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.