Most Worth readers are wildly different iconoclasts but share one common characteristic: financial success. Particularly when it comes to investments. Choosing the proper software arsenal is critical if your business is about helping them succeed. What features do you need and why? And how should they be presented? It’s a complex set of decisions, but we’ve decided to make the job easier.
The Guts: Portfolio Management and Taxes
Analysis features should be at the core of any wealth professional’s toolkit. You’re juggling clients with different financial goals, risk tolerances, and investment horizons. The relationship is about allocating and balancing every client’s portfolio, so features that help you handle those needs in a personalized way should be at the top of your must-have list.
Most software vendors put these capabilities under “rebalancing features.” It is a good name since you’re looking for things that will let you rebalance a client’s portfolio quickly in case they want to change their strategy or when the market throws you a curveball, which will probably be happening often over the next two to four years.
We’ll discuss risk management in more detail below, but rebalancing also impacts what is needed. Any toolset that builds new client investment plans also needs to factor in risk and the ability to adjust that risk level on a per-client basis. And while the front ends of those features differ from tool to tool, my favorite is adjustable dashboards.
You should be able to create dashboards unique to every client, which means they need to be easily customizable so you can see just the important data in that person’s portfolio. Most tools have this capability, but the key is how user-friendly it is to customize your dashboard’s look and feel and get it to show precisely what you need.
Another characteristic that will vary from client to client is the grim specter of taxes. There are software tools that do nothing but tax optimization. Still, if you can find a set of tax features that work for you under a soup-to-nuts wealth management tool, it’ll drastically reduce the time it takes to move data between different software platforms.
It also helps you apply the client’s current tax picture to other tasks, like investment planning, so you can build for tax-advantaged growth. That means you’re looking for features that will let you apply each customer’s tax implications to their long- and short-term plans. You should be able to identify opportunities for tax savings throughout the year and quickly adjust each customer’s strategies in response to any tax law changes. A big win would be automation features that automatically react to such changes.
A potential difficulty here is record-keeping. Every investment manager has a different way of maintaining client records—not just their own, but those given to them by the client. Those could come from their bankers, business managers, local government bodies, or other sources. The preferred solution is a tool that lets you integrate this information into your other feature sets, like portfolio balancing. But at a minimum, you should be able to attach this information to individual client records as PDFs or some other electronic document type that you can access easily.
Which brings us to storage. Attaching documents to client records can send your storage requirements soaring depending on your many customers. Your wealth management toolset needs to have provisions for storing that data not just per client but also with the ability to separate that data so it’s not visible to different clients. Records also shouldn’t be visible to staffers who work with only a subset of your overall client roster because they don’t need to see (and shouldn’t) information provided by customers other than their own.
You or your IT staff will also need to consider how much storage you’re willing to give every client, when such records will be purged—usually on a Time to Live (TTL) basis, and how they’re backed up. Even virtual disk space can get pricey once you move into the petabyte range.
Top Tools for Portfolio Management
Several top-tier platforms stand out for wealth managers seeking the best tools to optimize portfolio management, tax efficiency, and data storage. Orion Advisor Solutions and Morningstar Office offer powerful portfolio rebalancing and performance tracking, ensuring advisors can swiftly adjust client strategies in response to market shifts. Tamarac provides seamless CRM integration, making it ideal for firms prioritizing a streamlined workflow. Holistiplan and BNA Income Tax Planner are excellent choices for tax planning, automating tax analysis, and ensuring advisors can proactively adjust strategies to maximize tax-advantaged growth. Addepar excels in data aggregation, integrating client records and financial insights across multiple platforms, reducing administrative burdens. Given the ever-growing need for secure document management, Box for Financial Services and NetDocuments provide scalable storage solutions with advanced permission controls, ensuring compliance while keeping sensitive client data organized and protected.
Client Considerations
Maintaining a close and personal relationship with every client is critical. When customers feel like they’ve become just another report to you, they start looking for other investment help. It’s a personal relationship; losing sight of it can mean the difference between keeping a customer and waving goodbye.
How well a set of financial planning features addresses that need is something not every wealth professional looks for right away, but they should. Yes, planning tools should deliver personalized strategies for each client’s goals and financial situation. They need to be able to provide you with enough information to create a tailored plan that maximizes a customer’s economic well-being.
