Read the summary and watch or listen to the interview here: https://www.crowleylawllc.com/podcasts/blockchain-ai-the-future-of-wealth-with-sean-hanlon-dr-george-calhoun/
Voiceover: Welcome to the From Lab to Patient, Garage to Market podcast with your host, Phil Crowley. In each episode, we feature professionals serving the tech startup market and explore key issues that matter to those companies. You can find this show on all major platforms, including YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and on our website, crowleylawllc.com
Phil Crowley: Hello, and thanks for tuning in. Our goal is to bring you leaders in life sciences and technology who can share their perspectives—what leads to success, mistakes to avoid, and important issues to keep in mind. We want to demystify the process and help you on your journey as a tech entrepreneur, hopefully taking your ideas to market and enriching the lives of thousands, even millions, of people.
Today I’m delighted to have with me Sean Hanlon, founder and Chief Investment Officer of VestGen Investment Management, a wealth management firm with several billion dollars under management, and Professor George Calhoun, Director of the Hanlon Financial Systems Center at Stevens Institute of Technology, my alma mater.
Both Sean and George have been deeply involved in the FinTech revolution. They’re two of my favorite experts in this space. Stay tuned, because at the end of our discussion I’ll ask them to share some key insights and success factors for your own journey. Sean and George, welcome.
Sean Hanlon: Good to be here, Phil.
Phil Crowley: Sean, let’s start with you. Tell us a little about your background and what led you into financial technology and wealth management.
Sean Hanlon: I have an engineering degree, so I tend to be analytical. I’ve been in the Wall Street and wealth management world for over 40 years. As the internet evolved and technology became more accessible, we saw enormous opportunities for efficiency and scalability in our industry—ways to improve the products we deliver to clients. To stay competitive and deliver great results, you had to embrace those advancements.
Phil Crowley: So it was “be there or be square”?
Sean Hanlon: Absolutely. Over the years, I’ve seen a lot, and I’m sure we’ll get into some of that.
Phil Crowley: George, what about your journey? How did you come to Stevens Institute of Technology and focus on financial systems?
George Calhoun: I’ve had two careers. My first was in the tech industry—specifically the wireless sector, working on the advanced technology that underpins the wireless systems we all depend on today. After about 25 years, I decided to shift to a different lifestyle. Stevens was building a business school focused on the intersection of business and technology, and that was a perfect fit.
In my earlier career, I’d been a customer of the finance world—we did six public offerings in companies I was involved with, plus many other financial arrangements, so I had a good working familiarity with finance.
When I joined Stevens, the business school was still taking shape. From my office window, I can see Manhattan just 12 minutes away. Adding finance plus technology was a natural step for the university. Now, 20 years later, we’ve developed a strong FinTech focus.
Phil Crowley: You’ve got a tremendous technology background, George, and we all hear these buzzwords in the press—FinTech, quants, geeks—whatever you call them. How would you define FinTech?
George Calhoun: The quick answer is “digital finance,” which covers almost everything in finance today. It’s the application of advanced technology to traditional finance functions—insurance, asset management, wealth management, trading—you name it. All of these are undergoing disruption as technology transforms how they operate, sometimes even changing the business model entirely and enabling entirely new services.
Phil Crowley: What are some of the most exciting areas you see in FinTech today? Sean, I’d like your take on this too.
George Calhoun: I see two broad categories. First, technologies that automate traditional processes—trading, payments, insurance underwriting, compliance. Compliance is especially big in regulated industries.
Second, something more revolutionary: tokenization. This is creating digital assets or converting traditional assets into digital form. For example, you could take all the real estate records in New Jersey—currently in paper or outdated digital formats—and convert them into fully digital assets that are faster, cheaper, and easier to use. It’s a form of automation, but it also enables entirely new possibilities.
Phil Crowley: Does that involve blockchain?
George Calhoun: Yes, blockchain technologies are the foundation for much of tokenization.
