US RIA Toolkit 2026 Report by The Wealth Mosaic

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US RIA

Toolkit 2026 Foreword by Page 16

Data insights By Manny Favetta

Highlighting the trends, challenges, and opportunities facing RIAs

Page 30

Seven industry perspectives Insights and thought leadership from across the RIA landscape

Alois Pirker

Page 52

Seven showcases for wealth managementfocused technologies RIA-focused WealthTech innovation

Innovative technology solutions targeting on the needs of RIAs today

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US RIA TOOLKIT 2026

Contents US United RIAKingdom Toolkit 2026 Toolkit 2025

This report explores how Registered Investment Advisors in the United States are adapting to new demands, integrating with new technologies, and charting a path for the rest of the wealth management sector.

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Foreword

By Alois Pirker, CEO of Pirker Partners

Data insights An in-depth look at the themes and trends shaping the RIA segment. By Manny Favetta, Guest Editor

Introduction Welcome and background to the US RIA Toolkit 2026.

Industry perspectives Insights into the challenges and opportunities facing RIAs today.

Topic The first part of each Showcase is the Topic. Each contributor establishes a Topic, introduces it, highlights its relevance to wealth management, and explains why a wealth management business should consider it for their business.

Solution The second part of each Showcase is the Solution. The Solution is designed to support the Topic, with each contributor tasked with highlighting how their Solution delivers on the Topic. This includes elements such as its features and functions, use cases, and other relevant elements of their offering.

Showcases Seven showcases from technology vendors targeting the needs of RIAs.

Showcase #1

Showcase #2

An AI-native operating system built for powering onboarding and servicing.

Eliminating spillage and leakage with integrated revenue systems.

Contributed by Avantos

Contributed by Purefacts

AI-native client management

Integrated revenue management

Showcase #3

Showcase #4

Technology: buy or build?

Transforming operations into strategy

Accelerating RIA modernization through proven, vendor-driven technology solutions.

How advisor dashboards turn support functions into strategic advantage.

Contributed by Docupace

Contributed by Plumb Bill Pay

Showcase #5

Showcase #6

Why an all-in-one compliance solution matters for RIAs.

Transforming complex projections into meaningful client dialogue.

Contributed by RIA Compliance Technology

Contributed by Moneytree Software

Compliance platforms

102 Showcase #7

Advisor-focused workflow tools Why advisors need workflows built for them. Contributed by STRATxAI Technologies

From data to dialogue

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Our aim with this report has been to bring together a range of relevant, insightful, and thought-provoking opinions from across the wealth management sector.

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We hope you enjoy exploring through this volume how the RIA landscape is being shaped by the range of forces at large in the market — and how RIAs, in turn, are reshaping the future of wealth management.

Editor's Letter

This bifurcation demands that WealthTech providers adopt differentiated marketing strategies calibrated to each segment's distinct buying behavior and organizational structure.

Understanding of this segment remains elusive to many industry participants and service providers, despite recent heightened interest from across the financial services landscape. Our analysis focuses on what WealthTech providers must understand when pursuing success in this distinctive channel.

Concurrent with this M&A evolution, technology advancement continues to expand the addressable opportunity for solutions providers. The proliferation of specialized capabilities has fundamentally enhanced the value proposition that RIAs can deliver, spanning back-office automation, client communications, and innovative investment vehicles.

elcome to the US RIA Toolkit 2026. As The Wealth Mosaic strives to deliver critical market intelligence to the wealth management ecosystem, this publication examines the Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) channel.

The most important news is in mergers and acquisitions. Current M&A dynamics in the RIA space carry implications that extend beyond individual transactions, reshaping the procurement landscape and decisionmaking architecture across wealth management. Inorganic growth has long characterized the business model for many RIAs, yet today's consolidation wave represents a fundamental structural shift. Serial acquirers (frequently backed by deep-pocketed private capital) are creating scaled enterprises that operate under diverse organizational models. Although these ‘RIA aggregators’ grant varying degrees of autonomy to acquired practices, they uniformly centralize core business functions. This transformation, from a fragmented independent landscape to one increasingly dominated by institutional buyers, has materially altered the market dynamics for solution providers. The procurement implications are significant. RIA aggregators typically centralize decisions about technology and vendor selection, creating larger deal opportunities with more complex requirements and longer sales cycles. By contrast, independent RIAs maintain decentralized procurement processes, with decisions made by practitioners closer to daily operations.

Technology now permeates every dimension of the RIA operating model, making the selection of effective solutions a necessity rather than a tactical consideration. Providers of WealthTech solutions win by enabling RIAs to achieve operational leverage while elevating client service standards. This US RIA Toolkit showcases leading-edge capabilities currently reshaping competitive dynamics in this market. Paradoxically, as technology becomes more sophisticated, the emphasis on the human advisory relationship intensifies. The articles contained in this report demonstrate that RIAs are increasingly seeking solutions delivering transparency, intuitive usability, and personalization at scale. Firms that deploy contemporary capabilities for real-time reporting, customized planning, and enhanced user experiences create tangible differentiation in an increasingly competitive market. Conversely, RIAs that lag in technology adoption face mounting competitive pressure, as elevated digital experiences become table stakes rather than differentiators. We trust this research will sharpen your understanding of the WealthTech landscape for RIAs, even as it informs your strategic approach to this dynamic market segment.

Guest Editor Manny Favetta CEO & Founder

Demand Ignition

FOREWORD By Alois Pirker

US RIA Toolkit 2026

The RIA market in the United States has always been dynamic and a proxy for change taking place in the broader wealth management industry.

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Ever since the sector emerged several decades ago, some of the brightest financial advisors in the industry have chosen to launch RIA firms rather than join the ranks of large wealth management organizations. The Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) path gives those advisors the opportunity to tailor their business model to a client’s needs and adjust it with the client’s changing requirements. As such, industry trends can often be observed in the RIA market well before the largest firms have an opportunity to respond. Private equity firms are playing an active role as change agents in the RIA market. The capital they provide has acted as a catalyst for consolidation in this fragmented marketplace for some time, which not only has resulted in ever-larger RIA firms, but also a sharply increased level of maturity in technology and operations. Several leading RIAs, especially rollup firms, all have platform projects underway building enterprise-grade technology infrastructures that in the past would have been the exclusive domain of large broker-dealer firms with big technology budgets.

It is safe to assume that the historic efficiency gap between leading broker-dealer and RIA firms will narrow dramatically going forward. It is not only the attitude of RIA firms towards assembling enterprisegrade technology platforms that has shifted in recent years. The choice RIAs have of service providers and technology vendors catering to them today has also never been greater. New offerings come from several directions: Start-ups: Many of the new kids on the block such as Avantos. AI, VRGL, Contio, or FINNY are cutting their teeth in the RIA market first before taking on large enterprises as clients. Some start-ups leverage innovative RIA firms as design clients and as testing grounds for their new platforms, many of which include AI models that require robust data sets for maturing their platforms. Increasingly, innovative RIAs act as strategic investors in start-ups, obtaining in return a front-row seat for technology innovation.

Industry trends can often be observed in the RIA market well before the largest firms have an opportunity to respond.

Enterprise vendors are the second type of new entrant. In the past these firms, such as Charles River Development or BlackRock Aladdin, have had an exclusive focus on enterprise clients such as broker-dealers and asset managers. Now they are seeing new business opportunities with the upper end of the RIA market. These RIA firms are fast outgrowing traditional RIA platforms and are aiming to internalize and/or customize key business processes (e.g., investment management) to gain greater control on advisor and client experience as well as on the economics of their business. However, enterprise vendors often struggle with adjusting their sales, product, and pricing strategies to become successful players in this market segment.

As innovative RIA firms embrace new platform propositions, legacy vendors in the RIA market accustomed to a somewhat shielded, even sleepy market space will have to ensure they are bringing their A-game. Otherwise, they stand to be outperformed by new entrants — especially new vendor propositions, natively built on artificial intelligence models, that will revolutionize the way RIAs operate their business.

New platform strategies are an additional source of new propositions aimed at RIAs. There has long been a consolidation amongst RIA custodians, that resulted in two industry giants, Fidelity Institutional and Schwab Advisor Services, dominating the market. However, in recent years there have been noteworthy new entrants, mostly on the heels of acquisitions that resulted in new platform strategies. Notable examples of these acquisitions include Robinhood’s of TradePMR, Altruist’ of Shareholder Services Group, and Goldman Sachs absorbing Folio Financial.

This is an exciting time in the RIA industry and there is no doubt this market will continue to thrive.

State Street’s recent launch of its Wealth Services business, and its subsequent minority stake in Apex FinTech Solutions, have received a lot of attention, as has Betterment’s announcement of its intention to acquire Rowboat Advisors, which will drastically improve its RIA custody platform. Schwab and Fidelity will have to get used to looking beyond each other when evaluating competitive threats. Clearly, RIAs today are spoiled for choice when it comes to selecting technology and custody partners for their business. Although the market has historically bet on their personal service as a competitive differentiator, RIAs were considered laggards when it came to technology enablement. Now, with leading RIA firms demonstrating the innovation potential in today’s market environment, they are defining a new normal.

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The agile nature of RIA businesses will enable innovation to happen, and new business and service models to be developed, leveraging new technology faster than at large enterprise firms. Yet again, the RIA segment may well be the place to study the trends that reshape the wealth management proposition.

US RIA Toolkit 2026

With leading RIA firms demonstrating the innovation potential in today's market environment, they are defining a new normal.

Alois Pirker CEO and Founder Pirker Partners

INTRODUCTION

US RIA Toolkit 2026

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An era of transformation for the RIA ecosystem The marketplace for registered investment advisors (RIAs) has seen rapid growth in recent years, reaching more than 15,000 SEC-registered RIA firms serving wealth management clients. Despite this continued growth in the financial advice business, the outlook still indicates that the demand for investment advisory services will continue to outstrip supply through the coming decade. As we continue to witness ongoing change across the RIA landscape, 2026 is shaping up to mark an inflection point for several trends. Convergence of major trends in technology, evolution in the regulatory environment and shifts in client expectations are fundamentally reshaping wealth management. Through the evolution of this dynamic ecosystem, firms have demonstrated remarkable resilience and adaptability. In wealth management, RIA professionals have embraced new approaches to investing and revolutionary communications technologies, and integrated expansions of the ways in which they serve clients.

The US RIA Toolkit 2026 from The Wealth Mosaic aims to exhibit the best of RIA wealth management technology and resources.

More than just a source of market intelligence. The Wealth Mosaic presents this report as a practical guide showcasing real-world implementation of contemporary solutions. Even as AI maintains its central role in digital transformation, the tools highlighted in this report show solutions that can advance the business objectives of RIA wealth managers, delivering competitive differentiation and a higher level of client satisfaction.

Growth, opportunity, and competitive dynamics in the RIA market The recent growth of the RIA market has been historic by almost every metric. RIA assets under management reached an all-time high of US$145 trillion by the end of 2024, a year-over-year increase of more than 12 percent. The number of wealth management RIAs also reached an all-time high during the year. As much as its recent organic growth, the big story in the RIA market has been about mergers, acquisitions, and consolidation. Until recently, inorganic growth among RIAs was rare. In recent years, however, a new breed of RIA ‘aggregators’ has pursued a growth strategy that centers on acquisition to fuel further organic growth. By the beginning of Q4 2025, the industry had completed 273 RIA transactions, already surpassing the record set at the end of 2024. Aside from the biggest RIAs growing even bigger, the other salient trend in the RIA space is the ongoing pattern of new RIAs entering the space, as wealth managers resign from their broker-dealer jobs to serve their clients in a way that affords them more independence. Most wealth management RIAs launch their independent advisory careers by leaving a job as a registered representative of a broker-dealer. RIAs who follow this path are drawn by higher payouts, improved access to technology, and closer alignment with the interests of their clients. Moreover, better technology makes the transition easier for representatives to adapt to an independent mode of client engagement. Many of the providers who partner with The Wealth Mosaic will continue to be instrumental in facilitating entry into the RIA business. Client preferences have also led to RIAs being allocated larger amounts instead of broker dealers. The value proposition for many wealth management RIAs can be differentiated, with a range of services that goes beyond what a broker dealer might offer. RIAs often personalize their service model for each client, adding in ancillary functions such as financial planning, estate planning or tax strategies. Plus, the growth of the retirement business has created the need for the advice and guidance of an RIA for a wide range of plan fiduciaries as well.

As much as its recent organic growth, the big story in the RIA market has been about mergers, acquisitions, and consolidation.

Technology, AI, automation, and the digital RIA

US RIA Toolkit 2026

Technology is at the heart of the transformation taking place in the world of RIAs. Yet, the variety of available solutions can be overwhelming for an independent wealth management firm. Mastery of technology can be the differentiator that leads to nimble efficiency, client retention and long-term profitability. Yet, RIA wealth managers often stumble over their technology stack due to lack of familiarity with the systems their business needs.

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The biggest news in technology is the arrival of AI in the systems utilized by RIAs. Machine learning algorithms are enhancing asset allocation and risk assessment, and rebalancing strategies. Moreover, applications of AI have introduced a level of personalization that simultaneously augments the wealth manager’s engagement with clients and expands capacity. The digital revolution in client experience has crept into wealth management. Clients, now accustomed to a fully-digital experience in retail banking, discount brokerage and online shopping, are expecting a similarly streamlined, digital experience from the wealth management firm. The challenge, however, is that many wealth managers have not taken steps to match their clients’ user experience with the client’s expectations. Furthermore, the barriers to entry can create a disadvantage for wealth management RIAs who compete with deep-pocketed national brokerage firms and digital-first robo-advisors. We hope this publication will offer readers perspectives on the tools available to RIA firms. Digital transformation need not be time-consuming or expensive, but it should happen soon. The risk of failing to modernize the technology stack is formidable and cannot be ignored.

Embracing change, seizing opportunity For those RIA wealth managers who make a commitment to a lasting future of serving clients, the opportunities abound. In some cases, a change of mindset may be an important first step. Consider cybersecurity. For any fiduciary handling sensitive client information, protection of data takes top priority. Historically, data protection amounted to locking file cabinets and office burglar alarms. Now, however, although many RIAs have already modernized their approaches to cybersecurity, they still face threats from more sophisticated criminal actors. To serve clients prudently, RIAs must continuously upgrade their systems to stay ahead of the risks. Clients also expect their RIAs to support them in a wider range of financial services than ever before. For the most part, active management of a securities portfolio continues to be the primary reason why a client engages an RIA. But more robust offerings and ancillary services are migrating into the client’s base level of expectations. Alternative investments of all types have flourished and many high net worth clients turn to their RIA wealth manager for guidance, pressuring the RIA to raise their analysis of such products and access to them. New investment products are only one of the new areas that RIA clients ask about. It’s common for RIAs now to support their clients with tax strategies, estate planning or charitable giving. With the proliferation of demand for new products and services, RIA firms need to optimize their methods through technology. The RIA firms that will thrive in this transformative era are those that recognize change not as a threat, but as an opportunity to excel. By strategically embracing technology, expanding service offerings, and maintaining an unwavering focus on client outcomes, forward-thinking RIAs can position themselves for sustainable growth in an increasingly competitive landscape.

Manny Favetta

Perspectives and showcases

Featured in this report are Showcases covering:

We’ve structured this report into Industry Perspectives and Showcases, contributed by a range of expert participants from around the US wealth management sector.

• • • • • •

Each Industry Perspective offers an expert view on a key challenge or opportunity facing RIAs in the United States. They include outlooks on independence, organic growth, new client categories, branding and marketing for RIAs, emerging investment categories, and the needs of multigenerational family clients. Each Showcase, meanwhile, is intended to focus on a specific Topic, plus a Solution entry which highlights the contributing firm’s supporting technology offering. The overall contribution of each firm features a Topic and a Solution, and both together should educate the reader on an aspect of future-readiness that they may consider for their business.

Advisor productivity Revenue management Technology acquisition Operations transformation Simplified compliance Collaborative financial planning

We hope that, together, these contributions can illuminate, inspire, and provoke new thinking within the RIA sector. Thank you for reading.

The RIA firms that will thrive in this transformative era are those that recognize change not as a threat, but as an opportunity to excel.

Editorial Series

Toolkit Reports 2024/2025

The Toolkit Report Series covers thematic, geography, and wealth manager segment-focused reports, each tasked with delving into the topics and supporting technologies of relevance to help wealth managers of all types better understand how they should bring technology into their business and in which areas.

Interested in featuring in our Toolkit reports? Get in touch to discover more details and secure your place.

Client Experience Toolkit 2024

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Focused on client experience trends in wealth management, our first Toolkit report found heightened expectations, new client segments, evolving needs, diverse market propositions, and a technologyenabled client experience.

Our AI Toolkit 2025 explores how Artificial Intelligence is reshaping the future of wealth management, driving innovation across advisory, investment, and client service models.

With 11 showcases, the CX Toolkit 2024 highlighted the trends and solutions influencing the successful delivery of client experience in wealth management. >

With 16 articles contributed by industry participants including wealth managers, vendors, and financial services-focused consultants, the report focuses on the AI-driven trends and technologies that are transforming our industry.

