Don’t Let the Days Go By – How Wealth Management Needs to Rethink Change

Tuesday night on the Huntington Beach boardwalk, I found myself standing with a few thousand other industry folks watching Gavin Rossdale and Bush tear through three decades of hits. The salt air, the crowd energy, the nostalgic pull of songs that defined the ’90s—it was exactly what you’d expect from a Future Proof evening.

Then they played “Glycerine.”

That chorus hit different this time: “Don’t let the days go by… I couldn’t change, though I wanted to.”

Standing there, I realized that’s exactly the trap most wealth management firms are caught in.

The Glycerine Trap

Rossdale’s lament in “Glycerine” is about wanting to change but feeling unable to. It’s about watching time slip away while stuck in patterns that don’t serve you.

Sound familiar?

Most wealth management firms want to change. They see technology-first competitors gaining ground. Understand that client expectations are evolving. They genuinely want to deliver better, faster, more scalable solutions.

But they’re caught in the Glycerine trap: “I couldn’t change, though I wanted to.”

The Shipping Problem

Here’s what I see across our industry: firms that want change desperately but can’t seem to execute it.

I run a software company. My engineers and designers ship every single day. Features, fixes, improvements, iterations. The output is relentless, and we’re still learning how to capture and communicate all of it effectively.

Most wealth management firms operate differently. They’re incredible at processing information—constantly absorbing data on markets, economy, client situations. The communication flow is massive.

But here’s the gap: the packaging, articulation, and solution delivery of all that information. Scaling it. Making it technology-driven rather than human-dependent. That’s one of the hardest deltas for firms to cross right now.

Breaking Free

Some companies refuse to get stuck in the Glycerine trap. They see the challenge as an opportunity to build fresh from the ground up.

Take Farther—they’ve built their technology on top of their portfolio accounting but wrapped it in a proprietary context that completely redefines the advisor technology experience. This foundation enables them to adopt a fundamentally different approach to communication and delivery. They can ship solutions instead of just wanting to.

While many firms are singing “I couldn’t change, though I wanted to,” companies like Farther prove that you can change if you’re willing to rebuild your foundation.

The Choice

Every day, firms face the same choice Rossdale sang about: will today be the day I actually change or will I stay in the comfort of what’s known.

The firms currently winning market share have figured out how to escape the familiar. They’ve learned that wanting to change isn’t enough. They are building systems that make change inevitable. Ship improvements faster than annually. They iterate based on client feedback instead of perfecting in isolation. They’ve made change a daily practice instead of the outcome of an annual meeting.

Your Next Move

What do your clients need you to change? Not the comprehensive platform overhaul. Not the perfect solution. Just the next logical improvement that proves change is possible.

Because here’s what that Tuesday night on the boardwalk reminded me: the days are absolutely going by. The choice is whether you spend them stuck in what has been—wanting to change but feeling unable to—or whether you build systems that make change inevitable.

Don’t let the days go by. And don’t wish for change without taking action.

Rising Tide is written by Jud Mackrill. Have thoughts on this week’s edition? Hit reply—I read every response.