Sean Beierly discusses how Destiny Intelligence is using AI to reshape advisor workflows, private investing, and client experience.
What does it look like when a wealth management firm stops waiting and starts building?
In this episode, Tom Ruggie sits down with Sean Beierly, Head of AI Product and Platform at Destiny Intelligence — the newly formed AI-focused entity within the Destiny family of companies. Sean spent more than two decades in Silicon Valley and at Amazon leading AI innovation teams before joining Destiny as employee number one.
Tom and Sean discuss why Tom moved early to create Destiny Intelligence, what they’re actually building (including a digital twin of Tom, AI tools for the advisor team, and a modernized planning framework), and why the firm’s proprietary frameworks matter more in an AI era, not less.
They also dig into Destiny Access, the firm’s private investment platform, why the next 18 to 24 months may represent a once-in-a-generation window in private markets, and what any entrepreneur or business owner should do right now if they feel like they’re already behind on AI.
Learn more about Destiny Intelligence: https://destinyfamilyoffice.com/destinyintelligence
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[00:00:02] Martie Salt: Welcome to the Significance of Wealth podcast, where we explore the evolving landscape of wealth management, private investments, and collecting as both a passion and an investment strategy. I'm Marty Salt. Today's guest is a new addition to the Destiny team, who is changing the way the firm operates from the ground up.
[00:00:22] Martie Salt: Sean Byerly is head of AI product and platform at Destiny Intelligence, the newly formed AI-focused entity within the Destiny family of companies. Before joining Destiny, Sean spent more than two decades in Silicon Valley and at Amazon, where he led an AI innovation team focused on automating business workflows at global scale.
[00:00:44] Martie Salt: In this episode, Tom and Sean discuss why Tom moved early to create Destiny Intelligence and hire a head of AI product and platform as employee number one, placing the firm among a small group of RIAs that have moved decisively on [00:01:00] AI. They talk through what they're actually building, why the firm's proprietary frameworks matter more in an AI era, not less, what's coming for Destiny Access as a once-in-a-generation window opens in private markets, and what an entrepreneur or business owner should do right now if they feel like they're already behind.
[00:01:20] Martie Salt: Here's your host, Tom Ruggie.
[00:02:43] Tom Ruggie: Welcome to another edition of the Significance of Wealth podcast. Today I have with me Sean Beierly, and Sean is, uh, coming to us directly from Washington State, and we'll talk about that a little bit. But probably more importantly, Sean is the, the first guest that we've had on the [00:03:00] pod that is actually affiliated with our firm.
[00:03:03] Tom Ruggie: So we'll talk about that as well, but first of all, Sean, welcome. Thank you for being here.
[00:03:08] Sean Beierly: Thanks, Tom. Really grateful to be here.
[00:03:10] Tom Ruggie: Yeah. So, so I- I'm actually gonna let you talk not only obviously about y- about your background, but e- even about the, the new position. You've been with us, uh, you're, you're in your third week.
[00:03:22] Sean Beierly: Yep.
[00:03:22] Tom Ruggie: But, uh, a new position, a new company, uh, within our firm, but why don't you tell us a little bit about it, a- about Destiny Intelligence?
[00:03:30] Sean Beierly: Yeah, so Destiny Intelligence is a, a new entity that y- that Tom started that is really focused on the wealth management space, and really looking at the trends in AI and understanding what are wealth management companies going to need to be successful
[00:03:48] Tom Ruggie: in this AI age.
[00:03:50] Tom Ruggie: And, and so understanding that, what, what is your background that's going to lend credibility to us being able to carry this off?
[00:03:57] Sean Beierly: Yeah. Uh, so I have a [00:04:00] pretty long, extensive background in technology. I spent 20 years at Cisco Systems as a senior network engineer, worked in the business intelligence and data science space, and then more recently I was at Amazon where I led an AI innovation team, and we focused on automating business workflows and developing AI products for the staffing organization at Amazon.
[00:04:24] Sean Beierly: So I'm excited, though, to take on this new challenge in this new space.
[00:04:28] Tom Ruggie: I mean, Sean, if I were a listener and, and I'm listening to you, you know, heading up an AI division for Amazon and now transitioning to, you know, in the scheme of things, a very small, tight-knit firm, what, what was the process of making that decision for you?
[00:04:46] Sean Beierly: Yeah, I think for me it was looking at the trends, what's going on in AI, and seeing that there's an opportunity to make a real impact at a smaller firm where we were focused on a specific [00:05:00] niche industry. You know, at Amazon it's, it's such a big company, and we're focused on a global basis, and the scale of it is massive.
[00:05:08] Sean Beierly: And so the opportunity to, uh, to join Destiny, and looking at the success that you guys have had and the business that you've built, and understanding what I could bring and match, combining my skills with what you guys have already built was just a, a great opportunity, and I really felt like the moment was just right for that, for that change.
