I’ve been in the space for almost 40 years and have worked at some major organizations. We always had huge technology companies. But my own experience was that we never truly gave advisors the tools to go out and really make a difference. You had to work with what you had.
My vision when I came here about nine years ago was to give advisors a different kind of technology stack. If you build it, they will come. I knew I had something when my tech team said, “This does not exist anywhere else. Nobody else has this.” Today, I think we have the broadest technology stack of anybody in the RIA space. We have spent millions of dollars on people and research.
Summit Financial is not a creator of technology. We are the integrators of the best technology. We have spent a tremendous amount of time, effort, and money canvassing the market to find the best tool for advisors and their clients and ensure it’s synchronized and works.
### CRM: Salesforce Enterprise, Redtail (Orion), and Wealthbox
My biggest concern with CRM is data protection. The last thing you want as an advisor is your client’s information to somehow get hacked and be exposed on the web. You need real data security, and you need real cybersecurity protection. That’s a big piece for us.
When you look at a CRM, it is really a repository of information that you have access to, and you can compile information in different ways. Another way of putting it is: it doesn’t cure cancer. It shows you the blood results.
Salesforce, in my opinion, has one of the strongest chassis out there, backed by significant investment and resources. Redtail was initially the cheapest option but has grown so popular it’s now more akin to Salesforce pricing. We’re here to give our advisors the best. We don’t take bribes from companies to use their technology. We assess and then bring the best options into our ecosystem, protecting them with our cybersecurity measures — we ring-fence it.
### Reporting & Portfolio Management: Addepar, RPAG (Great Gray Group)
There are three major players in performance reporting: Orion, Black Diamond, and Addepar. All provide basic services. We cater to a higher net worth client base, with clients ranging from tens of millions to billionaires.
You don’t need to be a $200 million client to receive the same services as a billionaire because that’s part of the Summit ecosystem. You can’t do that with retail technology.
Addepar, in particular, is like a Ferrari with a rocket ship attached. You may not need the afterburner for most clients, but when you require deep, complex, broad, and detailed capabilities — such as for multi-family or ultra-high-net-worth family offices — Addepar shines.
### Financial Planning: eMoney Advisor / Envestnet | MoneyGuidePro
eMoney provides straightforward cash flow analysis and financial planning oversight. We have an in-house financial planning team and attorneys, so we utilize eMoney primarily to gather data. This allows our experts to make proper assessments when advising clients.
We use MoneyGuidePro less frequently, relying more on eMoney. We also incorporate the estate component through Wealth.com.
Many of our billionaire clients want the flexibility to have assets with different custodians and trust companies. I wanted a model that services those clients holistically—not just a slice of their wealth.
Having technology that reads various data feeds from Fidelity, Schwab, Pershing, SEI, and Goldman Sachs is expensive but positions the advisor uniquely. We are custodian-agnostic. Clients come to us because of the value Summit brings, not because we are attached to a specific custodian.
I’m not aware of any other player with integration this deep across five custodians. Still, we respect advisors’ existing business relationships. There is no proprietary route here, only a proprietary model: we want you to win.
### Direct Indexing: Parametric (Morgan Stanley)
Looking at direct indexing history, data from the 1940s shows more than 90% of professionals fail to beat the index.
If someone told me there’s a 92% chance of failing, I’d choose a different path. Why give advisors the delusion they’re in the 8% who succeed? With Parametric, I can show my team they can match the results of that top 8%, without the enormous effort.
If the index is up 10% and you’re up 9.99%, you’ve effectively met the index. That’s our goal: help advisors create portfolios that meet the index annually and supplement with alternative approaches that generate true alpha — which is much harder to achieve.
### A.I. Services: Copilot and Teams Premium (Microsoft) / WealthFeed / Jump AI / Aidentified
We’re dedicating significant time to AI and how it helps lead generation, performance reporting, real-time data, and comprehensive knowledge analysis.
This quarter alone, we’re exploring 14 AI technologies, narrowing down to the best fits.
It’s about more than note-taking. AI aids lead generation, portfolio analysis, and proposal generation by rapidly summarizing existing data, risk scores, and offering recommendations.
On document review, our in-house attorneys study wills and trusts — tasks that can take days. AI can cut that down to hours, providing fast assessments and summaries.
The progress over just 24 months is remarkable.
### Client 401(k) Management: Absolute Capital, Pontera
Clients often have substantial net worth tied up in employer-sponsored retirement plans, typically managed conservatively to reduce legal risk.
Many people work 40 to 50 years, yet these assets are often mismanaged or underutilized.
We ask: how can we help clients manage those assets before retirement? Now, advisors can offer fiduciary oversight on assets in current 401(k) plans, even while clients are employed at companies like Google or Apple.
This is a key piece in completing the financial puzzle. Being an advocate means managing all assets, not just the money directly handled by the advisor.
All today’s technology gives us access to data, so advisors can unify a client’s entire financial picture. They can say, “Mr. Jones, any asset with a dollar sign is something we want to protect, manage, and grow. That’s why we’re here.”
*As told to senior reporter Alex Ortolani and edited for length and clarity. The views and opinions expressed are those of the interviewee and do not represent WealthManagement.com.*
https://www.wealthmanagement.com/financial-technology/summit-financial-a-wealthstack-for-all