We are pleased to announce the publication of the US RIA Toolkit 2026, the latest in our series of Toolkit reports focused on the key themes and currents impacting wealth management around the world. Each Toolkit report focuses on a key industry theme, segment, or geography.
This report focuses on how the Registered Investment Advisor market in the United States is adapting to a period of rapid growth, changing client expectations, increasing consolidation and M&A in the segment, increasing technological sophistication, and changes to the RIA model itself. It also explores the ways in which the RIA segment – consistently among the industry’s early-adopters and innovators – is charting new ground for the rest of the wealth management industry.
It features contributions from a total of 14 industry participants, all bringing different perspectives on the RIA segment, and its challenges, opportunities, and future. Among these are seven contributors from technology vendors who have each contributed a topic-focused Showcase profiling an individal solution.
We would like to thank the report contributors for their insight into the outlook for RIAs in the United States. For our readers, we hope this report is valuable. We look forward to sharing more knowledge resources with you in the near future.
Thank you to all the report contributors including:
- Harmon Kong, CFP, AIF, Founding Director at Apriem Advisors
- Rabih Ramadi, CEO at Avantos
- Ryan George, Chief Marketing Officer at Docupace
- Amit Dogra, serial investor and entrepreneur
- Ann Hynek, Founder & CEO at Hestia Wealth & Wellness
- Kevin Johnston, Founder of Invstly
- Patrick Spencer, Managing Director at Moneytree Software
- Anneke Stender and Rob Scherer, Executive Vice President and President at Plumb Bill Pay
- Pete Hess and Ed Locher, President and CMO at PureFacts
- Blake Bjordahl, President/CEO at RIA Compliance Technology
- Abby Salameh, CGO at RFG Advisory
- Paul Clifford, CEO at STRATxAI Technologies
- Michael Partnow, Strategic Advisor at The Wealth Mosaic
- Kimberly Flynn, CFA, President at XA Investments
Discover the challenges and opportunities facing US RIAs today. Read the report online here.
The US RIA Toolkit 2026 describes an era of transformation for the RIA ecosystem. Rapid growth, accelerating consolidation, and rising client expectations are converging with advances in technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to reshape how RIAs compete, scale, and serve clients. This report is intended to help RIAs and those serving the segment to navigate this transformation. It highlights real-world technology solutions, implementation strategies, and resources designed specifically for RIAs operating in an increasingly complex environment.
With RIA assets under management at historic highs, private equity activity accelerating, and a growing number of advisors making the jump to the RIA segment every year, competitive differentiation has never been more important. From digital client experience and automation, to AI-driven personalization and cybersecurity, this report explores the tools that can materially improve efficiency, growth, and client satisfaction.
Data insights
We open with a scene-setter profile of the different aspects of change that RIAs are facing today – the hyper-personalization of client relationships, new operational models, expanded regulation, the democratization of products, the technology-powered M&A boom, and the changing landscape of custody. The section provides a curated collection of relevant insights and data points that sets an empirical foundation for the insights that follow in the report.
Industry perspectives
In this section, we present insights from seven thought leaders exploring how RIAs are navigating the changing environment.
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.
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 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.
Our industry perspectives highlight 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.
Featured showcases
Finally, the report presents seven showcases featuring individual technology solutions designed with the needs of RIAs in mind. These include:
Showcase #1
AI-native client management (Contributed by Avantos)
Fragmented advisor workflows limit client service and growth. By unifying data, automating servicing, and embedding intelligence, an AI-native operating system creates proactive, personalized, scalable client management – freeing advisors to focus on judgment, relationships, and strategic guidance.
Showcase #2
Integrated revenue management (Contributed by PureFacts)
Under-pricing 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.
Showcase #3
Technology – buy or build? (Contributed by Docupace)
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.
Showcase #4
Transforming operations into strategy (Contributed by Plumb Bill Pay)
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.
Showcase #5
Compliance platforms (Contributed by RIA Compliance Technology)
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 grounds, and respond quickly and confidently during exams or audits.
Showcase #6
From data to dialogue (Contributed by Moneytree Software)
Technology’s greatest value isn’t just in producing accurate plans – it’s in transforming the planning experience itself. Collaborative tools such as scenario modelling, 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.
Showcase #7
Advisor-focused workflow tools (Contributed by STRATxAI)
As portfolio personalization becomes standard, advisor efficiency is increasingly at risk. Fragmented legacy systems force manual work and limit scale. Explore why modern wealth management requires workflow-centric technology that enables customization without sacrificing productivity, profitability, or advisor experience.
Interested in reading the US RIA Toolkit 2026? You can read and download the report online here.
About The Toolkit Report Series
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.
About The Wealth Mosaic
The Wealth Mosaic is a UK-headquartered online solution provider directory and knowledge resource, focused specifically on the wealth management industry. Built around a curated and constantly growing and evolving directory of solution providers to the wealth management sector across the world, our business is founded on five core principles that make us different from other offerings in the market:
- Wealth management-focused
- Directory-first
- Research-led
- Online-first
- Accessible
Behind this report, the engine room of our business in delivering all of the above is our website. This is available to any user 24/7, 365-days a year. As of July 2024, our website hosts over 2,750 solution provider profiles and hosts over 6,250 solution profiles from these businesses. Each of these solutions is tagged to at least one of the 39 headline Business needs categories across our first two live marketplaces (Technology and Data, and Consulting, Research and Support Services). These Business needs categories create the first level of filtering around our Solution Provider Directory.
Alongside our core directory focus, we continue to add and further develop the content, knowledge resources, and tools within our platform to support the user in their discovery, learning and engagement process.
For Wealth Managers
For wealth managers, the buy side of our marketplace, TWM is designed to enable discovery of key solutions, solution providers and knowledge resources by specific business needs.
For Solution Providers
For solution providers and vendors, the sell side of our marketplace, TWM exists to support the positioning, exposure and business development needs of these firms in a more complex and demanding market.
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