[00:05:27] Tom Ruggie: Well, we're, we, we are super excited to, to have you with the firm. You know, it's always been, uh, a position of mine that, that I, I wanna stay ahead of the proverbial wave, if you will, and, um- Yeah. It's kind of funny because you really f- fell into our lap very happenstance. Uh, you know, I, I'd, I'd put it out there to a few people that we were looking to bring somebody on full-time to AI, and, and that actually is gonna probably be my next question.
[00:05:54] Tom Ruggie: But, um, you know, full-time to, to head up AI for the firm, and had my thoughts of what [00:06:00] that would look like, and, and never in, in my, uh, deepest imagin- imagination would I have thought that we're pulling somebody away from heading up an AI firm within Amazon for us. So again, very ex- very excited about that.
[00:06:13] Tom Ruggie: Um, tell me a little bit about, you know, y- you're- you don't have a wealth management background or a family office background, so, so tell me aft- after the brief period of time that you've been working with us, and, and we've been talking for a, a month or so prior to that, um, you know, where do you think the opportunities are, are specifically within the wealth management or family office space?
[00:06:38] Sean Beierly: Yeah. Uh, when I first came in to, to Destiny, what I saw was a technology stack that Destiny is utilizing that is really among the best in the industry with Salesforce and Orion and eMoney and Microsoft 365. Uh, but there's an... What I saw was an opportunity to connect these systems together, and that's actually where we [00:07:00] started at Amazon as well.
[00:07:00] Sean Beierly: So it's interesting, Tom, we had the same challenges, just at a completely different scale, where we had data silos. And so the first opportunity that I see is to really look at, uh, the current state of the business and look at each of these platforms, and then start to understand how we can connect them together so that from an AI standpoint, we can unleash AI on good quality data to make sure that we can grab insights and from the data that's exist in each of these systems.
[00:07:28] Tom Ruggie: Well, I'm excited to see that happen because it, it's always baffled me that we have these amaze- amazing technology platforms, but effectively they don't speak with each other. And, uh, you know, if, if, if you help bring that to the table for us, you know, uh, just that in and of itself, that, that would be an amazing coup for us.
[00:07:48] Tom Ruggie: But, but I, I do think there's other things that, that you're gonna bring to the table as well. Uh, you know, one of those things that when you first, you know, conceptually went over this with me, it was, [00:08:00] it was kind of funny and, but, but... And, and that's, that's having a what you call a, what do you call it, a mini Tom?
[00:08:05] Sean Beierly: Yeah. Digital- Digital twin ... or digi- a
[00:08:06] Tom Ruggie: digital twin of Tom. Yeah. And, and I thought it was funny initially, and what is, is really funny since, is that- Everything I'm listening to, whether it's podcasts or stuff that I read, it's talking about people building digital twins of themselves. So I don't know if I was just, uh, just missing it before or, uh, or it, it took becoming aware of it for me to pay attention to what others are doing.
[00:08:32] Tom Ruggie: But what else, uh, what else do you think really gets brought to the table? Uh, we have a six-month plan outline. Maybe give a, a little bit of a background on what that six-month plan looks like.
[00:08:41] Sean Beierly: Yeah. Um, well, first off to your comment around the digital twin, it's funny how that happens. You know, when you get that bug in your ear, you start to listen to p- It's like the algorithm sort of picks up on that, and it becomes part of your-
[00:08:53] Tom Ruggie: It's like an antenna's up.
[00:08:54] Sean Beierly: Yes, yes, and it, it just appears everywhere. Um, y- you know, in regards to the s- the six-month plan, I, I [00:09:00] think that almost regardless of any business, when you come in and you're looking to assess AI readiness, it starts with an understanding of data, because the data is going to fuel your AI capabilities.
[00:09:12] Sean Beierly: And so understanding where are the sources of truth, uh, what is the current state of each of those different systems and platforms is critical as a foundational layer. And the next is security. And so understanding the security posture, uh, and understanding how you can build on top of that and what you can actually do in an industry like wealth management is going to be critical.
[00:09:33] Sean Beierly: So those are a couple of the foundational pieces, and from there we look at what are some of the firm's goals and biggest business constraints or problems that we can help solve or unlock, and that's where we're looking at the digital twin, which can be used in many different use cases to fuel, um, your productivity, to give you time back to spend more time with clients.
[00:09:54] Sean Beierly: Um, so really looking at a quick win, something that's very tangible that we can deliver [00:10:00] based on that data to show that proof point of the investment itself. Mm-hmm. So in the first six months, it's about data, it's about security, about quick wins, and I would say additionally it's about communicating to the team what the journey is going to be so that you bring the people along as well.
