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Episode 134

On this week’s episode of Next Mile, I sit down with Chip Kispert, Founder & Managing Partner at Beacon Strategies. Chip has spent decades building and leading one of the country’s fastest-growing RIAs, helping shape its national footprint through intentional M&A, strong partner alignment, and disciplined operational systems.

Chip explores what it takes to build durable advisory businesses while embracing innovation. We discuss the power of structured peer roundtables, how firms can move beyond legacy technology assumptions, and why operational rigor becomes more important as firms grow. The conversation also dives into AI adoption—distinguishing native versus enabled tools, addressing internal fear, and establishing formal AI policies—highlighting how thoughtful leadership can turn disruption into long-term enterprise value.

Key Takeaways

• Don’t adopt AI casually—govern it deliberately. Experimentation is fine, but firms need a formal AI policy to reduce risk, clarify expectations, and prevent tool sprawl. Thoughtful governance creates confidence internally and credibility externally.

• Peer collaboration beats passive learning. Structured roundtables and curated peer groups often produce more actionable insight than traditional conferences. Real progress happens when leaders openly share what’s actually working—and what isn’t.

• Operational discipline becomes more important as innovation accelerates. As firms scale and technology multiplies, clarity around standards, vendor evaluation, and internal processes becomes a competitive advantage. Growth without structure creates fragility.

Quotes

"Most firms don't have any AI policy. They need to have an AI vision and an AI policy to lay out their plans and the information they need, so they know their data is protected. They need to have their guidelines and guardrails, which drive their decisions on how they interact with firms." ~ Chip Kispert

"There's a lot of talk about AI, but a true understanding of it is not rich. It's not deep. So, it would be absolutely valuable for the wealth space to really have some AI learning. Everybody can say large language model, but truly understanding it is another world." ~ Chip Kispert

"Data management is the foundation of everything. You can have great AI or rules-based engines, but if the data is not good, it doesn't mean anything. All the pretty stuff, the shiny metal lures don't have that much integrity, or their integrity gets questioned by the quality of the data." ~ Chip Kispert

Links

• Chip Kispert on LinkedIn

• Beacon Strategies

• Fidelity Investments

• Beacon Provider Network

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• Milemarker.co

• Kyle on LinkedIn

• Jud on LinkedIn

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Kyle Van Pelt