However, they must also present that information so customers can easily digest it. That all-important strategy report should be as straightforward as possible, not just to you but also to them. The more they understand, the more they’ll want to discuss things with you, which means you’ll strengthen the relationship and build trust every time you interact. It’s much easier to give accurate advice and present clients with a clear investment roadmap if they have some understanding of what you’re talking about.
To get there, your toolbox needs to address data aggregation without giving you a migraine. Your chosen software solution should be able to pull together every client’s complete financial picture, meaning accounts, investments, and assets, and present that information.
Dashboards can help here, but usually they aren’t enough. You should be able to generate an end-to-end report of this information before you sit down to rebalance a client’s portfolio. When applying new tweaks, the entire report and any attached dashboards should react automatically rather than asking you to adjust them separately.
That’s not just for time efficiency but also to minimize errors. Whenever a human has to move or adjust data, you open the door to a potential mistake. Hunting those down can be extremely difficult. So, the depth and ease with which your software can move this data for you are essential considerations. Effective data aggregation lets you build comprehensive plans faster and track performance more accurately. That builds trust and leaves customers with a clear understanding of their financial status and progress.
It also helps you address those curveballs we mentioned earlier. You’re looking to brew a secret sauce of successful wealth-building strategies that differentiate you from the competition, and smart data aggregation is at the heart of that mission. Markets can change quickly, as can clients’ financial situations. Reacting to changes fast is an important part of emphasizing your expertise, which helps them feel secure.
A big part of that is offering alternative investments that might help clients reach their goals faster. These features allow you to deliver diversification options that factor in uncorrelated assets, overall risk reduction, and the impact of market fluctuations.
Seeing how an alternative investment choice can affect every client individually gives you a leg up on generating higher returns than the traditional investment categories familiar to most customers. Think of private equity investments, for example. They can yield substantial profits through strategic acquisitions, which is something many clients don’t initially consider.
This capability will likely combine several software-level things, notably data aggregation, market tracking, and the client’s risk tolerance. If you’re doing a hands-on evaluation of a potential software solution, it’s a workflow you’ll want to try. Look at things that will let you identify opportunities, track progress and outcomes, and do anything that improves client presentation and reporting.
If you’ve ever filled a sales role, you’re probably considering CRM platforms now. We’re talking about customer relationship management (CRM) tools for those that aren’t. Generally, these are products aimed at sales professionals because they’re designed to keep track of each client’s details easily. That’s important for wealth managers, too.
CRM systems are big, smart databases that create records for every client with data points you can specify and alter at will. That should include the customer’s investment preferences, risk tolerance, and financial goals at a minimum, but the more detailed a CRM record can get, the better off you’ll be.
That’s because this isn’t just about having an easier time accessing your client’s information. It’s also about automatically making that data available for analysis and planning. Opening a record in a separate window and getting a reference report is one way of working, but it’s time-consuming and error-prone. Innovative CRM tools will apply their data to your actions in other parts of your wealth management tool. For example, they might do it in the form of thresholds. If you’re building a plan for a customer with a certain level of risk tolerance, your CRM features can alert you automatically if your plan is above or below what the client wants.
It’s a great concept, but it won’t be ready out of the box. You need to correlate the information in a CRM record with every action to which you want that data applied. Some tools offer this ability with a long list of checkboxes to customize yourself. Others will require you to work with your IT pro and maybe even a database administrator. That’s especially true if the software you choose doesn’t have CRM features built-in but instead wants to integrate with a third-party CRM platform. In that case, you’re mapping data relationships between two different software packages, which can be time-consuming and difficult.
But hopping over that hurdle can be more than worth it. These features track every customer interaction, so even out of the box, they’re great for timely follow-ups that keep your clients informed and engaged. You can use them to kick off automated email streams, remind you of appointments and customer meetings, and when it’s time to generate reports. That kind of personalization is tough to achieve on your own, so automating it makes it easier to build trust and keep customers happy.
Top CRM Tools for Wealth Managers
The right technology stack ensures wealth managers maintain strong client relationships and deliver personalized financial strategies. eMoney Advisor and MoneyGuidePro lead the way in goal-based financial planning, offering interactive dashboards and clear, visually appealing reports that make complex financial strategies easy for clients to understand. For seamless data aggregation, Addepar and ByAllAccounts consolidate client financial data from multiple sources, providing a holistic financial picture in real-time. Regarding CRM solutions, Salesforce Financial Services Cloud and Wealthbox streamline client interactions, track preferences, and automate follow-ups to enhance engagement and trust. These platforms ensure wealth managers can proactively tailor their services, adjust financial plans, and confidently offer alternative investments. For those focusing on alternative assets and diversification, CAIS and iCapital Network provide robust marketplaces for private equity and hedge fund investments.
