Episode 015: Marty Friel, Ameriprise Financial Services

This month we speak with DePaul MS-EPA Alumnus, Marty Friel. Marty has been a financial advisor with Ameriprise Financial Services for nearly 16 years.

Financial advising is a highly competitive industry for two reasons. Firstly, its largely non-differentiated. The service is usually only differentiated by the way products are packaged and the relationships built by individual advisors. But in the end, all a consumer wants is to make sure their savings will be there for retirement.

The second reason is the industry can be considered a credence good, meaning its hard to judge the quality of an investment strategy even after years of being a client. Marty talks with us about how using economics and strategy frameworks has super charged his ability to differentiate himself from competitors and demonstrate his quality to his clients.