Stop ripping out your CRM. Do this instead.

Replacing a CRM mid-AUM-growth is the single most disruptive technology change a financial advisory firm can choose to inflict on itself. It is also, almost always, the wrong problem to solve.

What teams actually complain about when they say 'our CRM is terrible' is a layer above the CRM: the workflow gaps that nobody has filled, the data that doesn't flow back from the back-office, the reminders that don't fire, the reports that require three exports and a spreadsheet.

None of that is solved by switching to a new CRM. It is solved by treating the CRM as a platform and layering agentic automations on top. The CRM keeps being the source of truth. The advisor's experience becomes what it should have been all along.

A concrete sequence that works: (1) instrument the existing CRM via its API to capture the actual workflow gaps; (2) build three to five narrow automations — not a 'transformation programme', three actual workflows that advisors use daily; (3) measure lift against a named baseline; (4) only then, with data, decide whether you also have a platform problem.

Most firms stop at step three, because the ROI shows up before step four becomes necessary. Modernise without replacement. That's the whole play.