Our first Toolkit to focus on a specific geographic market, the UK Toolkit 2025 focuses on wealth management in the United Kingdom. Featuring 14 contributions from a variety of partipants across the sector, the report covers the headline drivers of change in this market, and some of the ways in which wealth managers can bring technology into their businesses to drive efficiency, support change, and open new clients. >

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FUTURE VIEW TOOLKIT 2025 Showcasing technology offerings focused on future-proofing the wealth management industry. >

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SCENE SETTER

Data Insights Welcome to our Data Insights section. This is intended to provide a curated collection of relevant insights and data points that provide an empirical foundation for the insights that follow in this report. We highlight below the trends shaping the RIA segment in the United States, and the challenges and opportunities RIAs face in responding to them.

A portrait of the RIA segment today Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) have become one of the most consequential and dynamic segments of the US wealth management landscape. Approximately 15,000 SEC-registered wealth management RIA firms are collectively advising US$130 trillion in assets, on behalf of an estimated 65 million clients – underscoring both the scale of the market and its central role in both household and institutional finance.

Client demand is similarly diverse. RIAs serve a broad range of constituencies, from mass-affluent retail investors to HNW families, as well as institutional clients such as pensions and endowments, and employer-sponsored retirement plans. Increasingly, RIAs' value proposition extends well beyond investment management alone. In addition to portfolio construction and asset allocation, many firms now offer comprehensive financial planning, tax and estate coordination, insurance integration, business succession planning, and – at the UHNW level – family office-style services. These emerging value propositions – and what they mean for RIA practice today – inform several of the Industry Perspectives and Showcases you can find in this Toolkit.

Increasingly, RIAs' value proposition extends well beyond investment management alone.

The industry is also being reshaped by a range of powerful trends. One of these is consolidation and M&A, which has accelerated dramatically as private equity firms and strategic buyers target RIAs for their recurring revenues, high margins, and sticky client relationships. Technology adoption, too, is redefining both client experience and advisor productivity – with digital client portals, advanced planning software, and increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) tools leading the way. These technologies, too, are fascinatingly explored by the contributors to this Toolkit in the pages that follow. Compliance with regulatory requirements is a fundamental obligation for RIA firms. SEC-registered RIAs are subject to ongoing disclosure and compliance requirements, including Form ADV filings that detail fees, services, and potential conflicts of interest. Current regulatory focus areas – such as cybersecurity, custody rules, AI-driven advice, and ESG disclosures – add complexity to the task before RIAs. But they also reinforce the credibility of the fiduciary duty which is a core and valued differentiator that distinguishes the RIA channel from other types of wealth managers. The RIA market is large, it is fast-growing, and it is increasingly influential – but its structural transformation is still an ongoing story. Scale, technology, talent, and trust are emerging as the decisive factors determining which firms will thrive in its evolution still to come.

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Further down the scale, we see the mid-size RIAs that manage between US$1 billion and US$50 billion, which have established themselves as regional leaders, or as specialists serving high net worth (HNW) or ultra-high net worth (UHNW) clients. Finally, a very large number of relatively small firms – roughly 90 percent of the total number of firms – manage less than US$1 billion, often operating as boutique practices with niche client bases and highly personalized service models.

US RIA Toolkit 2025

But although the industry remains highly fragmented in terms of the sheer number of firms, it is increasingly concentrated by assets. A relatively small number of very large firms now manage a disproportionate share of total regulatory assets under management (AUM), many individually managing more than US$50 billion. It is these firms that are reshaping the competitive landscape through acquisitions, private equity backing, and brand-driven national expansion.

FEATURED

Market topics For this portrait of the RIA segment in 2026, we’ve examined the following six topics in greater detail.

The hyper-personalization era Page 17

Solving the talent gap through technology Page 18

RegTech and the future of compliance Page 19

The democratization of alternative investments Page 20

The technology-powered M&A boom Page 21

The changing landscape

Clients

Regulation

Market

Operations

Products

Custody

Page 22

TOPIC 01 Clients – the hyper-personalization era How AI is redefining client engagement for the modern RIA

To meet this demand, firms are increasingly turning to AI-driven relationship management. According to a recent survey from Wipro of US wealth management executives, 70 percent of extensive AI users acknowledge the technology’s role in enhancing engagement, and 65 percent of firms expect AI to significantly transform client relationship management within just the next two years. This transformation is also bridging the generational divide. While common stereotypes suggest older clients prefer analog interactions, 53 percent of Baby Boomers have expressed a willingness to communicate electronically according to CapIntel. This aligns with the 73 percent of Millennials who favor digital channels and video meetings. To remain competitive, RIAs must offer a diverse, tech-enabled communication suite that meets clients where they are.

To remain competitive, RIAs must offer a diverse, tech-enabled communication suite that meets clients where they are.

In this new landscape, the human advisor acts as a chief designer, using AI to handle the precision assembly of personalized financial lives.

US RIA Toolkit 2025

The demand for this shift is undeniable. Recent research from CapIntel shows that 90 percent of investors, regardless of their age or wealth bracket, prefer a personalized investment proposal over a standardized one. Among Baby Boomers specifically, 80 percent prioritize advice that is tied to their unique, individual goals.

The ultimate goal of these tools is predictive personalization. By leveraging platforms that translate spending, income, and behavioral data into timely portfolio ‘nudges’, advisors can increase both client retention and their share of the client's wallet.

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The RIA industry is currently undergoing a foundational pivot. We are moving away from standardized, ’one-size-fits-all’ investment models toward a world of hyper-personalized, tech-enabled engagement. For the modern advisor, AI is no longer a futuristic concept; it is the primary catalyst enabling customized advice at a scale previously reserved only for the UHNW segment.

TOPIC 02 Operations – solving the talent gap through technology

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Automation and the transition to the 'smart factory' RIA

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The RIA industry is facing a double-pronged challenge: a looming shortage of 100,000 advisors combined with persistent fee compression. To survive, firms must transition from traditional ‘artisan workshops’ – where every task is manual – to ‘high-tech smart factories’. The key to this transition lies in operations technology and workflow orchestration. Currently, the administrative burden on advisors is a significant drain on growth. According to AdvicePay’s 2025 Fee-for-Service Industry Trend Report, advisors dedicate an average of 11 hours per week to manual tasks, such as meeting transcription and note-taking. This is why 92 percent of firms are now adopting AI to automate these processes. The objective is clear: offload the ‘back office’ weight to AI so human advisors can focus on high-value relationship management. True efficiency is driven by a well-connected ecosystem. According to AdvicePay, nearly half of all advisors (49 percent) plan to invest in productivity tools, focusing on integrating customer relationship management systems (CRMs) with billing and financial planning software. These integrations ensure a seamless data flow that eliminates redundant data entry. We see the power of this scalability in specialized sectors like cash management and billing. Cloud-native API architectures have allowed some institutions to cut manual cash-management processing by 90 percent, according to Mordor Intelligence research, even while managing thousands of clients. Similarly, implementing specialized billing technology has led to a 27 percent reduction in manual paperwork for some firms. By automating these operational hurdles, firms are successfully pivoting their staff toward revenuegenerating activities.

To survive, firms must transition from traditional 'artisan workshops' – where every task is manual – to 'high-tech smart factories'.

TOPIC 03 Regulation – RegTech and the future of compliance

However, a shift is occurring as RegTech evolves into a strategic efficiency driver. RIAs are moving away from antiquated ’spot-checking’ methods and toward AI-powered monitoring systems that provide realtime oversight.

The regulatory environment is only becoming more complex. The SEC’s 2025 Internet Adviser Rule and upcoming anti money-laundering (AML) directives are driving up compliance costs, forcing firms to adopt AI guidelines that include automated bias testing and ‘explainability’. This is not just about following the law; it is about ethical governance.

The scale of this disruption is significant. Approximately 44 percent of firms report seeing major AI-driven changes in their compliance departments, according to Wipro research. This shift is necessary to meet intensifying regulatory standards from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

Currently, 68 percent of firms are proactively focusing on the ethical considerations of their AI implementations to manage the risks of biased or discriminatory outputs, according to Wipro's research. This research also found that, although 55 percent. of users identify evolving regulatory standards as a top barrier to AI adoption, those who embrace AI-driven compliance are finding they can navigate these hurdles with greater speed and less risk than their peers.

For example, traditional spot-checks often cover only a tiny fraction of a firm’s financial plans, leaving the business exposed to significant audit risks. Modern compliance modules, by contrast, enable the real-time review of every plan generated.

Approximately 44% of firms report seeing major AI-driven changes in their compliance departments.

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Compliance has traditionally been viewed as a defensive necessity – a cost center that slows down innovation.

US RIA Toolkit 2025

From reactive spot-checks to AI-powered and real-time monitoring

TOPIC 04 Products – the democratization of alternative investments

US RIA Toolkit 2025

Using technology to scale alternatives and tax alpha

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For decades, complex investment strategies like private credit and direct indexing were the exclusive domain of the ultra-wealthy. Today, technology is democratizing these products, lowering minimums and simplifying the administrative burden for the broader RIA market. Private credit has firmly entered the mainstream for RIAs. According to a recent RIA Private Credit Usage Survey published by Alternative Fund Advisors, 62 percent of firms allocate to this asset class, with interval funds serving as the primary vehicle for 64 percent of large RIAs. This shift is supported by alternative asset managers, 93 percent of which now view the independent wealth community as a strategic priority, according to a 2025 survey of alternative asset managers conducted by CAIS. Platforms such as CAIS, iCapital, and YieldStreet are essential to this growth, allowing advisors to offer private debt and equity to retail clients with ease. Beyond asset classes, technology is enabling ‘tax alpha’ as a key differentiator. Tax-loss harvesting engines can add between one and two percentage points of net returns for affluent retail accounts – a massive competitive advantage in a fee-compressed environment. AI is also playing a role in how these products are managed. Some of the most-utilized AI insights today include ‘tax-loss harvesting’ alerts and the identification of underperforming products. These tools allow advisors to proactively optimize portfolios during market volatility, ensuring that complex products deliver maximum value without requiring constant manual oversight.

Private credit has firmly entered the mainstream for RIAs.

TOPIC 05 Market – the technology-powered M&A boom

According to Fidelity, private equity-backed ‘integrator’ firms now execute 60 percent of total industry transactions. These firms look for targets with modern infrastructure that can be seamlessly absorbed. In the third quarter of 2025 alone, investors announced 40 WealthTech transactions, highlighting a preference for acquiring modern infrastructure – such as instant account opening and frictionless custody – rather than attempting to build these features from scratch. A major driver for this consolidation is the institutionalization of client assets. Data from McKinsey shows that 32 percent of investors will switch firms when their individual advisor retires. To mitigate this risk, acquirers are using technology and ‘teaming’ models to shift client trust from the individual personality to the firm itself. By utilizing a unified, automated back office, these larger firms can absorb smaller practices without a corresponding increase in overhead. In this environment, an RIA's tech stack is no longer just a tool for advisors; it is a core component of the firm's enterprise value.

Investors are no longer just buying assets; they are buying scalable technology.

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The RIA M&A market is reaching unprecedented heights according to Fidelity's most recent biannual M&A review. H1 2025 was the strongest start to a year on record, with 132 transactions totaling US$182.7 billion in assets. As private equity continues to dominate the space – backing 100 percent of the top 20 RIA acquirers – the criteria for a ‘premium’ valuation have shifted. Investors are no longer just buying assets; they are buying scalable technology.

US RIA Toolkit 2025

Why unified tech stacks are driving record valuations

TOPIC 06 Custody – the changing landscape

US RIA Toolkit 2025

Moving from legacy silos to digital-first ecosystems

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A new generation of API-driven, ‘digital-first’ ecosystems is challenging the traditional custody model. As RIAs demand more flexibility and faster integration, the industry is moving away from legacy, siloed architectures that have historically constrained growth. We are seeing significant movement from large incumbents to meet this tech-native competition. For instance, State Street’s acquisition of a FinTech solutions provider was specifically designed to integrate fractional trading, APIs, and instant account opening. The goal is to deliver institutional-grade services to HNW individuals without the friction of old-school systems. The entry of tech-native disruptors is also accelerating. Robinhood’s entry into the RIA custody space, through its acquisition of TradePMR which added US$40 billion in assets under administration (AUA), signals a clear shift toward capturing younger, tech-savvy investors and the advisors who serve them. These modern firms are built on cloud-native infrastructure, allowing RIAs to plug robo-advisory modules or real-time rebalancing tools directly into the core without needing a wholesale system rewrite. The shift is ultimately toward front-to-back automation. Major partnerships, such as the collaboration between Envestnet and FNZ, are focused on integrating modern platforms that give advisors greater visibility into client finances through digital automation.

In this new landscape, the ‘custodian’ is no longer just a place to hold assets; it is a high-speed connectivity hub that powers the entire advisory firm.

The shift is ultimately toward front-to-back automation.

As these insights show, the RIA operating model is being rebuilt from the ground up. Rather than incremental improvement, the industry is experiencing intense structural change driven by technology that is now applied across the full advisory lifecycle. At the client level, hyper-personalization has transitioned from aspiration to expectation. AI-enabled engagement tools now allow advisors to anticipate needs, tailor communication, and deliver goal-based insights continuously, not episodically. Firms that combine digital interaction with human judgment successfully will set a new baseline for client retention, wallet share, and multi-generational relevance, which their competitors will have to reach. Operationally, RIAs are increasingly employing technological responses to challenges such as talent scarcity and economic pressures. Automation, workflow orchestration, and system integration are prompting higher advisor productivity. That, in turn, is reallocating human efforts toward relationship management, business development, complex planning , and other areas in which human advisors create the greatest value. The industry’s embrace of RegTech is redefining its approach to compliance. Retrospective reviews are rapidly becoming a thing of the past, replaced by AIdriven monitoring and real-time oversight–reducing exposure while increasing consistency and transparency.

As regulatory scrutiny intensifies around AI use itself, together with greater attention to cybersecurity and disclosure, firms that embed governance and explainability into their technology stacks will be better positioned to innovate without triggering compliance concerns. The M&A environment underscores how central technology has become to enterprise value. Acquirers are prioritizing firms with unified and modern infrastructures that can be integrated quickly and scaled efficiently. Here, technology is not just an enabler of growth. It determines valuation, succession outcomes, and a firm’s long-term durability. Finally, the custody function is evolving into a digital backbone for advisory firms. API-driven, cloud-native custody ecosystems now enable faster account onboarding, real-time data access, and seamless integration with third-party applications. Through this, we see innovation unlocking across the entire advisory stack. Tomorrow’s RIA market will not be defined by any single technology or trend, but by the coherence of its ecosystem. Firms that intentionally align client experience, operations, compliance, product offerings, corporate strategy, and custody around a modern and integrated technological foundation will be best positioned to compete, and to lead, in the days and years to come.

www.thewealthmosaic.com

Summary

United Kingdom Toolkit 2025

DATA INSIGHTS

Editorial collection

WealthTech Landscape Reports Our WealthTech Landscape Reports cover all key wealth management geographies. Each report provides the reader with a compelling mix of thought leadership, solution showcases, and Solution Provider Directory highlights designed to provide our wealth management and vendor community with a modern and insightful knowledge resource for its technology and related business needs.

Interested in reading in the report? Click below to read and download. >

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UK WealthTech Swiss WealthTech Landscape Report Landscape Report 2023 2024

US WealthTech Landscape Report 2024

Revealing the technology topics and trends facing the UK wealth management market, with 16 articles on WealthTech-related themes that showcase the depth, breadth, and growing range of technology and related solution providers.

Providing valuable perspectives on how technology is transforming the wealth management industry in the United States — from the latest innovations to how firms can leverage technology to enhance client engagement, streamline operations, and comply with regulatory demands.

Highlighting the most relevant and innovative technology topics and trends impacting Switzerland's wealth management market.

Featuring over 20 thought-provoking articles on contemporary themes, the report focuses on client experience, Features sections dedicated to the the wealth management offering, and client, the adviser, and the business, the external asset manager, as well as well as a full A-Z solution provider as offering a full A-Z Solution Provider directory for the United Kingdom. Directory for the Swiss marketplace.

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EUROPEAN WTLR 2025 Focused on the technology themes shaping the European wealth management marketplace >

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US RIA Toolkit 2026

INDUSTRY

www.thewealthmosaic.com

Perspectives This series of industry perspectives explores how RIAs are navigating an environment shaped by consolidation, technological acceleration, evolving client expectations, and a growing demand for differentiated value.

Independence is being redefined. Scale, capital, and professionalization are reshaping what it means to be an RIA, challenging firms to balance autonomy with efficiency, growth with purpose, and fiduciary ideals with commercial realities. At the same time, advisors are being pushed to think beyond traditional playbooks – whether for organic growth, branding, investment solutions, or client engagement.

We also see a broader expansion of the advisory role. Serving underserved communities, supporting families across generations, and helping clients articulate purpose alongside wealth – these are no longer niche pursuits. They are strategic opportunities for firms seeking relevance and longevity. Differentiation today is built as much on experience, values, and trust as it is on portfolio construction.