Phil Crowley: Sean, in your world, how does FinTech help wealth managers do a better job for investors?
Sean Hanlon: Looking back, in the early 2000s we were running what were called genetic algorithms—essentially scenario analysis—to identify optimal portfolio management techniques. Computers were slow back then; we’d let the algorithms run overnight and check the results in the morning.
Now, computing power has increased dramatically, allowing us to process massive amounts of data. More recently, artificial intelligence—especially large language models and natural language processing—has become a game changer. We can analyze vast data sets across individual client holdings, our entire practice, or even an entire wealth management company. AI also helps by generating recommendations we can review, refine, and present to clients.
Phil Crowley: I’ve seen ads for AI trading systems where you just connect your account, “set it and forget it,” and supposedly make huge returns. Does this mean the end of the human wealth manager?
Sean Hanlon: I don’t think so. Some very large hedge funds are heavily invested in AI-driven strategies, but so far they haven’t shown performance beyond traditional methods. It’s still early.
Another technology to watch is quantum computing—it’s years away, and estimates vary widely. But when combined with AI, it could dramatically expand data-handling capabilities. For now, though, AI hasn’t shown a consistent “edge” in generating better investment returns.
Phil Crowley: It seems to me there’s still a human element in managing people’s money. Can AI really replace that?
Sean Hanlon: Not entirely. There are three main areas: portfolio management, relationship management, and client servicing.
Portfolio management is about delivering returns. Relationship management is the psychology—clients trust and connect with human advisors. Then there’s servicing—handling paperwork, processes, and compliance. This is where AI, especially “agentic AI,” can take over repetitive, manual tasks with greater efficiency and accuracy. I expect AI adoption will move fastest in the service side of wealth management.
Phil Crowley: That lines up with what we’ve heard about AI in back-office operations. And wealth managers have heavy record-keeping and strict regulatory requirements. Strong systems can prevent errors and regulatory issues.
Sean Hanlon: Exactly. Regulations are extensive and constantly changing. New FinTech areas—crypto, for example—also need regulation. AI could be a major help in keeping firms compliant and efficient, freeing up time to spend with clients.
Phil Crowley: That’s fascinating. Let me take a moment to introduce Crowley Law. We’re a boutique firm of experienced lawyers passionate about helping innovators in life sciences and technology avoid being taken advantage of as they pursue their dreams.
Too often, entrepreneurs don’t get experienced legal help early enough and end up being exploited by savvy investors, institutions, or vendors. We think that’s unfair, so we work to prevent it.
Our website, crowleylawllc.com, has a library of resources, including our ebook, The Top 10 Causes of Failure for Technology Startups and How to Avoid Them. It outlines early mistakes that can limit long-term growth. Visit the site, explore the resources, and if you have questions, email us at [email protected]. We’re here to help.
Now, let’s return to our FinTech discussion. You mentioned crypto earlier. George, what developments and innovations are you seeing in the crypto space?
George Calhoun: As Sean said, it’s a bit of a wild west right now—largely unregulated. Regulators have, in many ways, abdicated their responsibility to take the initiative. I won’t go into all the critiques, but the result is that there are still practices in the crypto world that were banned or tightly regulated in traditional finance long ago.
I don’t know why we need to crash into the same wall repeatedly to realize we need guardrails. That’s the immediate picture. Over time, rules will come into place, and some of crypto’s advantages will solidify.
One development worth watching is the idea of a Central Bank Digital Currency—a “digital dollar” issued by the Federal Reserve or other central banks. It could offer certain benefits but also serious risks. Many are approaching the idea cautiously. China has experimented with a digital version of its currency, The Bahamas has implemented one, and other countries are exploring it.
At first, it might be limited to central bank reserves or wholesale exchanges between major banks and institutions. But I think in the next few years, this will become more legitimate and substantive—moving beyond the “casino” mentality that dominates much of crypto today.
Phil Crowley: As a lawyer, I have concerns about privacy. A central digital currency, in the hands of an authoritarian government like the People’s Republic of China, could be used to track every purchase you make and assign you a “citizenship score” based on your spending.
