On this episode of The AI Native Advisor, Mike sits down with Nisiar Smith, founder and CEO of Courtside Wealth, for a conversation that speaks directly to what every founder-led RIA is grappling with: how to build trust at scale, serve a high-profile client base, and design a tech-enabled firm without losing the human edge.

Nisiar shares his journey from the traditional banking world to launching a modern RIA focused on athletes, entertainers, coaches, and entrepreneurs. These are clients with demanding schedules, complex needs, and no time for fluff. He breaks down what it takes to stand out in one of the most competitive advisory markets in the country, where trust isn't given and has to be earned through consistency and presence.

The conversation dives into how Courtside is using AI today, including onboarding, meeting prep, client communication, and internal workflows. Nisiar also lays out his vision for what comes next, including fully integrated systems, AI co-pilots that understand firm philosophy, and a model where the back office runs efficiently so the advisor can focus on relationships.

This is a tactical and thoughtful look at what it means to build a high-touch firm that uses AI as leverage rather than replacement. For any advisor thinking about trust, growth, and how to scale the unscalable, this one is worth a listen.

On this episode of The AI Native Advisor, Mike sits down with David Rath, Partner and CIO at Continuum Wealth Advisors, for a conversation that hits right at the center of what every growing RIA is wrestling with right now: scale, succession, and the real role of AI in the next chapter of firm building.

David shares his path from Northwestern Mutual and Goldman to joining Continuum as the long-term successor to a 35-year rainmaker adviser. The two dig into what it actually looks like when decades of client knowledge lives inside one advisor’s head, and how to thoughtfully pull that institutional memory into systems that can support hypergrowth.

They get into the early wins with AI like note takers, but also the real constraints: fragmented data, messy CRM habits, legacy processes, and the tension between efficiency and keeping the human relationship intact. David lays out his vision for a future where an advisor can speak to an interface that updates plans, triggers trades, and pulls from a unified data layer, without ever losing the personal touch clients rely on.

It’s a grounded look at AI strategy from someone scaling an RIA in real time, navigating rapid growth, succession planning, and the next wave of advisor technology. If you’re building a firm for the long game, this one hits home.

In this episode, Mike and Danny dig into what it really means to scale relationships in the age of AI.

For decades, the advisor’s edge has come from trust. The ability to remember the details that matter most: a client’s dog’s name, a birthday, a question asked three months ago. But with books of 400 or 500 relationships, keeping that personal touch has become harder than ever.

That’s where Relationship Intelligence comes in. Mike and Danny share how Impruve is building Relationship IQ, a system that catalogs rapport, key dates, and past questions so AI can surface the right touchpoints at the right time. The goal is not to replace human connection. It is to strengthen it.

From designing trust-earning moments to filtering signal from noise, this episode pulls back the curtain on how AI can help advisors cast wider nets, stay personal at scale, and build stronger relationships that last.