Technology is essential to many of these discussions, not as a standalone solution, but as an enabler of better outcomes. From AI-driven workflows and data-driven marketing. to platforms that support personalization, multigenerational planning, and alternative investments, digital infrastructure is increasingly central to how RIAs compete and serve.

We hope you enjoy this multidimensional view of where the RIA market is headed. It highlights both the opportunities and the tensions of a maturing industry, and invites advisors, executives, and stakeholders to think more intentionally about how they grow, whom they serve, and what kind of firms they are building for the next decade.

Welcome to the RIAhouse

Beyond referrals: the smart advisor’s path to scalable organic growth

The more things change, the more things stay the same.

Embracing the platform mentality.

By Amit Dogra, Serial Entrepreneur, Investor

By Abby Salameh, CGO at RFG Advisory

Building an inclusive financial advisory practice

Why RIAs need a complete branded marketing ecosystem to compete in 2026 and beyond

The business case for serving IDD clients.

Flipping the branding model.

By Ann Hynek, Founder & CEO at Hestia Wealth & Wellness

By Kevin Johnston, Founder of Invstly

RIA demand is spurring a record year for the interval fund market

Serving multigenerational families

How accelerating interval fund launches, growing sponsor diversity, and rising demand for daily NAV funds are creating momentum in this exciting alternative investment vehicle.

How families can protect wealth, legacy, and purpose across generations.

By Kimberly Flynn, CFA, President at XA Investments

The RIA market keeps on rockin’ Here’s why the future has never looked brighter – with a bit of classic rock. By Michael Partnow, Strategic Advisor at The Wealth Mosaic

By Harmon Kong, CFP, AIF, Founding Director at Apriem Advisors

1 Welcome to the RIAhouse The more things change, the more things stay the same

US RIA Toolkit 2026

By Amit Dogra, Serial Entrepreneur, Investor

www.thewealthmosaic.com

Independence, once the defining advantage of the Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) movement, is quietly being repackaged and resold as a different kind of corporate model. The independent investmentadvisory industry that promised autonomy, local relationships, and boutique client service has, at scale, produced firms that look and act a lot like the wirehouses that advisors once fled. The irony is stark: ‘independence’ now often means joining a large, branded, and centralized organization with private-equity owners, standardized platforms, and acquisition-driven growth strategies — not the small, doctoring-your-own-practice freedom many advisors imagined. Scale brings benefits: better technology budgets, institutional research, and compliance infrastructure. But it also brings the same incentives that created wirehouses: predictable revenue, brand leverage, cross-selling, and centralized product selection. As RIAs continue to grow and evolve, that level of scale enables corporate-style departments for marketing, investment management, HR, legal, and compliance–exactly the organizational model wirehouses use. And so, we are seeing the dawn of new category: the RIAhouse.

How we got here What accelerated this transformation was the attention that the RIA market received from industry outsiders. Private equity inserted itself into the industry, providing growth capital for large RIAs — and that changed both behaviors and incentives. Private-equity has been involved in roughly two-thirds of disclosed wealth-management deals in recent years, and private equity buyers accounted for a substantial share of transactions and aggregated assets under management (AUM) — a flow of capital that favors roll-ups, platform-building, and governance structures optimized for exit events or back-end incentives. When private capital is behind the balance sheet, independence gets weighed against scale and return-oncapital, and operating decisions begin to echo corporate playbooks. A client-centric, purely fiduciary-minded model now becomes a corporate institution answering to its shareholders, not its clients. The RIAhouse is real: it is diluting what independence once was and what it was always meant to be. One company executive from a large hybrid platform told me, that he could argue that a wirehouse is independent and not that different than an RIA. With the way the industry is evolving, there really is not that much difference between a wirehouse, an independent broker-dealer (IBD), a hybrid, or an RIAhouse. Another demographic pressure fuels the corporate tilt. The industry faces a looming talent and succession wave: an estimated 110,000 advisors, roughly 38 percent of the current advisor base and representing some 42 percent of industry assets, are expected to retire in the coming decade. That creates a seller’s market for large platforms offering retirement options for founders. The RIAhouse positions itself as the reliable legacy option: it buys practices, standardize client service, and folds the smaller RIA into its business. In other words, a lack of succession and probably more importantly, a lack of ability to monetize an advisor’s life work, often drives the route away from boutique independence toward corporate consolidation.

There is a cultural implication too. Advisors who once left wirehouses for autonomy now find themselves in environments where brand and process trample local culture. Firms that resemble corporations in governance and incentive design are those which cultivate career ladders, performance metrics, and cross-selling goals. The friendly image of the small fiduciary practice, where an advisor who knows your kids’ names and plans your estate, is harder to maintain when teams of specialists and standardized workflows become the dominant operating model.

How to safeguard independence If independence is to mean something distinct going forward, advisors and clients need more clarity and honesty. Transparency about ownership, product economics, and the degree of centralized control should be non-negotiable. When a firm brands itself ‘independent’, then, clients should be able to see whether a private-equity sponsor, aggregator, or national brand controls key decisions. Disclosure of product sourcing, revenue-sharing, and how model-portfolio decisions are made would let clients decide whether they prefer boutique autonomy or corporate efficiency. Regulators and trade associations also have a role. The SEC’s improved data transparency has helped everyone see the transformation underway, but industry standards for labeling and disclosure around aggregator relationships and private-equity ownership, would reduce marketing opacity. Professional groups should develop ‘independence scores’ or guidelines that help clients and advisors evaluate whether a firm is truly advisor-owned and locally governed or part of a national, sponsor-backed platform.

The independent advisory revolution promised a return to client-first, boutique service. The RIA movement has been celebrated as the antidote to the wirehouse ecosystem — a place where advisors could break free from rigid corporate structures, restrictive platforms, sales quotas, and bureaucratic oversight. ‘Independence’ was not just a business model; it was a cultural identity. It symbolized professional autonomy, entrepreneurial freedom, and the ability to serve clients without the constraints of a massive institution looming overhead. But today, the irony is unavoidable. The rise of the RIAhouse has transformed independence from a grassroots ideal into a corporate enterprise. And along the way, many advisors are finding that independence–at least as it is often marketed–may be more illusion than reality. Goodbye independence, it was nice knowing you.

Amit Dogra Serial Entrepreneur, Investor

www.thewealthmosaic.com

How are they different from private equity firms? Their main focus is not on efficiencies and synergies. Their main focus is on the advisor/client relationship, concentrating the highest and best use of capital for that relationship, not just margin expansion. Two things can be true at the same time, and that is where the investerator can make meaningful impact and growth in an advisor’s business.

US RIA Toolkit 2026

But they are not the only ones who have a role. It’s up to the advisors to not ‘sell out’ and the time for alternative capital partners is now. ‘Investerators’ need to step up and step forward as the better option, an aligned option, for advisors. What is an investerator? It is growth operators from within the advisory business backed by capital. Investerators view the business as advisors do, but bring the pragmatic business approach many advisors lack.

2 Beyond referrals: the smart advisor’s path to scalable organic growth Embracing the platform mentality

US RIA Toolkit 2026

By Abby Salameh, Chief Growth Officer at RFG Advisory

www.thewealthmosaic.com

Technology is fundamentally reshaping how financial advisors drive organic growth. By leveraging digital innovations — from artificial intelligence (AI) to communication and marketing platforms — forwardthinking advisors can unlock new efficiencies, deepen client relationships, and open up scalable opportunities for business expansion in today’s competitive financial services market. In an industry that was built on a premise of client referrals for growth, much is changing that will disrupt this old method. The next generation of wealth is much more tech-savvy, presenting an opportunity for financial advisors with a ‘platform-ready mentality’ to get a head start on acquiring new client assets. These advisors will have a clear advantage over those who that are not embracing the new approach to driving growth and engagement.

Efficiency through automation Automated technology is streamlining workflows that once consumed valuable time. Tasks such as document management, account setup, compliance requirements, note-taking, follow-up tasks, and portfolio rebalancing can now be handled by sophisticated platforms, liberating advisors to focus on building relationships and identifying growth opportunities. By removing administrative bottlenecks, advisors can serve existing clients better and retain bandwidth to prospect for new ones, fueling organic growth. Furthermore, automations and workflows that were once reserved for the most seasoned marketing professionals and marketing agencies can now be built quickly and efficiently within many modern platforms available to financial advisors. These modern, agile, and AI-powered platforms make relationship nurturing, hyper-personalization, and content creation easier than ever. But organic growth won’t happen on its own. It is only with intention and careful execution that an advisor will see an outsized impact on new client assets.

Centralizing data with CRM Systems Customer relationship management (CRM) platforms are central to sale enablement, which includes the tools, resources, training and technology needed to engage prospects. The combination of sales enablement and digital marketing platforms gives financial advisors a holistic view of prospect information, interaction histories, and preferences. This centralized data, stored within the CRM, allows for personalized strategies and enables advisors to deliver timely, relevant content. Insights drawn from CRM data help prioritize outreach, deepen engagement, and support sales efforts, all of which are vital for organic growth.

Fostering competitive differentiation Technology is more than just a tool — it is a catalyst for differentiation in a market where financial advice can be commoditized. Firms that invest in digital innovation can expand their value proposition by integrating personalized advice and unique client experiences, setting themselves apart from competitors. By lessening administrative burdens, technology lets advisors spend more time on what clients value most — trusted relationships and insightful counsel.

AI is revolutionizing how financial advisors approach growth. You cannot go one day without seeing a new tool leveraging AI that is designed to help financial advisors either grow their business or engage deeper with their existing clients. By analyzing patterns in vast datasets, AI delivers predictive insights about a prospect’s or a client’s behavior and market trends, helping advisors identify high-potential prospects and tailor their sales approaches. AI-driven marketing automation and lead intelligence can lower acquisition costs and allow firms to target broader markets programmatically. The result: advisors can scale assets under management (AUM) without a proportional increase in staff. For example: if an advisor leverages an AI-enabled digital marketing platform that also includes sales enablement resources, such as specific campaigns that target a niche market; the advisor will be able to consistently nurture that niche and automate outreach and engagement with that audience through a variety of pathways that change based on the prospect’s behavior with the content or outreach. Lead scoring (the process of assigning a score to different behaviors) will help the advisor know which prospect has the highest degree of certainty of becoming a client.

Enhanced communication tools

The path to organic growth lies in adopting a ‘platform mentality’ — digitally connecting every element of the business so that one efficient action triggers the next. As generational trends, evolving client expectations, and talent shortages converge, advisors who embrace technology position themselves to thrive in a rapidlychanging landscape. The combination of people, technology, and processes are pivotal in facilitating this transformation, helping financial advisors leverage CRM, AI, automation, and data analytics solutions to optimize workflows and client success. By working together to harness the power of digital tools, they drive organic growth, futureproof practices, and create richer client outcomes. In essence, the intersection of technology and sales is empowering financial advisors to scale smarter, compete effectively, and deliver greater value to clients, setting the foundation for lasting, organic growth in financial services. At RFG Advisory, we are embracing the platform mentality and providing the tools, resources, and the actual execution for our network of advisors — resulting in strong, double-digit organic growth. The combination of strategic coaching, advisor growth services, and marketing teams, delivers a powerful combination of concierge-level support.

In addition to the marketing platforms, modern communication platforms — such as video conferencing, secure messaging, and chatbots — have redefined advisor-client interactions. These tools can facilitate real-time, compliant exchanges, allowing for efficient collaboration and quick response to client needs. As integrated digital touchpoints multiply, they can support advisors in delivering an experience that builds trust and loyalty, essential for organic growth in wealth management.

Measuring and optimizing performance Advanced analytics empower advisors to gauge the success of their strategies and campaigns. Datadriven reports reveal engagement trends, campaign effectiveness, and areas that need adjustment. This continuous feedback loop can ensure resources are allocated for maximum impact, enabling advisors to refine tactics proactively and drive sustainable growth.

Abby Salameh Chief Growth Officer, RFG Advisory

www.thewealthmosaic.com

The predictive power of AI

Future Toolkit US RIAView Toolkit 20262025

Embracing the future

3 Building an inclusive financial advisory practice The business case for serving IDD clients

US RIA Toolkit 2026

By Ann Hynek, Founder and CEO of Hestia Wealth & Wellness

www.thewealthmosaic.com

While many financial advisory practices chase the same demographic of high-net-worth clients, a substantial and underserved market remains largely overlooked: individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). It’s not just a matter of social responsibility, but a strategic business opportunity that forward-thinking advisors are beginning to recognize.

The compelling business case A significant and growing market: approximately 61 million adults in the United States live with a disability, representing roughly 26 percent of the adult population. The neurodivergent community, including individuals with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and other cognitive differences, represents an estimated 15 to 20 percent of the population. Meanwhile, roughly 7.4 million Americans have IDD. These communities control substantial assets and face unique financial planning needs that require specialized guidance. Many of these individuals receive structured settlements, especially in the event case of medical malpractice or another event that caused longterm impairment. Other sources of income include inheritance funds, government benefits, or employment earnings. They need advisors who understand the intersection of disability benefits, special needs trusts, Achieve a Better Life Experience (ABLE) accounts, and traditional wealth management. Unfortunately, few practices offer this expertise. Higher client retention: when advisors take the time to create truly accessible and welcoming practices, curating bespoke experiences through customized onboarding and platforms, plus high-touch service, they earn extraordinary client loyalty. Families that have struggled to find competent and respectful financial guidance can become some of the most dedicated clients. They refer siblings, extended family, and friends within disability communities. This word-of-mouth marketing in an underserved niche can become a powerful growth engine.

Families which have struggled to find competent and respectful financial guidance can become some of the most dedicated clients.

Differentiation in a crowded market: as financial advice becomes increasingly commoditized, specialization offers a competitive advantage. Advisors who develop expertise in disability financial planning stand out. This specialization can attract media attention, speaking opportunities, and professional recognition that elevates the entire practice.

Understanding unique needs Before implementing changes, advisors must understand what makes these clients' needs distinct. Individuals with disabilities may be navigating benefits programs like SSI or SSDI with strict asset limits. They may need special needs trusts to preserve benefit eligibility while still planning for their future. Neurodivergent clients might prefer communication styles that differ from traditional advisory methods — some may want detailed written summaries rather than verbal explanations, or benefit from visual presentations of complex information. The key is recognizing that disability is diverse. One client with autism may have completely different communication preferences to another. Someone with an intellectual disability may have full capacity to make their own financial decisions with appropriate support, while others may work through guardians or supported decision-making arrangements. The most effective growth tactic is to have a foundational workflow and process that is easily customizable to each client’s needs.

Practical implementation strategies Begin with a physical accessibility audit: •

Is your office wheelchair-accessible?

•

Do you have clear signage?

•

Is your waiting area sensory-friendly, with options for quiet spaces and adjustable lighting?

These modifications benefit all clients while making your practice genuinely welcoming to people with disabilities. Extend accessibility to your digital presence: •

Ensure your website meets accessibility standards with screen reader compatibility, adequate color contrast, and keyboard navigation.

•

Offer documents in multiple formats, including large-print and plain-language versions.

www.thewealthmosaic.com

Multigenerational relationship opportunities: serving clients with disabilities often means building relationships with entire family systems. Parents planning for their child's financial future, siblings who may serve as future trustees, and extended family members all become part of the advisory relationship. One client can expand into multiple households, each with their own financial planning needs.

US RIA Toolkit 2026

Roughly 7.4 million Americans have IDD. These communities control substantial assets and face unique financial planning needs that require specialized guidance.

Train your entire team

US RIA Toolkit 2026

Disability competence isn't just for advisors. It's for everyone who interacts with clients. Invest in disability etiquette training for all staff. Teach your team to address clients directly rather than speaking through companions, to ask about communication preferences rather than making assumptions, and to use person-first or identity-first language that is based on individual preferences.

www.thewealthmosaic.com

Consider bringing in consultants from disability communities to provide authentic training. Their lived experience offers insights that generic training programs cannot match.

Flexible communication options Offer multiple communication channels and be explicit about these options. Some clients may prefer email over phone calls, text messages over in-person meetings, or video calls that allow them to participate from comfortable environments. Be willing to conduct meetings in alternative locations if your office presents barriers. Provide meeting materials in advance so clients can review and prepare questions. Use visual aids, flowcharts, and concrete examples to explain abstract concepts. Break complex information into smaller chunks and check for understanding throughout.

Build your knowledge base Develop expertise in the specific financial tools that are relevant to disability planning. Understand how special needs trusts work, the rules governing ABLE accounts, and how asset ownership affects benefit eligibility. Learn about guardianship alternatives, such as supported decision-making, and understand capacity assessments.. Connect with local disability organizations, attend conferences focused on special needs planning, and consider credentials like the Chartered Special Needs Consultant (ChSNC) designation. Build relationships with attorneys who specialize in disability and elder law, and with care managers who work with disabled clients.

Create support systems Recognize that some clients may benefit from having support persons in meetings. Welcome family members, professional advocates, or support staff, while still ensuring the client remains the focus of attention and decision-making. Develop intake processes that identify what support, if any, each client wants. Establish clear processes for working with powers of attorney, guardians, and trustees while still honoring client autonomy to the greatest extent possible.

Disability competence isn't just for advisors. It's for everyone who interacts with clients.

