran 14:50
Great question. What we say both to advisors and to clients is that the amount of cash you hold and how you use Max is really up to you. So we feel those decisions made by you. And then you can make informed decisions, which is, like, for example, First Republic, I think was very, and obviously, they went through the financial crisis and work through the crisis last year and ended up not being acquired by Chase. But they had a practice of sort of subsidizing your mortgage, there's jumbo mortgages for people in Silicon Valley.
But in exchange, they say you need to bring 250,000 in cash, and you need to leave it here for a certain amount of time, and they kind of hope you didn't realize that you weren't earning as much. And so they kind of played a little bit with the model there to try to get you to that. But to avoid, if you're subject to fees from your bank, if you if your balance falls below 10,000, 25,000, perfect, then we'll leave that amount there. So we feel that you should definitely think about those things. There's nothing wrong with keeping money in different places.
Richard Walker 15:52
Yeah. Now, why do you think people buy CDs? Because you get locked in with a CD for a period of time, right?
Michael Halloran 15:58
Yeah, it's funny, we get that all the time, where people and for really the last decade, we were in very unusual period where it was a very low, almost zero interest rate environment. But even as we've exited that a lot of people are gravitating to CDs. And, again, we don't provide financial advice. But oftentimes, we find it puzzling that people want to lock in, because I think there's sort of this, maybe over the last 30 years, there's the perception that a CD would give you a better return. And what we've found is that often, through our platform, the client can earn excess over the amount they would earn from the CD, but they're also considering a CD. And this is an environment where rates were going up. And so we just think there's a little bit of baggage there where people think while CD sounds good, it's sort of a familiar term. It's been around for a long time.
Richard Walker 16:45
Yeah. No, I think there is familiarity with it. And for consumers, I don't know if advisors would recommend a CD to any my advisor.
Michael Halloran 16:56
Yeah, well, again, we won't go too deep on this, but there are brokered CDs that often have surrender penalties, and certain advisors do market those, and then where I was at Morgan Stanley, they would have, promotional rates and so forth. And so those kinds of products do exist. But, you know, with the kind of advisors we're typically working with, CDs usually isn't in their wheelhouse. But they might be asked for an opinion on it, for sure.
Richard Walker 17:22
Yeah. All right. So maybe this is too technical question as well for this conversation. But how does the advisor make money working with you guys?
Michael Halloran 17:30
Right? Well, we like to think we bring a lot of value to advisors. And, as we put it, by helping your clients go from earning 0.4% is never what they were keeping their money in their bank to earning 5%, if that's 20% of their financial net worth, and you've just added whether it's, you know, 100 basis points, 300 basis points, 200 basis points, 2, 3, 4 percent up to nearly a quarter of their financial picture. That's adding a lot of value to that relationship. And so we have advisors that recognize that.
And then they see how they're sort of deriving value from what we do is they're helping their clients, one, they like to help their clients win. And they see this as a smart FinTech solution that they can clearly understand, that helps their clients do better. And they say, look, I'm already billing them, because I'm managing their money. I don't need to extract a fee out of this. So they just say this is helping me generate goodwill with my clients. And that's an important part of what I do is keeping my clients happy.
Richard Walker 18:37
Yeah. Do they also get visibility into that asset?
Michael Halloran 18:40
That's true. Actually, that's the second point that people mentioned to us is that while there are tools and have been tools, since really the early 2000s, that are known as aggregation. We like to joke that, we offer aggregation without the aggravation, which is kind of a terrible joke. But what it means is that you don't have as the advisor to say, well go open this account, and then tell me what the, enter the login credentials for that into this system. And then, as we all know, people need to change their passwords, they forget their password, they're all kind of and so this is known as the link breaking. And so I think there are solutions out there that, this is sort of a perennial problem where you kind of have like, all these little red lines, like relink, this is d linked.
And with us, we don't have that that's just not part of our model, the accounts that opened through us open through API's with bank, so there are no logins, but that creates a nice level of security because you can actually, unless you choose to create the logins to these accounts. So the data that we have on the balances is able to be delivered into the tools they use, such as Imani and they're persistent, they don't need to be maintained with different, but it's a great point, they get visibility, they can see what those that cash is. Is that sort of sitting off to the side?
