This month marks the launch of a brand new collection of interviews with firms that not too long ago made their debuts on the Finovate stage. I had an ideal alternative earlier this month to meet up with quite a lot of firms demoing at FinovateSpring in San Diego, and am wanting ahead to introducing our weblog readers to those revolutionary fintechs!
First up, we checked in with Joe Steuter, Accomplice and Chief of Consumer Technique with Intention.ly. Based in 2021 and headquartered in King of Prussia, Intention.ly is a progress consultancy and advertising company for monetary companies firms. At FinovateSpring this 12 months, Intention.y demoed its Advisor Model Builder platform that permits breakaway advisors, fast-evolving companies, and buying enterprises to construct skilled, high-impact grand identities and model tales.
What downside does Intention.ly remedy and who does it remedy it for?
Joe Steuter: Intention.ly helps monetary companies companies develop by fixing one of many {industry}’s most persistent challenges: model differentiation. Past that, the problem of differentiation with pace to market and considerate measurement to hint ROI to advertising efforts. Advisors, RIAs, enterprises, fintechs, financial institution managers, insurance coverage reps, and asset managers are all competing in a market that may really feel like a sea of sameness, the place companies typically sound alike, look alike, and battle to obviously articulate why they’re completely different.
That downside turns into particularly acute for monetary advisors and advisor enterprises. Constructing a robust model has historically required an extended, labor-intensive course of with an out of doors associate that won’t deeply perceive the monetary companies {industry}. The choice is commonly a quick, templated web site construct or model message that saves time however leaves companies wanting, sounding, and positioning themselves like everybody else.
Advisor Model Builder (ABB) was created by Intention.ly to get rid of that tradeoff. It provides advisors and enterprises a sooner, smarter approach to construct genuine, differentiated manufacturers grounded in who they’re, who they serve, and why they matter.
Extra broadly, Intention.ly solves progress challenges for monetary companies firms by combining technique, model, advertising, expertise, content material, and execution. We assist companies transfer from ambiguity to readability, from disconnected advertising efforts to cohesive progress methods, and from generic positioning to a model presence that may really assist enterprise growth.
How does Intention.ly remedy this downside higher than different firms?
Steuter: Intention.ly solves this downside in another way as a result of we mix deep monetary companies experience with expertise, inventive technique, and execution. We aren’t a generalist company studying the {industry} from the skin. Our crew has spent many years constructing manufacturers, shaping narratives, and serving to monetary companies companies differentiate in a extremely advanced, extremely regulated, and sometimes extremely commoditized market.
Advisor Model Builder, which was the expertise proven to the gang at FinovateSpring 2026, is a robust instance of how we method innovation. The normal branding course of can take months and even years, particularly when a number of stakeholders, decision-makers, and rounds of discovery are concerned. ABB condenses that course of right into a guided, AI-backed expertise that may construct a model basis in weeks.
However pace is just a part of the story. ABB isn’t just an automatic template. It combines guided discovery, industry-specific intelligence, AI-assisted model growth, and human experience from strategists, writers, designers, and entrepreneurs. The result’s sooner, however nonetheless substantive.
The platform captures the advisor’s genuine story, creates messaging and visible id, builds a cohesive model information, generates belongings, and extends that basis into digital presence and web site course.
That mixture of executional pace with actually differentiated campaigns and messaging is the place our crew stands out. We assist companies transfer sooner with out sacrificing authenticity, high quality, or differentiation. And in an {industry} that’s evolving at a sooner tempo than ever earlier than, this couldn’t be extra essential to a agency’s progress.Â
Who’re Intention.ly’s major prospects? How do you attain them?
Steuter: Intention.ly’s major prospects are growth-minded monetary companies companies. That features unbiased RIAs, breakaway advisors, hybrid companies, broker-dealers, custodians, asset managers, fintechs, banks, giant insurance coverage firms, and revolutionary enterprises that assist advisor communities.
With Advisor Model Builder particularly, we’re fixing for each particular person advisor companies and the enterprises that serve them. For an advisor or breakaway crew, ABB gives a sooner path to a reputable, differentiated model, full with messaging, visible id, model belongings, and web site course. For bigger enterprises, ABB creates a scalable approach to assist many advisors with out forcing each agency by a gradual, customized, one-off branding course of.
We attain our prospects by a mix of relationships, {industry} presence, referrals, thought management, partnerships, occasions, and direct engagement with companies which might be actively attempting to develop. As a result of Intention.ly is deeply embedded within the monetary {industry}, a lot of our conversations start with belief and shared context.
The companies that come to us are normally dealing with a transition level: launching, rebranding, going unbiased, getting into a brand new market, scaling advisor assist, or attempting to create a extra fashionable progress engine. Our price helps them transfer from intention to execution with readability, pace, and confidence.
Are you able to inform us a few favourite implementation of your expertise, or a very useful partnership expertise?
Steuter: One current instance is Brick by Brick Wealth Administration, a agency transferring from a big wirehouse surroundings into the unbiased area. That type of transition requires way more than a brand new title or brand. The crew wanted to create an entire model id, make clear its worth proposition, reframe the worth they delivered to purchasers, develop a differentiated story, and launch a digital presence that would assist the subsequent stage of the enterprise.
Via Advisor Model Builder, we helped carry that work collectively in roughly six weeks. The method began with the idea for the agency’s title and developed right into a full model story, visible id, messaging system, model belongings, and web site presence.