US RIA Toolkit 2026

Moving forward The opportunity to serve neurodivergent, IDD, and disabled clients represents both a business opportunity and a chance to make a genuine difference. These clients need financial guidance just as much as anyone else — perhaps more, given the complexity of navigating disability benefits systems alongside wealth accumulation.

www.thewealthmosaic.com

Starting small is perfectly acceptable. Choose one area to improve each quarter, whether that's accessibility modifications, staff training, or building technical knowledge. Connect with one disability organization in your community. Attend one conference focused on special needs planning. The advisors who embrace this opportunity today are positioning themselves as leaders in an emerging specialty. They're building practices that don't just tolerate diversity but actively celebrate it, creating financial planning experiences that truly work for everyone. In doing so, they are discovering that inclusive practices aren't just good ethics — they are excellent business.

The opportunity to serve neurodivergent, IDD, and disabled clients represents both a business opportunity and a chance to make a genuine difference.

Ann Hynek Founder & CEO

Hestia Wealth & Wellness

www.thewealthmosaic.com 38

US RIA Toolkit 2026

RETIREMENT

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With Moneytree’s premier planning software, you can guide them to their financial summit—and help them carve every turn with confidence.

US RIA Toolkit 2026

They’re planning to fill their golden years with powder days, with bluebird skies and black-diamond memories.

www.thewealthmosaic.com

SCAN TO GET STARTED

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4 Why RIAs need a complete branded marketing ecosystem to compete in 2026 and beyond Flipping the branding model

US RIA Toolkit 2026

By Kevin Johnston, Founder of Invstly

www.thewealthmosaic.com

Most Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) think about brand as a design exercise or marketing project. A logo refresh here, a new website there, maybe some updated pitch materials when assets plateau. But in today’s market, a brand is no longer a set of deliverables. It is the operating system of the firm. And without a unified system behind it, even the most sophisticated RIA will feel fragmented, inconsistent, and harder to trust. As the founder of Invstly, I spend my days inside advisory firms navigating growth, acquisitions, and the push for stronger differentiation. The firms that win are the ones that understand something that is simple but often overlooked: brand is not cosmetic. Brand is infrastructure. And when you build it as a system instead of a collection of assets, everything becomes easier, clearer, and noticeably more efficient.

The problem: fragmentation hiding in plain sight Advisory firms rarely suffer from a lack of effort. They suffer from a lack of cohesion. Over time, even wellrun RIAs accumulate a mix of messaging styles, outdated visuals, disconnected onboarding materials, and advisor teams who each interpret the brand a little differently. Add growth, acquisitions, or new markets, and the fragmentation compounds. This isn’t a branding issue. It’s an experience issue. Clients feel it when the website says one thing, the onboarding packet says another, and the advisor says something else entirely. Prospects feel it when the firm’s digital presence looks more accidental than intentional. Teams feel it when content creation takes too long and marketing becomes a game of internal interpretation rather than execution. None of this is about aesthetics. It’s about credibility. And credibility is the currency that drives growth.

Brand is not cosmetic. Brand is infrastructure.

The solution: a branded marketing ecosystem Invstly’s approach flips the branding model. Instead of treating marketing as a series of one-off deliverables, we build what we call a Branded Marketing Ecosystem. It’s a hub-and-spoke system where brand strategy, messaging, design, and client experience sit at the center, powering every function of the firm. The hub holds the narrative, the visual system, the messaging hierarchy, and the standards that govern how the firm shows up. The spokes are the functional outputs: digital presence, client onboarding, advisor communication, content creation, events, recruiting, and acquisition integration. This structure turns brand from a loose idea into a practical operating system. It gives leaders a strategic lens and gives teams the clarity and tools they need to execute with speed, consistency, and confidence. When every part of the firm speaks the same language, uses the same design logic, and delivers the same level of quality, you don’t just look more polished. You become easier to trust.Agentic AI does not replace human expertise. Instead, it amplifies it by multiplying productivity, strengthening client relationships, and enhancing overall service quality.

What this looks like in practice

And internally, something important happens: the team stops asking “What should this look like?” and starts asking “What should this accomplish?” That is the power of a system.

RIAs today need:

The bottom line

Clarity in the market: A strong brand narrative and design system will help prospects understand your value faster and more clearly.

A logo doesn’t build trust. A website doesn’t build trust. A mission statement doesn’t build trust.

Consistency across teams: Advisors need tools and language that make them more effective, not more confused.

Consistency builds trust. Clarity builds trust. A cohesive experience builds trust.

Efficiency in execution: With a system in place, the firm stops reinventing deliverables and starts producing consistent, high-quality work at speed. A stronger client experience: Clients trust advisors who make them feel understood, not overwhelmed. Brand alignment enhances that experience at every touchpoint. The firms that understand this are already ahead. The firms that don’t will struggle to stand out in a sea of sameness.

For RIAs operating in an increasingly competitive and compressed landscape, a complete branded marketing ecosystem is no longer optional. It is the infrastructure that supports differentiation, accelerates execution, and strengthens every advisor and client interaction. If you want a brand that works as hard as you do, you cannot treat branding as a project. You have to build the system behind it.

Where AI extends the system Today’s ecosystem gets even more powerful when it’s reinforced with the right technology. For example, at Invstly, we’ve built proprietary AI tools that turn a firm’s brand guidelines, messaging frameworks, and experience standards into an intelligent operating layer. The goal isn’t to replace the advisor or automate the story. It’s to protect consistency, accelerate workflows, and surface insights that make the firm smarter. When the ecosystem is paired with AI: • • • •

Content creation becomes faster and more reliable. Brand drift disappears. Leaders get visibility. Clients benefit.

The technology is not the hero. It is the quiet engine behind a more integrated ecosystem.

Kevin Johnston Founder

Invstly

kevin@invstly.io

US RIA Toolkit 2026

The RIA landscape is maturing. Differentiation is shrinking. Client expectations are rising. And firms are consolidating faster than they can integrate. In this environment, a cohesive brand is not a luxury. It is a requirement.

www.thewealthmosaic.com

Why this matters more now

When an RIA adopts a branded ecosystem, the shift is immediate and measurable. Websites stop functioning as standalone artifacts and become active marketing and storytelling tools. Content calendars start to look coherent instead of reactive. Client onboarding becomes a branded experience instead of a stack of PDFs. Advisors communicate with more clarity because they have the tools to do it well. Acquisitions integrate faster because the brand becomes the unifying blueprint.

5 RIA demand is spurring a record year for the interval fund market How accelerating interval fund launches, growing sponsor diversity, and rising demand for daily NAV funds are creating momentum in this exciting alternative investment vehicle

US RIA Toolkit 2026

By Kimberly Flynn, CFA President at XA Investments

www.thewealthmosaic.com

Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) are embracing interval funds, and these fast-growing investment vehicles have led the way in the evergreen trend of democratizing alternatives. We have now reached a new peak in the market in interval and tender offer funds (legally speaking, SEC-registered non-listed closed-end funds, or CEFs), with 308 total funds and a combined US$234 billion in net assets as of 30 November 2025. The pace of new fund launches accelerated in the first three quarters of 2025, as 57 brand-new interval funds entered the market. The interval fund market boasts 157 unique fund sponsors, and we observed 19 new fund sponsors, including leading alternative investment firms such as Blue Owl, Coatue and Adams Street Partners. The increasingly popular daily net asset value (NAV) interval fund structure has surpassed the total number of tender offer funds in the market, with 157 interval funds and 151 tender offer funds as of 30 November 2025. Capital raising success for interval and tender offer funds tends to be driven by ease of use via electronic ticketing for financial advisors who are active interval fund users. Despite delays owing to the US federal government shutdown that began at the end of the third quarter, new interval funds are coming soon. There are now 46 new interval and tender offer funds in the SEC registration process as of 30 November 2025. Interval funds spend seven months in registration on average, but the time spent in the SEC registration process will likely increase by up to two months due to the backlog created by the government shutdown – during which initial registration statements for new interval funds were not reviewed, and statements of effectiveness were not issued.

We also observed a few established interval fund sponsors file with the SEC to launch additional private markets evergreen funds in the third quarter. There were also nine new fund sponsors filing their initial prospectuses in the third quarter, including ETF manager ProShares, which is looking to launch its first private equity-focused interval fund. In the first two months of Q4 2025, 11 new interval and tender offer funds filed, six of which were from new fund sponsors. Filings are anticipated to pick back up as things normalize now that the federal government has reopened.

How the interval fund market breaks down

Total Managed Assets($mm)

Number of Funds

Source: XA Investments; CEFData.com; SEC Filings

With more public equity market volatility this year, it is not surprising to see so many new interval fund sponsors enter the marketplace with asset-backed lending funds. Asset-backed loans are secured by collateral that produce attractive cash flows. Investors appreciate the benefits of asset-backed lending in their portfolios because these investments can serve as a buffer against losses experienced during market downturns. With shorter loan durations, asset-backed lending may offer faster capital returns and greater flexibility than corporate loans. The second-largest category of the interval and tender offer fund market is venture capital/ private equity, with 63 total funds and US$62 billion in net assets represented 29 percent of the overall interval/ tender offer fund market at the end of the third quarter. See table below for more information. Current leaders in the private equity space of the interval fund market include Partners Group, Pantheon, StepStone, Cliffwater, Ares, and Hamilton Lane. Notably, the Private Equity subcategory added six new funds and the venture capital sub-category added four funds.

For the first six months of 2025, 58 percent of net flows in Q2 2025 went into interval funds without suitability restrictions, while 11 percent went into funds limited to accredited investors, and 32 percent went into funds limited to qualified clients. Due to varied reporting schedules, the most recent marketwide net flow information for the interval fund market is for the period ended Q2 2025. In aggregate, the top 20 largest interval/ tender offer funds accounted for 38 percent of total net flows, including many of the market leaders such as the Cliffwater Corporate Lending Fund, Partners Group Private Equity, LLC, and ACAP Strategic Fund. In addition, private equity and private credit funds continued to dominate capital raising in the second quarter of 2025, bringing in over US$14 billion in net assets and US$7 billion in net assets respectively. With significant asset growth in both the credit and venture capital/ private equity categories, XAI believes the interval fund market’s trajectory will remain positive, with significant opportunities for expansion in 2026, not only for RIAs but across all of wealth management. With 20 to 25 percent compounded annual growth rates, we anticipate many new interval fund market entrances by both alternative investment managers and traditional asset managers.

Kimberly Flynn, CFA President XA Investments

Future Toolkit US RIAView Toolkit 20262025

Figure 1: Private Credit Categories

Source: XA Investments; CEFData.com; SEC Filings

www.thewealthmosaic.com

The table below shows how the asset-backed lending category stacks up to the other credit sub-categories including multi-strategy credit, loans and direct lending.

Number of Funds

Within private credit, a growing sub-category is assetbacked lending, with 25 active funds in the market today and two funds in the SEC registration process as of the end of the third quarter. Current leaders in the asset-backed lending category of the interval fund market include Cliffwater, Keystone, Federated Hermes, 1WS and KKR.

Total Managed Assets($mm)

Private credit is the largest category of the interval and tender offer fund market, with 112 total funds and US$85 billion in net assets representing approximately 40 percent of the market at the end of the third quarter.

Figure 2: Private Equity Categories

6 Serving multigenerational families How families can protect wealth, legacy, and purpose across generations

US RIA Toolkit 2026

By Harmon Kong, CFP, AIF, Founding Director at Apriem Advisors

www.thewealthmosaic.com

Over the course of my career, one lesson has become increasingly clear. The future of the Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) industry will not be defined solely by investment returns. It will be defined by our ability to serve families across multiple generations, helping them preserve both wealth and the values they care about most. Without thoughtful planning, wealth can erode over time, and the vision families want to pass on can be lost.

Why multigenerational service matters Serving multigenerational families has always been central to what we do at Apriem Advisors. Supporting families through wealth management or accumulation across generations means navigating complex dynamics, from differing risk tolerances and financial literacy levels to evolving family priorities. It is about more than managing assets. It is about helping families to maintain purpose and legacy through thoughtful guidance in areas such as financial planning, tax strategy, estate planning, philanthropy, and governance. Families that engage with a single advisory firm over multiple generations build trust and stability. These relationships are rewarding personally and create long-term client partnerships that benefit both the family and the firm. When younger generations are actively engaged and educated, the continuity of wealth and values is far more likely.

Families that engage with a single advisory firm over multiple generations build trust and stability.

The cost of waiting Without proactive planning, family wealth can diminish over time. I have seen families struggle when governance is unclear, financial literacy is lacking, or communication is inconsistent. The result can be financial loss, family conflict, missed opportunities, and a diluted legacy. RIAs have a unique opportunity to address these challenges. By providing comprehensive planning and education, we can help families make informed decisions that preserve wealth and sustain values across generations. This work goes beyond financial outcomes. It helps families protect what matters most.

Looking ahead for the RIA industry The RIA industry is evolving, and firms that succeed will be those that actively engage the entire family and incorporate their goals and perspectives into financial strategies. Technology will play a key role in this evolution. Digital tools for financial education, reporting, and collaborative planning allow advisors to work efficiently with multiple family members while maintaining transparency and accountability.

My advice for advisors RIAs who want to serve multigenerational families effectively should focus on several key areas: Holistic planning: Incorporate estate, tax, retirement, and philanthropic planning into every multigenerational strategy. Education and engagement: Provide financial literacy tools and guidance to younger family members, strengthening their capacity to grow and preserve family wealth.

US RIA Toolkit 2026

Governance structures: Help families implement frameworks that support decision-making, reduce conflict, fosters accountability, and maintain clarity over wealth transfer. Technology integration: Use digital platforms to streamline communication and reporting across generations. Legacy alignment: Ensure that wealth strategies reflect family values, purpose, and long-term objectives.

The firms that thrive in the years ahead will be those that embrace the responsibility of serving multigenerational families. It is not just about protecting assets. It is about safeguarding legacies, fostering family cohesion, and creating lasting impact.

Firms that succeed will be those that actively engage the entire family and incorporate their goals and perspectives into financial strategies.

These are the principles at the heart of my new book, Values Over Valuables: Daring to Live the Life Money Can't Buy, which explores how families can protect wealth, legacy, and purpose across generations and offers actionable guidance for advisors seeking to support families across generations. At Apriem Advisors, this is the work that drives us every day. By focusing on comprehensive multigenerational planning and engaging families across generations, we help ensure that wealth is preserved and purpose is carried forward. My book captures these strategies and insights in greater detail, providing a roadmap for advisors and families alike. The message is clear. The time to act is now, and the opportunity to make a meaningful difference has never been greater.

Harmon Kong, CFP, AIF Founding Director

Apriem Advisors

www.thewealthmosaic.com

Values over valuables

7 The RIA market keeps on rockin’ Here’s why the future has never looked brighter, with a bit of classic rock By Michael Partnow, Strategic Advisor at The Wealth Mosaic

US RIA Toolkit 2026

This is the time

www.thewealthmosaic.com

“This is the time to remember, 'Cause it will not last forever.” — Billy Joel

Unfortunately, the US government shutdown of autumn 2025 created challenges surrounding the necessary regulatory reviews. Although the conversations did not slow down, the regulatory review process shut down… temporarily. Look for an uptick in M&A activity in the later part of 2026. Markets at all-time highs – “Don’t Stop Me Now” – Queen

Lions and tigers and bears – oh my! The headlines never stop: the geopolitical landscape, regulatory overhauls, tech integrations, too many meetings, too little client time, and the ever-present demand to outperform the market. Noise. More noise. And louder noise. But behind the noise lies opportunity – especially for large Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs), those managing north of US$5 billion in assets.. This is the moment to lean in, to lead, and to grow stronger. As the RIAs rock on, here’s some hit titles that break down the why: Investors: a seller’s market – “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” – the Rolling Stones What was once a niche market has become the market hot spot. Investor demand for independence and transparency is surging – and forward thinking, professionally managed firms are commanding premium valuations. It’s a seller’s market, plain and simple.

With US financial markets soaring, advisors are moving beyond cookie-cutter models. The best are crafting bespoke portfolios using complex asset types that reflect each investor’s unique goals – not just the next packaged product. Custom portfolios capitalizing on the market high are surging. The advisor shortage = a talent opportunity – “It’s Raining Men” (and Women)” – The Weather Girls Yes, there’s a shortage of advisors – but there’s also an abundance of professional talent. Today’s professionals bring experience not only from wealth management but also from technology, consulting, and entrepreneurial spaces. There’s no better time to expand your team. Seek those that bring a unique skillset to complement the domain expertise that already exists.

Real-time integration is not a vision or a dream – it’s a real possibility. The Unified Managed Household (UMH) exists, as does the personalization at the account level underneath. Lifestyle: purpose meets profit – “Beautiful Day” – U2

The robo-advisor era pushed fees down. The next era pushes value up. Way, way up. By expanding into tax, estate, and legacy planning, RIAs can justify higher fees, deepen relationships, and truly deliver holistic wealth management. While investment managers will seek alpha rapidly, the wealth managers are playing the long game and providing services both in-house and in partnership, satisfying the needs of the family today and laying the foundation for generational wealth. The rise of the ‘cool kids’ – “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School” – The Ramones The migration continues – advisors leaving wirehouses, bank models, and independent broker dealers for independence. Independent and hybrid RIAs now lead in advisor headcount growth. The RIAs were once the outcasts, the ‘wannabes’. Now they’re seated at the cool kids’ table.

