Banks Are Stealing Your Clients. Here’s How to Fight Back.
Guest: Bob Clare, Founder & CEO at Fispoke
What if the big banks are already running a strategy to take your clients — and most advisors have no idea it’s happening?
What if being a true fiduciary means managing your client’s full balance sheet — not just their investment portfolio?
That’s the uncomfortable reality at the center of this episode of the Modern Financial Advisor Podcast, where host Mike Langford sits down with Bob Clare, Founder and CEO of Fispoke, for a conversation that challenges the way most independent advisors think about their role, their risk, and their opportunity.
Bob spent 25 years inside Bank of America and Merrill Lynch. He watched from the inside as those institutions built highly efficient cross-selling machines, deliberately moving clients from banking relationships into wealth management. He saw it so clearly that when he left to build something of his own, he named his first LLC “Unbroken Wealth” — because he believed, in his core, that the wealth management industry was broken. (He eventually landed on a better name.)
The result is Fispoke: a complete, advisor-branded embedded banking and lending platform that gives independent RIAs and broker-dealer affiliated advisors access to the same banking toolkit that the wirehouses have always had — high-yield savings, mortgages, securities-backed lending, credit cards, advisor financing, and more. All integrated into the advisor’s existing workflow. All with no platform fee.
This is one of those episodes that reframes how you think about your practice. The gap Bob is closing isn’t just a product gap. It’s a fiduciary gap.
Connect with Bob Clare on LinkedIn
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
Why the big banks are your biggest competitive threat right now — Bank of America’s CFO publicly stated that more than two-thirds of Merrill Lynch clients also have a bank relationship with BofA — and the bank’s explicit strategy is to convert retail banking clients into wealth management clients. Bob spent 25 years watching this machine operate. Every time your client walks into a major bank for a mortgage or savings account, your relationship is at risk.
The offensive AND defensive case for integrating banking — It’s not just about protecting what you have. Advisors who incorporate cash management, lending, and credit solutions gain greater control of the client’s full balance sheet, deepen wallet share, increase client stickiness, and create recurring revenue streams that aren’t correlated to market performance.
Why calling yourself a fiduciary while ignoring banking is a contradiction — Bob makes a pointed argument: if you’re a fiduciary and you’re not actively managing both sides of your client’s balance sheet, you’re leaving a $4 trillion gap unaddressed. Complete financial advice means assets and liabilities together — not siloed.
$20.5 million in FDIC insurance: the sleep-at-night conversation advisors can now have — Through Fispoke’s partnership with Bell Bank and ModernFi, advisors can offer clients up to $20.5 million in FDIC-insured coverage — spread automatically across approximately 250 program banks — alongside a 3.56% APY high-yield savings rate. In a period of market volatility, this is a powerful conversation to be able to have.
From portfolio manager to capital architect — Bob introduces the concept of the “capital architect” — an advisor who manages the full range of capital, banking, and lending solutions for clients, functioning essentially as a complete family office for every client at every wealth level. It’s the next step on the advisor’s evolutionary continuum.
The 81% problem and what banking has to do with it — According to the Capgemini World Wealth Report, 81% of heirs switch advisors after inheriting wealth. Advisors who build multi-generational banking relationships — engaging clients’ children with high-yield savings accounts, mortgages, and other products — are far better positioned to retain that wealth when it transfers.
Getting started: no platform fees, no contract negotiation — Fispoke charges advisors no platform fee. Advisors sign a standard agreement, complete onboarding, and are up and running with a fully advisor-branded banking platform integrated with their CRM. Bob’s team provides training materials, marketing collateral, and a dedicated service team. Start at fispoke.com or sales@fispoke.com.
Why It Matters
The financial advisory industry has spent decades talking about “comprehensive financial planning.” But for most of that time, comprehensive has really meant comprehensive on the asset side. Investments. Retirement projections. Tax efficiency. Insurance.
What it has rarely included — because the infrastructure simply didn’t exist for independent advisors — is the other half of the client’s financial life. Cash. Credit. Loans. Mortgages. The stuff that happens at the bank.
Fispoke changes that equation. And the timing couldn’t be more relevant. With market volatility running high, clients are asking harder questions about the safety of their cash. With the great wealth transfer accelerating, advisors face an 81% attrition risk on inherited assets. With the big banks running explicit cross-sell strategies, independent advisors are playing defense without knowing it.
Bob Clare has lived all three of those dynamics from the inside. What he’s built is a direct response to all three — a platform that lets every independent advisor compete with the banking capabilities of the wirehouses, without giving up their independence.
As Mike puts it in the episode, this is a genuine first-mover opportunity. The advisors who integrate banking now will be having conversations that their competitors simply cannot have. That’s a differentiation story that doesn’t require a better pitch deck or a new marketing campaign. It just requires showing up with the right tools.
“If your client is an affluent client and they apply for a mortgage, or if they go to a bank for a savings solution, and the advisor is not part of that conversation — your entire relationship is jeopardized. Flat out. That’s the reality of the market today.”
~ Bob Clare, Founder & CEO, Fispoke
Resources Mentioned:
• Fispoke — The complete embedded banking and lending platform for independent financial advisors
• Bell Bank — Fispoke’s flagship banking partner; one of the largest privately owned banks in the U.S.
• Sage Home Loans — Fispoke’s mortgage partner; rates averaging ~40 bps below national average
• ModernFi — The technology that enables Fispoke’s $20.5M FDIC insurance coverage across ~250 program banks
• Capgemini World Wealth Report — Source of the 81% heir advisor-switching statistic
Related Episodes You May Like
If you enjoyed this conversation, you'll love these episodes too:
Terry Mullen, Chief Revenue Officer of Fispoke, joined Mike for the “coming soon” episode that set the stage for this one. If you haven’t heard it, start there — Terry lays out the vision, the market opportunity, and why the timing is right for embedded banking in the RIA ecosystem.
Beatriz Acevedo, CEO of SUMA Wealth, explores how financial advisors can engage underserved communities by meeting clients where they are — including through banking relationships. Her insight that younger clients are often the gateway to older generations mirrors Bob’s multi-generational banking strategy almost exactly.
