Texting Santa! Wealth managers reveal their technology wish lists for 2026

Tis the season when wealth management firms make their wish lists for tools, platforms and technologies for the coming year.

So what do the folks running the back office most want under their server trees this Christmas?

Here’s a hint: Santa better pack a whole lot of AI goodies in his bag along with those AA batteries.

Alison Burkett, senior partner and head of enterprise development at Snowden Lane Partners, for one, says AI notetakers have been the most effective tool in 2025 and will continue to be in 2026. In her view, they are easy to use, quick to implement, and immediately impactful. It is the easiest way to both give back time in the advisor’s day and directly improve the client experience, according to Burkett.

In 2026, she anticipates that note taking tools such as JUMP, Zocks, and Finmate will expand their services at a rapid pace to support logical next steps in post meeting actions, rather than just operating as a tool to support client meetings. In fact, she’s already seen signs of this taking shape with features like Zocks Form Fill and Jump’s Ask Anything feature.

“We view technology not as a siloed, standalone expense line, but as something that is really integrated across all expenses on our platform. Technology is key to all areas of our business – supporting not just our advisor and client experience, but our overall employee experience, with investments in improved tech within our accounting, HR, and compliance teams,” Burkett said.

Elsewhere, Jonny Jonson, senior vice president and wealth advisor at Compound Planning, thinks the biggest need in 2026 is for platforms that help advisors coordinate and integrate all of our different tools, so that they are not juggling a dozen systems that don’t talk to each other. AI note-takers, for example, have tons of valuable information, but it’s not connected to the rest of the client’s data, according to Jonson.

“If the notes are connected to all of the clients’ other financial information, they are ten times more valuable. This sort of 'coordination layer' is a big part of what we’re building at Compound,” Jonson said.

In terms of specific tools, he says there are a few players today who are making previously painful client experiences smoother. April Tax is a great example in his opinion, letting him feed in clients' financial data to make tax filing seamless.

Meanwhile, Christine Connors, co-founder & CEO at Verita Strategic Wealth Partners believes the most important technology platform advisors and RIAs will need in 2026 is an AI-driven unified wealth operating system, a single environment that consolidates a client’s entire balance sheet, across both public and private assets, into one clear and dynamic view.

“Clients increasingly expect simplicity and transparency. They want real-time visibility into everything from legacy private investments and tax documents to liquidity schedules and cash flow projections. This shift away from fragmented, system-by-system reporting creates stronger demand for platforms that can unify data and provide meaningful, actionable analysis,” Connors said.

She adds that advisors are equally motivated, noting that managing disconnected systems requires manual work, leads to operational inefficiencies, and limits scale.

“In 2026, the platform that will matter most is the one capable of serving as the advisor’s and client’s single source of truth, powered by AI to automate tasks, normalize data, and free up advisors to deliver higher-value guidance,” Connors said.

And out with the old (maybe)

As for which tech might be headed for obsolescence in 2026 and beyond, Burkett believes there could be a consolidation of a few technologies that previously needed to be separate to be best-in-breed, but with AI, could likely be very competitive in that space.

“Will AI notetakers become the new CRM, or will CRM tools subsume AI notetakers? We view this as a likely example where two tools that are currently considered separate could quickly merge into one,” Burkett said.

Compound’s Jonson feels the tools most at risk are the standalone, single-purpose platforms that don’t integrate cleanly with the rest of an advisor’s workflow. As AI systems become the connective layer across planning, investments, tax, and communication, anything that requires manual data entry or constant toggling is going to fade out, according to Jonson.

“Advisors won’t keep using tools that slow them down or can’t ‘talk’ to the systems that matter,” Jonson said.

Finally, Verita’s Connors points out several categories of technology that are at risk of becoming obsolete thanks to the AI revolution including, siloed reporting platforms, outsourced data entry, and traditional CRMs that simply store information instead of proactively organizing, analyzing, and surfacing insights through AI.

She also sees at risk legacy financial planning models with rigid assumptions that don’t easily incorporate private investment cash-flow dynamics or real-time updates, and standalone deal-flow systems that operate outside of the client’s broader portfolio context.

“As AI continues to reshape the advisory landscape, the solutions that will endure are those that bring clarity, connection, and automation to the full wealth ecosystem – ultimately improving both the client experience and the advisor’s ability to scale,” Connors said.