We’re no longer the outsiders! The RIA ecosystem is rich with conferences, think tanks, and collaboration. Ideas are shared, innovation is celebrated, and the movement is stronger than ever. Although there are certainly flourishing ‘mom-and-pop’ RIAs, there is now a community where RIAs are no longer fighting for their slice of the pie, but uniting to make the pie larger. The future is blindingly bright – “I Wear My Sunglasses At Night” – Corey Hart This isn’t a fad. Independence is the foundation of what’s next in wealth management. The firms that lean in now will define the next decade – and it’s the RIAs that are leading the advancement of our industry “This is the time... but time is gonna change.” - Billy Joel The RIA segment of the market are the ones driving and, more, leading that change.

Financial literacy is power – “Another Brick In The Wall” – Pink Floyd The next generation of investors is the most informed in history. They understand fiduciary duty, transparency, and alignment – and they expect it. The RIA model isn’t just validated; it’s celebrated! The traditional ‘recommend and trust blindly’ model is over. Investors today are curious. Access to information in real time has never been greater. Investors want to feel as though they are the priority, and their financial advisor is leveraging all the information available to make the best decisions. Technology built for RIAs – “I Wanna Talk About Me” – Toby Keith Technology is leading with the RIA community, not following behind it. Tools are built for integration, scale, and client experience – not for legacy systems. No longer do the RIAs feel like the squarest block being squeezed into the roundest hole.

Michael Partnow Strategic Advisor

The Wealth Mosaic

www.thewealthmosaic.com

From fee compression to fee expansion – "More and More” – Captain Hollywood Project

Community and connection – “We Are Family” – Sister Sledge

US RIA Toolkit 2026

Helping clients retire with dignity. Supporting charitable goals. Creating financial freedom. The RIA profession remains one of the most rewarding – financially, personally, and socially. The days of Gordon Gekko are over. Now, a more dignified profession is focused on helping individuals and their broader families pursue financial happiness.

Annual Project

WealthTech 2026 WealthTech 2026 will set the scene for the technology focus and investment spend of the global wealth management sector. Formed around a single global thematic report, a research project looking at the market’s focus and plans for the year ahead, and supported by individual events in London and New York, WealthTech 2026 will help to lead, shape and engage the industry in determining the ‘what, where and how’ of wealth technology investment in 2026.

Interested in participating in WealthTech 2026? Discover more and book a meeting today. >

The WealthTech 2026 project will deliver: Report

Events

The WealthTech 2026 report will feature contributions from a variety of market participants across the world, each shining a light on an aspect of the business and how, with technology, the industry should focus to deliver growth, innovation, change or other requirements for its business through the year ahead.

We will present the report and research to the market, and support those with panel discussions and product demos, at dedicated events in the key wealth centres of London and New York. Each event will include 75 delegates.

Read online

www.thewealthmosaic.com FEATURED REPORT

WealthTech 2024 Showcasing the application of technology in wealth management in 2024. >

Read now

US RIA Toolkit 2026 Featured Showcases

US RIA TOOLKIT 2026

SHOWCASES This Showcase section includes seven entries from technology vendors designed with the needs of RIAs in mind.

Showcase #1

Showcase #2

An AI-native operating system built for powering onboarding and servicing.

Eliminating spillage and leakage with integrated revenue systems.

Contributed by Avantos

Contributed by Purefacts

AI-native client management

Integrated revenue management

Showcase #3

Showcase #4

Technology: buy or build?

Transforming operations into strategy

Accelerating RIA modernization through proven, vendor-driven technology solutions.

How advisor dashboards turn support functions into strategic advantage.

Contributed by Docupace

Contributed by Plumb Bill Pay

Showcase #5

Showcase #6

Why an all-in-one compliance solution matters for RIAs .

Transforming complex projections into meaningful client dialogue.

Contributed by RIA Compliance Technology

Contributed by Moneytree Software

Compliance platforms

102 Showcase #7

Advisor-focused workflow tools Why advisors need workflows built for them. Contributed by STRATxAI Technologies

From data to dialogue

SHOWCASE #1

US RIA Toolkit 2026

AI-NATIVE

CLIENT MANAGEMENT

www.thewealthmosaic.com

An AI-native operating system built for powering onboarding and servicing. Avantos is a next-generation platform redefining client management from onboarding through servicing. It expands access to financial products while building trust, loyalty, and long-term growth. Powered by a knowledge graph, Avantos delivers AI-driven orchestration, integration, and UX with security and compliance across the client lifecycle.

Contributed by

US RIA Toolkit 2026

www.avantos.ai/

Developing an AI-native operating system for onboarding and beyond, supporting multiproduct and multi-channel strategies with pre-built integrations and flexible, scalable customization.

www.thewealthmosaic.com

ABOUT AVANTOS

Avantos is a New York-based technology company redefining how financial institutions manage client onboarding and servicing. Built on a knowledge graph data architecture, the platform delivers AI-driven orchestration, seamless integration, and an intuitive user experience - all with enterprisegrade security and compliance.

US RIA Toolkit 2026

AI-native client management

www.thewealthmosaic.com

Advisor productivity: systematizing and institutionalizing client servicing through an AI ‘operating system’ By Rabih Ramadi, CEO at Avantos Wealth management has always been defined by relationships — trust, bespoke advice, and continuity across generations. Yet the advisor’s role is under unprecedented pressure. Clients expect immediacy and personalization. Regulators demand heightened oversight. Competitors are raising the bar for digital engagement. Despite years of technology investment, the day-today reality remains fragmented. Instead of spending time with clients, advisors navigate disconnected systems, manual workflows, and administrative obligations. Processes are reactive. Data sits in silos. Productivity is constrained by reconciliations and tasks that add operational burden but little strategic value. This has created an industry-wide paradox. Firms speak of ‘client centricity’ and ‘personalization at scale’, but the tools deployed rarely enable either. Most platforms solve isolated problems: a portal here, a planning tool there, a CRM with limited integration. Advisors end up working harder to close gaps clients can clearly feel, while firms struggle to scale without increasing headcount. Avantos reframes the challenge. Rather than adding another point solution, it introduces an AI-native operating system for client management — a unified foundation that systematizes and institutionalizes client servicing. It mirrors the complexity of real client relationships and orchestrates the work around them, not around disconnected applications.

From fragmentation to orchestration

Building on a smarter data foundation

The shortcomings of current models are well known. Onboarding remains one of the most cumbersome parts of the client journey — an obstacle course of forms, signatures, compliance checks, and redundant data entry. The process often takes weeks, frustrating clients and consuming advisor time that could otherwise be spent building relationships.

If orchestration is the visible layer of transformation, data is the invisible layer. Many past technology projects failed as they automated processes without addressing the underlying data problem. Traditional CRMs treat clients as static records rather than as part of a complex ecosystem.

Ongoing servicing presents similar challenges. Without unified systems, advisors must chase down status updates, process transfers manually, generate reports, or respond to requests piecemeal. Most servicing is reactive rather than anticipatory. Avantos redesigns the end-to-end workflow. Instead of juggling tools, advisors operate within guided processes that integrate compliance, operations, and servicing. Manual handoffs disappear. Data flows automatically. Intelligence is embedded at every step surfacing priorities, identifying upcoming needs, and ensuring nothing is overlooked. The result is an orchestrated, predictable, and proactive servicing model.

Avantos approaches this differently. At its foundation lies a knowledge graph, designed to reflect how wealth management works. It models not just the individual client, but the web of connections around them too: spouse, children, trusts, entities, financial products, and advisory teams. This creates an intelligent, dynamic map of the client relationship. For advisors, it means a single view of reality. For firms, it means the ability to analyze patterns that were previously invisible. By understanding connections across clients and households, Avantos generates recommendations – highlighting wealth planning opportunities or identifying where family members may need additional services.

We don’t need more tools. We need a system that understands how we serve clients – and makes it faster, smarter, and more consistent. That’s where the real ROI is.

Personalization at scale Anticipating client needs is becoming the defining differentiator in wealth management. Capgemini’s World Wealth Report 2024 showed that 71 percent of high-net-worth individuals expect hyper-personalized recommendations informed by real-time data. Yet most firms still deliver a static, backward-looking experience. Avantos changes this by embedding intelligence directly into the operating system. Advisors no longer sift through data; the system surfaces timely, relevant insights that spark proactive conversations. Ahead of a review, an advisor might be prompted that a client’s daughter is graduating, opening a discussion about education funding. Another may be alerted to changes in a client’s business, signaling a liquidity need. Avantos goes beyond recommendations: with advisor approval, it can initiate execution, from opening new custodian accounts to sending instructions to adjust investment strategy. The result is a client experience that feels personal, timely, and seamless — without requiring advisors to work longer hours or juggle additional tools.

Redefining advisor productivity The implications for productivity are profound. By automating routine servicing, advisors reclaim hours each week — time they can reinvest in building relationships, deepening trust, and engaging in strategic conversations. Firms gain more scalable service delivery, lower operational costs, and stronger client retention. PwC estimates that firms streamlining servicing through automation can reduce costs by up to 30 percent while boosting client satisfaction by double digits. This is not about replacing advisors. It’s about freeing them to do the work only humans can: exercising judgment, offering empathy, and strengthening the trust at the center of wealth management.

The future won’t be won by the firms that digitize the fastest, but by the firms that humanize the smartest — using AI to give advisors more time, more insight, and more capacity to best serve their clients.

Toward a new operating model The shift to an AI-native operating system represents more than a technology upgrade: it signals a broader transformation in how wealth management firms operate. For decades, client servicing was treated as a back-office function. Avantos recasts it as a growth engine. By systematizing servicing, firms ensure every client receives consistent, proactive, personalized engagement. This approach also positions firms to compete in a world where client expectations are shaped by experiences outside financial services. Affluent clients now benchmark their digital interactions not against banks, but against technology leaders like Amazon. Firms that fail to deliver risk becoming irrelevant.

Conclusion: a blueprint for the future Wealth management stands at a turning point. The old model — fragmented systems, reactive servicing, and manual processes — is unsustainable in the face of rising expectations and competition. The firms that will lead in the next decade are those that embrace a new blueprint: one where client servicing is intelligent, fully coordinated, and embedded into the advisor workflow. Avantos offers that blueprint. By unifying data, orchestrating processes, and embedding AIdriven insights, it transforms client management from a burden into a competitive advantage. For advisors, it means greater productivity and more meaningful engagement. For clients, it means a seamless, personalized experience. And for firms, it means scalable growth, reduced risk, and a stronger foundation for the future. In the end, the story is simple: advisors should be free to advise. Technology should do the rest.

The shift to an AI-native operating system represents more than a technology upgrade: it signals a broader transformation in how wealth management firms operate.

Rabih Ramadi

Avantos

SOLUTION SHOWCASE

US RIA Toolkit 2026

Solution Showcase

Avantos’s mission is to shift financial services from a product-centric to a customer-centric, multi-product model enabling exceptional client journeys, accelerating frontline productivity, and unlocking cross-sell opportunities while improving scale and reducing operational risk. Avantos is backed by four top-tier venture firms and is already live with a global wealth manager showing exceptional results. Also, in implementation with a major insurance and retirement solutions provider and with a leading global investment management company.

SOLUTION OVERVIEW

FEATURES & BENEFITS

Avantos is a next-generation platform designed to redefine how financial institutions manage clients across the full lifecycle — from onboarding through ongoing servicing and beyond.

Avantos delivers an AI-native operating system designed to modernize onboarding and servicing while driving measurable business outcomes.

It enables broader client access to financial products while strengthening loyalty, trust, and long-term growth. Built on a powerful knowledge graph data structure, Avantos delivers AI-driven orchestration, intelligent integrations, and an intuitive user experience, all underpinned by enterprise-grade security and regulatory compliance. The platform allows financial services organizations to seamlessly manage complex client journeys across multiple business lines, channels, and products, adapting dynamically to changing client, product, and jurisdictional requirements. By unifying data, workflows, and ecosystems into a single AInative operating system, Avantos reduces operational complexity while improving speed, accuracy, and advisor effectiveness. Today, Avantos is live in production with a major wealth manager, where it has delivered a 30 percent increase in advisor productivity and approximately a 50 percent reduction in operational processing effort and overall technology costs — demonstrating its ability to scale, perform, and drive measurable business impact in realworld environments.

1) The platform features a supportive, AI-first user interface that enables intuitive navigation and seamless collaboration across teams. 2) Automated orchestration dynamically configures workflows and client journeys based on entity type, product, and jurisdiction, ensuring precision and compliance at scale. 3) With Workflow builder, users can rapidly create, adapt, and maintain onboarding and servicing workflows using AI-assisted configuration, significantly reducing time to value. 4) An extensible data layer supports complex hierarchies across customers, products, advisors, and agents, 5) An integrated ecosystem of pre-built connectors seamlessly integrates with existing CRMs, core systems, and enterprise technologies, automating data mapping and exchange. Together, these capabilities deliver a 30 percent increase in advisor productivity, unlock cross-sell and upsell opportunities, reduce client churn by 20 percent, lower total cost of ownership by up to 60 percent, cut operational processing by 50 percent through straightthrough processing, and reduce operational risk by 40 percent via automated data validation.

DISCOVER MORE GET IN TOUCH

Rabih Ramadi

Co-founder & CEO Avantos

rabih@avantos.ai

Bassam Chaptini

Co-founder & CEO Avantos

bassam@avantos.ai

COMPANY Avantos

USE CASES

WEBSITE avantos.ai

1. Client onboarding 2. Client servicing 3. Client servicing - advisor team allocation and management 4. Client's household information management

EMAIL rabih@avantos.ai

HQ New York

5. Client screening 6. Advisor transition planning 7. Relationship management

FOUNDED 2024

EMPLOYEES 21-50

CLIENTS 1-10

CLIENT TYPE EAMs, Bank Wealth Managers, Family Offices, Financial Advisors, Insurance-Based, Digital Wealth Platforms, FinTech/WealthTechs

CLIENT LOCATIONS North America, Western Europe

SHOWCASE #2

INTEGRATED REVENUE MANAGEMENT

Eliminating spillage and leakage with integrated revenue systems Underpricing and billing inefficiencies silently erode firm revenue. A unified revenue management platform helps firms calculate, collect, and optimize fees accurately, reducing compliance risk, improving visibility, and turning revenue operations into a consistent, strategic growth engine.

Contributed by

US RIA Toolkit 2026

www.purefacts.com

ABOUT PUREFACTS FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS

PureFacts is the only End-to-End Revenue Management Platform dedicated to the Investments Industry. It helps some of the largest and most recognizable wealth management, asset management and asset servicing firms manage and grow their revenues.

www.thewealthmosaic.com

Unified revenue management eliminates revenue loss through spillage and leakage, protects margins, strengthens compliance, and transforms pricing, billing, and compensation into a disciplined engine for growth.

2 Integrated revenue management

United Toolkit 2025 US RIAKingdom Toolkit 2026

Mind the gaps: managing spillage and leakage across the revenue lifecycle

www.thewealthmosaic.com

Why the industry’s most overlooked function may be costing firms millions every year. By Pete Hess, President and Ed Locher, CMO at PureFacts Mission-critical functions like trading, accounting, finance, and performance measurement attract enormous investment and scrutiny. They are built, audited, and optimised to the highest standard. Yet revenue management — the function that determines how a firm earns, collects, and reports the value it creates — has never achieved the same level of rigour.

Spillage: the price of incomplete information

That gap is costing firms millions of dollars every single year.

In the absence of robust benchmarking and performance visibility, many firms gravitate toward the bottom of their pricing bands. Advisers fear losing clients to competitors, discounting becomes habitual, and over time, the value story erodes.

Every day, value slips through cracks too small to see and too costly to ignore. Two culprits — spillage and leakage — erode the top and bottom line in different but equally damaging ways. Spillage occurs when firms underprice or over-discount their services, leaving earned revenue unrealized. Leakage, by contrast, happens when fees that should be collected aren’t, often due to operational inefficiencies, data fragmentation, or manual processes. Together, they form the invisible tax on a firm’s growth potential. Managing them holistically through an integrated revenue management framework not only strengthens margins but also reduces compliance exposure and builds trust with clients.

Two culprits — spillage and leakage — erode the top and bottom line in different but equally damaging ways.

Pricing is one of the most consequential decisions an adviser or wealth manager makes — and one of the least consistently informed.

This is spillage in its purest form: value that evaporates before it ever enters the revenue pipeline because confidence in pricing is undermined by incomplete information.

Spillage is potential revenue that never makes it into the system.

That transparency transforms pricing from a defensive posture into a growth multiplier. Firms with structured pricing governance and clear visibility into fee realisation often unlock three to five basis points of incremental margin, almost all of which flows directly to the bottom line. Confidence drives consistency. Consistency protects margin. And margin compounds into long-term enterprise value.

