Orion, RFG moves take aim at onboarding and transition speed

Two separate technology rollouts by Orion and RFG Advisory this week point to the same growing pressure point in wealth management: the gap between when an advisor signs onto a particular platform and when client accounts actually go live.

Omaha-based Orion Advisor Solutions on Monday launched Dynamic New Account Opening, a digital workflow tool built into the Orion Advisor Portal that lets advisors open accounts directly within the environment, with Goldman Sachs Custody Solutions as the first custodian integrated for the feature.

Orion said the tool adapts based on account type, household structure and custodian, centralizes data capture to cut down on duplicate entry, and offers either DocuSign e-signature or a fully digital completion path through direct custodian API connections.

Todd Bertucci, executive vice president of Orion Advisor Technology, said GSCS and Orion went through two hackathons last year to remove friction points and improve efficiency for the account-opening process advisors typically go through.

"By leveraging AI at the hackathons, we were able to quickly streamline the account-opening process and automate key workflows," Bertucci said.

Read more: How Dispatch's new software soothes the pain of advisor transitions

The GSCS integration is live now for Orion Advisor Technology clients who custody with Goldman, with availability for Orion Portfolio Solutions clients expected later this summer and additional custodians to follow later this year.

Jeremy Eisenstein, managing director and head of Goldman Sachs Custody Solutions, said the arrangement reflects the custodian's "open architecture and API-driven design," giving RIAs flexibility to connect with technology partners of their choosing.

Just weeks earlier, wealthtech firm Amplify rolled out its own custody command layer built on the GSCS platform, aiming to give large independent RIAs same-day account openings and real-time data without leaving Amplify's operating environment.

Separately, San Francisco-based Feathery, an artificial-intelligence operating system for wealth management firms, announced RFG Advisory – an independent RIA overseeing more than $8 billion in assets and supporting more than 100 advisors – managed to more than double its form-generation speed for full repapering transitions using Feathery's platform, while expanding the volume of accounts it can prepare and send on day one.

Read more: Slow advisor transitions are costing RIA firms money and talent, and the industry is starting to act

Ross Thompson, manager of advisor transitions at RFG Advisory, said transitions have historically been "one of the most manual and unpredictable parts of our business." Compared to the first-day scramble that used to define those moves, the firm is now able to prepare the transition workflow in advance.

"Being able to send accounts out quickly has completely changed how we approach transitions," Thompson said.

Compared to the previous process involving manual spreadsheets and repeated data entry across systems, Feathery said its workflow now flags missing or inconsistent client information, pre-fills required forms and generates DocuSign envelopes ready to send.

The transition process is a major point of anxiety for breakaway advisors, according to one February report from Cerulli. Citing a survey of employee advisors it did in 2024, it said two-thirds of those thinking about crossing over to the independent channel consider the potential loss of clients during the jump as a major concern, while another one-quarter were moderately concerned.

"Advisor transitions are a defining moment for both advisors and their clients," said Chris Mills, head of wealth solutions at Feathery, noting that "RFG's results show how firms can make those transitions faster and more predictable while preserving the high-touch experience advisors expect."