Richard Walker 20:02
Yeah. So you've been in the online banking world for a long time. I mean, you'd launching an online bank doing what you're doing now. I'm curious, what are some of the fallacies and myths that people have in false perception of online banking? What can we break down there?
Michael Halloran 20:19
Yeah, great question. Yeah, so I think you mentioned at the beginning, so I was involved in the launch of the first online bank, it actually had a great name called EGG. And that was EGG. And it was Prudential assurance, which is one of the oldest financial institutions in the UK, different companies from Prudential in the United States and Shankland Prudential insurance in the US, the one in New Jersey was founded, they wrote to the board of directors in the UK asking if they could use this name, which they thought was a terrific name. And the people in the UK 200 years ago said, by all means in the colonies carry on. But Prudential when they wanted to go into online banking, there had been a previous company called First Direct, which was telephone banking.
And sort of their insight with First Direct is, we can lower the cost by not having branches like Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland, we won't need to have as much real estate and we can offer them better terms, better loan rates, better savings deposit rates, because everything will be done through the phone. And then five, seven years later, they realize we can just do this all online. So I think, to get your question about what some of the myths are about this, is that a lot of people think even to this day, that to take advantage of online banking, you need to change your bank.
So what we like to say, in fact, as part of our tagline is keep your bank but take advantage of online banking. So we're helping take advantage of the high yields from online banks that offer high yield savings, solutions, but you can still bank with the bank that you had and you feel comfortable with, you like to be able to have access to the branch. I think some of the other myths that were going on is that the traditional banks were dinosaurs that, there was a whole cottage industry around this, the future of banking is all gonna be it's sort of like, kind of like how robo advisors were supposed to take over. And Schwab was in parallel.
But not really, because those are such established brands, well run businesses, that just because you're online, doesn't mean you're going to win. But as I said, I think online banking offers a lot of advantages, because it's efficient, a lot of people just prefer to interact that way, you don't want to be on the phone, you may not, you be willing to sort of take a little bit of having not the ability to walk into a branch to earn more. And that's really what we're doing is bringing online banking into advisors so they can offer those yields.
Richard Walker 22:46
So I like something you said about this, which is you don't have to give up your banking relationship, which to me, I'm understanding, I don't have to give up how I pay my bills, how I deposit my checks, how I pay my credit cards, but you can take advantage of some of these things that online banks do like higher interest rates, I think that's a great way to talk about it. Because I've been very reluctant to give up my brick-and-mortar bank and just move 100% online. So this leads me to another kind of question. Are there differences, for better or worse in security and safety between online versus a brick-and-mortar bank? Do more as a consumer at all?
Michael Halloran 23:22
Well, it's interesting, because I think we live in the world, in which, like, when we founded the company, we thought about risks, even before we started writing any line of code, in fact, we hired Dr. Gary McGraw, who is one of the foremost experts in cybersecurity. So, and when I worked at Morgan Stanley, also there was a lot of talk about cybersecurity, in terms of the companies that were being taken public, and so forth. So, more people than ever are really aware of the risks that exists in the world today in terms of cybersecurity. But I think the reality is that every bank is doing business online to some extent now. So the sort of pure online bank, they still exist, but often, some of the online banks in our marketplace are digital brands that are part of a larger bank.
So in many cases, then your information is already then in some sort of electronic device. So you just have to think about, or as I say, every time you walk out your door, you're taking a risk, you could just stay inside all day. So you just have to be smart about what you do. And so with our system, it's sort of designed with security in mind. So we have everything encrypted with, in different, servers and so forth. So we follow best practices in terms of, you know, security. And that's just the important thing to think about is check whether your firm that you're banking with or doing business with, just asked to see their privacy and security policies. And so we're very open book, we've been through due diligence that publicly traded banks, very large world pension firms, and so we have a very strong message around that.
