SS&C CEO shouts out Black Diamond coup, after a mass adoption win of Morningstar RIAs, though Advyzon reaped a mighty haul with less pay to the piper
Bill Stone told Wall Street that Black Diamond cemented 'crown-jewel' status internally with 500-plus RIAs but not all Morningstar users took the white glove prix-fixe meal.
7 min read- SS&C's Black Diamond gained over 500 Morningstar RIAs after Morningstar shuttered its 'Office' platform.
- Black Diamond's aggressive strategy included incentives like discounts and transition assistance for Morningstar refugees.
- Advyzon, founded by ex-Morningstar executives, also capitalized, onboarding nearly 400 RIAs from Morningstar Office.
Brooke's Note: Competing for RIAs can be like life. You fight for every inch of ground then when you least expect it, a mile of turf is there for you – if you can grasp that it's not a mirage. When Morningstar decided to simply walk away from its RIA performance reporting “Office” book of multiple decades, Black Diamond suffered no disillusions and acted. It was a rare chance to move the needle and an RBC analyst noticed the blip and got a response from SS&C CEO Bill Stone that sparked this article. Of course, everybody ate at the Morningstar trough, including Advyzon, Orion, Envestnet and Panoramix. But Black Diamond's aggression may have paid off in clinching a bunch of big RIAs unthinkable two years ago.
Black Diamond's bold move to win a wild scrum for Morningstar Office (MO) RIAs just won plaudits from the person that matters most – the chairman and CEO of the holding company that owns it.
Black Diamond “is and will continue to be one of our crown jewels," Bill Stone, SS&C Technologies' top executive, told analysts on his latest earnings call.
"We’ve already moved over 500 to 600 Morningstar clients onto Black Diamond, so we’re very optimistic about that business,” Stone added during the Q&A portion of the call.
SS&C acquired the platform when it bought Advent Software in 2015. See: Reed Colley steps down from executive-level duties after selling Black Diamond
Black Diamond, based in Jacksonville, gambled last year it could run the table on the plumpest orphaned performance reporting clients after Morningstar closed shop on the software – forcing thousands of advisory firms to look elsewhere by “early 2026.” See: Morningstar is shuttering 'Office' in 2026.
Black Diamond confirmed the tally, and other statistics bear out an advance by the erstwhile Reed Colley startup. Colley now competes with the firm, as president of Orion.
Black Diamond now reports $4.3 trillion of assets, administered by 3,300 RIAs, up from 3,000 client firms and $3.5 trillion of AUA in June – an advance of 23%. By June, it may already have brought a few hundred of the 500-plus MO converts aboard.
Carrots and sticks
Black Diamond got a leg up in the competition by wiring a non-M&A deal in advance with the Chicago fund tracker. See: Orphaned RIAs cry foul after Morningstar socks them with stark choice.
The two firms set up a series of special incentives – carrots and sticks – to grease the skids for RIAs – including price reductions and special help to ensure a smooth transition.
The process began in February a year ago, when Black Diamond told RIAs they had until June 30 to get a 50% first-year discount to transition, including full access to Morningstar's data platform, Workstation and a waiver on an estimated $22,000 installation fee.
Black Diamond also stated it wouldn't guarantee full set-up by year-end 2025 for any RIA choosing to move after September.
Reed Colley steps down from executive-level duties after selling Black Diamond
It rolled back the first of its deadlines – the discount-deal.
Love lost
Not all RIAs loved being told to move to Black Diamond or risk issues with data transitions. See: Orphaned RIAs cry foul after Morningstar socks them with stark choice.
In August, Black Diamond reported that it had won many of the largest Office users. See: In mad scramble for Morningstar lame ducks, Black Diamond claims 400 RIA wins.
Of an estimated 1,200 RIAs forced to find a new portfolio management vendor, more than 500 RIAs have now jumped to SS&C Black Diamond.
Still, there were multiple beneficiaries of the RIA turkey shoot.
Advyzon – a firm formed by ex-Morningstar executives – pulled in an astounding 386 Office RIAs. It didn't have the same pre-negotiated deal, but its executives understood the codebase of their former firm well enough to ensure smooth transitions.
"As of today, we've won almost 400 firms, from solo practices all the way up to $1.7b AUM,” says Advyzon chief revenue officer, John Mackowiak, in an email.
“We're still onboarding Office firms as needed, but unless Morningstar extends the February 28 cutoff, we're working with any new firms we speak with to determine what's feasible from a historical data perspective,” he adds.
Story Timeline
Gold rush over?
Now, the feathers have mostly stopped flying, says Chris Hastings, co-founder of small portfolio management software company Panoramix in Eagan, Minn.
“We're mostly through the process … It was not the panic at the end of the year I thought it was going to be," he explains in an email.
Morningstar is shuttering 'Office' in 2026 and steering its orphaned RIAs to Black Diamond to get revenue cut in deal -- but Advyzon and Orion aren't planning to get cut out
"There still could be a few advisors that are in denial … but I don’t suspect many,” he adds.
Morningstar also declined to answer whether it is likely to shutter Office on its planned ‘go-dark’ date of Feb. 28, 2026.
A small number of RIAs have told vendors, Hastings' included, that they now expect to remain using Office, until April.
A spokesman for the Chicago data firm stated only that “the closing is on track," and Morningstar is "pleased with the outcome."
Rival performance
Panoramix is the only other portfolio management software shop thus far to disclose to RIABiz the result of the 2025 scramble for legacy Office RIAs.
It has won 26 firms – onboarding 20 so far – providing a 12% bump to its 215, Jan. 2025 customer count, Hastings says.
“The average AUM for those 26 is just under $125 million, [the] largest at $420 million, the smallest at $9 million.
"We also have a handful more [in negotiations] who are lingering,” he adds.
The number of onboarded clients matters, adds Mackowiak.
“Our understanding is that other platforms have won opportunities, but that onboarding has not been taking place at the same pace. We've delivered the vast majority of our new clients, who are now happily using Advyzon,” he says.
CircleBlack and AdvisorEngine have yet to respond to a request for comment, and both Orion and Envestnet declined to provide any hard data on their success, or otherwise, in courting former Office users.
“A strong number of firms have moved,” says Orion Advisor Technology president, Reed Colley, in an email.
Active pipeline
Envestnet head of RIA distribution, Sean Meighan spoke cryptically in an email, but hinted at a latent success brewing. See: Envestnet adds an RIA executive position to expand wallet share.
“We don't break out conversions from any single platform. What we can share is that we currently have hundreds of RIAs in our active pipeline that are in the process of moving from another provider to Envestnet.”
Subtracting the 1,012 firms already moving or moved to Black Diamond, Advyzon, and Panoramix, leaves about 188 RIAs unaccounted for, based on the estimated 1,200 firms using Office at the start of last year, according to data provided by a well-placed technology source in August, 2025.
In a June, 2025 edition of Bob Veres' Inside Information newsletter, Veres put the figure for US-based Morningstar Office users at 1,700.
* In 2019, Office boasted a combined RIA customer base of 5,500 firms in the United States and United Kingdom, with the UK accounting for by far the larger share.
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