[00:10:15] Tom Ruggie: Yeah. Yeah, and, uh, we had our, our team meeting just last night, and, and, y- you know, was great to have you in town to be able to a- address the team and meet a lot of peop- of the people on the team for the first time. So I think everybody's very excited about, you know, what, what you're gonna bring to the table, so.
[00:10:32] Sean Beierly: Yeah, thank you. That's one of the reasons that drew me to this opportunity, was to see what you all have built as an award-winning team. And so yeah, it was great to meet the team and understand, um, you know, uh, what, what, what they all do and how they're going to help partner to make this initiative a success.
[00:10:49] Tom Ruggie: Yeah, and that actually was a, a question of mine, which is, is-- and, and you just partial- I think partially answered it. But, you know, what is it that, that brought you to us? You know, we went through an [00:11:00] interview process, but I know you were talking to Other firms, I as- I assume not in our business, but, but I don't actually, I don't actually know that.
[00:11:08] Tom Ruggie: But what was your decision-making, uh, process behind, you know, m- making a huge decision to jump from Amazon, where you were currently working when we first started talking, to, uh, jumping on board with us?
[00:11:23] Sean Beierly: You know, Tom, at that time when I had made that decision to move on, um, I had spent over 25 years total in global technology working, um, in AI and machine learning and data science.
[00:11:36] Sean Beierly: And with everything going on right now, there's a great opportunity to make an outsized impact with the, the democratization of the tools that are available. I actually started out, uh, forming my own, uh, firm, uh, just a one-person, uh, consulting company that I-- where I could deliver implementation services to businesses.
[00:11:55] Sean Beierly: But then I had the good fortune to ha- to be connected with you just to have a [00:12:00] conversation. And through that conversation, I became more aware of who you are, what you've accomplished, and I really took a close look at, like, what was gonna be the best path for success and what would be most exciting, and was really an opportunity to partner with you and to join your firm.
[00:12:16] Sean Beierly: And so it actually became a pretty easy decision- Mm ... uh, for me, and, uh, and I still get to build with AI, and you've empowered me to, um, really trans- help transform your business. And so I still get to do what my mission was, but now I get to do it for Destiny.
[00:12:33] Tom Ruggie: If you were a client of ours listening to this podcast, what, what do you think is the tangible benefits for the clients?
[00:12:40] Tom Ruggie: Because candidly, if I'm a client, you know, my first question's gonna be, "Oh, this is great, but what's in it for me?"
[00:12:46] Sean Beierly: Yeah. Well, if I was a client, I think what the investment that you've made in AI signals, would signal to me is that the firm that I'm working with to help me manage my wealth is going to be using the latest [00:13:00] and the most powerful tools and technology to help solve problems for me and to guide my wealth planning.
[00:13:05] Sean Beierly: Mm-hmm. And, uh, and I think if, if you weren't using those technologies and tools, I think I would wonder where, um, you know, whether or not, um, you know, we're ready to navigate the future with all the changes in the markets and the companies that are being disrupted through AI. I wanna know that, uh, you know, you're continuing to innovate and provide high-value services to me, solving complex problems with the best tools and data.
[00:13:30] Tom Ruggie: Yeah. And, and I think that, that all makes perfect sense, but I, I think In addition to that, and I'll speak for myself, but, but also really for the other advisors within the firm, but the bottom line is if, if you free bandwidth up for me, I'm gonna utilize that bandwidth to create and provide additional value for the clients that I'm working with.
[00:13:53] Tom Ruggie: And, you know, there's, there's no doubt about it that my personal bandwidth is probably the biggest issue that I [00:14:00] have. And, as we discussed earlier today, I'm, I'm com- I'm s- obsessive about doing things and being there for my clients and, and, you know, uh, freed up bandwidth is, is going to be significant for both myself and for them, so.
[00:14:13] Sean Beierly: Yeah. Uh, uh, we absolutely can do that, and I also think we're gonna free up bandwidth for the financial advisors on the wealth planning side as well, and that's gonna enable them to focus even more on client relationships and, uh, doing things that they're best positioned to do that made Destiny the company that it is today.
[00:14:29] Tom Ruggie: Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about, um, Destiny Intelligence because, you know, when we first started talking and, and I said, "Hey, here's my thought process. We're gonna set up a separate company. We're gonna call it Destiny Intelligence." Because a question that I had for you that you gave me the answer I was precisely looking for is I said, "Hey, Sean, if we actually execute on this [00:15:00] over the first six months..."
[00:15:00] Tom Ruggie: Do you remember the question? I said, I said, "If we actually execute on this over the first six months, where do you think that puts us versus our peer group?"
[00:15:10] Sean Beierly: Yeah, I do. Okay. I do. And, and your response was? My response was, "We're gonna be in the first movers," right? And, uh, I think that one thing I've learned working in the technology space is that sp- uh, as I mentioned to you, uh, earlier, speed is a leadership decision.