Managing ESG and Other Risk Factors
All of what’s above is about what you’re showing your clients. But there’s plenty left to do behind the scenes. At the top of that list are risk profiling and assessment features. They should measure every investment’s success potential and how well it fits a client’s needs. They need to factor in what the client wants, what they think the client needs, and what the outside world is doing to that plan.
You need this information in a format that helps you make informed decisions while balancing risks and returns. The key here is customization—for you this time, not the client. Every manager works differently, so you’re not necessarily looking for a tool that just offers a static set of features. You’re looking for a system that will give you the information you need to work how you want.
That can take many forms, so evaluating a potential platform can be complex. Wealth management tools keep gobs of information that might be applicable here. You need to identify the data you want to use and the place you want to use it, meaning which screens in the software you want to do this kind of analysis.
You should also be able to decide how you want the final work to look and where you want it applied. For instance, you may like it as an old-school reference report or want it applied automatically wherever needed. You might also want to work with another tool, like Excel, which means the software should be able to move data back and forth without hassle.
The more you customize risk and assessment workflows to your style, the more impact they’ll have in the long run. They should improve performance and successful outcomes for your customers, but they should ensure you stay compliant with regulatory requirements because they’re documenting the rationale behind your investment decisions.
They’ll also help with ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) screening and reporting. ESG is how you match your clients’ values to the investment options you provide. It’s a bit like matching their financial goals with their personal beliefs, which sounds a little granola but will help you build that all-important trust relationship.
After all, responsible investing is more important to a larger swath of customers than it’s ever been. For example, you’ll encounter more clients who want to account for sustainability and ethical business investments. Having a software platform that addresses ESG means you can present clients with the long-term impact of their investments on society and the environment, which is a win-win for everyone.
Top Tools for Managing ESG
Wealth managers need powerful tools that integrate risk profiling, ESG screening, and compliance tracking to manage ESG and risk factors effectively. Riskalyze stands out for risk assessment, providing a quantifiable “Risk Number” that aligns investment choices with client risk tolerance. Finametrica and Pocket Risk offer deep psychometric risk analysis for a more behavioral finance-driven approach, helping advisors anticipate client reactions to market shifts.
On the ESG front, MSCI ESG Research and Sustainalytics provide industry-leading ESG ratings and analytics, enabling advisors to screen investments for sustainability, governance, and ethical impact. YourStake is another strong option, offering personalized ESG reporting that aligns portfolios with client values and regulatory frameworks.
FactSet and Morningstar Direct provide deep investment analysis with flexible reporting for wealth managers who need a highly customizable platform. These allow advisors to integrate ESG factors into overall portfolio performance evaluation. Lastly, Clarity AI offers AI-powered ESG insights, automating data aggregation and impact measurement across client portfolios.
Protecting the Bits and Bytes
Financial data is sensitive. It’s a treasure trove of customer information you need to guard with your life—or at least your servers. Cybersecurity covers a lot of ground, which your IT staff will traverse, but you need input and understanding to ensure your clients understand that their data is safe. The bottom line is that customers feel safer if they can talk to you about security than when they have to squint their eyes at a terms and agreements document.
Cybersecurity is also a critical aspect of regulatory compliance. Strict regulatory controls, like GDPR and CCPA, will impact any financial professional. Knowing which regulations apply to you and staying compliant avoids potentially nasty legal penalties and keeps your reputation intact. Frightened clients tend to be fleeing clients.
The specific capabilities you’re looking for in cybersecurity can be legion. Pinning them down is a combination of your IT department’s expertise, possibly a consultant’s recommendations, the needs of your legal team, and what you think your clients will need to feel protected.
From your perspective, this should cover phishing attacks, malware, and ransomware. For your clients, you need to consider protecting encrypted communications and ensuring they understand how and when you’ll interact with them so they’ll know when someone is trying to fool them.
If your software choice integrates with a website so clients have direct access to their portfolios, you should be able to use multifactor authentication (MFA) and dictate strong passwords. MFA can take several forms, from sending them a one-time code in a text or an email to using a physical token or even something biometric, like a voice scan. These days, whether it’s part of your basic toolset or a website management platform, these features are absolute must-haves.