If spillage is value never captured, leakage is value earned but never realised. It’s what happens when fee calculations are incorrect, billing data is incomplete, or collection processes fail to reconcile. For large and complex wealth and asset managers, these issues are rarely intentional. They stem from the natural evolution of legacy systems and the growing complexity of fee models — performancebased, multi-custodian, multi-asset-class, and multi -tiered relationships that require precision at scale.

United Toolkit 2025 US RIAKingdom Toolkit 2026

Leakage: the silent erosion of earned revenue

Common leakage drivers include:

•

Lack of transparent benchmarks means advisers can not see how their fees compare to peers or industry norms.

•

Disconnected systems obscure the link between adviser behaviour, client outcomes, and firm profitability.

•

Manual pricing approval processes introduce inconsistency and delay, leaving little room for strategic oversight.

When these factors compound, even a small drift in pricing discipline can have outsized effects. On a US$10 billion assets under management (AUM) book, a one-basis-point undercharge translates to US$1 million in lost annual revenue — before compounding effects are considered. But the problem runs deeper than mathematics. Spillage is ultimately a confidence gap. Advisers lacking visibility into peer benchmarks and client impact tend to discount reflexively. Those equipped with real-time insights — showing how pricing affects both firm performance and their own compensation — make more deliberate, value-aligned decisions.

Data fragmentation: Account-level and relationship-level data sit in different systems, leading to mismatched calculations.

•

Manual workflows: Spreadsheets and email chains introduce risk, delay, and human error.

•

Operational opacity: Without a clear ‘revenue book of record’, discrepancies can go unnoticed for months or even years.

In an environment where one inaccuracy can cascade through multiple client accounts, leakage becomes a silent drag on profitability and trust. Worse, when clients detect billing errors before firms do, the reputational impact can far outweigh the dollar amount. By digitising and automating the entire fee lifecycle — calculation, collection, reconciliation, and reporting — firms not only reduce risk but also reclaim the operational bandwidth needed to focus on client growth.

Leakage is the silent drag on profitability: value earned but never realised.

www.thewealthmosaic.com

Several structural issues contribute to the problem:

•

The case for holistic revenue management Historically, firms have treated pricing, billing, and compensation as separate functions, each optimized for its own efficiency. The future belongs to those who manage these elements holistically — as interconnected parts of the same revenue lifecycle. At PureFacts, we define this lifecycle as five stages: Calculate – Ensure accuracy across all fee structures, asset classes, and relationships. Collect – Capture every dollar earned with transparent, auditable workflows. Distribute – Align compensation with firm objectives to reward growth-driving behavior. Incent – Equip advisors with insights that connect decisions to outcomes. Optimize – Continuously improve through AI-driven benchmarking and predictive analytics. When these elements operate on a unified platform, firms gain visibility that transforms revenue from a back-office process into a strategic growth engine. Pricing decisions become data-informed. Billing becomes auditable. Incentives become aligned. And insights flow seamlessly across teams. The result is a revenue infrastructure that doesn’t just support the business — it powers it.

The Compliance Dividend Beyond financial performance, holistic revenue management also provides a powerful safeguard against compliance risk. Regulators are increasingly scrutinizing how firms calculate, disclose, and collect fees, especially as models grow more complex. When data is siloed or processes are manual, even small errors can escalate into regulatory exposure. But with a unified revenue platform — one that captures a full audit trail across pricing, billing, and compensation — compliance becomes a natural byproduct of operational excellence. Automated controls and transparent reporting ensure that every fee is calculated according to the client agreement, collected in alignment with stated policies, and distributed fairly. This is the quiet dividend of effective revenue management: reduced audit risk, greater client trust, and a stronger reputation for integrity — all while accelerating growth.

Compliance by design: accuracy, transparency, and integrity — built in, not bolted on.

Closing the Loop Spillage and leakage are not new problems, but they have never been more costly. In an era of rising regulatory scrutiny, compressed margins, and increasing client expectations, firms can no longer afford to leave revenue management to chance. By addressing both sides of the revenue equation — pricing confidence and operational precision — wealth and asset managers can capture the full value of their efforts while reducing risk. Holistic revenue management isn’t just about plugging leaks or tightening controls. It’s about building an integrated system that rewards discipline, enhances transparency, and turns revenue into a sustainable competitive advantage. At PureFacts, we believe that every firm deserves the confidence of knowing they’re capturing every dollar they’ve earned. Because when revenue is managed well, growth follows naturally.

Pete Hess & Ed Locher

PureFacts Financial Solutions US RIAKingdom Toolkit 2026 United Toolkit 2025

SOLUTION SHOWCASE PureFacts empowers wealth and asset management firms to grow smarter, operate efficiently, and create lasting enterprise value. Our intelligent platform brings together fee and billing management, advisor compensation, and performance analytics into one connected system that serves as the single source of truth for every dollar earned, shared, and reported. By eliminating revenue leakage, improving pricing discipline, and aligning incentives, PureFacts helps firms enhance profitability, strengthen transparency, and build advisor trust. Trusted by Tier 1 global institutions managing over ten trillion dollars in assets, PureFacts transforms revenue management into a strategic advantage that drives sustainable growth, performance and enterprise value.

Solution Showcase www.thewealthmosaic.com

SOLUTION OVERVIEW

FEATURES & BENEFITS

PureRevenue is the enterprise platform for Revenue Management in wealth and asset management. It unifies fee billing, advisor compensation, and performance analytics into one intelligent system that ensures every dollar earned is captured, verified, and optimized. By connecting data, logic, and insight across the entire revenue lifecycle, PureRevenue eliminates inefficiencies such as spillage, leakage, and operational friction that quietly erode profitability.

PureRevenue empowers firms to manage revenue with confidence by integrating pricing, compensation, billing, and compliance into a single, intelligent system. Its pricing and compensation management capabilities eliminate excessive discounting and align advisor incentives with firm growth objectives, creating clarity and accountability at every level.

The platform’s integrated Revenue Book of Record provides a single, trusted source of truth, giving leadership real-time visibility into margin, growth, and enterprise value. Advisors gain clarity, finance gains accuracy, and executives gain confidence in every decision that drives the business forward. With PureRevenue, firms move beyond reconciliation to realization—turning revenue from a back-office process into a strategic engine of growth and competitive advantage.

Flexible, enterprise-grade fee billing handles the full complexity of modern account structures, ensuring accuracy across thousands of clients, custodians, and asset classes while scaling effortlessly as the business grows. Built-in compliance controls ensure that every calculation, payout, and disclosure adheres to firm policy and regulatory standards, reducing operational risk and protecting client trust. At the foundation is the Revenue Book of Record, unifying all revenue data into one auditable source of truth. Together, these features eliminate inefficiency, strengthen profitability, and position revenue management as a strategic advantage that drives sustainable growth and longterm enterprise value.

DISCOVER MORE GET IN TOUCH

Pete Hess President Purefacts

pete.hess@purefacts.com

Ed Locher

CMO Purefacts

ed.locher@purefacts.com

COMPANY PureFacts Financial Solutions

WEBSITE www.purefacts.com

USE CASES PureRevenue is purpose-built for wealth and asset management firms with more than $10 billion in AUM, where complexity itself becomes the barrier to scale. As legacy systems and manual processes strain under growth, PureRevenue unifies pricing, billing, compensation, and compliance into one intelligent platform. It replaces fragmented workflows with automation, insight, and control—eliminating inefficiency, strengthening margins, and enabling firms to scale profitably and confidently in today’s evolving market.

EMAIL info@purefacts.com

HQ Toronto, Canada

FOUNDED 2010

EMPLOYEES 101-500

CLIENTS 101-500

CLIENT TYPES EAMs, Bank Wealth Managers, Broke Dealer, Insurance-Based, Registered Investment Advisor

CLIENT LOCATIONS Asia, Eastern Europe, North America, Oceania, Western Europe

SHOWCASE #3

TECHNOLOGY BUY OR BUILD?

Accelerating RIA modernization through proven, vendor-driven technology solutions It’s tempting for RIAs to build technology in-house, seeking control and customization. But for faster deployment, lower long-term costs, stronger compliance, better security, and continuous innovation, the solution is to buy technology, not build it.

Contributed by

US RIA Toolkit 2026 United Kingdom Toolkit 2025

www.docupace.com

Vendor technology delivers lower costs, faster deployment, stronger compliance, and ongoing innovation, enabling RIAs to scale efficiently while focusing their energies on true competitive differentiation

www.thewealthmosaic.com www.thewealthmosaic.com

69 69

ABOUT DOCUPACE

Docupace is a solutions provider focused on digitizing and automating operations in the financial advice and investment industry. Financial services firms use the Docupace Platform (a cloud-based, integrated software suite) to reduce back office expenses, improve efficiency, strengthen recruiting and enhance advisor and investor experiences.

3 Technology: buy or build?

Why wealth management firms win by buying technology, not building it US RIA Toolkit 2026

By Ryan George, Chief Marketing Officer at Docupace

A pivotal decision in the digital era In today’s wealth management landscape, the pressure to modernize is unrelenting. Advisors and clients alike expect seamless digital experiences, while compliance requirements tighten and operational complexity grows.

www.thewealthmosaic.com

This dual challenge has left many firms facing a highstakes decision: Should they build their technology inhouse or buy it from specialized vendors? While building may seem like the path to control and customization, research and real-world experience show that buying technology is not only more strategic but also more cost-effective, scalable, and reliable. Docupace’s “Buy vs. Build Guide” outlines the evidence that wealth management firms gain far more by buying technology than by building it internally.

Research and real-world experience show that buying technology is not only more strategic but also more cost-effective, scalable, and reliable.

Cost control: managing the hidden expenses of building At first glance, building seems cheaper. But under the surface, development costs spiral quickly. Research conducted by software developer Acquaint Softtech indicates that 70 percent of software projects exceed their initial budgets by an average of 27 percent. Buying, on the other hand, provides cost predictability and allows firms to tap into an existing proven infrastructure without the burden of ongoing updates or staffing. More importantly, subscription-based pricing transforms large capital expenses into manageable operational costs with vendors distributing development expenses across their client base. “By 2028, firms adopting tech-as-a-service models could see a 12 percent revenue boost,” according to PwC research. Buying advantage: Predictable pricing, faster revenue realization, and lower total cost of ownership.

Time-to-market creates competitive advantage

Figure 1: Building vs Buying

Sponsored by

Get in touch to discover more and book a meeting.

www.thewealthmosaic.com

Join us in 2026! At our Forum events exclusively welcoming technology and related firms serving the global wealth management sector. >

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SHOWCASE #4

TRANSFORMING US RIA Toolkit 2026

OPERATIONS INTO STRATEGY

www.thewealthmosaic.com

How advisor dashboards turn support functions into strategic advantage Financial administration – bill pay, entity bookkeeping, reconciliations, cashflow tracking – is foundational to clients’ day-to-day stability. When financial operations support is paired with purpose-built technology, it’s more than a convenience for clients: it can become the strategic infrastructure for trust.

Contributed by

US RIA Toolkit 2026

www.plumbbillpay.com

www.thewealthmosaic.com

Integrated bill pay and advisor dashboards give RIAs real-time visibility, reduced operational noise, and stronger fiduciary oversight – turning financial administration into a trust-building strategic advantage.

ABOUT PLUMB BILL PAY

With nearly 30 years of expertise, Plumb Bill Pay delivers innovative, tech-enabled, white-glove bill management and financial oversight for families and wealth advisers alike.

4 Transforming operations into strategy

US RIA Toolkit 2026

How RIAs can leverage bill pay, financial operations support, and advisor dashboards to deepen client trust

www.thewealthmosaic.com

By Anneker Stender, Executive Vice President and Rob Scherer, President at Plumb Bill Pay

The expanding role of RIAs Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) are no longer evaluated solely on investment performance. As high-net-worth (HNW) and ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) lives grow more complex, advisors are increasingly expected to deliver clarity, coordination, and confidence across a client’s entire financial life. Yet one critical dimension often operates in the background: financial administration. Bill pay, entity bookkeeping, reconciliations, and cash-flow tracking are foundational to a client’s day-to-day stability – but are frequently fragmented across systems, emails, and PDFs. Forward-thinking RIAs are recognizing that when financial operations support is paired with purposebuilt technology – particularly advisor dashboards – it becomes far more than a convenience. It becomes strategic infrastructure for trust.

Advisors are increasingly expected to deliver clarity, coordination, and confidence across a client's entire financial life.

Why financial administration matters to RIAs Client experience and rising expectations Today’s affluent families expect their advisors to have a complete, real-time understanding of their financial position. That means more than portfolio performance – it requires visibility into cash flow, liabilities, upcoming obligations, and entity-level activity. Advisor dashboards make this possible by centralizing operational data into a single, advisor-facing view. Instead of reacting to client questions, advisors can proactively guide conversations with confidence, context, and precision.

The hidden burden of financial complexity Behind every UHNW or family office client is a web of personal accounts, operating entities, investment partnerships, trusts, and philanthropic vehicles. When administration lacks structure, even routine tasks – property taxes, capital calls, or insurance payments – become high-risk moments. Advisors often step in informally to protect client trust. But without dedicated systems and dashboards designed for advisory oversight, this approach is reactive and unscalable. One missed payment or overlooked transaction can undermine years of relationship-building.

The strategic shift: from administration to advisor command center When RIAs integrate outsourced bill pay and family office accounting with advisor dashboards, the experience fundamentally changes: Clarity at a glance: Advisors gain a centralized dashboard showing clients, accounts, funding needs, and financial activity — without chasing information. Fiduciary oversight in practice Fiduciary responsibility depends on access to accurate, timely information. Without visibility into reconciled accounts, bill activity, or liquidity across entities, advisors face hidden blind spots in planning, tax coordination, and risk management. A well-designed advisor dashboard turns financial administration into actionable intelligence – highlighting funding needs, anomalies, trends, and upcoming obligations so advisors can act before issues arise. Efficiency, scale, and control

Stronger fiduciary control: Dashboards surface what matters most, enabling advisors to identify issues early and guide better decisions. Seamless collaboration: Advisors, clients, CPAs, and trustees align around shared data instead of disconnected reports. More strategic time: With administration handled and visibility assured, advisors focus on planning, stewardship, and relationship depth. In this model, the advisor dashboard becomes the operational backbone of the advisory relationship.

As firms grow, operational noise increases. Advisors and client service teams can quickly become bogged down helping clients track bills, locate statements, or reconcile accounts. Advisor dashboards reduce this friction by creating a shared source of truth. Advisors gain clarity without increasing headcount, allowing firms to scale thoughtfully while maintaining high-touch service.

One missed payment or overlooked transaction can undermine years of relationship-building.

Research and market validation

US RIA Toolkit 2025

Public research supports the idea that RIAs that pair holistic advice with strong operational and technology infrastructure are better positioned to retain and grow client relationships. •

High retention driven by deeper relationships. Charles Schwab’s RIA Benchmarking Study shows that independent RIAs maintain exceptionally high client retention – around 97 percent on average – with top-performing firms prioritizing relationship depth, expanded services, and operational consistency.

•

Technology and operational efficiency as growth accelerators. Fidelity research confirms that firms with higher adoption of technology that streamlines operations and enhances client visibility tend to grow faster across AUM, revenue, and client acquisition. Reducing time spent on administrative tasks directly increases advisor capacity for strategic work.

•

Clients expect coordinated, holistic advice. EY’s Global Wealth Research highlights that many investors feel underprepared for key financial challenges and increasingly expect their advisors to deliver integrated, cross-functional guidance – not just portfolio management.

•

Demand for holistic financial support keeps rising. McKinsey’s analysis of affluent and HNW households shows a significant increase in the share of investors who want comprehensive, whole-balance-sheet advice. The trend has accelerated as wealth structures have grown more complex.

Case example: Plumb Bill Pay

www.thewealthmosaic.com

Plumb Bill Pay has supported HNW and UHNW families, family offices, and their advisors for nearly three decades. What began as outsourced accounting has evolved into a specialized bill pay and family office accounting platform built around advisor visibility and control. At the center of Plumb’s model are advisor dashboards designed explicitly for RIAs. These dashboards allow advisors to: •

See all client relationships in one place

•

Monitor top funding needs across households and entities

•

Access real-time, reconciled financial data

•

Move seamlessly from a high-level view into detailed client dashboards and reports

Rather than relying on static PDFs or delayed reporting, advisors gain continuous insight into cash flow, spending patterns, and liquidity — enabling more informed planning conversations and proactive guidance. Plumb combines bank-level security (SOC 2- compliant), a high-touch service team, and proprietary technology that integrates directly into existing advisor workflows. The result is not just efficiency, but confidence — both for advisors and the clients they serve.

These findings reinforce the value of giving advisors real-time, reconciled visibility into the operational side of wealth. This aligns with feedback from Plumb Bill Pay families and advisors alike: advisor dashboards reduce stress, improve organization, and deepen confidence by ensuring everyone operates from the same, trusted financial view.

Advisor dashboards reduce stress, improve organization, and deepen confidence by ensuring everyone operates from the same, trusted financial view.

Looking ahead: from support function to strategic advantage The next generation of advisors will be defined by more than investment acumen. They will be the central hub of a client’s financial life — connecting strategy, administration, and oversight into a single, trusted experience. By leveraging financial operations support reinforced by advisor dashboards, RIAs transform complexity into clarity and administration into differentiation. For advisors, this isn’t about adding another service. It’s about strengthening their role as fiduciary leaders — armed with real-time insight, operational control, and the trust that comes from knowing nothing important is happening out of view.