[00:15:24] Sean Beierly: And in this space where things are moving so fast, you're either a, a firm that is leveraging AI or not, and there's a, there's a bar there. And then among the firms that are, those that are moving early and fast and decisively are gonna be best positioned to capture opportunity. And that was what drew me to Destiny as well, was how decisive you were in making that investment.
[00:15:46] Sean Beierly: And just to s-speak very plainly, I was like, "That's somebody I wanna work with." Mm-hmm. And, and so I think that first movers get first movers' advantages, and I think that right now is a, is a great time to be in that, in that early pack.
[00:15:58] Tom Ruggie: I agree, but, but I [00:16:00] gotta correct you. Okay. Your, your response was actually, "We're gonna be ahead of 99.9% of our peer group"- Yeah
[00:16:05] Tom Ruggie: is what you said.
[00:16:06] Sean Beierly: Yeah.
[00:16:07] Tom Ruggie: And, uh, and do you remember what my response to that was?
[00:16:11] Sean Beierly: I do not.
[00:16:11] Tom Ruggie: Okay. My response to that was, "Is that scalable?"
[00:16:15] Sean Beierly: Okay.
[00:16:16] Tom Ruggie: And I saw this gleam in your eye when I asked the question, because what we were both thinking about is if we can execute on this in six months and, and have everything in place that you out- By the way, you outlined this for me- Before our very first phone call together.
[00:16:33] Tom Ruggie: Yeah. Of course, I'm- I know you used AI to do it, but- Yeah. But you outlined what the six-month plan looked like, and, and I said we would be ahead of so much of our peer group by having this, so is it scalable? Meaning, can we package that up and offer that potentially as a service- Yeah ... to other firms in the wealth management or family office space?
[00:16:56] Tom Ruggie: And, um, a- again, I felt like you were [00:17:00] excited when I asked that question. Um, is, was my assumption correct?
[00:17:04] Sean Beierly: Yes, it was. And, and as you're reminding me of exactly what, what the words were, what got me so excited, Tom, was the weekend before I had my first conversation with you, I think you may remember, I actually spent the weekend coding in Python using AI, a digital version of a wealth management firm with 11...
[00:17:23] Sean Beierly: A multi-agent system with 11 agents, with you sitting at the top as the orchestrator agent, with 10 other agents performing specific job functions. Some of them were to assist the existing staff, and some were examples of showing how we could add additional, we could augment staff, people we may not be able to hire outright, but we could bring in digital agents as augmentation to form teams around your existing team.
[00:17:48] Sean Beierly: And I think that's what, what, what... Going back to your question about is it scalable, I think when I built that over the weekend, I said, "Look, if we can build this in, you know, 16 hours of [00:18:00] development, yeah, um, we can do a whole lot with, with, uh, with scale, uh, with AI." So yeah, I remember that.
[00:18:06] Tom Ruggie: Yeah. And, and actually, another thing, and I don't know why all this sticks in my head because I, I don't tend to have the best recollection of conversations, but another thing that you said was, "Hey, this took me, you know, the better part of, of, of a half a day on a Saturday."
[00:18:22] Tom Ruggie: Our call was on a Sunday. Mm-hmm. You, you said, " This took me, you know, half the day on Saturday to do," but if I'm correct in what you had said, you'd said, "If I were to do this six months ago, I'd have needed a team of, of three and at least a week to put this together."
[00:18:38] Sean Beierly: Absolutely, and- And, and
[00:18:39] Tom Ruggie: that's how rapidly things are changing.
[00:18:42] Sean Beierly: That is 100%. What's, the, the change that's going on is one m- one-person companies, one-woman, one-man companies, where they're able to develop products in a weekend. You, you can take, you can go from idea to functional prototype in hours. And, uh, and I think that where it used to take [00:19:00] a team of people a week or more, we can now prototype these kinds of ideas, you know, in, in a fraction of the time it used to take.
[00:19:08] Tom Ruggie: Yeah.
[00:19:08] Sean Beierly: That's amazing.
[00:19:09] Tom Ruggie: So, y- you know, one of the things I always try to do is, is to put myself on the side of the table, if you will, as if I were a client of myself or our firm. And if I were listening to this and, and I were a client of Tom's- And I have this AI expert saying, "Hey, we're gonna build a, uh, a, a, a mini Tom," or what'd you call it again?
[00:19:34] Sean Beierly: Digital Tom.
[00:19:35] Tom Ruggie: Digital Tom. See, I, I c- I, I can remember a conversation from two months ago, but I can't remember that. But- But if, if, but if I were a client and said, "Okay, they're gonna build a digital Tom," again, what does that, what does that mean for me? Is this replacing Tom? Am I, am I gonna be talking to a, a, a bot instead of a live person now?
