Our Expertise and Clients

Founder & Lead Consultant
​Charlie Q. Yang, Ph.D., CFP®
Charlie Yang CV
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A globally sought-after consultant in FinTech with more than three decades of experience serving leading financial and technology institutions
​Welcome to Alpha Financial! My name is Charlie Yang, the founder and the lead independent consultant at Alpha Financial - Innovation Excellence Advisors (AFIEA). We have been providing competitive analysis, integration and implementation support, financial consulting, and economic study on financial services technology since 1997.
 
I am proud to be a key contributor to Schwab’s rapid growth from 2003 to 2019 through disruptive technology and continuous innovation. Schwab's Founder Chuck said: “From day one, my passion has been to make investing easier and more affordable for everyone." How? Financial Technology!
AFIEA and its research and education non-profit affiliate Alpha Financial Institute are formerly known as Institute for Systematic Investing Research (ISIR) which have been conducting Financial & Technology research and consulting since 1996. Since then, I have followed my passion for being at the forefront of financial innovation. My unique technology background and financial services industry experience are fulfilling my dream to improve financial services for better serving investors. Over the recent years, I have fortunately gained in-depth experience by working with technology providers, RIAs, wealth managers, asset management firms, banks, insurance carriers, and other financial institutions to research, evaluate, analyze, select, integrate, and implement new and disruptive financial technology solutions.
AFIEA Highlights
AFIEA Expertises
With the financial services industry eliminating trading commissions, I am also committed to providing investor education free for all. AFIEA is the proud sponsor of Alpha Financial Institute (AlphaFinancial.org) in developing and advancing Sustainable Investing Research (ESGstandard.com), Investor Behavior and Sentiment Research (IBMetrics.com), Intelligent Portfolios (IntelliAlpha.com), Lifetime Income Research (LifetimeIncome.org), and Systematic Investment Research (ISIR.com and ISIR.org) to support free investor education and investment research to improve financial services for consumers.
Additional Background Information
  • ​AI technology had its roots in the 1980s when computers were programmed based on “rules” derived from “expert” knowledge. I introduced machine learning into AI in 1982 when I was in college.
  • 5G’s core technology relies on “Software-Radio” for cost-effective continuous innovation. My early engineering work contributed to this core idea. I managed the development of the first "Software-Radio" Base Station and published the design in 1998. This approach was later adopted by 5G.
  • I filed the world’s first mobile payment patent in 2000. The idea was later picked up by China (Alipay). The invention (with two others) was ignored in the US because it would eliminate the banking and credit card industry’s lucrative profit.
  • ​From 1997 to 2003, I consulted for several global business projects through the America-China International Business Association (ACIBA.org) in strategy, finance, and technology. For example, I consulted, defined, and created one of the earliest SPAC listings - American Dairy (NYSE: ADY). Here is the reference SEC online record (search Charlie Yang). Today, direct listing and SPAC, as new ways for companies to raise capital, have evolved from the reverse IPO process that many, including myself, have worked on since the 1990s.
​Innovation Impact on Financial Technology
The impact, scope, and consequences of FinTech are unfolding. How to best utilize data and technology to meet consumer demands is the challenge for the financial services industry.
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  • When I was working at Charles Schwab from 2003 to 2019, I created 37 ideas and proposals for improving and simplifying the business process through new financial technologies. I also acted as the personal coach to the top contestant who won the Schwab 2018 Innovation Challenge Competition.
  • Inferior products, services, and processes are commonly seen in many financial firms today. I believe FinTech and AI applications will yield better results in customer satisfaction, performance improvement, cost savings, risk reduction, process simplification, behavioral measurement, benchmarking, and compliance overhaul.
 
We offer assistance, guidance, mentoring, training, and consulting services to FinTech startups working with the following ten leading incubators and accelerators.
Who do We Serve?
We apply our industry knowledge, experiences, and tools to assess the internal and external environments of our clients’ projects, no matter it is a product, a strategy, a value position, or a market study. AFIEA offers analysis in Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats and helps firms with strategic planning and decision-making. We introduce opportunities to our clients as a forward-looking bridge to generating strategic alternatives.
AFIEA has provided consulting services in the financial services and technology industry since 1996. Our clients include the top-three consulting firms, the big-four CPA firms, RIAs, investment and money management firms, financial services institutions, national and regional banks, technology and solution providers, financial technology startups, market research companies, journalists, pension funds, and private and public foundations. We have completed hundreds of financial technology consulting projects related to improving business, financial services, and technology for investors.
  • All financial services and technology consulting arrangements are under mutual confidential agreement with each client so no project details can be disclosed to any 3rd parties.
  • Our consulting work are conducted with in-depth analysis and expert views based on our research, experience, and public information only.
The following is a partial list of AFIEA clients we have consulted on the subjects in the advanced technologies and innovative financial services solutions since 1996:
Dr. Charlie Yang has partnered with the following global expert networks and completed at least 100 projects with each of them.
All AFIEA consulting projects are conducted based on public information only.
Proceeds from AFIEA.com consultancy are used for supporting Alpha Financial.Institute (AFIEA.org).
Alpha Financial Institute (AFIEA.org) is a not-for-profit & non-commercial entity dedicated to 100% free investment research & education.
Unless otherwise specifically stated, the Content remains the property of AFIEA.com owner, the Content supplier, the copyright holder, or owner of such Content. ​
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FinTech research since 1996