Loading benchmark data...
Comprehensive analysis of technology adoption, website performance, and digital maturity across 1000+ RIA firms.
1,000
Firms Analyzed
174
Tools Detected
1,000
Tech Stacks Mapped
10
Tool Categories
Leading firms score an average of 49 across all digital maturity metrics.
Wealthbox leads the CRM market, followed by Practifi.
Wealthbox, Salesforce show fastest adoption rates in the past 90 days.
Overall
Education
Lead Capture
SEO
Engagement
Top Quartile Average
49/100
Bottom Quartile Average
22/100
The operating system of the modern RIA. It is no longer just software; it is your firm's valuation multiple.
In the last decade, the Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) technology stack has shifted from a back-office utility to the primary driver of enterprise value. A fragmented stack creates operational drag. A unified, data-centric stack creates Operating Leverage.
While the market is flooded with 600+ tools, the institutional stack rests on three non-negotiable pillars. If these do not talk to each other, you do not have a firm; you have a collection of logins.
The single source of truth for relationships. If it's not in the CRM, it didn't happen.
Financial planning software. Where value is demonstrated and goals are quantified.
Portfolio management, trading, and reporting. The execution layer of your fiduciary duty.
Most firms buy these tools in isolation. The "Best-in-Class" fallacy leads to data silos. The modern "All-in-One" platforms (like Orion or Envestnet) compete against deep integrations between specialized tools. The choice defines your operational roadmap for the next 5 years.
CRM is not an address book. It is the automated brain of your practice.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the sun of your solar system. All other tools—planning, custodians, marketing—must orbit around it. A CRM without workflows is just a glorified Excel sheet.
The volume leader. Built on the premise of "easy to use." Historically the entry point for independent advisors.
Market Share: ~56%
The modern challenger. "Social CRM" design inspired by Facebook/LinkedIn feeds. Rapidly gaining share among next-gen firms (XYPN).
Growth Leader
The enterprise standard. Infinite customizability, infinite cost. Requires a dedicated administrator. The choice for RIAs scaling past $1B AUM.
In 2026, the CRM shifts from "Passive Record" to "Active Agent." AI agents now monitor client activity, draft reviews, and trigger check-ins automatically.
Wealthbox is the clear leader, but Practifi is gaining ground among younger firms.
While legacy systems hold market share, newer cloud-native platforms are winning on integration capabilities and UI/UX.
Avg CRM Lifespan
5.8 Years
Switching Costs
High
Cash flow modeling and goal tracking. The visual proof of your value proposition.
Financial Planning software has evolved from 50-page PDF reports (that no one read) to interactive, living client portals. This is where the "Peace of Mind" is manufactured.
Granular, tax-focused, detailed line items. For high-net-worth complexity.
Big picture, "Can I retire?", simplified inputs. For accumulators and mass affluent.
The modern client does not want a binder. They want a dashboard. Tools like RightCapital have surged in popularity by offering a sleek, mobile-friendly interface that puts the "Probability of Success" front and center.
The frontier of planning is Tax Analysis. Tools like Holistiplan read tax returns (OCR) and identify specific savings opportunities. It is the highest ROI software an advisor can buy ($500 cost -> $10k+ client value).
The financial planning landscape is a duopoly. eMoney and MoneyGuidePro control the vast majority of the market, with RightCapital emerging as the strong third contender for next-gen advisors.
Goal-Based
Planning Style
Cash Flow
Planning Style
Reporting, Trading, and Rebalancing. The engine room of AUM.
This is the most expensive line item in your stack. Portfolio Management systems (PMS) handle the heavy lifting: calculating performance (TWR/IRR), generating billing files, and rebalancing thousands of accounts.
The behemoth. Does everything (Billing, Reporting, Trading, Compliance). High complexity, high power.
Best for: $500M+ AUM Firms
Beautiful client reporting. The aesthetic choice. Owned by SS&C.
Best for: High-Touch Multi-Family Offices
The disruptor. By combining the Custodian (holding the money) with the Software (reporting on it), they eliminated the "Reconciliation" headache.
Best for: Modern, Efficiency-First RIAs
Portfolios are becoming personalized. "Direct Indexing" allows you to buy the S&P 500 but exclude oil companies, or tax-loss harvest at the individual stock level. Tools like Ethic and Canvas are making this standard.
Protecting the firm and the client.
Nitrogen (Riskalyze) has successfully transitioned from a risk tool to a "Growth Platform," driving high adoption across all firm sizes.
Automated archiving tools (Smarsh, Erado) are achieving 100% penetration in firms >$500M AUM.
Winning combinations by firm profile.
Why it works: Seamless integration, low cost, modern UI.