[00:19:54] Tom Ruggie: What, what do you think the benefits are to a [00:20:00] client? And, and, and of course I know some of the benefits are also inside the firm. So may- maybe give me, uh, a little bit of a taste of, of how this, this agent is, is benefiting both, uh, our client and our, our team structure here with the firm.
[00:20:16] Sean Beierly: Yeah. Let's, let's start with the clients.
[00:20:18] Sean Beierly: Okay. You know, the, the... You're only one person, and so your time is limited. And, you know, I think time with you represents among the highest value that clients can get from Destiny. We've got a great team as well that also serves a lot of clients, but every individual's time is limited. And so the ability to capture and curate a lot of the content assets that you've already created, you've shared your decision frameworks, you've shared your mental models, you've shared your company strategy and your approach to things like alternative investments and wealth planning, and even principles of leadership.
[00:20:53] Sean Beierly: And to be able to curate those things and then be able to scale that and make that available to clients, um, [00:21:00] as a, uh, resource for them to interact with, I think is one of the benefits to clients themselves. It also gives you back more time to be able to focus on client time as well. So for clients themselves, it's about tapping into your knowledge and having yet another channel to be able to do that without the constraints of your schedule and your bandwidth.
[00:21:22] Sean Beierly: I think internally, uh, it also offers the ability for us to really automate and integrate your expertise into different business workflows. And, um, that we've actually done some of that at, uh, at, at Amazon as well, and I think at Destiny I see the same opportunity. Again, just different scale, same business challenge to solve.
[00:21:44] Sean Beierly: And what we can do is then integrate your digital twin into, um, answering questions from f- folks on the team, to integrating your knowledge into sales workflows, marketing workflows, uh, and even customer follow-up
[00:21:57] Tom Ruggie: Yeah, you b- so y- y- you mentioned [00:22:00] workflows. So like what areas in the workflow do you think would be the, the first two or three that we'd really be targeting?
[00:22:07] Sean Beierly: Yeah. I think that marketing is going to be one of the primary workflows that we should be prioritizing. I think there's just a fantastic opportunity to get, uh, to scale the Destiny brand and the message and the value and services that are, that you offer to, uh, to clients. I think there's, whether it's on social channels, newsletters, the opportunity to be able to scale that and reach hundreds, thousands of people, I think is, uh, really the first area we should be focusing in on.
[00:22:35] Tom Ruggie: Yeah. Yeah, 'cause that, that brings about a, another entity that we're working on called Destiny Access, which is, um, you know, ef- effectively the entity that procures a lot of our direct investment opportunities into private companies, uh, typically, um, you know, late stage VC companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI and SpaceX.
[00:22:58] Tom Ruggie: And, and so I wanna [00:23:00] segue to that a little bit 'cause we've, we've talked about there, there's a couple different avenues that we can go down the path of for Destiny Access and our alternative investment platform. But, um, I'm gonna leave it an open-ended question for you- Okay ... and then maybe, maybe come back to it.
[00:23:16] Tom Ruggie: But, you know, where do you think the benefits are with everything that we're doing, which has become a significant part of our business in, in offering these, you know, very unique, hard to, to access, uh, investment opportunities?
[00:23:31] Sean Beierly: Yeah. I, I think for example, like these investment opportunities, AI offers the ability to curate messages to different target audiences in a much more efficient way than used to be possible.
[00:23:45] Sean Beierly: And if you think about all the different channels for marketing and reaching and engaging people, whether that... They're all, many of them are different formats and different messages that are tailored to different audiences and different content lengths and types. And so I think the opportunity to [00:24:00] reach the future qualified prospect lists for direct investments, those people out there that, uh, are looking to make those kinds of investments, I think is, um, really where the opportunity lies itself.
[00:24:10] Sean Beierly: Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah.
[00:24:12] Tom Ruggie: So th- that's the marketing side. I, I actually think a, a, another significant piece, and we've talked about this a little bit, and, and I've, I've obviously talked to my client base about this as well. But, you know, in, in, in my view, just to put my views out there, I think we've got a, a runway of, of, you know, let's call it 18 to 24 months where we're gonna see just some significant things happen in the, the private equity, uh, private company, uh, IPO uh, stage companies going to come to fruition.
[00:24:49] Tom Ruggie: You know, we, we already have SpaceX that, uh, is, is set to IPO, uh, sometime next month. It's being forecasted that, uh, Anthropic and [00:25:00] OpenAI may not be too far behind them. And, and then even, even beyond that, you know, there's speculation that, uh, that, uh, companies we've invested in such as, as Crusoe and Databricks and Stripe and, and even Whoop that we just recently invested in, you know, they could, they could be, uh, IPO companies within the next year as well.
[00:25:22] Tom Ruggie: But that being said, that's all amazing and, and, and if all that comes to fruition, I think that's really gonna prop the market up and, and, and candidly possibly prop it up to, uh, you know, an ensuing market bubble. And I've been thinking a lot about what does the next stage look like for these private company raises that we do?