But I think in terms of generally, as long as you are being smart and following best practices don't leave your computer open at the, if you're at a public airport, don't use public Wi-Fi. A lot of those things, that's really where the vulnerability is, when you're doing things that that isn't really sort of recommended.
Richard Walker 23:22
Okay, so this might be more me than it is the average person, because I don't have any statistics to back this up. But when I think about banking, a lot of the security idea about a bank is kind of rooted in the idea that I gave them my money, they physically put it in the vault, and they're physically locking it behind these steel doors and securing it with security guards, etc. And none of that's true. None of that's true, right? I mean, it's 100% digital, in these days, and probably has been for 30 or 40 years, the money gets deposited electronically, it shows up as a number, it can be transferred here and there.
Michael Halloran 25:55
Right, like checks, there's something called Check 21. So checks now, as soon as you give them, they're immediately turned into an electronic message. And so things are digital and today's world. You're absolutely right about that.
Richard Walker 26:07
Yeah. All right. So let's talk a little bit about artificial intelligence, because it's creeping its way into every facet of the world. So first, I should just ask, are you guys using artificial intelligence in any meaningful way?
Michael Halloran 26:19
It's very interesting. So within our core business, we help people to earn more by having their funds take advantage of rate changes, that's unlike banks change the rate, that it's actually not using AI because it's essentially a very sort of well-designed algorithm that just says, highest rate wins. Keep me below the FDIC limit, unless you go in and change the settings for whatever reason. And so we don't think that requires artificial intelligence. Like, it's just you're basically making what we consider to be a very rational choice. Um, however, that isn't to say, we're not using AI in other parts of our business. So one of the things that we're working on is that we are looking at how can we tell our story better?
How can we, because I think when we began the biggest business, you know, we were sort of bury, I think, as anyone who starts a company, you're kind of enamored with your own story. And like, it all makes sense to you. It's like you're all completing each other's sentences, right? And it does. And then when you put yourself in the shoes of the customer, you're explaining and then the funds are reallocated dynamically, and then their eyes are glazing over. And like, yeah, and so when we began, and we still to this day, call it intelligent cash management, but a lot of times when we're interacting with customers directly, whether it's the adviser will explain it a little bit more plain English terms.
So it's earn more, keep your funds safe, just less sort of about how the machine is doing it, and what are you looking to achieve? So we're using AI now, to review our communications, like, take a look at this email is, is there a simpler way to say this? Or like, let's make this a little less formal? Yeah. So we're kind of telling our water in that department. But I think you can look for more to come with our marketing, sales, messaging, things like that.
Richard Walker 28:06
Yeah, I think one of the false ideas that people have about tech is that oh, AI is here, you're going to make something new and innovative, and it's going to change the world for everything. AI doesn't actually play a role in everything. Like you said, you have a brilliant algorithm, well, you don't need to change that. You don't need to move it over to some intelligent scheme. But I like what you're saying to that internally, you guys are looking at how to be better at operating your company, and how you're communicating with people. So do you see any kind of impact on customer experience, because of how you're using AI? Or how you think in the future, it might change how you do it?
Michael Halloran 28:41
Absolutely, we see it much more in the future. One of the things we are very laser-focused on right now is our customer experience. Some thought leader in the wealth management space, said very kind of affectionately to us, like you guys know, interest rates, you know banking, you know how to get the best rates, you're, like this whole thing that he said, but sometimes I feel it's like, I'm driving a European car, like, if the stick shifts on the other side, like, I'm not really sure why that's there. And so I think we're trying to take that feedback on board, and just make it seem like, kind of put the customer, kind of in our head a little bit so we can pick like how can we make this even more intuitive than it already is? So I think that's where you can see it like user experience, simplicity process, things like that messaging, so forth.
Richard Walker 29:33
There's something I kind of overlooked when we started caught talking about all this, and that is that you actually have multiple customers. So who do you focus on how do you balance the needs of these different customers? Right, you've got your end investor, you got your advisor, you've got the firms they work for, maybe somebody else, even the banks, I don't know.