Why it works: Deep reporting capabilities and robust compliance features.
Why it works: Maximum customizability and complex estate planning.
2026 Architecture. From 'Coding' to 'Agent Orchestration.'
You are positioned on the "bleeding edge" of the 2026 software landscape. By leveraging Agentic IDEs and frontier AI models, you are moving away from traditional "coding" toward Agent Orchestration. This shift reduces the cost of development (time) significantly.
To maximize profitability, your architecture must prioritize low operational overhead and high velocity. The recommendations below integrate modern tools into a unified "Profitable Software Machine."
Your development workflow is distinct because you are using Agentic IDEs. Unlike standard editors (VS Code/Cursor), these treat AI not as an autocomplete tool but as an autonomous employee.
Instead of writing functions, you define "Missions" in the Agent Manager. You delegate full feature builds (e.g., "Implement Stripe billing flow") to the agent.
The agent produces Artifacts (Implementation Plans, Task Lists, Screenshots, and Browser Recordings). Your role shifts from writing code to reviewing these artifacts.
Agentic IDEs operate across the Editor, Terminal, and Browser simultaneously. They can write the code, run the terminal command to start the server, and open the browser to verify the UI changes.
Strategic Note
This setup drastically lowers your "Cost of Goods Sold" (COGS) in terms of developer hours, directly impacting profitability.
The Supabase + Vercel integration allows for seamless scalability and developer experience.
Utilize Supabase Branching. When you push a Git branch to Vercel (e.g., feature/new-dashboard), Supabase can automatically spin up a corresponding preview database with the correct schema. This prevents "production works, staging breaks" issues.
Manage your Supabase instance directly through the Vercel Marketplace for unified billing and environment variable synchronization (POSTGRES_URL, SUPABASE_KEY, etc.).
Retool is the "glue" that can make your software profitable by eliminating the need to build custom internal logic.
Connect Retool directly to your Supabase Postgres. View user data, moderate content, handle support tickets. Do not build admin pages in Next.js—it is a waste of engineering resources.
Instead of writing complex cron jobs or serverless functions for background tasks (e.g., "Send summary email every Friday"), use Retool Workflows. It's a visual backend that can query your DB and trigger API calls.
Expose Retool apps to external users (partners, vendors, or B2B clients) securely. This can replace 30-40% of the frontend code you would otherwise have to build in Next.js.
For a profitable software stack, you need two distinct types of analytics:
Do not use Google Analytics. Use PostHog.
Visualize the hard data sitting in Supabase (revenue, user growth, inventory).
To build the "most profitable" software, you must minimize administrative drag (taxes, compliance, subscriptions).
While Stripe is the standard, Lemon Squeezy is a Merchant of Record (MoR). They handle global sales tax, VAT remittance, and compliance automatically. Stripe requires you to manage this or pay extra for Stripe Tax. For a small to mid-sized team, Lemon Squeezy is significantly more profitable because it removes legal overhead.
Resend for transactional emails (password resets, receipts) due to its developer-centric API.
Loops for marketing and engagement. Designed for SaaS, allowing you to trigger email sequences based on product events (e.g., "User hasn't logged in for 7 days").
| Component | Tool Selection | Role & Justification |
|---|---|---|
| Development | Google Antigravity | Agentic Orchestration. Manages coding agents for implementation, testing, and browser verification. |
| Intelligence | Claude 3.5 / Gemini | Reasoning Engine. Provides high-level architectural planning and code logic. |
| Frontend | Next.js (via Vercel) | Core Application. Edge functions and seamless Supabase branching integration. |
| Backend / DB | Supabase | Data Layer. Postgres database + Auth + Realtime. The "source of truth." |
| Internal Tools | Retool | Operations Center. Admin panels, content moderation, and background workflows. |
| Analytics (User) | PostHog | Behavioral Tracking. User funnels, retention, and session replays. |
| Reporting (BI) | Draxlr | Data Visualization. Dashboards directly on top of Supabase data. |
| Payments | Lemon Squeezy | Monetization. Merchant of Record handles global tax/VAT. |
| Loops / Resend | Communication. Loops for growth sequences; Resend for transactional. |
Steps to upgrade your digital maturity.
Stop treating CRM and Planning as silos. Implementing a bi-directional sync (e.g., Wealthbox ↔ RightCapital) saves ~5 hours of admin time per week per advisor.
Replace static contact forms with interactive tools. Firms using "Get Your Risk Number" or "Retirement Calculator" lead magnets see 2.4x higher conversion rates.
Implement automated "nudge" campaigns based on portfolio triggers. Move beyond the quarterly newsletter to personalized, event-driven communication.
See how your firm stacks up against industry benchmarks with a free website audit.