From Software to Solutions: Why Less Is the New More

By Reed Colley, President, Orion Advisor Technology

For most of my career, progress in wealthtech was measured by addition. Another module, another integration, a longer list of things a platform could do. That era is ending. With our latest collaboration with Anthropic, the Model Context Protocol is now available across Orion, creating the mesh-like connection between AI and the systems your firm runs on that we have been working toward for years. It exists to do one thing: get you back to serving your clients.

I want to be clear about who this is for. It is not for the vendors, and it is not for the software. For too long, advisors were asked to bend their practice to fit the tool, to work the way the lowest common denominator of the software allowed. We are done asking that. Our job is to bend the technology to your practice, so it works the way you and your clients actually work.

That is the real move from software to solutions, and the way you measure it is subtraction: how much we can remove from between you and the client. The best advisors are always building what is best for their clients. Our job is to build the best solutions for advisors, so those relationships go deeper, reach a broader scale, and become the engine of your growth. We get there by simplifying through access, not by adding more for you to manage. 

What actually changes for you

Think about a straightforward question. How has this client's portfolio performed since our last review, what did we discuss, and what did I promise to follow up on. Answering it today means one system for performance, another for the relationship history, and more than a few minutes stitching it together. All of that is preparation for advice. None of it is the advice itself.

That work is exactly what we are removing, and it is available now. The AI tools your team already uses can reach into your systems directly, with your permissions intact, and do the assembling for you. You ask the question in plain language. The answer comes back from live data you already trust.

Here is why that matters, and it is not about the minutes saved. It is about depth. You did not build your practice to assemble reports. You built it to know your clients, and time spent preparing for advice is time not spent giving it. When the assembly disappears, three things open up. Your relationships go deeper because you show up more present and more prepared. Your practice scales because one advisor can serve more people at the quality that used to require a team. And growth follows, because satisfied clients are how you earn the right to do more. Depth, scale, growth. Everything we build serves one of those three. 
 

We have been here before

When the industry moved to open architecture, the argument was whether advisors should choose their own technology or accept whatever came bundled. We took a clear position. Advisors build their firms around the tools that fit how they work, and our job is to connect to those tools, not replace them.

More than 550 integration partners later, that position holds up. It is the reason a firm can run Orion at the center and keep the CRM, the planning tool, the custodian relationship, and the specialty software your team relies on. The question has simply moved from which applications connect to each other to which AI tools can work across the systems your business runs on. Our answer has not changed. You chose your technology approach for good reasons. AI should work across it, not force you to start over. That is what we built Denali AI to do, and it is why we treat this connectivity as core infrastructure.

You own your practice

Because your practice runs on your data, I want to be direct about how we treat it.

With Orion, your firm owns its data. You decide what AI can access, what it can do on its own, and where a person approves before anything happens. Every action runs inside the permissions your firm already set, and you can see what happened after the fact. Your firm, your systems, your rules. It has been our operating principle for years, and it is the reason we can open up your practice to what is coming rather than lock it down. As one of the first wealthtech firms to earn ISO 42001 certification, we meet a global standard for AI that is governed, auditable, and built to earn your trust. This is not a promise about the future. It is certified today.

Where to start

Anthropic just launched Claude for Financial Advisors. The new Claude plugin connects Claude to Orion Connect and Redtail so your team can prepare for meetings, capture follow-ups, review reports, and see where opportunities stand, all without leaving the conversation. Full details are available here: Orion.com/Claude.

If your firm is early in this work, the plugin is the place to start. There is nothing to build. If your firm is further along and building its own AI experiences and agents, the same connection supports that. Orion becomes the front door to the data and workflows you already run your business on, and what you build on top of it is yours. Wherever you are, we will meet you there.

What's next

This is a foundation, not a finish line. Over the next year, we will keep extending how AI connects into Orion and keep putting Denali AI to work as the intelligence layer across it, giving advisors more time back, bringing next-best actions forward for review, and creating more room for the client relationships that grow a firm. We will also keep being specific about what works today and what is still coming. You should expect that from us, and you should ask for it from anyone else making AI promises right now. To see what it looks like in practice, watch the replay of our recent AI Roadmap Webinar.

If you are at Future Proof Festival, come find us at booth #419. We are running live demos and would like to hear what your firm is trying to solve. Anyone interested in learning more can register for a Sept. 30 webinar featuring leaders from Anthropic and Orion to see the plugin and real advisor workflows in action.

Progress was never about how much we could add. It was always about how much we could take out of your way, so you can do what the best advisors have always done: build what is best for their clients. That is the phase we are building for now, and it is built around you.