Orion makes down payment on its future by granting XY Planning Network a long-sought sweetheart deal -- a freemium framework for RIAs that gives Orion a dynamic growth pipeline

The largest RIA software provider and the largest RIA startup factory quietly struck a deal that pays immediate dividends to the latter – but could be a huge win for the former in future years.

Orion, with $5.65 trillion in administered assets, is offering XY Planning Network's  2,166 "members" access to a free starter model of Orion – with heavily discounted tiered upgrades. Orion currently serves 2,500 RIAs with its portfolio management software, and thousands more beyond it.

Holistiplan's tax management software is also included for free for startup accounts. Holistiplan has been XYPN members' “number one request,” since 2019. 

It's “the biggest benefit roll-out in XYPN’s 11-year history," says XPYN CEO and co-founder Alan Moore.

In return, Orion Advisor Technology President Reed Colley gets a lock on future RIA superstars before they go super nova.

“For Orion, it’s a long-game play,” says Colley in an email. See: Reed Colley is back as Orion's president with the immense task of taking its legacy RIA technology and making a dream.

"It's a launchpad … by supporting advisors early, we’re building trust and alignment from day one. As these firms grow, they’re already embedded in the Orion ecosystem,” he adds. 

Clear support path

Orion is investing in more ways than a dirt cheap set up – it's creating a customized version of Orion.

“‘Customized access’ isn’t just a buzzword, [the partnership] is a purpose-built configuration of Orion tailored for XYPN firms. It includes pre-built reports, smart defaults aligned with XYPN workflows, and a guided onboarding experience,” Colley explains.

“Implementation still follows Orion’s proven onboarding discipline … but with the added lift of XYPN’s member success team. 

"The result? Less complexity upfront, faster activation, and a clear, supported path to expand into the full Orion ecosystem as firms grow,” he says.

“We’re intentionally removing barriers to adoption for early-stage and growth-focused RIAs in the XYPN community ... enabling firms to standardize on Orion from day one,” Colley explains.

“It’s a strategic onramp,” he adds.

XYPN’s new partnerships with Holistiplan and Orion both have a term limit, which the company declined to reveal, although Moore stated his "confidence" that the terms will be renewed, once the initial agreement expires.

Capitalizing on growth

Moore and co-founder Michael Kitces were able to convince Colley that XYPN is a good wager by showing its fledgling standalone RIA practices can grow fast.

XYPN declined to provide data on its member firms. “What we can say is that our members' firms grew three times faster than the industry average last year – 18% versus 6.2% – and as their firms have scaled, we’ve scaled right alongside," he adds.

“XYPN is no longer solely a platform for launching firms; it is the place where members can scale, thrive, and sustain their practices,” the deal release states.

“[We've] been working with Orion on an entirely new service model, run by full-time team members here at XYPN, that allows us to do some of the heavy lifting.”

“We're capitalizing on both the growth of our membership, and the growth of our firms … [and] as they've grown, our service offering has also grown with the intent of supporting the later stages of their business,” Moore adds.

Complex needs

There's “a risk to XYPN not providing a scalable solution set for growing practices," says Andrew Besheer, principal of wealth management consulting firm Besheer & Associates.

“This is a completely logical response to changing market conditions where even smaller RIA’s are seeing their assets under management (AUM) growing on the basis of market uplift, and their clients’ needs becoming more complex as a result.

"Why would they want to lose their most successful members for want of a more sophisticated solution set?” he asks.

Yet, if it isn't ‘pivoting,’ per sé, XYPN certainly looks like it's expanding its addressable market, says Besheer.

XYPN “have created a near cult [of] staying in their lane, but there’s clearly an evolution that happens as those incredibly loyal advisors grow – even if the growth primarily comes from market appreciation - and that changes them,” he explains.

No pivot

Just don't characterize that growth as XYPN pivoting upmarket, Moore says. The firm is adhering to its long-held promise to stick to its niche. 

“This is not a pivot for us … from the beginning we built XYPN to support firms through their entire lifecycle … [and] as XYPN grows our membership, it gives us more financial ability to partner with new vendors in a way that supports both companies,” he explains.

“When we've said we'd ‘stay in our lane,’ it was about continuing to serve our niche – fiduciary-only advisors with a fee-only model … that remains unchanged, but our firms grow and evolve, and therefore we do as well," he adds.

"When members can leave at any time with everything they own, the only way to keep them is to keep delivering more value," he says.

“We didn't do this to try and stem the tide of any issues, as we're not sitting around waiting for [any] issues to happen. We are, and will continue to be, proactive,” he adds.

Jump start

Without access to a discount, Orion's trading software alone carries an entry-level fee of $12,000 a year, which can climb to $28,000. 

It also charges $13,000 for its basic billing and reporting software, with broader bundled offerings costing up to $28,000.

XYPN RIAs can now manage 15 households' taxes for free – with a 35% discount then available on scaled per-household pricing that starts at $1,499 for 30 households.

XYPN's members now have a free starter kit for up to 40 accounts. XYPN is also putting skin in the game in the form of an in-house support and implementation team. 

"Launching an included Orion member benefit back in 2014 wouldn’t have made sense, as we didn’t have enough members who needed that level of technology, nor the team in place to support it, but we've grown to that point, and are proud," Moore explains.

XYPN's 2,100-plus small RIAs pay it $6,240 a year for their memberships. 

XYPN has also secured its members a 60% discount on Wealthbox CRM’s premium service, as well as access to expanded insurance through Markel, Starkwether & Shepley for firms with up to $2 million in revenue.

Data hot button

The Orion and Holistiplan partnerships also contain a data clause, allowing XYPN RIAs to maintain full access to their data. They can export it or transfer it to other software vendors without additional cost, according to the firm.

Access to data, particular from portfolio management software, has been something of a hot-button issue for RIAs of late.

Advisors scrambled to get access to exportable data, following Morningstar's decision to shutter its long-running Office platform. See: Orphaned RIAs cry foul after Morningstar socks them with stark choice.

"What we’re offering our members is the exact same Orion technology they’d access on the open market, just configured and delivered in a way that makes sense for independent firms of all sizes …

"Members can leave at any time with 100% of their business – including their data,” Moore explains.

“Most vendors have set up their enterprise systems such that the firm owns the data … [but] the data belongs to the advisor."

Winning move

The XYPN-Orion deal is also similar to the way a number of broker-dealers work with Orion.

The broker-dealer does much of the front-line client-support in-house, which keeps Orion’s service desks unclogged, and the broker-dealer benefits from agreed-upon cheaper license fees.

It's a winning move for all parties, says Besheer.

“A lot of these advisors would be outside of their addressable markets individually, but with XYPN acting as the wholesaler in the middle, it gives them an opportunity to build relationships that will hopefully grow over time," he explains.

“For instance, the Orion relationship should be providing access to a tier of advisor that might more often go with a platform like Advyzon, so this should be really good distribution for them," he adds.

Opening access

One leading RIA industry analyst, speaking anonymously to be candid says Colley, who joined Orion in late 2024,  was the key architect of the tie-up. 

He pushed Orion to “shake things up,” and seek upwardly mobile growth in an obvious lower-tier market, the analyst says.

Colley declined to comment on of the claim in full, but noted XYPN and Orion have ties dating back to at least 2016.

"This isn’t about going down-market, it’s about opening up access. It’s about meeting advisors where they are ... It’s a strategic extension of our mission … [and] it’s a win for the advisor, XYPN, and Orion," he says.

It's “designed to reduce adoption friction for XYPN members through approachable pricing and [to provide] a clear path to full platform adoption ... creating long-term engagement as firms scale.” he adds.