From the Road: Insights and Inspirations

The past two months have been a whirlwind of travel, speaking, and conversations that have taken me coast to coast. Eight weeks, six conferences, speaking to 500 advisors from the stage, and hundreds more in one-on-one conversations. There’s something genuinely invigorating about being in rooms full of passionate advisors who are as committed to their clients’ success as we are to supporting theirs.

What’s Resonating at Conferences

What’s made these conversations particularly exciting is having such a compelling Beacon story to share. The transformation we’ve undergone this year—from our strategic acquisition of Astor Investment Management’s macroeconomic risk responsive strategy to our refined naming framework that makes sophisticated risk management both accessible and scalable—has resonated powerfully with audiences everywhere I’ve spoken.

Advisors immediately grasp the clarity of our new approach: Beacon Signal for market-level risk response, Beacon Precision for security-level risk response, and Beacon Outlook for macroeconomic risk response. But what really captures their attention is when I walk through our Three Levels of Diversification framework and how Beacon Unified delivers on all of them.

The concept is elegant in its simplicity: Level 1 provides broad, cost-effective exposure through familiar core ETF holdings like SPY and QQQ. Level 2 adds style-based diversification through dual portfolio construction—equal-weighted for value-leaning exposure and market-cap weighted for growth-leaning positions. And Level 3 brings tactical risk management through independent overlay systems that adjust equity exposure dynamically across different risk response mechanisms.

What I love about presenting this framework is watching advisors realize they’re getting true diversification across holdings, styles, and risk response—not just the traditional asset class diversification they’re used to. But more importantly, they recognize the competitive edge this gives them compared to what everyone else is doing: buy-and-hold traditional asset allocation. It allows them to differentiate themselves in a sea of sameness. As I tell audiences: “Three Layers. One Smarter Portfolio.” It’s easy to explain, easy to implement, yet deeply strategic. And it directly addresses those real-world concerns every advisor faces: drawdowns, client anxiety, and allocation fatigue.

What I’m Hearing in the Hallways

Beyond the formal presentations, some of the most valuable insights come from the one-on-one conversations, the coffee chats, the hallway discussions, and the deeper dives after sessions end. What’s striking is how consistently advisors are expressing the same core challenges, and more importantly, how they’re recognizing that Beacon’s approach finally gives them comprehensive solutions.

Time and again, I’m hearing variations of the same revelation: “This is how we solve for bear markets. This is how we solve for systematic risk. This is how we solve for sequence of returns.” These aren’t abstract investment concepts; they’re the real concerns keeping advisors up at night and the questions their clients ask during volatile periods.

The biggest “aha moment” I’ve witnessed? When advisors realize this is a solution for clients who still need growth from their equity portfolio BUT cannot afford to have a bear market at the wrong time. That’s the sweet spot so many advisors struggle with: clients approaching or in retirement who need continued growth but whose timelines don’t allow them to wait out a prolonged downturn and recovery.

The conversations often start with advisors explaining their current struggles: traditional portfolios that leave them exposed during market downturns, or frustration with trying to piece together multiple solutions that don’t work cohesively. But they light up when they realize our approach addresses these fundamental challenges within a unified framework, rather than requiring them to cobble together separate solutions and hope they work together.

Life at Beacon: Energized by Our Community

What stands out most to me about these past eight weeks goes beyond the individual conversations or insights. It’s how being deeply embedded in the advisor community energizes everything we do at Beacon. Every hallway discussion, every question from the audience, every “aha moment” I witness feeds directly back into our mission and our momentum.

The energy I’m experiencing on the road is infectious, and it’s fueling our team back home. These aren’t just networking opportunities or speaking engagements—they’re essential feedback loops that keep us connected and responsive to what advisors actually need. When I hear the same challenges across different markets, different firm sizes, and different client demographics, it reinforces that we’re solving real problems with real solutions.

These conversations are fueling us for the next phase of Beacon’s evolution. The excitement I’m witnessing from advisors validates that we’re on the right path. They understand the competitive advantage in having comprehensive solutions for bear markets and sequence of returns risk, and that propels us forward for the opportunities ahead.

This is life at Beacon: staying deeply connected to the advisor community, learning constantly, and channeling that energy into building even better solutions. The road keeps calling, and I couldn’t be more excited about the conversations yet to come.

Ready to join these conversations and see how Beacon’s comprehensive approach can differentiate your practice? Let’s connect.