[00:25:45] Tom Ruggie: And what I feel is that the pivot is going to be at some point, you know, pull a number out of the air two to three years down the road, going to earlier stage VC. And then we started having a conversation [00:26:00] of where AI could be beneficial in that process and perhaps the vetting process or, or even perhaps the, the finding companies that it makes sense based on our vetting criteria.
[00:26:13] Tom Ruggie: Um, would love for you to expand on that for a minute.
[00:26:16] Sean Beierly: Yeah. You know, uh, and if the audience hasn't checked out, uh, Tom's article on the Destiny website, uh, on this topic in particular, I definitely wanna encourage you to check out that article around, uh, the bubble because, um, I, I tend to agree with you.
[00:26:29] Sean Beierly: And having spent 20 year- 21 years actually in Silicon Valley, arriving around 2001, I had an opportunity to actually watch, um, a, a, a bubble burst. Yes. And I was- Live and in person. Yes. And I was right there at the bars and the restaurants and, um, you know, you never knew who you'd sit down next to. Um, and they would be leaders of, of different companies, but it was a crazy time back then.
[00:26:52] Sean Beierly: And, you know, if there's something to learn from that, I think it's what you wrote about, which is then being ready for that next wave and what you're talking [00:27:00] about now. And AI offers, uh, an opportunity to utilize data that's out there to be able to create agents, autonomous systems that allow us to be, to get ready for that next wave of companies and investments and develop a, a radar where we can actually start to track and watch these companies and start to get some sense of timing of things and pick up on different signals for these, uh, startup companies that are really starting to now with the power of, of, of these new models that are frontier models that are available, they're capable of the same kinds of innovation that some of these large players have been, and because it's being democratized out.
[00:27:35] Sean Beierly: Mm-hmm. So I think that, um- Our ability to develop AI-based screening systems that are looking for these companies is, is, uh, I think will also serve-- help you serve your clients well for that next wave.
[00:27:49] Tom Ruggie: I agree. Uh, what I found interesting was when we had a discussion about this, y- your comment to me was, "Yeah, we should start that process now."[00:28:00]
[00:28:00] Tom Ruggie: Yeah. And I was like, "Okay." That's-- I mean, we're thinking from a, a visionary standpoint, you know, like I feel like I'm thinking, you know, 18 months, two years, three years in advance, and then you're coming back and saying, "Okay, let's start addressing that thinking and that process now." And, uh, I, I think it's pretty incredible to ag-again just have the, the wherewithal to do that.
[00:28:24] Tom Ruggie: But, you know, what, what are your thoughts on, on... What does that, what does that look like to start that process right now?
[00:28:31] Sean Beierly: Yeah. I, I think it's one of the most valuable, one of the most valuable things we can do with our capability around AI that we're building for Destiny, for our clients, but also for you, is to free some of your time up and bring some of the technology that does enable you to apply your leadership and your s- your trend-spotting skills to this next wave, so your clients know that you're gonna organize-- you're gonna make sure that you are, you have a plan and a strategy for that next wave coming.
[00:28:57] Sean Beierly: And I think that's gonna help us be [00:29:00] a, really set a competitive differentiator for the firm as well is to, you know, if it almost feels too early, that means it's just about the right time, is, is the way I look at it. Yeah. Because you, you, you've advised that that wave is coming, and I think that means we should take advantage of that early leadership and foresight and start b- getting ready for that wave right now.
[00:29:19] Tom Ruggie: I agree. And, and I feel like I work 24/7, um, but ob-obviously I don't. But, uh, but AI does, right? That's right.
[00:29:28] Sean Beierly: And we had a, a t- a chat about this, and I think, uh, it is also one of the really cool benefits of some of the autonomous, uh, systems that are out there. Some of you have used, uh, or heard about OpenClot.
[00:29:39] Sean Beierly: It's an example of an autonomous agent. You can install it on a Mac Mini at your home, give it a goal or a task, and while you're sleeping, it's executing on different techniques to go and accomplish that task, whatever that may be. Could be investing, could be planning, what have you. And I think that that's, um, that is what's possible with AI and data right [00:30:00] now, and that's what we're gonna be focused on for Destiny is looking at how we can set up those kinds of capabilities to be scanning and always on looking for- Mm-hmm
[00:30:08] Sean Beierly: the next great opportunity for investments.
[00:30:11] Tom Ruggie: Yeah. That's fantastic. So I, I've always had this, this kind of, uh, inclination that, you know, when people say, "Hey, is, is AI gonna replace businesses, and specifically our business?" I, I, I do think AI is, is going to replace a lot of businesses, uh, and, and I think professional services businesses such as ours, uh, although we're, we're probably not as at risk in the immediate term as, you know, perhaps law firms, a lot of different law firms would be, um, certainly accounting firms.