Forward-thinking RIAs are recognizing that when financial operations support is paired with purpose-built technology – particularly advisor dashboards – it becomes far more than a convenience. It becomes strategic infrastructure for trust.

Anneke Stender & Rob Scherer

Plumb Bill Pay

SOLUTION SHOWCASE

US RIA Toolkit 2026

Plumb Bill Pay & Family Office Accounting delivers high-touch, high-tech bill pay and accounting solutions for high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients. Our proprietary Plumb Bill Pay App, paired with deep family office expertise, delivers clarity and control through secure workflows and advisor dashboards that provide realtime visibility across consolidated entities. Clients receive secure, outsourced bill pay with accurate reconciliation, alongside comprehensive family office accounting services—including investment reconciliation, private equity tracking, consolidated reporting, cash flow management, budgeting, trust and foundation accounting, and annual tax preparation support— providing confidence and actionable insight.

Solution Showcase

SOLUTION OVERVIEW

FEATURES & BENEFITS

The Plumb Bill Pay App is a SOC 2–compliant, client first platform designed to bring clarity, security, and control to complex bill pay and cash-flow management environments. Built primarily for high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth families, the platform centralizes payment activity, bill approvals, and consolidated reporting across multiple entities in one intuitive interface. Advisor-enabled dashboards extend this experience by providing secure, real-time visibility into financial activity, supporting oversight and informed guidance without removing client ownership.

The Plumb Bill Pay App combines operational efficiency with centralized visibility to simplify financial management across complex, multi-entity structures. Clients can review, approve, and track high volumes of payments through streamlined workflows that maintain strong controls and clean audit trails, while consolidated reporting provides a clear, comprehensive view across all entities.

Rather than relying on fragmented systems, static reports, or manual updates, clients and their advisors share a single, living source of truth. This transparency reduces friction, shortens response cycles, and reinforces trust. By pairing enterprise grade security standards with efficient workflows and centralized insight, the Plumb Bill Pay App delivers a seamless, collaborative experience—allowing clients to remain in control while advisors provide proactive, high-value support.

Advisor-enabled dashboards offer secure, realtime insight into payment status, cash-flow trends, and outstanding obligations—supporting timely guidance while preserving client ownership. Built-in communication tools allow clients and advisors to collaborate directly with the Plumb team, improving responsiveness. An integrated onboarding module further enhances the experience by guiding new clients through a structured, efficient onboarding process that accelerates time to value. Together, these features improve coordination, strengthen accountability, and enable more proactive decisionmaking—delivering clarity, control, and confidence from onboarding through ongoing operations.

DISCOVER MORE GET IN TOUCH

Anneke Stender

Rob Scherer

Executive Vice President Plumb Bill Pay

President Plumb Bill Pay

anneke@thinkplumb.com

rob@thinkplumb.com

COMPANY Plumb Bill Pay

USE CASES A core use case of the Plumb Bill Pay App is delivering centralized advisor dashboards that provide realtime visibility across complex, multi-entity financial environments. Through these dashboards, payment activity, cash flow, and outstanding obligations are clearly surfaced while clients maintain control over approvals and workflows. Consolidated reporting and secure, in-platform communication with the Plumb team support coordinated oversight, creating a single operating view that simplifies bill pay management and enables more proactive, informed decision-making.

WEBSITE www.plumbbillpay.com

EMAIL sales@thinkplumb.com

HQ California, USA

FOUNDED 1996

EMPLOYEES 51-100

CLIENTS 101-500

CLIENT TYPE Bank Wealth Managers, Broker-Dealer, Multi-family Office, Registered Investment Advisor, Single Family Office

CLIENT LOCATIONS North America

SHOWCASE #5

COMPLIANCE PLATFORMS

Why an all-in-one compliance solution matters for RIAs Explore how an all-in-one compliance platform helps RIAs bring calendars, workflows, and archiving under one umbrella, making it easier to train employees, give compliance teams a common ground, and respond quickly and confidently during exams or audits.

Contributed by

Artificial Intelligence US RIA Toolkit 2026 Toolkit 2025

www.riacomptech.com

www.thewealthmosaic.com www.thewealthmosaic.com

RIA Compliance technology offers easy-to-use compliance tools such as compliance calendars, email archiving, and personal trade monitoring; all in one platform.

ABOUT RIA COMPLIANCE TECHNOLOGY

RIA Compliance Technology is an RIA-focused compliance solution provider that centralises calendars, workflows, and archiving, giving firms a common ground that simplifies training, streamlines exams and audits, and keeps programmes simple, structured, and organized.

5 Compliance platforms

From patchwork to platform: why an all-in-one compliance solution matters for RIAs US RIA Toolkit 2026

By Blake Bjordahl, President/CEO, at RIA Compliance Technology

www.thewealthmosaic.com

Compliance obligations for Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) have increased and expanded. Unfortunately, we have not seen teams gaining hours in their day; but rather losing time on the tasks required in their compliance check processes. Annual reviews, Form ADV updates, personal trading oversight, offchannel communications, and cyber risks all compete for attention. Many firms respond by layering one tool on top of another: a spreadsheet calendar here, an outdated email archive there, a shared drive for policies, and a separate portal for attestations. The result is a fragmented ‘patchwork’ that is hard to explain to employees and even harder to defend in an exam or audit. At its core, this is a structural issue. If information is scattered, it is difficult to prove that the compliance program is complete, consistent, and repeatable. Tasks fall through the cracks, key evidence lives in hidden inboxes, and too much depends on people simply remembering what to do and where to find things. In a regulatory context, this fragility is easily recognizable.

If information is scattered, it is difficult to prove that the compliance program is complete, consistent, and repeatable.

Pitfalls and principles There are a few common pitfalls we see in compliance programs The first is an unaligned lineup of tools, as teams add on new systems for every new requirement. There are a few common pitfalls we see in compliance programs today. Over time, firms end up with separate platforms for calendars, email archiving, text message capture, personal trading, marketing approvals, training, and more. It is neither secure nor sustainable for growing forms if each vendor has their own login, interface, and support model. The second pitfall is relying on generic systems not designed for RIAs. These may be powerful, but they often require heavy configuration, internal development, and manual workarounds to align with real-life RIA rules and workflows. A final pitfall is treating compliance systems as a filing cabinet rather than a living record of supervision. A more sustainable approach starts with a different set of principles. •

A common ground for a firm's compliance calendar and records: anyone on the team should be able to see what is due, what is in progress, what is late, and where the supporting documentation lives.

•

A single place where advisors can access all the systems and data they need – whether they are submitting a marketing item, disclosing an outside business activity, or completing an attestation.

•

Supervision of electronic communications that is integrated into the broader program, not isolated in a separate legacy archive.

Not every 'all-in-one' label in the marketplace is equal

The ‘all-in-one’ approach What happens when firms are focused on these standards?

US RIA Toolkit 2026

Training becomes easier, because the message is simple: if it relates to compliance, begin here, in this one system. Exam success becomes more achievable, because the firm can pull consistent reports and audit trails instead of reconstructing stories from different tools. Leadership gains better visibility into risks faced by their firm and can spend more time on problemsolving and less time on administration. In other words, an all-in-one approach is not just more convenient; it directly supports better governance.

www.thewealthmosaic.com

Not every ‘all-in-one’ label in the marketplace is equal. Some suites bundle loosely-connected products without a common design or data model. Others prioritize breadth over usability, leaving compliance officers with a complex dashboard that still requires spreadsheets on the side. The right solution should feel lighter, not heavier. It should reduce the number of places where data can hide and make it obvious who is responsible for what.

An all-in-one approach is not just more convenient; it directly supports better governance.

A platform designed for RIAs Founded by a financial advisor who experienced the frustration of complicated regulations, forgotten deadlines, and misplaced information, RIA Compliance Technology was built around these exact principles. The platform is designed specifically for RIAs that want structure without unnecessary complexity. Each component of the suite can be purchased and used on its own or combined as a bundled set of tools. As the firm grows, new solutions can be added into the same environment so that all compliance tools remain under one login and one organized space. Simple Compliance Calendar replaces static spreadsheets with a dynamic, recurring calendar of obligations. Tasks have clear owners, due dates, statuses, and attached evidence, so the history of a review or test is always one click away. Simple Compliance Portal gives advisors and staff a single, web-based entry point for submissions such as marketing reviews, outside business activities, and certifications. From the compliance side, every request follows a consistent workflow from intake to approval, with a complete audit trail and clear visibility for the team. Simple Email Archive and message archiving capture advisor communications in a tamper-evident environment that is quick to search and easy to supervise. Because archiving lives inside the same overall platform, communication reviews and sampling can be tied back to specific tasks, themes, or risks within the wider compliance program, rather than handled in isolation. Simple Trade Monitor is a centralized environment for collecting, reviewing, and evidencing personal trading activity, so pre-clearance, restricted lists, and exception handling are all recorded in one place. Firms can adopt Simple Trade Monitor on its own, or layer it into an existing RIA Compliance Technology environment, keeping a consistent user experience and a single sign-on for staff.

Simple ADV Solutions provides a structured workspace for Form ADV planning, deadlines, updates, and filings. Key dates sit alongside other calendar obligations, and supporting documents and review notes are kept with the relevant task. This helps firms demonstrate not only that filings were made, but how the underlying process was managed and evidenced. Across the suite, all components share a unified dashboard, consistent design, and detailed reporting. Whether a firm uses one solution or several, staff log into the same platform, leadership sees a single dashboard, and regulators are presented with one coherent record of the program. As needs change, additional tools can be switched on without disrupting existing workflows or requiring anyone to learn a new system. For RIAs that are ready to move beyond patchwork tools, an integrated, principles-based solution like RIA Compliance Technology offers a practical way to keep compliance simple, structured, and organized while staying fully exam-ready. By allowing firms to purchase only what they need today and scale into a full suite over time – all under one login – the platform turns ‘all in one’ from a marketing slogan into a tangible, workable reality.

Blake Bjordahl

RIA Compliance Technology SOLUTION SHOWCASE

US RIA Toolkit 2026

RIA Compliance Technology is a specialized, all-in-one compliance platform built for Registered Investment Advisors. We centralize calendars, workflows, communications archiving, personal trading oversight, and key filings so firms gain a commonground for compliance filing necessities. Our modular tools are simple to use, easy to learn, and designed to mirror real RIA workflows. By reducing fragmented systems and manual spreadsheets, we help compliance teams save time, lower operational risk, and stay examready. Our mission is straightforward: make compliance simple, structured, and organized, so RIAs can focus on serving clients and growing their businesses with confidence.

Solution Showcase

SOLUTION OVERVIEW

FEATURES & BENEFITS

An all-in-one compliance platform built specifically for Registered Investment Advisors. Instead of juggling spreadsheets, shared drives, legacy archives, and multiple portals, firms can bring calendars, workflows, attestations, communications archiving, and key filings together under one secure, organized umbrella. The result is a single, intuitive platform that is easy for advisors to use and simple for compliance teams to explain, govern, and maintain.

RIA Compliance Technology brings core compliance functions into one integrated platform. Simple Compliance Calendar structures recurring tasks and testing, with clear ownership, due dates, and attached evidence. Simple Compliance Portal centralizes submissions such as marketing reviews, attestations, outside business activities, and certifications, so advisors always know to start in one place and compliance teams can track every request from intake to approval.

This solution is highly relevant as regulatory expectations increase and regulators focus more closely on recordkeeping, off-channel communications, and evidence of ongoing supervision. An integrated platform gives RIAs one location for their compliance data, clear ownership of tasks, and an audit trail that is exam-ready by design. During an exam or audit, firms can quickly demonstrate what was done, when, and by whom, without reconstructing their programme from scattered systems. This reduces operational risk, saves valuable time, and supports scalable, confident growth.

Simple Email Archive and SMS archiving capture advisor communications in a tamper-evident environment that is fast to search and easy to supervise. Simple Trade Monitor and Simple ADV Solutions extend the same logic to personal trading oversight and regulatory filings. Simple Trade Monitor provides a centralized environment for collecting, reviewing, and evidencing employee trading activity, while Simple ADV Solutions streamlines Form ADV deadlines, updates, and filings in one structured, exam-ready workspace.

DISCOVER MORE GET IN TOUCH Blake Bjordahl President/ CEO RIA Compliance Technology Blake@riacomptech.com

COMPANY RIA Compliance Technology

WEBSITE www.riacomptech.com

USE CASES RIA Compliance Technology supports RIAs across daily supervision, exam readiness, and scalable growth. Firms use the platform to structure compliance calendars and testing, centralize advisor submissions and approvals, capture and review electronic communications, and oversee personal trading. It is especially valuable for multi-office firms that want a single, organized system to train staff, evidence their programme, and respond quickly and confidently to regulatory exams and audits.

EMAIL Info@RIACompTech.com

FOUNDED 2017

EMPLOYEES 1-10

CLIENTS 400-500

CLIENT TYPE Registered Investment Advisors, Broker Dealers, Financial Advisors, FinTech/WealthTechs (B2B)

CLIENT LOCATIONS Worldwide

SHOWCASE #6

FROM DATA TO DIALOGUE

Transforming complex projections into meaningful client dialogue Technology’s greatest value isn’t just in producing accurate plans – it’s in transforming the planning experience itself. Collaborative tools such as scenario modeling, cash-flow projections, and advanced tax planning features within platforms like Moneytree are turning data into dialogue, empowering clients to actively shape their financial futures.

Contributed by

US RIA Toolkit 2026

www.moneytree.com

Transforming the planning experience marks a shift toward transparency and participation – redefining how advisors build trust, deepen engagement, and deliver value in a competitive advisory landscape.

www.thewealthmosaic.com

ABOUT MONEYTREE SOFTWARE

Moneytree is a trusted financial planning software provider that empowers advisers to deliver more collaborative, transparent and impactful planning experiences.

6 From data to dialogue

US RIA Toolkit 2026

Building trust through transparency: How collaborative planning tools deepen client engagement

www.thewealthmosaic.com

By Patrick Spencer, Managing Director at Moneytree Software The new standard: engagement through clarity and collaboration

Case study: Abacus Planning Group

Clients today expect financial advice to be clear, collaborative, and continuous. They want to see how changing a single assumption – such as retiring five years earlier or funding a second home – impacts their broader goals. They expect plans that adapt as their lives evolve, and they want data presented in a way that is easy to follow and impossible to doubt.

One firm that has embraced this new approach is Abacus Planning Group, a fee-only RIA based in Columbia, South Carolina. Alex Chastain, CFP® has been with the firm since its inception and has seen first-hand how collaborative planning enhances both client trust and engagement.

Meeting those expectations requires more than financial expertise. It requires technology designed to make complex planning simple, transparent, and collaborative. Increasingly, Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) are turning to comprehensive financial planning platforms that support this model by making it easier to visualize trade-offs, stress-test assumptions, and keep clients engaged between meetings. That's where solutions like Moneytree, a comprehensive financial planning platform for advisors, come in — transforming how RIAs deliver advice and connect with their clients.

“We’ve had the right planning software since the very beginning,” Chastain says. “For me, the biggest thing is that I can back into every single number. There’s no black box. I want to understand how everything flows – and I want my clients to see that too.” This transparency is central to how Abacus builds and maintains client relationships. Rather than simply delivering recommendations, the team walks clients through the assumptions and calculations that inform their plans. When clients understand how each decision is made – and why – they’re more confident and more willing to act on the advice they receive.

From data to dialogue Before adopting more robust scenario-based tools, RIAs often faced a practical limitation: answering ‘what if’ questions required time-consuming recalculations and static reports that could not easily be adjusted in real time. That constraint made it harder to explore alternative paths during meetings and could leave clients feeling uncertain about how flexible their plans really were. Abacus addressed this challenge by using scenariobased functionality within its planning software to transform planning into a conversation. What-if modeling allows advisors to test different choices, such as retiring earlier, purchasing a second home, or launching a business, and shows how those decisions could shape long-term outcomes. “Clients often come in with a list of ‘what if’ questions,” Chastain explains. “Being able to model those possibilities quickly gives them peace of mind and helps them make smarter decisions.” Monte Carlo simulations and detailed cash-flow projections further support these discussions, turning planning from a one-way presentation into a collaborative exercise. Clients aren’t just receiving data – they’re actively engaging with it, shaping their future alongside their advisor.

Offering secure, controlled access to their financial plans allows clients to check progress on their own terms while preserving the integrity of the advice.

Personalizing the planning experience Abacus also recognizes that engagement is not onesize-fits-all. Each client absorbs information differently. Tailoring how data is presented can significantly improve understanding and decision-making. “For some clients, I focus on a few simple visuals,” Chastain explains. “They just want to know, ‘Am I going to be okay?’ Others are more data-driven – they want to see probabilities, stress tests, and detailed breakdowns. We can do both." This level of customization is increasingly important for RIAs seeking to differentiate themselves. By presenting plans in a way that resonates with each client’s preferences and priorities, firms can build deeper, more meaningful relationships.

