English is the official language of the 2025 MDRT Top of the Table Annual Meeting.
Karl Hartey is a visionary entrepreneur, author and financial expert, renowned for his innovative approach to wealth management. As the founder of Hartey Wealth Management, he has built a reputation for blending traditional financial expertise with cutting-edge technology. He has authored multiple books, including the “Smart Money” series, and pioneered the use of AI to enhance client engagement, streamline operations and unlock creative potential. Hartey has delivered inspiring talks at MDRT and other global platforms, sharing actionable insights with financial professionals and empowering others to reimagine what’s possible in business.
Deeper Dive: Unleashing AI: From bathroom ideas to business breakthroughs
From turning a simple bathroom idea into more than 10 published children’s books to building an AI-powered “Karl Bot,” Hartey reveals how AI unlocks creativity, streamlines operations and enhances client relationships. Learn how AI can draft 20,000-word books in hours, optimize marketing strategies in minutes and deliver personalized client insights instantly.
Kathleen R. Benjamin, CFP, CPA, is president of KB Consulting Group LLC, where she provides financial advisory firms with strategic financial and operational advice to strengthen their overall practice management. She and her team specifically examine processes and systems with the goal of increased efficiency and improved client experience to enable management to accurately analyze and make decisions that lead to the growth of their firms. Benjamin has more than 25 years of corporate and financial experience and has worked extensively with physicians and medical practices.
In the U.S., there's a popular saying in real estate that the three most important factors are "location, location, location." When it comes to managing your firm, however, the three key aspects are "process, process, process." Benjamin explains how building a solid foundation of well-established processes in every area of your firm — such as operations and planning — can create growth without compromising your culture or high level of client engagement.
Lee Min Shing currently serves as associate director at IPP Financial Advisors. He began his career in financial services in 2021 and has distinguished himself as a top producer in the profession.
For Min Shing, DCA stands for discipline, consistency, attitude. Learn how this holistic strategy for his clients has fostered massive success for his business.
Matt Donaghue, CFP, CLU, is a seasoned financial planner and managing member at Mission Financial Planners LLC. With more than 20 years of experience, Donaghue specializes in goal-focused planning, helping clients align their financial strategies with personal and professional aspirations. Passionate about collaboration and growth, he actively fosters partnerships within the financial planning community and is dedicated to delivering tailored solutions that empower clients to achieve lasting success.
How can you develop a business model that promotes sustainability and greater embedded value with recurring income? MDRT members share techniques that have led them to do just that.
Peter Baines is the founder of Hands Across the Water, an organization dedicated to connecting disadvantaged children in Thailand with homes, food and education. Though his career began as a forensic investigator leading international teams into scenes of crisis and disaster, he transitioned to business consultant and global keynote speaker. Almost 20 years after starting the charity through his fundraising efforts in Australia, he now spends much of his time educating other charity and business leaders on how they can benefit from their engagement with their community partners through corporate social responsibility programs.
MDRT Foundation Check Reveal
Regina Bedoya, CLU, ChFC, president of RB Financial Services, a consulting firm specializing in insurance and retirement planning, is an MDRT Past President, an Excalibur Knight of the MDRT Foundation, and an Inner Circle Society member. Bedoya has volunteered on MDRT committees and has been a speaker at Annual Meetings and international industry conferences. She has received the Irvin Konter Award and the American Free Enterprise Companion Medal and has been named Prudential Palm Beach Advisor of the Year twice.
Taking a break from our ordinary lives can give us time alone to reflect on the way we are living our lives, and whether it is aligned with our deepest core values. Bedoya shares how planning a 70-mile walk to Santiago de Compostela, a historic city in the northwest of Spain, started as an effort to take an item off her bucket list and ended up being one of the most transformational experiences of her life.
Robert Cullen, FSCP, MBA, has owned Robert Cullen Farmers Insurance & Financial Services Agency since 2007. He has been in the profession for 18 years, specializing in retirement planning, college savings plans, general investment plans, cash value life insurance and annuities. With prior experience as a financial analyst, Cullen holds a bachelor's degree in financial management and a master’s degree in accounting and management information systems. He is the recipient of the highly coveted Farmers Insurance Presidents Council Award.
You may have heard of the MDRT Academy, but do you know how it can help you? David C. Blake moderates as Robert Cullen, FSCP, MBA, and Dana Mitchell, CFP, CLU, share how they’ve leveraged the MDRT Academy in their practices as a low-cost investment and how it can assist established advisors in different aspects of staffing and training.
Ryan Stramrood has established himself over the past 12+ years as one of the world’s top inspirational and performance keynote speakers. A master of the performance mindset, he has undertaken some of the toughest and deadliest swimming challenges, setting the bar of human endurance a notch higher often in the most hostile of environments. Through his frequent exposure to deadly ice water situations, Stramrood unlocked a unique understanding of the mind, believing that we are all subject to certain default settings and reactions of this most powerful tool in the world.
Stramrood takes you on a fascinating journey to some of the planet’s most hostile environments, where physical and mental boundaries have been severely challenged and surpassed. This inspirational and deep showcase on the power of the human mind and personal performances reminds us how we are able to override some of its most overzealous defense mechanisms governing our daily decisions.
Scott Bloom is a professional comedian, author, podcast host and TV personality who has built a reputation as the go-to choice for business humor. As the son of a successful salesman, Bloom was exposed to the principles of building a business at an early age. And as a self-taught student of psychology, he’s explored what makes people tick and has written a book (albeit a farce) on how to get through life. Bloom has hosted hundreds of events over two decades and is uniquely positioned to deliver significant concepts on connecting people, building relationships and making business seriously funny.
Emcee for Saturday Main Platform
