100% Churn

The Ultimate Guide to Choosing AdvicerTech in 2026

The time has come to take a stand.

The truth is, I’ve been a bit stuck - writing the ultimate advisortech stack book for 2026… got a bit distracted by organic growth, by AI, by running a daily podcast.

But if this past week showed anything, it showed we’re at a fork in the road.

“Choose the right Ark” as Josh Brown said.

And then Sean Trace posted this photo:

“May the bridges I burn light the way.”

I’m not sure if this relates to something specifically, but this idea really stuck with me.

Probably resonated a bit too much. I’ve been warned not to burn bridges more than once in the past few months.

Let’s consider some of these Arks or bridges or forking paths. Because when you choose one, you are kinda burning the other.

It’s either AI-native or its legacy.

It’s either got AI at the foundation and woven into every data layer, or its legacy code with a bunch of AI slopped on top.

If you’re gonna burn a bridge here, burn the legacy one.

‘I think what the market is telling us is that you’re either AI-native or you’re legacy,’ Wisz said. ‘And I think that’s just code for a general leveling up on the standard of efficiency across all enterprises.’

‘The real winners are going to be those who can integrate and have clean data across the entire architecture and have a trust-based decisioning layer for all of their workflows that is completely connected rather than siloed,’ Wisz said.

Justin Wisz, Thicket Ventures - from CityWire article

It’s either natively-integrated or its cobbled together.

If you’re stringing systems together with Zapier, Make.com, N8N, Chat, Claude, Moltbook, you-name-it, I think there’s probably a better way.

Burn that cobbled-together bridge.

It’s either custom personalized or its templated.

If you’re using anything templated, AI-written, or sending anything out to your niche that thousands of other advisors are using… burn that bridge.

Specifically in the marketing dept: templated websites, campaigns, emails… you need to build a custom funnel that speaks directly to your niche.

Want to scale personalization? Scale persons, not Slop.

It’s either experience-driven or its product-driven.

Focus on who you’re becoming and who you’re helping your clients become, not what you’re trying to sell them.

Build a membership, a community, an aligned outcome among your 100-ish client households. What common outcome are they all seeking that differentiates them from the other outcomes the 299,999 other advisors are helping their clients seek?

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Ok, so there are two themes woven throughout these I think:

1. Shoot for an all-in-one data layer - imagine custodian, crm, ai notetaker, planning, insights, data gathering, etc… ALL-IN-ONE

If you are working with a consultant helping you cobble together legacy CRMs and notetakers and scheduling tools… encourage them to pause and look ahead. Then build to where things are going, not catch up from where things were.

2. Organic growth is about human growth - you’re the human, become the human you need to be to reach your goals.

Build a personal brand - seek your authentic, magnetic self. Use video. Run informational interviews with the niche to seek to serve.

“Nobody says I’m going to go grab a beer with the Potomac logo.”

~ Stacy Havener

11:37

If you’re running a large firm with 100s or 1000s of advisors, think about how you can launch 100s or 1000s of company branded, but human focused personal brands - one for each advisor that has a particular transformation for a particular niche.

Dump SaaS - software as a service and focus on:

• GaaS - Growth as a Service

• CaaS - Channels (youtube), Conversations, Communities as a Service

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But don’t rush, think thoughtfully and creatively and differently.

Form a tight-knit group of human intelligences - lock yourselves away in a room for 3 hours (no phones or technology allowed) and talk it through.

Who are we becoming? Who are we helping our clients become?

What is the technology that will get us there?

The sooner you burn that legacy tech, the less of a massive hassle it’ll be when you go to change.

Except the legacy-ist tech of all. The humans.

The brains, hearts, and souls.

They will lead you to the truth.

Find paper and ink and start writing with your fingers. You’ll find the best tech is clean, light, powerful. Not distracting and laden with legacy nonsense.

I’ve worked for 7 years to find the very best advicertech.

I’ll be writing about it soon…

To Epic Human Stories,

Joe

p.s. oh, about that title… imagine you wake up tomorrow morning and 100% of your clients have churned, how would you rebuild it better?

p.s.s. maybe I’ll write about that next