At Future Proof Citywide in Miami, Sean Meighan, Head of RIA Distribution at Envestnet, described an RIA landscape being reshaped by intentional growth, longer-term technology planning, and a more personalized client experience.
Meighan’s view is that the firms best positioned to succeed will not be the ones chasing every new development. They will be the ones building deliberately around the experience they want to deliver, the talent they need to hire, and the data infrastructure required to support both.
Taken together, his comments offered a grounded look at the choices shaping the next phase of the RIA business.
Growth is changing the RIA playbook
Meighan said the growth challenges facing RIAs increasingly depend on how a firm is structured. Founder-led practices may still be focused on organic growth and building the business the way they always have, while private-equity-backed RIAs are operating under a different kind of pressure.
“I think the PE backed firms… are struggling on two fronts,” Meighan said. “One is finding the right advisor.”
That challenge reflects a broader shift in what the advisor role now requires. In the early years of the independent RIA model, many advisors were business owners first. Today, firms often need advisors who can lead client relationships while navigating increasingly sophisticated planning conversations around tax, estate, and other evolving needs.
“The advisor today is a different advisor than the advisor of yesterday,” Meighan said.
In Meighan’s view, growth now depends on more than gathering assets. It means building an organization that can attract the right talent, develop it quickly, and support it with the infrastructure needed to scale.
Technology needs to support the business you want, not just the one you have
Meighan was direct about what he sees as a common technology mistake among RIAs: building a tech stack for the business they have today rather than the one they want to have three to five years from now.
That short-term mindset may solve for immediate gaps, but it can also leave firms poorly positioned to scale. As Meighan put it, “people are chasing tech to fill the voids they see today, not where the voids are going to be in five to 10 years from now.”
He also challenged the idea that there is a single “right-sized” stack for a growth-minded RIA.
“It’s a good tangential question because I don’t know that there’s the 'right' tech stack,” he said.
Instead, Meighan framed the decision as a strategic one. Some firms want a broader, more integrated platform that can serve as a core operating layer. Others are willing to assemble best-of-breed point solutions, even if that requires more complexity, more cost, and more integration work.
“If you want the best of the best tech… you’re going to have to pay to integrate that tech,” he said.
The broader point is that technology decisions should follow business strategy, not the other way around. The firms that get this right will be the ones choosing tools based on how they want to grow, serve clients, and operate over time.
Personalization is becoming the new standard
Meighan suggested that RIAs are moving beyond the traditional “we manage money” pitch and toward a broader relationship model built around tax, planning, and client experience.
As he described it, that progression is already underway. “We used to manage money. Then it was, we manage money and we help with tax, so we’re tax efficient. Then it was, we do estate planning,” he said, before pointing to the broader relationship-deepening opportunities that firms are now starting to explore.
At the center of that shift, in Meighan’s view, is a more practical definition of value. “The best way to add value is to actually add value,” he said.
For many firms, that already means treating tax planning as a more personal layer of advice. But Meighan suggested the next phase may be even more tailored, with advisors using technology and data to better understand not just client portfolios, but client preferences, interests, and habits.
“I think you’ll see a hyper focus on controlling data and using that data to scale the way you engage with the folks that you work with,” Meighan said.
The opportunity, then, is not personalization for its own sake. It is using better information to make client engagement feel more relevant, more timely, and more human as firms grow.
Data is becoming a competitive advantage
Meighan also pointed to data as a growing source of differentiation for RIAs, especially when firms can turn information into timely, actionable guidance.
“It’s all about next best action,” he said.
In Meighan’s view, the advantage is not simply having more dashboards or more data points. It is using that information in ways that deepen relationships, make advisor outreach more meaningful, and help firms stay a step ahead of client needs. As he put it, the goal is not just showing advisors what to do next, but surfacing insights that are genuinely useful.
He also made clear that some capabilities are already becoming expected.
“That’s table stakes now,” he said, referring to tax-aware and outcome-focused advice. “The real insights are the things that you wouldn’t necessarily think of.”
That is where Meighan sees the next edge emerging: pairing strong data with an insights engine that can turn information into more relevant engagement and better decisions over time. In that sense, the technology conversation is no longer separate from the client experience conversation.
The future looks promising, but crowded
Meighan was optimistic about the future of the RIA model, but he was also realistic about the amount of noise in the marketplace.
“What’s cool now is that a hundred million dollar RIA has access to the same tech that the $10 billion RIA has,” he said.
That democratization is a real advantage for independent firms. More RIAs can now access sophisticated tools that were once far more difficult, or far more expensive, to implement at scale.
At the same time, Meighan warned that the industry’s abundance of vendors and “shiny objects” can make strategy harder, not easier.
“What’s terrifying is how many sponsors are here,” he said.
His concern was not simply vendor overload, but the temptation for firms to chase every new solution at once. That can lead to fragmented systems, added complexity, and less clarity around what the business is actually trying to build.
Still, Meighan sees opportunity in the fragmentation itself. RIAs still rely on multiple vendors across the client experience, which means there is room for platforms like Envestnet to simplify complexity and improve the advisor experience.
Why Envestnet matters for advisors
What stood out in Meighan’s interview was not just his perspective on the industry, but the way Envestnet fits into that future. The company’s value for advisors is tied to its ability to connect technology, data, and investment capabilities into a more coordinated experience.
For advisors, that can mean access to a platform that supports scale without forcing them to sacrifice personalization. For investors, it can mean an advisor experience that is more informed, more efficient, and better able to adapt to changing client needs.
Meighan’s comments suggest that Envestnet is focused on helping RIAs do more than manage accounts. It is aiming to help them build stronger businesses with better insight, better workflows, and more thoughtful client engagement.
That may be the most important message from Future Proof Citywide: the next generation of RIA firms will not be defined by how many tools they have, but by how well those tools help them serve clients, develop talent, and grow with purpose.
To learn more about Envestnet and its solutions for RIAs, visit https://www.envestnet.com/.
Related: From Data to Judgment: How Envestnet’s AI Is Redefining Advisor Alpha