What made the implementation particular was the stability between pace and authenticity. Brick by Brick wanted to maneuver shortly, however additionally they wanted a model that felt actual, private, and credible. ABB allowed us to seize the agency’s underlying story and translate it into one thing polished, differentiated, and usable.
That’s precisely the type of second Advisor Model Builder was constructed for. We’ve taken greater than 25 companies of each measurement by this method, and it typically works most successfully when advisors must make a significant enterprise transfer, however they can’t afford to spend months caught in an id disaster. They want a model that offers them readability, confidence, and momentum.
What in your background gave you the boldness to answer this problem?
Steuter: My confidence comes from the crew I encompass myself with and the greater than twenty years I’ve spent serving to monetary companies companies and startups inform their story. Collectively, as a company, our confidence comes from having spent many years contained in the monetary companies {industry}, working immediately on the identical challenges our purchasers face. Our CEO, Kelly Waltrich, constructed the agency to answer the problem she noticed as most prevalent in monetary companies: a scarcity of purpose-led technique and progress pushed by disciplined execution and measurable objectives. Each member of our crew carries that very same in depth {industry} expertise the place they’re drawing on years of getting constructed manufacturers, formed messaging, led advertising methods, supported advisor progress, launched campaigns, guided companies by transitions, and helped monetary companies firms inform extra compelling tales.
Advisor Model Builder is only one product of that have. We’ve got seen firsthand how tough it may be for advisors to distinguish themselves. Many companies have a robust story, however they battle to articulate it. Others know they want a extra fashionable model, however the conventional course of feels too gradual, too costly, or too disconnected from the realities of their enterprise.
Over time, we noticed the identical sample repeatedly: advisors wanted each strategic depth and pace. They wanted {industry} experience, not generic branding workout routines. They wanted a course of that would uncover what made them completely different and switch it into messaging, design, belongings, and a digital presence.
We weren’t ranging from idea. We had been translating years of actual monetary companies brand-building expertise right into a extra scalable, technology-enabled course of.
You lately opened new workplaces in Omaha, Nebraska. How does the opening of a Midwest hub drive Intention.ly’s mission?
Steuter: Opening a Midwest hub in Omaha is an strategic step in Intention.ly’s progress and mission. It was additionally a really private endeavor for me, as I stay in Omaha and perceive simply how a lot of a monetary hub the town is to this {industry}. Omaha has a deep connection to monetary companies, wealth administration, fintech, and advisor platforms, and it provides us a robust presence in a market with distinctive {industry} expertise.
Our mission is to assist monetary companies companies develop with extra readability, intention, and impression. To try this properly, we have to keep near the companies, advisors, platforms, and folks shaping the way forward for the {industry}. Omaha provides us one other heart of gravity for that work, situated in the midst of all over the place.Â
It additionally displays a perception I’ve at all times held: innovation in monetary companies will not be restricted to the coasts. Among the most vital firms, platforms, and advisor communities in our area have been constructed proper right here. Having a hub that’s centrally situated permits us to deepen relationships, increase our crew, and assist purchasers from a spot that understands the advisor ecosystem.
You demoed at FinovateSpring in Could of this 12 months. How was the expertise?
Steuter: FinovateSpring was an ideal expertise as a result of it gave us the chance to indicate Advisor Model Builder in motion to a completely new nook of the {industry}. The convention introduced collectively companies in accounting, banking, credit score unions, personal capital, insurance coverage tech, and different sectors exterior our regular realm of publicity (wealth administration). Branding can really feel summary when described conceptually, however the demo allowed us to stroll the viewers by the precise expertise: guided discovery, AI-assisted model growth, messaging, visible id, model belongings, and web site course.
The format was particularly useful as a result of ABB is designed to resolve a really particular stress out there. We had been capable of show that there’s a higher path—one that gives pace with out shedding substance.
The demo additionally helped us inform the broader Intention.ly story. We’re a branding and advertising progress engine design agency with many years of monetary companies expertise, and ABB represents how we’re turning that experience into scalable expertise.
The conversations after the demo had been energizing. The suggestions strengthened what we already believed: advisor differentiation is an actual downside, enterprises want scalable methods to assist it, and the market is prepared for options that mix AI with human experience.
What are your objectives for Intention.ly?
Steuter: Our purpose is to turn out to be the main advertising and progress associate for the {industry}’s high 100 firms. We wish to assist bold companies construct stronger manufacturers, clearer methods, higher advertising methods, and more practical paths to sustainable progress.
For Advisor Model Builder, our purpose is to alter the equation round advisor model growth. We imagine advisors mustn’t have to decide on between an extended, costly branding engagement and a generic template that makes them look and sound like everybody else. ABB provides them another choice: a guided, AI-backed, human-refined course of that creates a differentiated model basis in weeks.
On the enterprise stage, our purpose is to make differentiated branding scalable—fairly a contradiction historically. Massive wealth administration organizations want methods to assist many advisors effectively, however with out stripping away individuality. ABB provides enterprises a framework for serving to advisors present up with extra readability, consistency, and authenticity.
Extra broadly, Intention.ly is concentrated on serving to monetary companies companies spend much less time caught in id, messaging, and execution challenges, and extra time incomes new enterprise. Stronger manufacturers create extra confidence. Extra confidence creates higher progress conversations. And higher progress conversations create stronger companies and better-served purchasers.
That’s the work we wish to hold main.
Picture by Aditya Siva on Unsplash
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