Tech stack fragmentation has long posed a challenge for the wealth management industry. Whether CRM and prospective client lists or meeting summaries and compliance, many advisory firms can’t smoothly combine operations because their technologies speak different languages and are often not compatible.
The problem has become more urgent in recent years as M&A has swept the industry. Dealmaking in the U.S. wealth management industry is poised to set another annual record, according to Berkshire Global Advisors, after M&A activity reached historic levels during the first half of 2026.
Making tech stacks effectively work together is also key to generating the necessary returns to justify the cost of such deals.
Companies have made some progress on the issue, specifically with integrating tech stacks. By “integrating,” we mean the ability of different tools within a tech stack to share data and work together.
In fact, buyers increasingly consider tech stack integration when scrutinizing potential acquisitions.
“As platform consolidation continues across the wealth management landscape, integration capabilities are becoming a decisive factor in buyer selection,” according to MarshBerry’s John Orsini. “No longer viewed as a post-close concern, integration is now central to pre-transaction diligence, with buyers scrutinizing their own operational readiness as closely as they evaluate the target firm’s financials.”
However, integration in itself is often too passive, leaving out intelligent coordination that could, for example, help boost advisor productivity, serve clients or attract new business.
We call the intelligent coordination process “orchestration.”
“Think of it this way: an orchestra is more than ensuring that all the players know the music, the key and the tempo,” said Sindhu Joseph, CEO and Co-Founder of CogniCor. “Rather, they know how to play together to create something beautiful. That is the biggest difference between integration and orchestration. It’s not just about the notes, but how they are played.”
Fragmented Pain
Right now, fragmented tech stacks are causing a number of problems for advisors.
“Fragmented Tech Stacks lead to Fragmented Data, which is at best an operational drag, and at worst a major compliance risk,” said Jon Ewing, Chief Marketing Officer of Docupace. “They also require manual processes on top of them, which are fallible.”
Said Erin Colledge, Executive Vice President, Platform Unification & AI Strategy of Orion: “The biggest pain points are client servicing, onboarding, meeting prep, compliance, and follow-through. Advisors still navigate multiple systems to find context, complete tasks and deliver advice. Fragmented data creates friction, while disconnected workflows limit productivity and advisor capacity.”
Integration Helps But Problems Remain
Allowing stacks to share data has eased some of these challenges. But advisory firms still struggle to manage such information streams into coherent workflows and extract value from them.
“Integration moves data between systems; it doesn’t create intelligence across them,” said John O’Connell, Founder and CEO of The Oasis Group. Using integration software Zapier as an example, he noted that it “syncs fields, not behavioral context.”
For example, he said, “CRMs and email platforms were … never designed to work together. You get synchronized contact records but lose engagement signals, conversion analytics, and stage-based workflow logic entirely.”
Colledge said advisors still need to do a lot of work, even with the help of AI.
“Integration connects systems; it doesn’t connect work,” she said. “Data may move between platforms, but advisors still have to gather context, interpret information and trigger actions. AI on top of fragmented systems simply accelerates access to disconnected information rather than creating a seamless experience.”
Unified Experience
Orchestration seeks to not only share data but also insert reasoning and intelligence into the processes so they proactively perform tasks.
“The next frontier is orchestration—using AI to turn connected technologies into a unified experience,” Colledge said. “Instead of moving data between tools, AI can move work forward across them, from insight to action, proactively surfacing reviews and approvals.”
“An agent doesn’t wait for a human to pull CRM data, check portfolio drift and draft a prep brief,” O’Connell said. “It pursues the objective across all connected systems, making intermediate decisions along the way. That’s structurally different from integration, which is passive data transport.”
But Mike Overdorf, President and Founder of The Sycamore Company, cautioned that companies need a comprehensive strategy, investment and full managerial commitment to orchestration. There is no one commercial product that can accomplish the concept on its own, he said.
“Real orchestration is possible, but it is never plug and play,” Overdorf said. “It requires a clear vision from leadership, well-defined workflows and vendors willing to work together. The best results come from careful customization and execution. There is no off-the-shelf orchestration platform that solves everything today.”
Orchestration’s Full Potential
True orchestration will produce “a unified data layer (that) sits beneath all systems,” O’Connell said. “Agents trained on firm-specific workflows monitor for triggers (a calendar event, a drift threshold, a compliance flag), execute multi-step processes autonomously and route exceptions for human review.”
“The advisor sets the objective,” he said. “The agent handles the sequence. Logging is built in from day one.”
“Full orchestration will create an intelligent operating layer above the tech stack,” Colledge said. “AI will continuously connect data, workflows, insights, and actions across systems, automatically moving work forward while maintaining governance, permissions and auditability—transforming technology from a collection of tools into a coordinated experience.”
Helping Advisors
“Advisors should work from one interface with one trusted source of information,” Overdorf said. “Compensation, new business, client service, workflows and reporting should all be available in one place. They should not have to jump between multiple applications or wonder which system contains the correct information.”
Orchestration will ultimately free advisors to focus on higher-value tasks like serving clients and growing the business.
“Advisors will be able to serve far more clients, with far better information and personalized advice than ever before,” Joseph said. “Firms and advisors will be able to scale in ways that were not thought possible. But this isn’t some far-off possibility; the technology is available today. People just need to be willing to lay the groundwork for the future now.”
Larry Roth is CEO of Wealth Solutions Report and Founder and Managing Partner of Ascentix Partners.