[00:30:47] Tom Ruggie: But I've always fell back on the premise that as long as we're creating value, there's always going to be a place for advisors. And, and, and again, I, I think that [00:31:00] holds true on the tax side, the legal side, the, the family office side that I'm in, the wealth management side. But, um, you know, what, what is your thought on the future?
[00:31:13] Tom Ruggie: And, and you, we can narrow it down to our business, or you could make it broader to all businesses. But, you know, what, what is going to be the impact over the next two to three years for a business like ours, whether they participate in, you know, the, the AI revolution or not?
[00:31:33] Sean Beierly: Yeah. What I've seen at scale working with thousand- a thousand people who are going on this journey is that, you know, AI will replace some jobs and some professions.
[00:31:44] Sean Beierly: Um, it will also enable some people to outperform those who are not, right? So people who are u- working with AI w-will outperform those who are not. Firms that are adopting and using AI will outperform those that are not. And I think, um, that is really [00:32:00] almost, uh, a, a fundamental principle that I've seen personally firsthand.
[00:32:05] Sean Beierly: And I think that, uh, for, for Destiny, I think that, you know, that's going to be our competitive advantage. And I think that, um, in this space, I think it's gonna be really wise for wealth management firms to really make that decision decisively. Are they going to be in that, in that group of companies that's adopting AI or not?
[00:32:31] Sean Beierly: Because they'll-- The, the, the productivity benefits that I've seen individuals and companies get from using AI and using data is just so, it's, you know, it's just dr-dramatic. I mean, there's a new way of working, and it needs to be embraced and adopted. But I think there are also still clients that, for clients that value relationships and have complicated decisions, I, I don't think it replaces- Yeah
[00:32:53] Sean Beierly: those situations. And I, I believe that there will continue to be those that need, and I think that [00:33:00] those experiences will grow in importance and in, and in value because it's even more so focused on relationships, Tom. I, I do think that there'll be a, a segment of commoditization that happens, especially with a younger generation that'll be more comfortable, um, getting investment advice from AI or some of these large, uh, custodian companies that are offering commoditized advice.
[00:33:23] Sean Beierly: But I think where Destiny can focus and operate is in really your competitive advantage in, that you built, which is the relationship piece and solving c- solving problems and delivering value and, uh, and that human That human touch point, I think, is gonna continue to be the signature hallmark.
[00:33:40] Tom Ruggie: Yeah. I, I agree.
[00:33:40] Tom Ruggie: I always, I always say it's, it's all about the experience, it's all about value creation. And, you know, you can, you can look at AI as taking away from the experience and taking away from value creation, or you can look at it as a supplement and adding to be able to create more value and to be able to [00:34:00] create a different experience.
[00:34:02] Tom Ruggie: You know, this is happening so fast. I mean, even the six-month example that we gave- Yeah ... about how long it would've taken you to build the digital twin. You know, what, what do you think, as a client of our firm, is going to be different about the experience that they're receiving, let's say, three years down the road?
[00:34:23] Tom Ruggie: Mm-hmm. And again, it's going so rapidly, nobody has a crystal ball, but just curious what you think about that.
[00:34:29] Sean Beierly: Yeah. I think it's the ability to really pair the, the, the personalized situation and, uh, uh, of, of your client and their family with the investment opportunities, and being able to, I would say, evaluate more of the characteristics of both, and being able to present options faster, perhaps more options, and being able to make more confident decisions because you've weighed more of the different variables that go into [00:35:00] making a decision.
[00:35:00] Sean Beierly: So I think clients will have a, will benefit from being able to, uh, feel, uh, to, to really have just m- more information to make a better decision, hopefully faster, and that's gonna be our goal. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. All
[00:35:12] Tom Ruggie: right. We're gonna close out on a few, on a few things here. So, you know, the, uh, the name of our podcast is "Significance of Wealth," and, um, you know, we could directionally go a number of different ways with that from a standpoint of what does that mean to you.
[00:35:28] Tom Ruggie: We could go from a standpoint of what does significance of wealth as a generality mean to you? How, what does that mean to you from a standpoint of, you know, a career change, you know, some, let's call it 25 years into, uh, a very successful career in the, in the technology stage, uh, going into a sector that, that you have, you know, at, at least from a standpoint, you obviously have experience on the AI side, but you don't have experience on the wealth management side.
[00:35:56] Tom Ruggie: So, you know, give- given all those factors, what, what [00:36:00] is the meaning of significance of wealth to you? And, and to go down whatever road you wanna go down.
[00:36:05] Sean Beierly: Yeah. You know, I, I think I redefined what that meant for me, uh, recently when I had a conversation with you, and you talked about, um, how it can mean, for some people, choices.
