Why technology built by someone who knows the advisor's world matters
This article was produced in partnership with Objectway
Wealth management is being rewritten by digital transformation, as outdated spreadsheets and paper records give way to connected, automated platforms. For many advisors, the real challenge is no longer competition from other firms but their own reluctance to change. Yet change is becoming harder to avoid.
Clients expect faster answers and more transparency, and regulators continue to increase reporting demands. As a result, the technology that underpins the advisor-client relationship is shifting from background infrastructure to a core part of how wealth practices operate.
Geoff Parslow has spent more than two decades working with advisors and wealth management firms. Early in his career, he focused on the mutual fund industry and saw firsthand how firms struggled to manage portfolios, stay compliant, and serve clients efficiently.
By 2016, Parslow had turned that experience toward digital transformation projects, helping firms modernize their operations. “Everyone was building client portals and mobile apps,” he says. “But very few solutions were built around advisors’ real business challenges.”
That realization led him to Objectway, a European technology company with more than 35 years of experience building wealth platforms. What stood out to Parslow was not just the technology but the philosophy behind it: a platform designed for advisors by someone who understands the realities of their work. “I knew this was a solution that could replace outdated infrastructure and help advisors manage clients, portfolios, and compliance from a single place,” he says.
Fragmented systems, slower service
At many firms, technology is still a collection of disconnected tools rather than a cohesive ecosystem. Parslow points to a Canadian enterprise with 60,000 advisors who each use seven different solutions to serve a single client. Client relationship management, compliance, onboarding, trading, and reporting all sit on separate systems with separate logins and separate data.
This structure creates daily inefficiencies. Advisors re-enter data multiple times and navigate repeated logins, while onboarding and compliance tasks remain manual. Basic client requests become slow and resource-intensive. High-net-worth clients seeking detailed reports often wait days while staff compile information from different databases.
“What advisors want is to generate those reports instantly, with all the data already in one place,” Parslow says. “Better still, clients should be able to log into their portal or mobile app and see that information themselves.”
These inefficiencies affect more than client experience. They also limit growth. Time spent on duplicate data entry or paperwork is time not spent on building relationships, refining portfolio strategy, or finding new business. For advisors, productivity is revenue, and the right technology can free them to focus on the parts of the job that add the most value.
A platform built for how advisors work
Modernizing technology is rarely straightforward. Parslow cites time and cost as the main barriers. Replacing a firm’s technology environment is a multi-year process that must consider its impact on almost every area of the business. Firms that succeed approach it deliberately. They tackle one problem at a time rather than attempting a complete overhaul at once, relying on a trusted technology partner that can guide their digital transformation in a phased approach.
Objectway’s platform is designed to address those challenges. It consolidates critical capabilities into a single environment where data moves automatically between trading, reporting, and client-facing tools. Reports that once took days can be generated in minutes, and clients gain real-time visibility into their portfolios through self-serve portals.
This approach is already delivering measurable results for major institutions. BNY Mellon’s Pershing uses Objectway’s technology to offer independent advisory businesses a fully integrated digital front end that brings together client data, reporting, and portfolio management in one place.
Objectway’s solutions empowers Pershing’s offering of workflow capabilities to wealth managers, improving management of their clients; from customisable engagement models through the whole advice process, combining human interaction with digital capabilities.
Redmayne Bentley, one of the UK’s oldest investment management firms, has also partnered with Objectway to redesign its operating model. They have replatformed their entire business onto a consistent and consolidated platform, enabling the development of new products and solutions, while giving Redmayne fresh perspectives on the potential of digital transformation for both customers and investors. The new platform supports greater efficiency, scalability, growth, and enhanced client delivery.
In Canada, Parslow expects firms to continue pursuing greater integration and more centralized data. One of the most difficult steps will be retiring older systems that still solve yesterday’s problems but do not fit today’s priorities. The focus, he says, should be on consolidating data into a single platform that new tools can connect to over time.
Parslow also notes that Canadian firms face growing regulatory and operational complexity. Requirements such as Know Your Product (KYP), CRM2, and multi-custodial environments mean that technology must do more than streamline workflows — it must also support compliance. Platforms that integrate these capabilities help firms operate more efficiently while meeting regulatory expectations.
“In Canada, many firms are actively looking for technology partners they can trust to modernize their advisor platforms and bring real operational cohesion,” Parslow says. “There’s a recognition that transformation takes time, and that it requires a partner with a proven track record of delivering complex integrations for leading wealth and investment firms. That experience is what gives firms confidence that Objectway is not just entering the market, but investing in it for the long term.”
For firms beginning that process, Parslow’s advice is to start with a clear plan. “Do not begin until you know what your end state looks like,” he says. “Lay out a longer-term roadmap, identify the key business problems you need to solve, and bring in the expertise from a partner who has a consolidated track record to get it right from the start.”
