Focus Financial Taps VRGL to Overhaul Its Advisor Growth Engine

DALLAS, TX – January 13, 2026 – Focus Financial Partners, a leading partnership of independent wealth management firms, today announced a strategic relationship with wealthtech provider VRGL. The move will make VRGL’s client acquisition and proposal management platform available across Focus’s extensive network, representing a significant step toward standardizing the technology advisors use to attract and engage clients.

The partnership is already being implemented across two of the company's key business units, Focus Partners Wealth and Focus Partners Advisor Solutions (FPAS), a turnkey asset management platform (TAMP) that supports independent advisory firms. The collaboration equips advisors and support staff with an enterprise-level framework designed to bring consistency and scale to how they analyze prospect portfolios and deliver proposals.

This decision by one of the industry's largest players highlights a critical trend: the drive for operational efficiency and a unified client experience is pushing large wealth management enterprises to consolidate their technology stacks around powerful, specialized platforms.

The Automation Engine for Advisor Growth

At the heart of the partnership is VRGL’s platform, which is designed to automate some of the most time-consuming tasks in an advisor's workflow. The technology automates the extraction of data from prospect account statements, a process that has historically been a manual and error-prone bottleneck. Within minutes of uploading PDF statements, advisors can access institutional-grade analytics and a holistic view of a prospect's entire investment portfolio.

VRGL’s proprietary “5 Pillar Analytics” provide a deep-dive analysis covering performance, risk, diversification, taxes, and fees. This allows advisors to quickly diagnose a prospect's current financial standing and clearly articulate their own value proposition against it. Research shows that technologies automating such administrative tasks can save advisors between 12 to 15 hours per week, freeing them to concentrate on higher-value activities like strategic financial planning and nurturing client relationships.

By integrating with a firm's risk tolerance assessments, the platform also helps ensure that proposed investment strategies are properly aligned with client profiles. For an enterprise like Focus, VRGL’s firm-level controls—including pre-approved investment strategies and a custom security master—provide crucial oversight and consistency.

“VRGL was built to combine advisor-facing productivity with enterprise-grade oversight, helping organizations like Focus deliver faster and more consistent new business outcomes,” said Kyle Zasky, CEO of VRGL, in the announcement.

A Strategic Play for a Wealth Management Giant

For Focus Financial Partners, which operates as a partnership of dozens of independent-minded firms, adopting a single solution like VRGL is a significant strategic move. While its partner firms maintain operational autonomy, Focus provides value-added services, and a powerful, unified technology stack is increasingly central to that value proposition. This initiative aims to create a more consistent, high-quality experience for prospects interacting with any firm under the Focus umbrella.

This partnership is not an isolated event but the latest in a series of strategic technology integrations for Focus. In recent years, the firm has expanded relationships with CAIS to streamline access to alternative investments, with Flourish to enhance cash management solutions, and with UPTIQ for AI-enabled lending platforms. Together, these moves paint a clear picture of a firm building a curated, best-in-class technology ecosystem designed to give its partner firms a competitive edge.

By providing sophisticated tools for growth, compliance, and client service, Focus strengthens its appeal to both existing partners and potential new firms looking to join its network. The ability to offer a proven, efficient client acquisition process is a powerful recruiting and retention tool in a competitive market where technology is a key differentiator. Advisors are increasingly vocal about the importance of a firm's tech stack, with industry surveys indicating that over 90% would consider leaving a firm over substandard technology.

“Focus is committed to equipping advisors with the solutions they need to consistently deliver a premium experience when interacting with prospective clients,” noted Aaron Grey, Chief Experience Officer at Focus Partners Wealth. “We are confident that VRGL will give advisors a more efficient and compelling way to prepare for prospect and client meetings.”

Redefining the Client and Prospect Experience

While the immediate benefits of the VRGL platform are centered on advisor efficiency, the ultimate goal is a transformed client experience. In an era of heightened client expectations, particularly among tech-savvy Millennial and Gen X investors, the quality of digital interaction can make or break a relationship. These investors demand transparency, personalization, and clarity—qualities that data-driven tools are uniquely positioned to deliver.

VRGL enables advisors to move beyond generic pitches and static charts. By presenting a deep comparative analysis in a clear, visually engaging format, advisors can help prospects and clients truly understand the composition of their portfolios, the risks they are taking, and the fees they are paying. This level of transparency is instrumental in building trust, which is the bedrock of any successful advisory relationship.

This shift from a sales-oriented pitch to a consultative, data-backed conversation helps advisors demonstrate their value immediately. For clients, it demystifies the investment process and provides them with the confidence that their advisor’s recommendations are rooted in a thorough understanding of their unique financial situation. This enhanced experience is a direct driver of client satisfaction, which in turn leads to higher retention rates and a greater likelihood of referrals.

The Evolving Role of TAMPs and Wealthtech

The integration of VRGL into Focus Partners Advisor Solutions (FPAS) also underscores a major evolution in the Turnkey Asset Management Platform market. TAMPs have grown far beyond their original function as outsourced portfolio managers. Today, they are sophisticated technology and service hubs, and their ability to integrate leading third-party tools is a key competitive advantage.

The TAMP industry has seen explosive growth, with assets projected to reach $13 trillion in 2024. A primary driver of this adoption is the desire for advisors to offload operational burdens to focus more on clients. By embedding a powerful client acquisition tool like VRGL directly into its TAMP offering, Focus is enhancing the platform’s value proposition, making it a more comprehensive solution for independent advisors seeking to scale their businesses.

This trend reflects the maturation of the wealthtech landscape, where the focus is shifting from standalone point solutions to deeply integrated platforms. As AI and automation become more prevalent, the most successful firms will be those that can effectively connect best-in-class third-party technology with their own proprietary data and workflows to drive measurable growth and create a superior, consistent client experience.