Portal Launch, Compliance & Tech Update — 2026-09-03

Recorded call, JT and Derek, about 3:18 PM ET. The Notion transcript has no speaker labels; speaker attribution below is by context and is marked as such. People mentioned but not on the call: Brandon Drespling (rendered "Brent" by the transcription; JT's 2026-09-02 draft confirms the manual work was with Brandon), Jamar and Reese (share Derek's Perplexity client-prep project), Tim of the Kesii software concept, Michael Joy, and the Zakir household (the "Ascent Group" fee dispute is their matter; see E:\Desktop\Zakir Record\README.md).

Also captured by (sweep 2026-09-03): the calendar occurrence of the JT and Derek weekly (Teams, 3:00 to 4:00 PM ET; the Notion note started at 3:18 PM ET after audio troubleshooting), the Read.ai meeting report emailed at 4:31 PM ET (sender "Derek Eichenwald via Read AI"; its summary names Box-folder automation through file IDs, compliance infrastructure, the client-fee adjustment, and phased portal development; its two listed action items, the formal compliance record before client data and the Supabase upgrade decision, are already below), and the Teams meeting-chat recap posted at 4:27 PM ET. The Notion transcript remains the raw source.

Summary

• JT walked Derek through the Portal's compliance-training module and the soft-rollout plan: advisors log in, land on the 2026 Firmwide Compliance Training, complete it with test questions, and get a timestamped certificate that auto-logs to Box, both to their convenience folder in the TCM Firm File and to the official compliance directory they cannot see.
• Derek approved the soft rollout but wants one more advisor tool live alongside it within about a week so nobody logs in once and never returns.
• JT demoed the dashboard, ticker drill-down (JPST example), Market Pulse, households and contacts with Box documents, and Ask Murray. Derek's reaction was to launch it all; JT held the line on sequencing and guardrails.
• Supabase: Pro plan (about $70/month) lacks SOC 2; the upgrade is about $600/month. No decision needed now because no client data ships with the compliance launch. Derek is leaning toward upgrading once he sees details. JT wants a formal compliance write-up before any client data goes on the portal.
• Derek's Supabase organization invite expired; he found and accepted it but needs a fresh invite. JT will resend.
• Ascent Group / Zakir fee dispute: Derek laid out the history (2% while the DB plan existed, 1.25% he told them he would honor after the DB plan decanted into the 401(k)s, 1% from the agreement they finally signed two days ago). The pivot date of the decant is unknown. JT will look at the data.
• Tim (Kesii): both have been avoiding him. Derek will not invest meaningfully; at most a small amount to keep Michael Joy happy. JT offered to take the conversation if Derek wants and asked him not to put real money in.
• Derek's Perplexity client-prep workflow, shared with Jamar and Reese, needs re-uploading and re-prompting with the Box folder each time. JT explained agentic versus mechanical and offered to build the mechanical version so they only supply a client name.
• The compliance manual updates (AI policy, Reg S-P, incident response program) are done with Brandon; the AI-policy section inside the training module still shows the older, longer version and must be cut down before launch.
• The daily Options Report email (about 9 AM, quick metrics, one-click open) landed well: "I love it."

Decisions

• Both: the compliance training is the first thing advisors see; client data and models come later. (attribution by context)
• Derek: one additional tool for advisors ships within about a week of the compliance launch. JT agreed to plan and sequence it.
• Derek: no Supabase decision today; revisit with details; leaning toward upgrading.
• Derek: will not invest a large amount with Tim; small amount at most, for the Joy relationship.
• Derek on the Ascent/Zakir fee: the written agreement was 2%; 1.25% after the decant is what he told the clients he would honor; 1% applies from the newly signed agreement. JT to quantify from the data.

They asked me for

• Derek: resend the Supabase organization invitation (his accepted invite had expired).
• Derek: details on the $600/month Supabase SOC 2 upgrade.
• Derek: look at the Ascent Group fee history, find the DB-plan decant date, compute the credit from 2% down to 1.25%.
• Derek: get one more portal tool in front of advisors within about a week ("Let's get one of them up").
• Derek: help simplify the Perplexity client-prep flow so his team can give it a client name instead of a Box folder (JT offered; Derek accepted the framing).

I asked them for

• JT: his read on the soft-rollout plan. He likes it.
• JT: think about the Supabase upgrade; no answer needed yet.
• JT: tell me if you want me to talk to Tim.

Concerns and frustrations raised

• Derek: worried the portal launches and "nobody ever look[s] at it again."
• Derek: the Zakir clients threatening a complaint after not signing the fee reduction for months, demanding reports "tomorrow"; he tried the reconciliation himself for 45 minutes and could not get through it.
• Derek: Tim: does not want to talk to him, cannot "spend my life working on this thing with you."
• Derek: Perplexity client-prep friction; outputs are useless when the Box folder is not complete yet.
• Derek: Supabase invite confusion (never got it, or it expired).
• JT (own, for the record): launching everything at once overwhelms; Ask Murray needs days of guardrail work; wants the firm "buttoned up" before client data; carrying compliance plus the build is a lot.