Top Security Tools
To ensure robust cybersecurity in wealth management, professionals must adopt tools that protect sensitive financial data, comply with regulations, and safeguard client interactions. BlackCloak is a leading solution for high-net-worth individuals and financial firms, offering personal digital security and privacy protection against cyber threats. KnowBe4 provides comprehensive security awareness training, helping firms prevent phishing, social engineering, and ransomware attacks through simulated exercises.
For encryption and secure communication, Virtru offers client-side email and file encryption, ensuring sensitive financial communications remain protected. LastPass Business and 1Password Teams are excellent choices for enterprise password management, enforcing strong credential policies and minimizing the risks of breaches due to weak passwords.
Regulatory compliance is a must, and OneTrust helps firms navigate GDPR, CCPA, and other data privacy regulations by automating compliance workflows and data protection strategies. For multifactor authentication (MFA) and identity security, Duo Security by Cisco provides biometric authentication, mobile push approvals, and adaptive access policies, adding an extra layer of defense against unauthorized access.
Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR and CrowdStrike Falcon deliver AI-driven threat detection, malware prevention, and endpoint security to guard against cyber intrusions for firms needing end-to-end cybersecurity monitoring.
New Kids on the Block
All the features we’ve discussed have proven their importance over the last several years. But there are also new features you might want to consider, especially artificial intelligence (AI). Sure, it’ll probably take all our jobs, but you can make hay with it.
AI is all about questions and patterns. If you give an AI the right query, it can help you spot patterns, trends, and anomalies that might be much more difficult to find manually. Once it has had a chance to learn, AI can help you predict market trends and potential investment outcomes based on historical data and real-time information.
It’s also a great way to personalize your customer relationships. An AI can help you find and keep track of all your client’s unique needs and goals no matter where you’ve stored them—emails, CRM records, meeting notes, and even scanned correspondence. It points you to all that information, and AI parses the data and builds a summary. Your CRM record might be built off a questionnaire the client filled out earlier in the year, but perhaps they changed their mind about something in an email. That’s something you might forget that an AI will find and incorporate into its report, and it can do it in seconds.
How AI is implemented can vary greatly. Many tools advertise that they’re “powered by AI.” But exactly what that means varies from vendor to vendor. You should base your decision on what you need today and what you might want tomorrow.
Having an AI deliver a quick and highly detailed report for every customer might be enough. But suppose the competition starts doing smarter investment analysis via AI tomorrow (and most are already doing that now). In that case, you’ll want to ensure your software vendor’s AI capabilities can keep pace. That’ll almost certainly mean involving your IT professionals and probably consulting an AI specialist.
Then there’s blockchain and tokenization, which have risen over the last few years. Blockchain is a decentralized and immutable ledger that records all transactions. It’s an ironclad way of ensuring transparency and security. It allows you and your clients to verify the integrity of every financial transaction, and its built-in encryption is another security layer. It’s a digital vault that keeps everything safe and sound.
Top AI Tools
A new generation of AI, blockchain, and tokenization tools is redefining financial services to help wealth managers stay ahead of the curve. ForwardLane leverages AI-driven analytics to provide hyper-personalized investment insights and client recommendations, while Broadridge AI enhances predictive modeling to anticipate market trends and optimize investment strategies. Addepar integrates AI-powered data aggregation to generate customized reports and portfolio breakdowns with real-time insights.
For wealth managers looking to integrate blockchain for security and transparency, Figure and Securitize offer blockchain-powered platforms that streamline private equity, alternative assets, and digital securities transactions. Fireblocks provides institutional-grade blockchain security for managing and transferring digital assets, ensuring compliance and security.
Tokenization is transforming access to alternative investments, and iCapital Network and CAIS enable fractional ownership of private equity, real estate, and hedge funds, broadening investment opportunities. Tokensoft allows financial firms to issue digital securities and tokenize traditional assets while maintaining regulatory compliance.
At its center, the meat of wealth management software boils down to decision-making. The real goal here is to ensure you’ve got a set of tools that can keep providing you with valuable insights no matter what happens in the world.
Every feature we’ve discussed above will help you achieve that goal, but you’ll need to decide which ones you need and how you need to use them. It’s a lengthy and likely difficult process. Still, the result should be a platform that emphasizes client satisfaction and your ability to stay competitive in what’s very likely to be a volatile market for some time to come.