Michael Halloran 29:50
Yeah. No, in fact, that's actually I think, for us historically been a challenge because we'll use terms like when the company began, we've kind of used the language around, joining Max as becoming a Max member. And we sort of liked that. And we continue to use that today. That makes sense because really what they're not becoming, you know, they are, in a sense our customer, but a lot of how we acquire customers is through financial advisors. And they sort of appreciate the fact that we say, not only are they just becoming a member of the service, that may not be the sort of phrase that kind of draws their attention, but we always emphasize to them, well, the reason we say that is because we really don't do anything else.
Like it's not like we're then gonna be cross-selling, because we don't cross-sell, we don't do anything other than cash. We emphasize we stay in our swim lane. And so, but you're right, we do have to kind of balance that message. So on our website, we have what we do for the individual investor or the consumer, and then the adviser and so we have different tabs on that on our page, but I think we're gonna continue to work on refining that messaging, we have a great new marketing person who joined us recently. And we look forward to kind of really just sort of thinking about how we can make that messaging work across different audiences in an even simpler way.
Richard Walker 31:13
Yeah, that's awesome. Well, we're gonna have to wrap up soon. Before we do that want to ask, what's the best way for people to connect with you and find you?
Michael Halloran 31:22
Well, I mean, if you are an advisor, if you just go to our website, maxforadvisors.com, or you can go to maxmyinterest.com, and there's an advisors tab. And if you want to reach out to us, there's a way to do that. But you can also email advisors, spelled either way, but advisor, or, advisors@maxventures.com. And we will reach out to you and begin a conversation. If you're just an individual looking to use the service, you can come to maxmyinterest.com, you can sign up directly, nothing wrong with that.
Richard Walker 31:56
Awesome, that's good to know that you can just take on consumers who want to do it themselves. And that's great. All right. So my last question is this, who has had the biggest impact on your leadership style? And how you approach your role today?
Michael Halloran 32:08
Yes. So when I worked on the launch of the first online bank, there was an Australian leader of the organization, John Casey, and he, well, first of all, I showed up, I was in my 20s, as management consultants, I kind of show up with sort of a suit or some kind of outfit that was very office appropriate. And he's a very kind of casual person and sort of representative of sort of, like, he had some online startup experience. And he was just like, mate, lose the tie.
First of all, like, if you don't take it off, I'm going to cut it off. And I think he really conveyed in me, I'd been brought up in a more kind of formal kind of environment and management, consulting a little bit formal, sort of like a law firm, John Grisham novel. And what I found is that it's not something I think we teach on. But a lot of times, there's formality that's required in the situation. But usually within an organization, it's how do you build the right kind of rapport with people? And how do you communicate even with external customers in a way that's very approachable?
And so I think John just really taught me to be myself, that, you know, there's nothing wrong with humor in the right context. And just to be I'm very relatable. And I think others have told me along my journey that people like to do business with people they like, and so I think we, as an organization, also, we're not aggressive salespeople, we're often just listening, like, how can we help you? And what's the situation? What can we do for you, that kind of thing. So I think that's had a strong influence on both me as well as our culture in terms of how we work in terms of working with new partners,
Richard Walker 33:46
I think that shows inner confidence. I often say, the confident person doesn't tell you, they're confident, they just show it. And what you're talking about helps demonstrate that you guys are comfortable. You don't have to sell it. You're listening you're trying to solve you're trying to find solutions for people. So I think that's really, really great. It's nice to have mentors like that in your early days to help you get there. Absolutely. All right, I want to give a huge thank you to Michael Halloran, head of business development. For Max for being on this episode of the customer wins. Go check out their website at maxmyinterest.com What was the other one? Max for advisors?
Michael Halloran 34:20
If you're an advisor maxforadvisors.com.
Richard Walker 34:23
All right. And don't forget to check out quick at quikforms.com where we make processing forums easy. I hope you enjoyed this discussion. We'll click the like button, share this with someone and subscribe to our channels for future episodes of The Customer Wins. Michael, thank you so much for joining me today.
Michael Halloran 34:37
Thanks for having me on and anyone listening please reach out to us. We'd be glad to help you win.
Outro 34:43
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