[00:36:20] Sean Beierly: And I think whether it's, uh, choices in life, um, choices with your family, or choices of where you spend your career, where you spend your time, I think that- Um, wealth doesn't necessarily solve all your problems, but, um, as I've come to learn, it, it definitely can help provide options and choices and decisions.
[00:36:43] Sean Beierly: And, um, you know, that's why I was really drawn to Destiny as well is, is, uh, I had a choice to make, and I was gonna start my own firm. But again, looking at what you all have built and the opportunity to help you guys make it better was, um, really, uh, [00:37:00] I'll use that word, significant to me. And I think that, um, we're going to be poised to do some really great things for clients, and I think for our audience who are watching the podcast, business owners, uh, entrepreneurs, I think that there's, uh, a real message here to a call to action to really decide, make a decision, um, be decisive about whether or not you're, you're going to adopt and consider using technologies like AI to help you, to help your business, to help your customers and clients or not.
[00:37:32] Sean Beierly: And it doesn't have to be complicated. You can start in some small ways, but I think that that's what significance means to me. It means choices and, and options, and I think our audience and, and, and clients and customers also have some choices that they can make as well. But I think for Destiny, we'll be in a very good position to, uh, innovate for clients, and I think for business owners out there, um, this is definitely a, a great example of a, a business leader who saw the trend and made that decision [00:38:00] to, to invest.
[00:38:00] Sean Beierly: Well,
[00:38:01] Tom Ruggie: I appreciate that. Yeah. I love that. Uh, and, and actually you s- you somewhat answered my, my next question, but, um, if you were an entrepreneur listening to this podcast as it comes out, and you feel like you're already behind on, you know, the, the AI train, what would your advice be to them?
[00:38:26] Sean Beierly: You know, I, I have a friend of mine who is a, uh, entrepreneur.
[00:38:29] Sean Beierly: He's a business owner. He's owned a automotive service repair shop, right? He's got, I think, maybe eight employees. But whether you have eight employees or 800 employees, the advice that I would offer is take the time to actually get hands-on and build, build something. And I, I truly mean that to everyone in the audience.
[00:38:46] Sean Beierly: I've actually seen, you know, senior vice presidents-
[00:38:49] Tom Ruggie: You told me to do that, too.
[00:38:50] Sean Beierly: Yes. Running 7,000-person organizations, they took the initiative to build something. I think all you have to do is be able to provide instructions to [00:39:00] AI in a natural language, just as if you were writing a paragraph. And people are creating custom applications for fun, for games for their kids, or to solve a problem.
[00:39:09] Sean Beierly: And so it truly means anyone can do it. And I think once an entrepreneur or business leader takes that step to build, just build something simple and just describe something, maybe it's redesigning your website, you know, I think that- You're on the other side of it, and it demystifies a whole lot. And so I think that's what I've learned is, is build something simple, and from there it will pull you right in the right direction going forward.
[00:39:33] Sean Beierly: Very good. Yeah.
[00:39:35] Tom Ruggie: So final question is where can people follow what you're doing, uh, within Destiny Intelligence?
[00:39:43] Sean Beierly: Well thanks, Tom, for the question. the audience should go to destinyfamilyoffice.com/destinyintelligence, and you can start to follow and find out more about what we're doing in order to utilize AI in this, in the business.
[00:39:56] Tom Ruggie: Awesome.
[00:39:57] Sean Beierly: Okay.
[00:39:58] Tom Ruggie: Well, Sean, thank you so much again for being [00:40:00] here.
[00:40:00] Sean Beierly: Thanks, Tom.
[00:40:00] Tom Ruggie: I'm glad you're, you're here in, in sunny Florida. I'm sure the weather's still pretty nice and, and about to get nice in Washington State. Yeah. But, uh, it's, it's been beautiful here. But glad you're here and look forward to having you here some more, and obviously look forward to our, our day-to-day interactions as we build this out.
[00:40:16] Sean Beierly: Thanks, Tom, and thanks everybody for listening.
[00:40:18] Martie Salt: That brings us to the end of today's episode. Thank you for tuning in. Be sure to subscribe to Significance of Wealth on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere else. You get your podcasts so you never miss an episode. You can also follow Tom Rouge and Destiny Family Office on LinkedIn and Destiny family office.com for more insights on wealth management, private market opportunities, and collectibles.
[00:40:43] Martie Salt: Until next time.
[00:40:47] Martie Salt: The expressed views, thoughts and opinions belong solely to the host and or guests, and are not investment recommendations or opinions issued by Destiny Family Office or its affiliates. Investment [00:41:00] advisory services are offered through Destiny Family Office LLC, and SEC, registered Investment Advisor.
[00:41:06] Martie Salt: Destiny Family Office Podcasts are the sole property of Destiny Family Office and information provided is for informational and educational purposes only. Learn more at www.destinyfamilyoffice.com/disclosures.