Privacy experts ask: how do you protect individual transactions when there’s a centralized database that can be monitored—and, as we’ve seen, hacked? Government databases are not perfectly secure, and leaks happen. How comfortable would people be knowing all their transactions could end up online?
Those are the legal concerns I have for any centrally managed digital currency.
Sean Hanlon: Privacy is a major issue in wealth management as well. For artificial intelligence to be most effective, it needs access to a lot of non-public client information. That makes data security and privacy critical.
At VestGen Wealth Partners, we’re evaluating AI providers now, and privacy is tied for our top priority when deciding who to work with.
Phil Crowley: In the past, people thought keeping data on a server in their own office kept it secure. But now, even those servers are connected to the internet. Some firms use dedicated servers through providers like Microsoft or Oracle, but we’re relying on their assurances of security and confidentiality—and if something goes wrong, it becomes a tricky legal situation.
Breach notification laws require companies to alert people when their data has been compromised, which can be expensive. Cyber insurers are starting to pull back from the market. Many now require security questionnaires before they’ll provide coverage, and if your safeguards aren’t up to standard, you may not qualify.
What’s been your experience with cyber insurance, Sean?
Sean Hanlon: It’s available now, but back in 2009, when our firm was growing quickly and wanted to give clients online account access, we couldn’t get it. Underwriters didn’t have enough data to price it. So, I formed my own insurance company—a captive 831(b) micro-captive—to insure against cyber risks.
Today, cyber insurance is out there, but availability and pricing vary greatly depending on the provider.
NJ FAST: New Jersey’s FinTech Accelerator
Phil Crowley: The state of New Jersey has been active in supporting FinTech and launched the NJ FAST program, with Stevens Institute as its hub. George, can you tell us more?
George Calhoun: Sure. In fact, the NJ FAST semi-annual event is happening right now in another part of Stevens—I raced over here to join this conversation.
NJ FAST combines a venture capital engine, an accelerator for startups, and a partnership with the state to take ideas from inception to job creation in New Jersey. The focus is specifically on FinTech.
Their ambition is to create a Silicon Valley-style FinTech innovation hub in northern New Jersey—which, effectively, is part of New York City’s financial ecosystem. The state issued a request for proposals, and Stevens partnered with Prudential Insurance, our lead corporate partner, and Plug and Play—the largest VC and accelerator in the country, and possibly the world.
Plug and Play drives the process of sourcing and vetting venture proposals from around the world. Stevens also places students with these startups. The program headquarters is just two blocks from Stevens.
Right now, we’re reviewing our second cohort: from an initial pool of about 500 ventures, we’ve narrowed it down to 20, and we’ll likely select 12 to go through the accelerator cycle.
Phil Crowley: That’s exciting. How can innovators get involved with Plug and Play and NJ FAST?
George Calhoun: Plug and Play actively searches for ventures through its global network, including 600 large corporate partners who feed ideas into the pipeline.
Venture capital today is far more industrialized than it was 20–25 years ago. Back then, it was a cottage industry of a few small groups; now, it’s a massive, data-driven machine. Before I came here, they shared that they’ve reviewed 95,000 ventures and have 50 “unicorns” in their portfolio—companies worth over a billion dollars.
To participate in NJ FAST, companies must establish some form of business presence in New Jersey. That’s not hard, given this is the financial center of the world and proximity to customers is a huge advantage.
Phil Crowley: How can viewers get more information?
George Calhoun: Just Google “NJ FAST” or “Stevens NJ FAST.” The top results will lead you to the program’s website.
Phil Crowley: This has been terrific. George and Sean, thank you for sharing your perspectives. This has been fascinating for me, and I hope for our viewers as well.
To our audience—please subscribe to the podcast and visit crowleylawllc.com. We have a library of resources and you can send questions to [email protected]. Remember, we’re here to help. Thank you.
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