Empowering strategic conversations

Medicare/IRMAA projections, detailed tax reports, and customizable cash-flow analysis further expand the scope of planning conversations. These features don’t just illustrate potential outcomes — they give clients the clarity and confidence to make informed decisions about trade-offs, timing, and long-term goals.

Meeting clients where they are Another growing expectation is access. Clients want the ability to review their plans outside of scheduled meetings – but without losing the context and expertise that advisors provide. Offering secure, controlled access to their financial plans allows clients to check progress on their own terms while preserving the integrity of the advice. “We don’t necessarily want clients in the plan every day,” Chastain says. “But when they do want to check something, it’s helpful to have that option. It keeps them connected without creating confusion.” This combination of accessibility and guidance reflects the broader direction of the industry. Advisors are no longer gatekeepers of information – they are collaborators and interpreters, helping clients make sense of increasingly complex financial decisions.

www.thewealthmosaic.com

“I can handpick the years, choose the amounts, and show clients how those decisions impact their tax liability,” Chastain says. “That’s incredibly valuable – and I haven’t seen other platforms do it as well.”

CLIENT EXPERIENCE TOOLKIT

Advanced capabilities within modern planning platforms also allow RIAs to explore more complex planning strategies with their clients. Roth conversion modeling, for example, helps advisors demonstrate the tax advantages of accelerating income during low-tax years.

Lessons for RIAs Abacus’s experience highlights several key lessons for firms looking to strengthen engagement and deepen client relationships: •

Transparency builds trust. Clients want to understand how their plans are built and where the numbers come from.

•

Conversations matter more than reports. Data alone isn’t enough – it must be contextualized and explained.

•

Personalization drives connection. Tailoring the approach to each client’s preferences builds stronger relationships.

•

Technology enhances human advice. The right tools make advisors more impactful, not less.

Looking ahead As financial planning continues to evolve, client engagement will remain a central differentiator for RIAs. Firms that combine analytical precision with human-centered communication will stand out — not only by delivering better plans, but by building deeper trust and more lasting relationships. The experience of Abacus Planning Group demonstrates the power of this approach. By pairing transparent data with collaborative tools and personalized conversations, RIAs can transform financial planning from a transactional service into an ongoing partnership–one that empowers clients, strengthens relationships, and drives long-term success.

Advisors are no longer gatekeepers of information – they are collaborators and interpreters, helping clients make sense of increasingly complex financial decisions.

Patrick Spencer

Moneytree Software

SOLUTION SHOWCASE

US RIA Toolkit 2026

Moneytree Software is a comprehensive financial planning platform built to help advisors deliver plans with clarity, accuracy, and ease. For more than 40 years, advisors have trusted Moneytree’s powerful calculation engine to model cash flow plans, run goalbased projections, and present recommendations with confidence. Designed to enhance client engagement, the intuitive interface simplifies complex strategies and strengthens advisor-client conversations. With streamlined workflows and customizable visuals, Moneytree helps advisors save time, eliminate friction, and focus on what matters most — building relationships and growing their firms.

Solution Showcase

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SOLUTION OVERVIEW

FEATURES & BENEFITS

Moneytree Software transforms the planning experience for both advisors and their clients. Moneytree Elite, the flagship solution, delivers advanced cash flow modeling, powerful scenario planning, and unmatched calculation accuracy, helping advisors present complex strategies with clarity and confidence. Moneytree Essential complements it with fast, goal-based projections, giving firms flexibility to support a wide range of client needs.

Moneytree’s flagship solution, Elite, delivers a suite of tools designed to deepen client engagement through clarity and insight. With cash-flow modeling, what-if analyses, Monte Carlo simulations, and tax and estate planning capabilities, Elite helps advisors explore complex scenarios and present tailored strategies with confidence. Its customizable analysis pages transform sophisticated data into clear visuals that clients can easily understand and trust. Advisors can adjust assumptions, illustrate potential future changes, and tailor presentations to each client’s situation.

The result is a more transparent, engaging planning process. Clear analysis pages show exactly how numbers are calculated, so clients can trust the results and focus on meaningful decisions. Advisors spend less time explaining data and more time guiding conversations toward goals and outcomes. By simplifying complexity and turning insights into action, Moneytree strengthens relationships, builds trust, and helps advisors deliver deeper value — creating planning experiences that are not only easier to understand but also more impactful for clients at every stage of life.

Because every figure is traceable and transparent, conversations shift from defending calculations to focusing on life goals. By reducing complexity and turning data into meaningful insights, Moneytree enables advisors to build trust, foster engagement, and deliver more impactful planning experiences. Essential, Moneytree’s complementary solution, offers quick goal-based planning for straightforward conversations, ensuring every client interaction is grounded in reliable information.

DISCOVER MORE GET IN TOUCH

Patrick Spencer

Davis Lewis

Managing Director Moneytree Software

Regional Sales Manager Moneytree Software

patrick.spencer@moneytree.com

david.lewis@moneytree.com

COMPANY Moneytree Software

WEBSITE USE CASES Advisors use Moneytree to make planning conversations more collaborative and meaningful. With Elite’s advanced modeling tools, they can test what-if scenarios such as retiring early, adjusting savings, or exploring tax strategies, giving clients a clear view of potential outcomes. Transparent analysis pages support live discussions, ensuring clients understand the reasoning behind recommendations. By simplifying reviews and updates, Moneytree helps advisors keep conversations focused on goals and strengthen trust at every stage of the planning journey.

www.moneytree.com

EMAIL sales@moneytree.com

HQ Muncie, United States

FOUNDED 1981

EMPLOYEES 11-20

CLIENTS 1000+

CLIENT TYPE External Asset Managers, Bank Wealth Managers, Broker-Dealer, Credit Union, Insurance-Based, Multi-Family Office, Registered Investment Advisor, Single Family Office

CLIENT LOCATIONS North America

SHOWCASE #7

ADVISOR FOCUSED WORKFLOW TOOLS

Why advisors need workflows built for them As portfolio personalization becomes standard, advisor efficiency is increasingly at risk. Fragmented legacy systems force manual work and limit scale. Here's why modern wealth management requires workflow-centric technology that enables customization without sacrificing productivity, profitability, or advisor experience.

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Artificial Intelligence US RIA Toolkit 2026 Toolkit 2025

www.stratxai.com

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www.thewealthmosaic.com www.thewealthmosaic.com

True portfolio personalization only scales when advisors have technology designed around their workflows — unifying systems, automating complexity, and freeing time to focus on clients, not managing tools.

ABOUT STRATXAI TECHNOLOGIES

Founded in 2023, STRATxAI combines advanced quantitative models with machine learning to deliver actionable, data-driven insights across the entire investment process. Our white-label platform is purpose-built to support the deployment of scalable, custom model portfolios, empowering advisors to make smarter decisions and deliver stronger outcomes for their clients.

7 Advisor-focused workflow tools

US RIA Toolkit 2026

Customization shouldn't come at the cost of efficiency: why advisors need workflows built for them

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By Paul Clifford, CEO, at STRATxAI Technologies The wealth management industry has made remarkable progress in recent years toward portfolio personalization. Advisors can now deliver portfolios that reflect individual client values, manage tax exposure, incorporate ESG preferences, and account for concentrated holdings. The shift toward personalization has been widely celebrated, and rightly so.

www.thewealthmosaic.com

But there's another side to this story that deserves equal attention – the advisors themselves. Although the industry has focused intently on customizing portfolios for clients, it has largely overlooked the need to customize technology and workflows for the advisors delivering that personalization. The result? Advisors are expected to build highly personalized portfolios using tools that create friction, force them to navigate between fragmented systems, and – ironically – increase manual work rather than reduce it.

Personalization is table stakes for client acquisition and retention. But delivering it profitably requires operational efficiency that legacy technology simply cannot provide.

The swivel chair problem

Why legacy systems fall short

Walk into most advisory firms today and you'll find a familiar pattern: advisors managing portfolios across multiple disconnected platforms. Research happens in one system. Portfolio construction in another. Model management and rebalancing in a third. Client reporting in a fourth. Each transition requires manual data entry, reconciliation, and context-switching that drains time and introduces risk.

Most portfolio management platforms were built for a different era, one where standardization was the goal, not the obstacle. These systems excel at managing uniform model portfolios across large client bases. They struggle when asked to handle the complexity of account-level customization, tax overlays, and clientspecific constraints at scale.

This fragmentation isn't just an inconvenience; it's a fundamental barrier to scale. Advisors who want to deliver personalized portfolios, to client bases that can span hundreds or even thousands of accounts, find themselves spending more time managing technology than managing client relationships. The tools that were supposed to enable customization have, in many cases, become the bottleneck. For Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) aggregators, advisor networks, and independent RIAs alike, this creates strategic tension. Firms recognize that personalization is table stakes for client acquisition and retention. But delivering it profitably requires operational efficiency that legacy technology simply cannot provide.

Technology designed to improve advisor productivity has, in many cases, reduced it.

The limitations manifest themselves in several ways: Rigid workflows that don't adapt to how different advisors or firms actually work. Instead of embedding into existing processes, these platforms demand that advisors conform to pre-defined structures and rigid processes, regardless of whether they fit their business models. Fragmented data and analytics that require advisors to manually stitch together insights from multiple sources. Without unified visibility into portfolio construction, risk analytics, and client objectives, advisors are left making decisions with incomplete information. Manual model management and rebalancing processes that consume hours of advisor time, particularly as portfolio complexity increases. What should be an automated, rules-based workflow often requires significant human intervention. The irony is stark: technology designed to improve advisor productivity has, in many cases, reduced it.

The emerging solution landscape

US RIA Toolkit 2026

A new generation of platforms is addressing these needs by fundamentally rethinking how portfolio management technology should work. Rather than forcing advisors to adapt to rigid systems, these solutions adapt to advisors, offering white-label interfaces, fully customizable integration options, and workflows tailored to specific firm needs.

www.thewealthmosaic.com

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What advisors actually need The solution isn't simply more technology. It's better technology, purpose-built around how advisors manage portfolios and what they're trying to achieve. Modern portfolio management platforms should provide three core capabilities: Embedded workflows that integrate seamlessly with existing systems. Advisors shouldn't need to abandon their current tech stack or force their team to learn entirely new interfaces. The best solutions are modular, API-first, and designed to slot into existing infrastructure without disruption. Unified portfolio intelligence that consolidates research, construction, optimization, and monitoring into a single, intuitive interface. Advisors should be able to build customized portfolios, stress-test them against market scenarios, and manage ongoing rebalancing, all within one workflow. The complexity should stay where it belongs – under the hood. Scalable customization that enables firms to deliver personalized portfolios without linear increases in operational overhead. Whether managing 10 clients or 10,000, the marginal cost and time required per portfolio should approach zero. This is only possible when automation, intelligent algorithms, and streamlined workflows all exist together. Critically, these capabilities must be delivered through interfaces that advisors actually want to use – clean, intuitive, and streamlined. Institutional-grade analytics are worthless if accessing them requires a PhD in quantitative finance or CFA charter designation.

Some platforms are positioning themselves as core portfolio management infrastructure – the underlying engine that powers customization and optimization across entire advisor networks. Others are building comprehensive operating systems that handle everything from security selection to compliance monitoring. What unites them is a recognition that advisor efficiency and client personalization are not competing priorities. Done correctly, they reinforce each other. For enterprise RIAs, aggregators, and advisor networks, this shift is particularly significant. These firms need solutions that can be deployed consistently across large advisor bases, often managing hundreds of representatives with varying workflows, while still allowing for firm-level and account-level customization. White-label platforms with robust API infrastructure make this possible, enabling firms to maintain their brand identity and preferred workflows while accessing advanced portfolio management capabilities.

Why this matters now The stakes are rising. Client expectations around personalization will only intensify as the great wealth transfer materializes and younger, digitallynative investors accumulate wealth. Regulatory complexity continues to grow. Fee compression persists. In this environment, firms that can deliver highly customized portfolios efficiently will have a decisive competitive advantage. But efficiency alone isn't the goal. Advisors didn't enter this profession to manage technology – they entered it to serve clients. Every hour spent wrestling with fragmented systems or performing manual portfolio tasks is an hour not spent on financial planning, relationship building, or business development. The firms that recognize this, and invest in technology that genuinely enhances advisor workflows rather than complicating them, will be best positioned to attract and retain both top advisory talent and discerning clients.

Moving forward The industry's focus on client-side personalization has been essential and overdue. Now it's time to extend that same level of attention to the advisors delivering that personalization. They deserve tools that embed into their workflows, reduce manual processes, and create genuine efficiency, not just the promise of it. As the wealth management landscape continues to evolve, the winners will be firms that understand a simple truth: customization shouldn't come at the cost of efficiency. With the right technology, advisors can have both.

The solution isn't simply more technology. It's better technology, purpose-built around how advisors manage portfolios and what they're trying to achieve.

Paul Clifford

STRATxAI Technologies SOLUTION SHOWCASE

US RIA Toolkit 2026

STRATxAI is building the world's best white-label portfolio customization and analytics engine. The firm helps advisors deliver customized portfolios at scale while saving time, reducing costs, and improving operational efficiency for RIAs and aggregators. STRATxAI positions itself as the "Intel chip" of portfolio customization, the core engine powering advisor workflows and scalable personalization. Built on a flexible, modular framework, the platform integrates seamlessly into advisor networks, supporting easy deployment and fully customizable white-label solutions. At its core is a proprietary AI engine that analyzes over 8 billion data points daily, transforming complex data into actionable insights and highly customized portfolios.

Explore Scalable Portfolio Customization with STRATxAI

Solution Showcase

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SOLUTION OVERVIEW

FEATURES & BENEFITS

The solution is available as a standalone advisor platform, a white-label API integration embedded within RIA platforms and TAMPs, or as fully custom enterprise builds aligned to firm-specific systems, investment infrastructure, and advisor requirements. STRATxAI's platform and technology addresses a critical gap in wealth management: advisors are expected to deliver highly personalized portfolios using tools that cause friction, disrupt workflows, and increase manual processes rather than reduce them.

Portfolio Upload & Recommendations allows existing client portfolios to be imported for instant diagnostics and tailored optimization insights, improving existing allocations without starting from scratch.

The platform embeds directly into existing advisor workflows, eliminating the need to navigate between disconnected platforms. By unifying portfolio construction, optimization, monitoring, and model management within streamlined, advisor-centric workflows, it enables firms to deliver scalable customization without sacrificing operational efficiency. Whether serving ten clients or ten thousand, STRATxAI ensures that personalization and productivity reinforce rather than conflict with each other. Advisors gain access to institutional-grade portfolio management capabilities through intuitive interfaces, allowing them to focus on client relationships and business growth. The platform provides advisors with integrated tools that replace fragmented portfolio management systems with streamlined, efficient workflows designed for customization at scale. Portfolio Builder enables advisors to construct tailored client portfolios in just a few clicks, supporting everything from tax-aware direct & custom indexing strategies to traditional multifactor models and AI-driven strategies.

Model Comparison supports side-by-side evaluation of model portfolios. Model Blender intelligently combines multiple portfolios into unified, risk-aware allocations targeting specific investment outcomes. Investment Insights delivers on-demand equity and ETF analytics, translating complex quantitative research into actionable intelligence. AI-Powered Portfolio Commentary completes the workflow by automating compliant client communication through white-labeled portfolio summaries and factsheets, saving advisors hours per week and allowing them to focus on relationships rather than operations. Independent RIAs use the standalone platform to streamline portfolio management workflows and scale client capacity without adding investment staff.

DISCOVER MORE Deliver Customized Portfolios. Operate at Scale.

GET IN TOUCH

Portfolio intelligence for advisors, designed to scale customization.

Paul Clifford CEO STRATxAI Technologies

Advisor-first workflows remove friction from portfolio construction and management

paul.clifford@stratxai.com

Unified portfolio intelligence brings research, optimization, and analytics into one interface Automated portfolio commentaries and client reporting improve advisor productivity White-label and API-ready enables embedded integrations and branded enterprise builds

COMPANY STRATxAI Technologies

WEBSITE www.stratxai.com

USE CASES

EMAIL paul.clifford@stratxai.com

RIA aggregators deploy custom enterprise builds across their organizational structures and advisor networks to standardize investment operations and centralize portfolio oversight, with the solution adapting to existing workflows rather than enforcing rigid processes. TAMPs integrate STRATxAI’s white-label engine or features via API to deliver portfolio customization, optimization, and analytics capabilities under their own brand. STRATxAI differentiates through three core pillars. First, intuitive platform design bridges customization and efficiency, delivering institutional-grade portfolio construction through seamless advisor interfaces where complexity stays under the hood.

HQ Dublin, Ireland

FOUNDED 2023

EMPLOYEES 1-10

CLIENTS 1-10

CLIENT TYPE External Asset Managers, Broker-Dealer, Registered Investment Advisor

CLIENT LOCATIONS North America, Western Europe

Research collection

WealthTech Insight Papers This research colleciton is part of The Wealth Mosaic’s WealthTech Insight Series (WTIS), an ongoing research process, mixing online surveys and interviews, and focused exclusively on technology in the wealth management sector across the world.

Playbook for technology spend

European wealth playbook for growth

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