Wealth management closed out 2025 by solidifying its place as the strongest M&A year on record. DeVoe & Co. reported that 322 RIA transactions had been recorded during the year, surpassing 2024's total of 272.
Growth-focused firms continue to see opportunity, yet many are experiencing an unintended consequence of rapid deal activity: the emergence of the Frankenstack. This tech stack of inherited parts, including legacy systems, disconnected workflows and overlapping tools, makes sustainable growth increasingly difficult to support as an organization scales.
I recently spoke with a 24-person firm that had accumulated three CRMs and three financial planning solutions after three acquisitions in 18 months. The operations team was struggling to support back-office operations and their advisors due to gaps in data, inconsistent processes and a lack of visibility across clients.
They had a Frankenstack, and this only compounds with more acquisitions.
How the Monster Grows
Growth through acquisition isn't slowing down, and Frankenstacks often emerge by the well-intentioned desire to provide advisors choice in their software and processes. In many ways, this is as much of a political challenge as a technical one, with teams not wanting to migrate or change what they know after the transition.
The operational strain becomes especially visible when a firm tries to connect client data across this combined environment to drive advisor efficiency and growth opportunities. Without a unified view, the monster continues to grow, silo by silo.
AI as the Connective Tissue
Because artificial intelligence can operate across disparate systems, it can serve as the connective tissue that eliminates the need to force every advisor onto a single platform.
Using AI, firms can leverage unstructured data from conversations, emails and documents — where much of the true value lies — and structured data stored in disparate CRM, planning and portfolio tools to create and maintain client profiles with full context and traceability.
This overlay approach maintains advisor choice while giving firms enterprise-level intelligence. For example, AI can create a complete picture of a household and its financial picture from these disparate sources and update it with any new interaction or as data changes.
The company can search across entire client bases to produce personal and financial details in context of client goals, including planning milestones and potential future opportunities, without needing direct access to each advisor's preferred CRM and planning tools.
Equally important, an AI-enabled integration and overlay model creates breathing room for firms navigating the tension between advisor choice, the need for growth and enterprise visibility.
Advisors value autonomy in how they work, and rigid mandates risk cultural pushback. An AI overlay can offer a middle ground: Firms harmonize data and workflows while still having visibility to help drive growth, and advisors maintain choice and flexibility.
Friction Point to Differentiator
Even just a year ago, gaining this level of visibility was a challenge. But with continued improvements in large language models that can provide context across data, and the growing prevalence of agentic AI that can help advisors take action on that data, we'll start to see AI deliver on more than just time savings.
Look for AI to go beyond helping advisors better serve their clients reactively, to helping them be more proactive across their book.
For firms competing for acquisition targets, demonstrating a modern, adaptable technology environment has become a differentiator. Prospective sellers want assurance that their workflows will not be disrupted immediately and that their teams will have access to resources that support growth.
The ability to integrate systems quickly — and without forcing an abrupt migration — can strengthen a firm's value proposition during negotiations.
This is good news for the Frankenstack and for firms building an adaptive architecture that evolves with their businesses. Instead of forcing migration of tools and processes, firms can create a structure where information flows more freely, insights surface much easier and transitions occur with much less friction.
Jim Hardeman is the executive vice president of product at Zocks, a privacy-first AI platform for financial advisors.
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