What Growth-Minded RIAs Should Look for in Wealthtech in 2026

Growth changes the way a firm experiences technology.

What once felt flexible can start to feel fragmented. What once seemed manageable can start to rely too heavily on manual work, workarounds, and the institutional knowledge of a few key people. And what once looked like a strong stack on paper can begin to show strain as expectations rise across client service, operations, reporting, and personalization.

That’s why wealthtech evaluation looks different for growth-minded RIAs in 2026.

At this stage, the goal usually isn’t to add more tools just to keep up. It’s to build an operating foundation that can support growth without creating more drag along the way.

Growth Raises the Standard for Technology

As RIAs grow, technology gets tested in a different way.

More households mean more complexity. More assets mean more reporting expectations. More clients, staff, and service needs create more pressure on data quality, workflow consistency, and internal coordination. A stack that worked well enough at one stage of the business may start to show friction at the next.

That’s one reason this moment matters.

In Orion’s 2026 Advisor Wealthtech Survey, the top strategic focus advisors identified for 2026 was optimizing technology integration and data use across the firm, selected by 61% of respondents. Right behind it, 60% said they were focused on using AI and automation to improve efficiency and personalization.¹ Advisors also ranked integrated technology, streamlined workflows and process optimization, and AI and automation tools as the top three force multipliers for growth and success.

That’s a pretty clear signal. Firms aren’t just looking for modern technology. They’re looking for leverage.

The Biggest Problem Often Isn’t Missing Capability. It’s Operational Drag.

For growth-minded RIAs, the challenge usually isn’t that the firm has no technology.

It’s that the systems in place aren’t creating enough lift.

That drag shows up in all kinds of familiar ways. Teams are checking multiple systems before acting. Data still has to be entered or reconciled manually. Reporting workflows take more effort than they should. Preparing for meetings means pulling information from several places. Advisors and operations staff are spending time stitching workflows together instead of moving through them cleanly.

That kind of friction is easy to normalize. It’s also expensive.

In the same Orion survey, disconnected systems that don’t talk to each other remained the top technology pain point advisors identified. Advisors also said the top way technology could “supercharge” their effectiveness was by streamlining operations and reducing manual work, followed by giving them more time to focus on clients.

For a growth-minded RIA, that matters. If your stack isn’t reducing friction, it may be absorbing capacity your firm needs elsewhere.

Better Growth Usually Comes from Better Use of Technology, not Just More of It

One of the more useful findings in Orion’s 2026 Advisor Wealthtech Survey is that firms that grew the most in 2025 utilized a higher percentage of their technology than low-growth and no-growth firms. Orion advisors also reported higher average tech stack utilization and higher average tech integration than non-Orion advisors.¹

That doesn’t mean technology alone causes growth, and it doesn’t mean every fast-growing firm has solved its stack challenges.

But it does reinforce something important: getting more value from technology appears to matter.

Growth-minded RIAs don’t just need access to software. They need systems that people will actually use, data that teams can trust, and workflows that don’t become harder to manage as the firm expands.

In other words, they need technology that turns into usable capacity.

Portfolio Accounting Becomes More Important As Firms Scale

For RIAs evaluating what matters most in the stack, portfolio accounting deserves more attention than it sometimes gets.

It may not always be the most visible layer of advisor tech, but it touches some of the most important parts of running the business: reporting confidence, billing logic, reconciliation, operational consistency, and firmwide visibility into client portfolios and activity.

That’s part of why Orion’s position in the 2026 T3 Software Survey is worth paying attention to. Orion led the portfolio management and reporting category with 18.62% market share, and the report notes that Orion “seems to have pulled away from the pack as the market share leader.”² T3 also notes that Orion’s popularity grows as advisory firms get bigger due to its expansive feature set.

For an RIA in growth mode, that’s meaningful.

It suggests the market continues to place real weight on the systems that sit closest to the operational core of the business — and that Orion’s relevance strengthens as firms become more complex.

Growth-Minded RIAs Should Evaluate Fit, not Just Features

This is where some firms can get tripped up.

A feature-rich demo can be persuasive. A long list of integrations can sound reassuring. A collection of specialized tools can feel like flexibility.

But truly growth-oriented RIAs should be asking a more strategic question: "Does this technology fit the way our firm needs to operate next?"

That means looking beyond whether a tool is impressive on its own and asking whether it helps the firm move with more speed, clarity, and consistency across the business.

Here are a few questions worth asking:

• Are our core systems actually sharing usable, trusted data?
• Where are manual workflows still slowing down the team?
• Which parts of the stack create the most drag as volume increases?
• Are we using our technology well, or just carrying more of it?
• Will this stack help us scale cleanly, or make scale harder to manage?

Those questions are especially important for RIAs trying to grow without sacrificing service quality or overwhelming their teams.

All-in-One Versus Best-of-Breed Isn’t the Real Issue

Growth-minded RIAs often get pulled into a familiar debate: should we move toward a more connected platform or should we keep building around best-of-breed tools?

That’s a fair question, but it’s usually not the most important one.

The better question is whether the firm’s technology choices are creating leverage or creating friction.

The 2026 T3 survey is interesting here because it shows both the appeal and the complexity of platform thinking. In all-in-one software, Orion and Advyzon were described as being in a “two-platform race for market share leadership,” with Orion also near the top of the consideration list.² At the same time, T3 notes that many firms using all-in-one platforms still supplement with best-of-breed tools.

That’s a useful reminder that architecture alone doesn’t solve the problem.

What matters is whether the firm can create a stack that supports connected workflows, trusted data, and smoother execution as it grows.

What Growth-Minded RIAs Should Be Looking for Now

In 2026, the strongest wealthtech decisions for RIAs will likely come from a more grounded standard.

Not “Which platform has the most features?”
Not “Which tool looks best in a demo?”
Not even “Which category leader should we add next?”

The better question is this:
"Which technology choices will help us scale the business with more usable capacity and less operational friction?"

That’s the standard growth-minded RIAs should be using now.

The firms that pull ahead in the next phase of growth likely won’t be the ones buying the most software. They’ll be the ones building the clearest, most connected foundation underneath the business.