Again in April 2018, Michael Kitces printed the primary “Monetary Advisor FinTech Options Map” in its present kind. That notorious map is of nice assist to companies and advisors reflecting on their tech stacks and is commonly referenced in our business’s ongoing debate across the position of know-how. To at the present time, it’s up to date each month with assist from main tech marketing consultant Craig Iskowitz, and it’s a silent however highly effective witness to the evolution of wealth administration.
At its debut, the map featured 189 fintech corporations throughout 29 classes. Seven years later, as of April 2025, it had grown to incorporate 551 corporations throughout 36 classes. Sure, the map has nearly tripled in measurement, and it retains on rising.
The Map In the present day – Investments and Operations Are at its Core
In its present incarnation, the map is organized into 5 “buckets,” which cowl the important thing know-how wants of each companies and advisors. These span monetary planning, funding administration, consumer engagement, enterprise growth and operations. In flip, these 5 advisor know-how service areas are damaged down additional into 36 distinct classes. For instance, the funding administration bucket contains classes similar to portfolio administration, threat tolerance and custodial platforms, whereas the operations bucket, as you’d count on, covers key middle- and back-office programs similar to consumer relationship administration programs, e-Signature and doc administration.
Maybe not surprisingly, the 2 largest buckets on the map, measured by the variety of options listed, are funding administration with 164 companies, adopted by operations with 120 options. It is a testomony to how the complicated processes of funding administration and operations profit from automation and strong tech options. Nevertheless, the sheer variety of selections inside these core classes could also be stunning:
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What number of totally different portfolio administration programs will we appear to want as we speak? 33, based on the map.
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What number of totally different CRM programs is there area within the fintech market for as we speak? 26.
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What number of totally different funding knowledge/analytics suppliers serve our business? 54.
Rising and Model-New Classes
Whereas there definitely has been some development in these core classes through the years (for instance, CRMs doubled from 13 in April 2018 to 26 as we speak), the actual development driver has been the exponential improve in sure current classes and the emergence of total new answer units.
Current classes that skilled large development embody client-facing options similar to specialised monetary planning (assume property, tax or training planning), which grew from 21 options in 2018 to 84 as we speak, or digital advertising and marketing, which grew from 4 to a whopping 35 as we speak.
Kitces himself noticed one of many key underlying drivers in a January 2022 weblog, which is a shift in “the monetary advisor worth proposition itself—from the sale of economic providers merchandise to the sale of economic recommendation—which in flip is slowly however steadily reshaping the complete advisor know-how stack.” He acknowledges the rising recognition of ‘advice-support’ instruments, which brings us to a different key development drive for the map: brand-new classes.
Pushed by ever-increasing consumer expectations with respect to service amount and high quality and in help of the final shift in agency and advisor worth propositions that Kitces famous, a number of brand-new classes have emerged, they usually proceed to flourish and develop. These new classes embody, for instance:
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Recommendation Engagement – Participating purchasers and prospects stays on the coronary heart of wealth administration, and increasingly more companies are in search of methods to scale their consumer engagement, which in flip drives consumer satisfaction and new enterprise era. It’s no shock then that this new class first appeared on the map in February 2022 with 5 companies and now encompasses 10 totally different know-how and content material options, similar to Bento Engine and Asset Map.
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Prospecting and Advisor Lead Gen – One other notable space of answer expansions has been the enterprise growth bucket. Along with the huge development of digital advertising and marketing options, fully new classes, similar to prospecting (9 options) and advisor lead gen (21), have emerged. It is a testomony to the historic ache factors many advisors face with respect to new enterprise growth and the worth tech-based options can add on the entrance of the advertising and marketing funnel (assume, for instance, of how new options similar to Wealthfeed may also help establish and prioritize prospects primarily based on propensity to purchase).
Additionally of word, different brand-new classes on the map are fueled by fast developments in underlying applied sciences. For instance, the AI assistant and consumer assembly help classes are stuffed with extremely revolutionary corporations similar to Zeplyn and Leap that use cutting-edge and fast-evolving synthetic intelligence capabilities unthinkable just a few brief quarters in the past.
The Kitces Map has witnessed and documented our business’s ongoing evolution. Whereas funding and operations stay core areas of tech use for comprehensible causes, the general shift of worth propositions away from merely managing cash and towards main with recommendation drives the continued development and innovation of the map. Given the facility of know-how to scale and enhance each the consumer and advisor experiences, brand-new classes will carry on rising, notably as regulators, companies, advisors and purchasers grow to be extra snug with newly rising capabilities. New classes and options, notably within the areas of consumer engagement, monetary planning and enterprise growth, will profit everybody concerned.
