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Advisor Wars

Advisor Wars

Written by: Obsidian CIO
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About this listen

 In the Advisor Wars podcast, hosts Bob Huebscher (founder of Advisor Perspectives) and Joe Halpern (Managing Partner and CIO of Obsidian CIO) tackle one of the most critical trends facing financial advisors today: alternative investments.

Subscribe to Advisor Wars on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify to ensure you never miss an episode.

Listeners can download the new White Paper by Obsidian CIO, here:

How to Scale an RIA to $1 Billion and Beyond

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IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE: Obsidian CIO LLC sponsors the podcast to further education and critical thinking about the factors that affect markets and investing, and the podcast does not provide investment advice. Investment advice is only offered to clients of Obsidian CIO who have entered into an advisory agreement and with whom Obsidian CIO has identified individual objectives, risk tolerance, and other investment needs.Obsidian CIO, 2026 Economics Personal Finance
Episodes
  • Why Taxes Could Be Your Last Great Differentiator, And What to Do About It

    Why Taxes Could Be Your Last Great Differentiator, And What to Do About It
    Apr 15 2026
    In this episode of Advisor Wars, sponsored by Obsidian CIO, hosts Bob Huebscher (founder of Advisor Perspectives) and Joe Halpern (Managing Partner and CIO of Obsidian CIO) kick off a new series on the role of tax planning in the advisory profession.

    Advisors will discover why mastering tax portfolio management may be the single most powerful way for RIAs to separate themselves from commodity advisors.

    Tax is one of the two largest lifetime expenses for most clients right alongside housing. Yet many advisors still treat it as an afterthought.

    In this episode, Bob and Joe explore why that can no longer be the case, what's changed in the advisory landscape over the last three to five years, and how the convergence of new products and better technology is raising the bar for what clients should expect.

    Key takeaways for advisors:
    • Tax is not optional: It's one of your client's top two lifetime expenses, treat it that way
    • Tax harvesting is table stakes: If you're not offering it, clients should be asking why
    • Premium strategies exist: Long/short tax extensions, exchange funds, and direct indexing go well beyond checkbox harvesting
    • Start with the basics: Maximizing 401(k) matches, 529s, and HSAs can make a bigger difference than any sophisticated product
    • Think in after-tax, after-fee returns: Gross performance is a distraction — net is what matters to clients
    • Technology is the great enabler: Advisors who build or partner with the right tech stack will be able to customize at scale in ways that were impossible just a few years ago
    • An OCIO can do what internal teams often can't: Deep focus on portfolio-level tax integration, freeing advisors to do what they do best, build client relationships

    The advisors who thrive in the next decade won't just manage portfolios. They'll manage tax outcomes. This episode tells you where to start.

    Subscribe to Advisor Wars on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify to catch every episode in this series on tax planning, including upcoming episodes on operational playbooks, client conversations, and building repeatable tax-aware processes.

    To learn more about Obsidian CIO or connect with Joe Halpern, go to www.obsidiancio.com or download their White Paper, How to Scale Your RIA to $1 Billion and Beyond.

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    IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE: Obsidian CIO LLC sponsors the podcast to further education and critical thinking about the factors that affect markets and investing. The podcast does not provide investment advice. Investment advice is offered only to clients of Obsidian CIO who have entered into an advisory agreement and with whom Obsidian CIO has identified individual objectives, risk tolerance, and other investment needs.
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    27 mins
  • How AI Will Transform Work, Longevity, and Wealth Management

    How AI Will Transform Work, Longevity, and Wealth Management
    Mar 25 2026
    In this special episode of Advisor Wars sponsored by Obsidian CIO, hosts Bob Huebscher (founder of Advisor Perspectives) and Joe Halpern (Managing Partner and CIO of Obsidian CIO) sit down with one of the foremost experts in artificial intelligence, Dr. Alex Wissner-Gross, to explore what AI means for the future of wealth management and the financial advisory profession.

