Listen to this week's episode

Episode 166

On this week’s episode of Next Mile, I sit down with Dessy Prasad, COO at Northwest Asset Management and RIA Innovations. Dessy began her career at Northwestern Mutual in Seattle as a financial representative on the insurance side, working alongside investment advisors and their teams. She joined Northwest Asset Management 11 years ago and has helped support its growing advisor platform and operational infrastructure.

We explore how advisory firms can give advisors flexibility without allowing their technology and operations to become fragmented. Dessy shares why the CRM serves as the central hub for their workflows, how her team customizes support for individual practices, and when outsourcing can free advisors to spend more time with clients. We also discuss onboarding, communication, AI note-takers, specialized versus general-purpose AI tools, and why cybersecurity and compliance must be part of every technology decision.

Key Takeaways

• Curate your tech stack around a central hub. Open architecture works best with intent: start with the system your team logs into every day, then add only the tools that have a clear purpose and work together. A connected platform is easier for advisors to adopt than a long list of tools.

• Vet AI tools before you adopt them. Note takers can take real administrative work off an advisor’s plate, but they also handle sensitive client information. Reviewing a vendor’s documentation and talking with its engineers and compliance team helps confirm that PII stays protected.

• Operational excellence comes down to communication. Taking the time to understand each practice shows what an advisor actually needs, and onboarding is where that matters most. Automated workflows that alert every team, paired with steady personal contact, keep a stressful transition from slipping through the cracks.

Quotes

“A crucial part of having a healthy ecosystem is not just adding a bunch of tools, but rather having a platform where everything has a purpose.” ~ Dessy Prasad

“As an advisor, your key strengths are usually building and maintaining client relationships. It's kind of hard to do when you're bogged down with too many back-end projects.” ~ Dessy Prasad

“We’ve gone from trying to connect to a bunch of different tools to asking ourselves what tools work to create the best ecosystem for our advisors.” ~ Dessy Prasad

Links

• Dessy Prasad on LinkedIn

• Northwest Asset Management

• RIA Innovations

• Nelly Mubashi on LinkedIn

• Northwestern Mutual

• Salentica

• Jump

• Zocks

• The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

Connect with our hosts

• Milemarker.co

• Kyle on LinkedIn

• Jud on LinkedIn

Subscribe and stay in touch

• Apple Podcasts

• Spotify

• YouTube

While there, please don’t forget to Download, Like, and Subscribe.

If you’d like to schedule a time to talk with me about anything we cover on our podcast or Milemarker, click here for 15 minutes.

Kyle Van Pelt