Is tech innovation the missing link to financial planning for advisors?

As retail investors increasingly expect comprehensive financial planning from their wealth advisors, a new report from Cerulli Associates suggests that technology –particularly artificial intelligence – is poised to drive broader advisor adoption of these services.

According to "The Cerulli Report – State of US Wealth Management Technology 2025," financial planning has shifted from a value-add to a core expectation. Yet many advisors remain on the sidelines, citing investment management as their primary strength (80 percent), staffing constraints (46 percent), and lack of interest (46 percent) as key barriers.

To bridge that gap, Cerulli highlights AI-enabled software as the most promising tool for expanding planning services. These emerging technologies aim to automate the labor-intensive analysis that goes into planning, surfacing actionable insights based on client data and revealing planning opportunities that might otherwise be overlooked.

“The marketplace has already begun to see financial-planning-related software begin to incorporate AI-like capabilities that can do this to varying degrees,” Michael Rose, director at Cerulli, said in a statement, highlighting how continued AI innovation can "empower more advisors to offer planning services, to support advisors at identifying planning opportunities with greater expediency, and to uncover opportunities that may otherwise be overlooked.”

Advisors embrace software, but specialized tools lag

Advisors who already offer planning services overwhelmingly rely on technology to do so.

According to the report, 92 percent of practices use general financial planning software, which supports a holistic review of clients’ financial lives. However, satisfaction drops when it comes to more specialized tools – such as estate planning (45 percent usage) and stock option planning (41 percent) – due in part to limited functionality and lack of integration.

The diversity of financial planning tools is apparent in the T3 Advisor Software Survey, which offers a comprehensive ranking of different wealth tech tools based a survey of on thousands of advisors. Aside from financial planning software, the most recent 2025 report devoted entire sections to applications that focus on specific areas such as retirement distribution planning, estate planning, tax planning, and social security analysis, among others.

Cerulli’s findings also point to a shift away from printed financial plans, with advisors increasingly favoring interactive, digitally enabled planning conversations. Client portals and on-site tools are becoming the preferred medium for delivering advice.

“With the help of technology, advisors can lead more engaging and digitally driven discussions, which will ultimately lead to better outcomes for advisors and clients alike,” Rose said.

Still, barriers to scale persist. Just 4 percent of advisors outsource planning to home-office teams, and many struggle with limited staff, time-consuming planning processes, and clients’ reluctance to pay for these services.

Practice performance tied to digital mindset

Cerulli notes that nearly nine in 10 advisors believe their technology enables effective delivery of financial planning services, while similar numbers credit it for enhancing the client experience and improving operational efficiency.

However, firms managing more than $500 million in assets report greater challenges in getting full value from their technology suites. Cerulli attributes this to the broader services and greater insourcing typical of large practices, which create heavier demands on integration and workflow flexibility.

A crucial insight from the report: firms with a strong culture around technology adoption also report higher satisfaction with their tools’ effectiveness. Advisors at such firms are more likely to see technology as core to achieving key business goals.