For many advisors, Orion has become synonymous with technology-driven solutions that don’t just add tools but remove barriers to growth. Reed Colley, President, Orion Advisor Technology, caught up with The Wealth Advisor’s Scott Martin at the 2025 Future Proof Festival in Southern California to discuss how Orion is positioning itself as both a technology provider and an indispensable partner for advisors navigating an era defined by artificial intelligence, scale, and client expectations.
Colley lays out why Orion is doubling down on being an exceptional TAMP and how the firm’s AI-first strategy is designed to reshape advisor workflows and client relationships.
AI as a Solution, Not Just a Tool
Colley is quick to point out that Orion’s mission is rooted in simplifying complexity for advisors. He emphasizes that the next evolution will streamline workflows and fundamentally reshape them. “We are so focused on driving solutions for advisors, and the biggest way we see doing that is taking what we’re doing today and really upleveling it, skipping steps with using AI and moving us into a new paradigm of doing things,” he says.
Colley draws a line back to his earlier career as founder of Black Diamond, where Web 2.0 gave advisors a first taste of scalable, cloud-based technology. But AI, Colley believes, is different. “If you think about the things we’re doing, we’re going to take all of our operational strength, our ability to deliver great solutions to advisors through technology and through our TAMP, and put that into real solutions where you’re getting out of the technology—technology’s serving you rather than working for it,” he says.
The framing—technology serving the advisor, not the other way around—is central to Orion’s approach. For Colley, the most powerful tech disappears into the background. “I think technology, the best technology, you don’t even realize you’re using it,” he says. “It’s just natural. We call them simple, elegant solutions. They just work for you in a way that drives success.”
From Tech to Solutions
Orion’s emphasis on solutions resonates deeply in an industry where advisors often feel buried under tools that complicate instead of simplifying. Colley explains that the power lies in true integration—linking data streams across platforms into a single pane of glass that advisors can act on. “Every system. Not even just data in our systems. This is data that’s coming from CRMs, estate planning data, tax data, insurance data, all of the things, revenue data around your firm—all of the things that are needed to run your business in the best way.”
For Orion, the challenge isn’t layering on more dashboards. It’s integrating fragmented data into a single, advisor-friendly view. And with AI, Colley sees an opportunity to accelerate progress. “You’re not buying tech to have tech—you’re buying tech to have solutions,” he says.
He even characterizes the moment as a shift of historic proportions. Rather than a routine upgrade cycle, Colley sees advisors entering an entirely new era. “I don’t think of it as a replacement cycle—but it’s a solution revolution,” Colley says. “It’s going to supercharge people and humans and use the best pieces of what people can do as a human and their talent and leverage that in the best way.”
Defining the Problem First
Colley often reminds his team and clients that strategy starts with clarity. “What problem are we trying to solve? Problem definition will get you to the right solution over time,” he explains. For Orion, that mindset means solutions are tethered to advisor pain points, from scaling a $10 billion firm to simply eliminating repetitive tasks that drain time and capacity.
And while some answers are tactical, the bigger picture is always strategic. “I look at this as, they’re very tactical solutions but holistically drive strategic conversations and make sure you have partners that can help find those strategic solutions for you,” Colley adds.
That dual lens—tactical fixes and strategic transformation—is part of what distinguishes Orion as a TAMP provider.
A Growth Mindset for Advisors
Colley believes the most successful advisors share a particular outlook, one that blends ambition with empathy. “It’s a growth mindset, and the best advisors understand the growth mindset,” he says. “They understand it for their clients. They have a strong compassion lens to make sure they can put themselves in the seats of their clients.”
Embracing this outlook means being willing to rethink processes and reimagine what technology can unlock. For Colley, the question isn’t whether AI will reshape the industry—it’s how advisors will harness it to elevate their firms. “At the end of the day, it’s how do we take advantage of that? That’s where partnership with companies like ours, this is what we’re doing every day, living and breathing it to enable more of those solutions so you don’t have to do it all by yourself.”
