Hartford Business Journal

HartfordBusiness.com | January 25, 2021 | Hartford Business Journal 27 more aggressively in the longer- term buckets. Do the math For decades after creating his model, Lubinski manually calculated various investment assumptions for his clients' portfolios. Even using spreadsheet software, it was a labor-intensive and time-consuming process, he said. "That took a lot of work every time a client wanted a review," he said. "Multiply that across 200 clients with five accounts each, and there were thousands of accounts to track manually." Lubinski said he has no computer programming or coding skills, so he couldn't create software to do the work. Fortunately, he met Sheryl O'Connor. She and her husband, John, in 2006 had formed 3D Asset Management, a registered investment advising firm based in East Hartford. 3D offered portfolios of exchange traded funds (ETFs) to investment advisers nationwide and created a turnkey asset management program — a technology platform that helps financial advisers, CPAs, and others manage their back-office functions as well as clients' investment accounts. Lubinski was a 3D client. IncomeConductor In 2014, Lubinski asked Sheryl O'Connor if she would help him create software based on his retirement strategy that would not only provide clients a customized, written retirement income distribution plan, but also manage that plan. Before founding 3D Asset Management, O'Connor had worked as a software developer at MassMutual in the 1990s, and later became a project manager for The Hartford Financial Services Group. Even earlier in her adult life, she had been a professional musician and conductor. Together with Lubinski, Sheryl O'Connor developed IncomeConductor, a cloud- based software platform hosted on Amazon Web Services. The software, O'Connor said, tracks the daily performance of investments in each retiree's "bucket," but also can instantly calculate the effects of any proposed changes. They called it IncomeConductor because "just like a musical conductor brings together WealthConductor gives financial planners leg up on creating, tracking client retirement plans By David Krechevsky Special to the Hartford Business Journal W hen planning for retirement, accumulating enough money is just half the equation. The other half is determining how to keep that money from running out. Many investors hire an experienced hand to orchestrate their retirement investments, hoping to ensure that cash distributions don't miss a beat. There are many ways for financial planners to manage retirees' investments, but an increasingly popular way is supported by IncomeConductor, software developed by Hartford- based WealthConductor LLC. The financial- technology firm, based downtown at 100 Constitution Plaza, sells subscriptions for its software to financial advisers to help create, track and manage retirement investment and income distribution plans for their clients. WealthConductor about a year ago was named one of the fastest- growing tech companies in the state by accounting firm Marcum, and has three co-founders, including CEO Sheryl O'Connor, her son Tom O'Connor, and certified financial planner and retirement income specialist Phil Lubinski. Bucket list WealthConductor and its software were created after Lubinski approached Sheryl O'Connor in 2014, but its origins date to 1984. That year, Lubinski developed a model for distributing retirement income by dividing it up into segments, providing greater certainty for retirees that they would not outlive their money. Typically, financial advisers invested retirees' money and told them to "draw from it as needed and hope that it lasts," Lubinski said. "It's not reassuring to a retiree that they could go broke before they die." As an example, he cited retirement planning software called the Monte Carlo simulator that determines the probability of a long-term investment strategy succeeding for a retiree, noting that an 85% probability of success — meaning there is a 15% chance the retiree's money could run out — is "considered acceptable in the industry." Lubinski's model divided up the projected 25 years of retirement into five-year segments, or buckets, each with a separate investment account and strategy. The financial adviser helps clients determine how much money they need to live on from each bucket and then creates a ladder of portfolios, with the money invested conservatively in the five- and 10-year buckets and instruments to create a performance, … the [financial] adviser is the conductor bringing together the client's financial instruments to create a successful retirement performance," she said. At first, they offered 3D Asset Management clients free access to the software, she said, but then spun out a separate company — WealthConductor LLC — to sell the service. They raised $410,000 from outside investors, began offering subscriptions to IncomeConductor and set up a website, www. incomeconductor.com. After officially offering subscriptions in 2018, the firm saw 182% growth in its second year and 59% growth in its third year, and recently has turned a profit, Sheryl O'Connor said. She declined to disclose annual revenue figures or the number of subscriptions sold. Subscriptions are available for a basic rate of $50 per month ($600/ year) or a premium rate of $249/ month ($2,988/year). Travis Ramsdell, executive vice president of Maffe Financial Group in Glastonbury, had high praise for the IncomeConductor software, which he said helps financial advisers design retirement income plans based on their clients' needs and risk tolerance. "I'm a big believer in the bucketing approach to retirement income planning, which IncomeConductor facilitates," he said. Sheryl O'Connor, who led IncomeConductor to a first-place finish in the third annual Female Founders in Technology competition in 2018, said she expects use of the software to continue to grow as Baby Boomers retire. According to SmartAsset.com, there will be approximately 75 million people over the age of 65 in the United States by 2031. "There will be a lot of assets moving from the accumulation phase into the distribution phase, and a lot of people who will need help," O'Connor said. AT A GLANCE: Company: WealthConductor LLC Top Executive: Sheryl O'Connor, CEO HQ: 100 Constitution Plaza, Hartford Company Website: incomeconductor.com Phone Number: 860-969-3672 PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED COMPANY PROFILE: WealthConductor LLC Sheryl O'Connor is the founder of Hartford-based WealthConductor LLC, which makes financial planning software for investment advisors. A screenshot WealthConductor's financial planning software. Tom O'Connor Phil Lubinski Travis Ramsdell

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