For a second year, advisors polled for the Investment Executive Dealers’ Report Card were asked what they’d like their firms to focus on when it comes to supporting them and innovating.
Out of the six groups of categories on which firms are assessed in the report — advisor pay; the technology suite; business and skills development; wealth management tools; products; and firm culture — every advisor identified the one area their dealer should review, invest in and develop. The top choices (across the 518 interviewed) were the technology suite and firm culture, each chosen by 27.4% of advisors.
This result was similar to a year ago, though a higher percentage of advisors in the 2025 report prioritized firm culture, at 31.8%.
If you break down the 2026 outcome, you see a mix of results among the firms. Advisors with five dealers wanted their leaders to focus most on continually improving technology — those firms included CI Assante Wealth Management, Investia Financial Services, Manulife Wealth, Peak Financial Group and Sterling Mutuals.
Meanwhile, advisors with six others cared most about firm culture and their connection with leadership, with their comments often suggesting that the current culture be maintained and enriched. Those companies were Carte Wealth Management, Designed Wealth Management, Investment Planning Counsel, IG Wealth Management, Portfolio Strategies and Worldsource Wealth Management.
For the remaining firm rated by advisors in this year’s report, Sun Life, the top result choice was actually wealth management tools — the third-highest choice by advisors overall, at 16.4%. This makes sense for a company focused on growing its wealth-planning services and reputation.
Importantly, many of these firms’ leaders don’t see a big gap between these items. For them, putting in the effort to listen to advisors means they understand what is needed; and that’s, most often, streamlined digital systems.
For more information on each dealer’s structures and plans, access our detailed data summary guide. For more on advisor priorities, watch the video shown above (full transcript below).
Video transcript
Hi, Roland Inacay here, one of the research journalists who spoke with more than 500 advisors from the 2026 Dealers’ Report Card. During these calls, advisors shared how well their dealer firms are satisfying their workplace and business needs. The data findings help us determine whether firms are investing in the right areas.
Every year, we ask advisors to think about the main areas of support they receive from their firms. Out of the six areas covered in our research, shown here, they all indicate where they think their firms should develop and invest the most. Last year, the leading choice by advisors was the firm culture area, at 31.8%. This relates to how well a firm is building a supportive culture for advisors, and whether they’re incorporating advisor feedback as they craft strategic plans. The second-place choice was the technology suite, selected by 24.6% of advisors in the report.
For 2026, there was a tie when it came to how many advisors chose firm culture or the technology suite. Each area was selected by 27.4% of advisors, and the remaining 45% of advisors split their choices between the other four options. What’s worth noting is advisors and firms alike see a strong connection between culture and technology. If leaders are listening to advisors and watching the industry, they see how important it is to push for digital innovation and related advisor training.
For example, in the Brokerage Report Cards, firm culture was the clear choice for advisors, followed by wealth management tools. In the dealer space, their priorities are similar except for wealth management. Advisors have more independence when it comes to choosing which wealth management tools they use, so most depend less on their firms for guidance. [Editors note: This does not apply to all firms in the Dealers’ Report Card; there are some that prescribe planning advisor tools, similar to many of their Brokerage counterparts. There also are firms in the Brokerage report that allow advisor freedom in this area.]
The advisors who chose firm culture as the area in which their firms should continue to develop also shared how much they value firms that take care of and respect them. For some dealer advisors, that means offering them true independence. They want support for scaling their businesses but also the ability to serve their clients as they see fit.
Advisors who instead focused on the technology suite group of categories were interested in gaining efficiencies. They preferred that their firm zero in on ways to streamline their tools and help them be productive. This means advisors have more time for clients, and that’s something all the firm’s leadership teams want as well.
Advisors seeking digital investments also mentioned the importance of innovation and staying ahead. Some shared how they were afraid their firm would fall behind, with the latest element of course being the integration of AI into industry systems, platforms and dashboards.
Speaking of AI, we asked advisors in our 2026 Dealers’ survey whether they understood their firm’s policies around the use of AI tools and software, in relation to their work. More than half of the advisors polled said yes, listing some of the benefits they see in using AI. Key use cases so far are simple, with the technology being used by firms and their advisors to streamline administrative work and cut down on time spent satisfying compliance requirements. There are also advisors who are cautious when it comes to AI. More than one third of advisors in this industry space felt they didn’t understand their firm’s policies and about 5% weren’t confident they even knew what AI was.
In the 2026 Brokerage Report Card, in comparison, the vast majority or 80% of advisors in that space felt they understood their firm’s or bank’s policies around the use [of AI]. Only 17% said they didn’t and 2.9% didn’t understand AI.
But advisors in the brokerage space were also cautious about AI. They also used it for simple productivity gains. Microsoft Copilot is one of the main tools in the industry and in this dealer space, and task automation is most common. Still, several firms have begun working with tech vendors and AI experts to help them understand and incorporate AI into their systems, to stay ahead of the game for advisors and clients.
Thank you for watching and for your interest in Investment Executive’s annual research. You can read the full 2026 Dealers’ Report Card online at investmentexecutive.com.