However, he acknowledges that the industry is still learning what AI can unlock. Many of the most transformative use cases may not even be known yet. But Colley is adamant about one thing: “If you don’t lean into it, you’re going to get left behind.”
Empowering the Advisor
For all the technology innovation, Orion never loses sight of the advisor’s role. “Every technology needs to understand who’s the persona, who are you working for? How are you driving a solution? For us, we know it starts with empowering the advisor every day, making their ability to service their clients easier, removing the blockers, increasing capacity, increasing scale,” Colley says.
The goal is not to give advisors another tool to wrestle with. It’s to clear the space for them to focus on what matters. “That’s how you’re having an impact,” Colley adds. “It’s not about delivering another piece of technology. It’s about delivering a solution that allows them to focus on the things that they’re truly good at.”
At the client level, that means making conversations richer and more personal. “And the number one question every client has is, ‘Am I going to be okay? Am I going to be able to do the things I want to do in life?’ That is a fundamental thing we want advisors to answer,” Colley says.
Driving Scale and Human Connection
AI isn’t just about efficiency—it’s also about enabling better client engagement. Colley sees an opportunity to expand advisor reach through new forms of communication. “I think the other big opportunity is how does it change the interaction with your clients? . . . What that’s going to rely on is being able to connect more asynchronously, being able to connect in your voice at the same time, and being able to put your prompts, your firm’s prompts, your advisor’s prompts on top of something like we can deliver,” Colley says.
The goal of that kind of flexibility is to allow advisors to save time on routine touchpoints while doubling down on deeper, higher-value conversations. “If you can get clients talking about what really matters in their life outside of their portfolio, you’ve typically won,” he notes.
Building an Industry Legacy
For Colley, Orion’s ambition is bigger than keeping pace with industry shifts. It’s about shaping them. “We have an amazing team focused on solutions and driving it,” he says. The firm’s footprint already extends across $5 trillion in platform assets as of June 30, and its role in M&A activity underscores its influence in shaping advisory firms of all sizes.
Beyond scale, Orion is focused on impact—creating tools that help advisors thrive today while preparing them for tomorrow. “So, where we are now sitting, putting these things together, working with our clients, having a good workflow around what’s going to work strategically and what’s going to work tactically day to day, that’s how we think there’s going to be a real differentiation,” Colley observes.
Rather than anticipating growth for its own sake, Colley envisions small, meaningful changes compounding into industry-wide transformation. “I’ve always said you may be small, and at times there’s only so much you can do,” he says. “But I also think, instead of the big fish eating small fish analogy, it’s all about being a drop of ink in a glass of water and what that can look like. It starts to tint and change the water over time, and all of a sudden, you’ve got a totally different sea you’re swimming in.”
Looking Ahead
Colley leaves advisors with a challenge that underscores Orion’s forward-looking ethos. “Think about something in the next 12 to 24 months. If you are going to have the success you want, what are the three things you’re going to stop doing or do far less of? And then what are the three things you’re going to start doing or do far more of that are going to drive your success? That’s how we want to keep having these conversations with our clients.”
For Orion, success as a TAMP isn’t about delivering another dashboard or chasing the latest buzzword. It’s about enabling advisors to do what they do best: grow, scale, and deepen client relationships. And in Colley’s view, AI isn’t a threat to that mission—it’s the force that will make it possible.
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Additional Resources
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Disclosures
Investment advisory services offered by Orion Portfolio Solutions, LLC (“OPS”) or TownSquare Capital, LLC (“TSC”). OPS and TSC are subsidiaries of Orion Advisor Solutions, Inc. (“Orion”). Technology solutions are offered to investment advisors by additional subsidiaries of Orion, excluding OPS and TSC.
Orion, by and through its affiliates, offers registered investment advisers, broker/dealers, and other financial professionals technology tools such as a web-based portfolio management system, customer relationship management software, an operational service bureau, and other technology solutions. Orion’s registered investment advisory affiliates offer financial advisory and sub-advisory services to registered investment advisers, other financial professionals, and their clients.
