Last updated: October 25, 2026

RIA Technology and Operations Costs

The typical advisor spends 4 to 6 percent of revenue on technology. The interesting question is what that percentage actually buys — and what it leaves out.

The 4–6% rule and what it buys

Ask an RIA owner what technology costs and the honest answer is a percentage, not a price: the typical advisor spends between 4% and 6% of revenue on technology, according to the 2023 Kitces AdvisorTech Study as reported in September 2024. That covers the CRM, portfolio management and performance reporting, financial planning software, and the ancillary stack for compliance, document management, and marketing — almost always priced as a flat monthly software fee, with portfolio tools the main exception when they charge basis points instead.

The percentage turns into real money against mature-firm revenue. With mature advisory firms averaging roughly $500,000 to $700,000 in annual revenue per advisor, the all-in technology spend usually lands between $20,000 and $40,000 per advisor per year. That arithmetic is also the discipline: any new tool has to replace something, consolidate several tools, or free up enough advisor or staff time to pay for itself — otherwise it is simply a drag on profitability, however good the demo looked.

What the platforms themselves charge

Vendor pricing shows where the 4–6% goes. Orion Advisor Technology's published stacks start at $13,000 per year for the Foundation Stack, $18,000 for Essentials, and $28,000 for Advantage — firm-level pricing, not per-advisor, which is why a small firm feels the Foundation price and a large firm barely notices it. eMoney's planning software typically ranges from $3,600 to more than $10,000 per year, according to Spendflo's vendor summary. Neither figure includes implementation, training, or the staff time to run the tools — the cost category the Kitces research consistently finds firms undercount.

The custodian toll, for context

Custodial referral programs — a different cost line, but one that shapes the same workflow decision — charge at a scale that dwarfs software fees. As of their most recent ADV filings reported in February 2026: Schwab Advisor Network at 26.25 basis points on the first $2 million of referred assets, stepping down to 10.5 basis points above $10 million, with a $25,000 minimum annual fee; Fidelity Wealth Advisor Solutions at a $50,000 annual fee plus 25 basis points on most referred assets; and BNY Pershing at $50,000 plus 30 basis points. Altruist, by contrast, offers digital onboarding, automated rebalancing, performance reporting, and billing tools included for advisors who custody on its platform — the model that has made it, by Kitces' account, the fastest-growing custodian by new firms joining.

One more benchmark frames the workflow budget: the typical advisory practice spends about 2% of annual revenue on marketing, per the Kitces research cited in the 2026 marketing report — roughly a third of the technology share. Firms that spend more on acquiring clients than on serving them efficiently have the ratio backwards, and the workflow vendors know it.

Sources

• Kitces AdvisorTech Study 2023 findings, September 2024 — https://www.kitces.com/blog/the-latest-in-financial-advisortech-september-2024/
• Kitces custodial referral program fees, February 2026 — https://www.kitces.com/blog/the-latest-in-financial-advisortech-february-2026-pershing-ria-custodian-bridgeft-taxstatus/
• Kitces Marketing Survey 2026 (Schwab 2025 Benchmarking citation, marketing at 2% of revenue) — https://www.kitces.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Kitces-Marketing-Survey-2026-3.pdf
• Orion Advisor Technology published stack pricing, via G2 — https://www.g2.com/products/orion-advisor-technology/pricing
• eMoney typical pricing range, via Spendflo — https://www.spendflo.com/vendors/emoney

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