Mark Berger of Berger Financial Group On The Future of Money and Banking

An Interview With David Liu

Ability to continuously learn: With the world changing in terms of technologies, but also constant regulations, ratios, and rates — a highly successful professional never stops learning. In fact, they crave it! This keeps them ahead of the curve.

The way we bank has changed dramatically over the last decade. It was not too long ago when you had to wait in line in a bank to deposit money. Today things are totally different. You can do your banking without ever walking into a bank. In addition, the whole concept of money has changed. In the recent past, money usually meant bills and coins. But today, the concept of money has expanded to include digital currency and NFTs. What other innovations should we expect to see in banking in the short and medium term?

To address this, we are talking to leaders in the banking, finance, and fintech worlds, to discuss the future of banking and money over the next few years. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mark Berger.

Mark A. Berger, CFP®, EA is an award-winning Financial Advisor and Principal at Berger Financial Group, an employee-owned investment firm. Additionally acting as Chief Economist on the Investment Committee, his more than two decades of experience span tax planning, financial planning, investing, acting as the succession plan for other financial advisors, and hosting a FM radio show “Smart Money.” Mark is keenly interested in technological progress and its interplay with the financial world.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started in this industry?

Absolutely. I grew up hearing about financial and tax planning at the family dinner table, thanks to my father already being in the business. Starting quite early in life, these dinner table conversations instilled my understanding of financial concepts and expertise.

As a teen I was filing statements for investment accounts and seeing how people could save enough where they didn’t have to work in retirement, which I found immediately exciting. I was fortunate enough to enter college realizing exactly what I wanted to do. Right after graduation I joined the business to build the next generation of Berger Financial Group’s success.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

I was required to learn quickly on the job by necessity. When I was only a few years into my profession, I met a local colleague at a national conference who became instrumental to my future. At the time we discussed that I could be her succession plan a few years down the road.

A few weeks later she learned she had terminal brain cancer, and doctors gave her only a year to live. She passed away three weeks later. I was forced to step into her shoes and take care of her clients. Those clients have remained loyal to this day.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

My favorite quote is becoming more and more relevant by the years: “The pendulum tends to swing too far in both directions.” This idea can be applied to markets, politics and much more.

Through the years I’ve learned by watching the extremes while being very careful about maintaining perspective. This strategy has helped me stay grounded in my conversations with clients as well as helped my firm stay ahead in our industry. When money is involved, letting emotion control your actions is dangerous.

Ok wonderful. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. Can you tell our readers about the most interesting projects you are working on now?

A dollar in 1965 became worth roughly $.30 in 1981 due to the impacts of inflation.

Currently I’m working on protecting our clients against this phenomenon of inflation, which may involve leveraging the world of cryptocurrencies and NFTs or utilizing more traditional solutions such as gold and other commodities. The crypto world is incredibly complicated but very exciting, which is why we are spending our time researching and developing related solutions.

How do you think this might change the world?

If money changes, so does banking, and so does spending. People will always want to buy things, and they will always need to be able to pay with something, and in order to buy big things, loans will still be needed.

On a day-to-day basis, the technology that underpins how things are owned and the money itself is becoming become digital. The amount of change that could happen if cryptocurrency becomes the most common form of ‘money’ cannot be overstated.

What most excites you about the banking or payments industry as it is today? Can you explain what you mean?

There is clearly an opportunity to innovate within the banking industry. If you can create something that works faster, better, cheaper — the potential is huge. Many big-name companies are trying to create this sort of product or service, but it also means that old world industries such as traditional banking might stand to lose big chunks of their business.

For example, if you go to purchase a car, you might own it as an NFT which simply proves ownership. If you also get a car loan, you might be able to go through a crowd funded (and possibly Blockchain-based) lender. The crowd funded lender would not only be faster and cheaper, but it also directly supports other people that are lending you the money at an interest-rate that is likely better than their bank might have paid them. The details only get more complicated but also interesting from here.

What most concerns you about the banking or payments industry as it is today? What would you suggest needs to be done to address that?

Complacency is the biggest risk to the banking industry. The world is changing so fast that even slow innovation may not be enough to keep what seem like stable companies today from going under in the years ahead.

How would you articulate how the concept of money has changed in recent times? Is it really a change? How is it still the same? Can you explain what you mean?

In the broadest sense, money previously bought things that gave a person status. More recently, money allows people to live a happy life through experiences rather than objects.

Beyond how money is spent, people are used to paying large amounts for traditional banking, whether they know it or not. Banks have been incredibly helpful for the world in the past hundreds of years but are now getting to be out of date. Money used to be based on the concept of a balanced budget or backed assets such as the gold standard. Money has become much more flexible and manipulatable, which comes with both pros and cons.

Based on your vantage point as an insider in the finance industry, what innovations should we expect to see in banking in the short and medium term?