    Alex is a director or advisor to multiple AI companies, author of the daily AI newsletter The Innermost Loop, and co-host of the Moonshots podcast with Peter Diamandis. He is also co-author of the forthcoming book Solve Everything.

    Over 45 minutes, he delivers a sweeping and often surprising perspective on where AI is taking our economy and specifically what it means for advisors, RIA owners, and their clients.

    Whether you are deeply immersed in AI tools today or just beginning to explore what the technology means for your practice, this episode delivers critical context and practical implications that every financial professional needs to understand.

    Key takeaways for advisors:
    • Lean into AI now: Advisors who wait will fall behind
    • Automate your own workflows: Full automation could be one to two years away
    • Rethink your value proposition: Relationship management and holistic planning are the most durable advisory functions
    • Clients live longer: Prepare clients for a dramatically longer planning horizon as longevity science accelerates
    • Outsourcing: Outsourcing investment management (via an OCIO like Obsidian CIO) frees advisors to focus with confidence on their core value proposition.

    The future of the profession will not look like the present, the advisors who thrive will be those who adopt and use AI.

    Follow Alex’s work by subscribing to The Innermost Loop, or the Moonshots podcast with Peter Diamandis.

    Listeners can download the white paper by Obsidian CIO, How to Scale Your RIA to $1 Billion and Beyond.

    Subscribe to Advisor Wars on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify to ensure you never miss an episode.

    --

    IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE: Obsidian CIO LLC sponsors the podcast to further education and critical thinking about the factors that affect markets and investing, and the podcast does not provide investment advice. Investment advice is only offered to clients of Obsidian CIO who have entered into an advisory agreement and with whom Obsidian CIO has identified individual objectives, risk tolerance, and other investment needs.
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    48 mins
  • Alternative Investments Are Not Optional: Scott Welch on Going All-In on Alts

    Alternative Investments Are Not Optional: Scott Welch on Going All-In on Alts
    Mar 10 2026
    In this episode sponsored by Obsidian CIO, hosts Bob Huebscher (founder of Advisor Perspectives) and Joe Halpern (Managing Partner and CIO of Obsidian CIO) go inside a leading multifamily office to show what a fully committed alternatives practice actually looks like in action.

    Joined by special guest Scott Welch, CIO and Partner at Certuity, a $4 billion multifamily office serving ultra-high-net-worth families across the country, this episode delivers an unfiltered look at how a seasoned investment professional sources, vets, sizes, and integrates alternative investments into real client portfolios.

    Scott’s bottom line for advisors considering alternatives: go all-in, or don’t go at all.

    • Understand the Modified Endowment Model — Learn how Certuity adapts institutional investing principles for individual families, balancing global diversification, tax efficiency, and liquidity needs.

    • Define Your Alternatives Framework — Why Scott draws a sharp distinction between alternatives (hedge funds and diversifying strategies) and private markets (private equity and private credit) and why that distinction shapes every allocation decision.

    • Source and Vet Managers Like an Institutional Investor — Certuity applies a rigorous four-P framework (People, Philosophy, Process, Performance), why it favors deep relationships with fewer managers, and how Alt+ makes institutional minimums accessible to individual clients.

    • Size Alternatives to Move the Needle — Understand why a 20–25% allocation is the threshold that actually impacts portfolio performance and how to balance that against each client’s liquidity threshold and cash flow needs.

    • Build the Operational Infrastructure — Learn how Certuity handles capital calls, performance reporting, and consolidated K-1s at scale and where AI is beginning to streamline the process.

    Listeners can download the white paper by Obsidian CIO, How to Scale Your RIA to $1 Billion and Beyond.

    Subscribe to Advisor Wars on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify to ensure you never miss an episode.

    --

    IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE: Obsidian CIO LLC sponsors the podcast to further education and critical thinking about the factors that affect markets and investing, and the podcast does not provide investment advice. Investment advice is only offered to clients of Obsidian CIO who have entered into an advisory agreement and with whom Obsidian CIO has identified individual objectives, risk tolerance, and other investment needs.
    Show More Show Less
    31 mins
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