What they are focused on

• Derek: getting the portal launched and used, with a tools or revenue feature visible early.
• Derek: resolving the Zakir/Ascent fee dispute on the dates he committed to.
• Derek: efficiency of client prep for his team (Jamar, Reese).
• Derek: keeping the Michael Joy relationship intact while stepping back from Tim.

Doable / not doable / needs a decision

• One more tool within a week → doable, pick one: the Options Report rendering or the dashboard ticker drill-down are the safe candidates. Ask Murray is not; JT said it needs days of guardrail training first. Needs JT to choose and tell Derek.
• Supabase SOC 2 upgrade → doable; needs Derek's decision after details.
• Ascent decant date and credit → doable once the data is pulled; the Zakir Record already holds the BD exports and fee configurations. Needs a decision: the meeting frames the baseline as 2% then 1.25% after the decant, while the reconciliation memo computes against the contracted 1% from 2018. Which baseline applies to which period is a CCO call before the 2026-09-11 package.
• Perplexity client-prep simplification → doable with a mechanical Box file-ID flow like the one JT already runs.
• AI policy section update in the training module → doable, small, before launch.
• Formal compliance write-up before client data → doable; JT's own commitment.

Action items

Mine

• Resend the Supabase organization invitation to Derek — target 2026-09-04 — (Notion: not pushed)
• Research and share details on the $600/month Supabase SOC 2 upgrade — target 2026-09-10 — (Notion: not pushed)
• Update the AI policy section in the compliance training module to the cut-down policy — before launch — (Notion: not pushed)
• Soft-launch the compliance training portal: populate forms and approved advertising records first, then send the invite email — Friday 2026-09-04 or Monday 2026-09-07 per the 2026-09-02 draft — (Notion: not pushed)
• Investigate the Ascent Group fee history: find the DB-plan decant date and compute the credit from 2% to 1.25%; feed the Zakir reconciliation ahead of the 2026-09-11 package — (Notion: not pushed)
• Continue training Ask Murray with guardrails and edge-case questions before broader rollout — no date — (Notion: not pushed)
• Plan and sequence one additional portal tool for advisors within the next week — target 2026-09-10 — (Notion: not pushed)
• Draft the formal compliance write-up (structure, rationale, security posture) before any client data goes on the portal — before the client-data phase — (Notion: not pushed)

Theirs

• Accept the Supabase organization invite once resent — Derek — 2026-09-04
• Decide on the Supabase upgrade after seeing details — Derek — after 2026-09-10
• Tell JT whether to take the Tim conversation — Derek — no date

Suggestions for me

• Send the Supabase invite and the $600 details tonight. Two of his five asks close in an hour and set the tone.
• Choose the second tool deliberately and tell Derek which one and when. His "let's get one of them up" is satisfied by one visible tool; it does not require the dashboard, households, and Ask Murray all at once.
• Zakir/Ascent: the meeting's baseline (2% agreement, 1.25% verbal after decant, 1% from the new signed agreement) differs from the memo's contracted-1%-from-2018 baseline. Put the decant date and the baseline question in front of Brandon before the 2026-09-11 package. Crossover to Brandon Drespling.
• Offer Derek a concrete mechanical build for client prep (Box file IDs through the API role) rather than a Perplexity tweak. It lands with Jamar and Reese, so it is a team win, not a Derek favor.
• Keep the Tim thread at arm's length. Derek closed it himself ("I don't want to be a part of it"). Spend nothing there unless he asks.
• He accepts sequencing when he sees the reason. "Trust me" plus a demo of what is not ready (Ask Murray hallucination risk) worked better than a flat no.

Notable quotes

Attribution by context; the transcript has no speaker labels.

"I like it. No, I really do like it. I just didn't want to like launch it and have nobody ever look at it again." — Derek "That's awesome. What are we waiting for, baby? Let's get this shit launched. This shit's awesome." — Derek "Just let's get one of them. Let's get one of them up." — Derek "No, I think you can show it to me and we'll probably end up doing it." — Derek, on the Supabase upgrade "Send me that thing for Superbase because I found the email and I accepted it, but it said like the invite to the organization expired." — Derek "It should have been technically, it should have still been two because that was their fee agreement." — Derek, on the Ascent/Zakir fee "I would have dropped your fee down to one point two five. from the 2%." — Derek "I mean, I just didn't put really any time into it, to be honest with you." — Derek, on the reconciliation "I don't know when that occurred. So that's the thing. I'm like, they're like, yeah, we want these reports from you tomorrow. I'm like, fuck you." — Derek "I don't want to be a part of it." — Derek, on Tim "there's no way. there's there's no i might put in some money but that's just to keep the joy happy" — Derek "Dude, I just want to make sure we're buttoned up. Before we start putting client data, you know what I'm saying, dude?" — JT "JT, I got a call in 12 minutes." — Derek