Partially tongue-in-cheek, I’d say a mad scramble to catch up.

Some banks will be better able to forecast what’s going to happen, as compared to the old guard that generally doesn’t understand what might be happening. Once the importance is realized, I would expect banks to put significant time, energy, and resources into using the aspects of Blockchain and decentralized finance that fit their views.

How has the pandemic changed the way banks interact and engage with their customers?

Absolutely. There have been some recent shifts; in the past, many transactions between banks and customers were required to be in person. Many of these transactions are now completed over video chat or online. This is more convenient for customers and requires lower amounts of staff time for banks. This style of customer engagement isn’t going away.

In your particular experience, how has the pandemic changed the way you interact with, and engage your customers?

I’ve been astonished how many people — I’d say 60% — don’t need to get together face-to-face. But the remaining 40% or so definitely prefer direct human interaction. These percentages vary by place I’m sure, but in general people seem to be more willing to do things online now that many of them have been forced to learn. This is going to have productivity and profitability positive consequences for businesses, and it is more convenient for consumers overall. We seem to all be more connected these days, which enables better and more accurate communication.

In my work in the telecom space, I’m very interested in the importance of user experience. How much of your interactions have moved to digital such as chatbots, encrypted messaging apps, phone, or video calls? How has this shift impacted the user and customer experience? What challenges do these apps present when used as a customer engagement tool?

You are totally correct: user experience is everything. If something is convenient and dare I say, fun, it’s very highly likely it will be implemented as compared to the current status quo. Disruptive technology matures eventually, and someone that makes it easy and/or fun tends to be the winner. Disruption has ruled the world in the past decades, and it’s not slowing down by a long shot.

Specifically to your question, I think chat bots are going to be near human levels within five years, genuinely able to solve most concerns customers care about. Experts debate that this is even possible, so it’s almost a fringe opinion. We can check on the situation in half a decade!

If you could design the perfect communication feature or system to help your business, what would it be?

Ha! With my futurist hat on I would mention something like Neuralink with a brain computer interface.

As a more mainstream idea, deep learning should enable us as service professionals to better anticipate and more accurately provide guidance and service to our clients. Whether it’s in the banking, investments, or any other financial realm, people want ease and convenience. Quick, high-level service which prioritizes user experience is everything.

Fantastic. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The Modern Finance, Banking and Fintech industries? (Please share a story or example for each.)

A moderately successful career in modern finance, banking or fintech is relatively attainable. To bring that career to a highly successful level, you’ll need to focus on these five abilities:

1. Ability to continuously learn: With the world changing in terms of technologies, but also constant regulations, ratios, and rates — a highly successful professional never stops learning. In fact, they crave it! This keeps them ahead of the curve.
2. Creativity: I know. Banking and creativity? To many people it would seem ridiculous, but the most successful bankers I have known have figured out how to maneuver within their varying rules and priorities to get things done. Personal Finance and retirement planning is dependent on creativity when someone has aggressive goals and needs ideas on how to make it work. More obviously, Fintech is an emerging field where creativity is out in full force as the industry takes shape.
3. Attention to detail: Numbers have always been sensitive to ‘an extra zero’ type of mistake, so detail-oriented people have thrived in finance. Emerging technology like Cryptocurrency will make things get more interesting by further raising the stakes. One slip of a finger to include the wrong sending or receiving address, and the currency can go permanently Poof! The need for doing things right the first time has never been greater. Usually, the more cutting-edge the task is, the higher the risk and rewards will be. A bad mistake can sink a ship. So, the top performers in the finance world make it their job to ensure accuracy is a priority.
4. Knowing when/how to delegate. For a high-level position in most any field, it is important to use your time where your expertise is at its highest value. I’ve seen incredibly smart and capable people fail or seriously stunt their career path due to being too controlling. You need to develop a good support team and to build mutual trust to reach your full potential.
5. The ability to pivot. Studies show that the people who are most accurate at predicting things have a more developed ability to change their mind if new information is presented. Think of it as anti-stubbornness. To practice pivoting, try reflecting on an opinion you have and constantly challenge it by considering ‘what could change your mind’?

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I would like people to take a step back and look at the most powerful things going on in the world. People are ignoring all the good that’s happening. Drowning in 24/7 media coverage is making people feel like the world is getting worse and worse.

What really matters? A healthy lifespan? The world economy & wealth? Kids having access to quality education? Extreme poverty reduction? These are all getting much better over the past decade.

Specifically, I think our own health is going to make a positive quantum leap in the coming decade. Do some reading or watching about the positives and you’ll notice they outweigh the bad stuff happening. You’ll probably live a happier life.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Follow me here on LinkedIn.

Thank you so much for the time you spent doing this interview. This was very inspirational, and we wish you continued success.