If your wealth management firm is already live on Salesforce and the current partner is no longer working out, choose the next one by how they will take over an org someone else built. Ask for a paid assessment before any long contract, meet the people who will do the work, check how they protect supervision, archiving and access during the handover, compare published prices, call references from firms that switched partners, and agree up front what documentation you will own. A partner that has inherited other firms' builds will ask about your org before it talks about itself.
Picking a first implementation partner is mostly about design: data model, households, integrations with custodians and portfolio systems, and adoption. Picking a replacement is about inheritance. The new partner has to understand configuration they did not design, automation nobody documented, and integrations that may be held together by a single scheduled job. They also have to do it while advisors, operations staff and compliance keep using the system every day. The criteria below are the ones that matter most in that situation.
A careful partner will not quote a year of work on an org it has never seen. Look for a short, fixed-price assessment that reviews your configuration, automation, integrations, data quality, security settings and technical debt, and ends with a written findings report and a prioritized plan. You should be free to take that report to another firm. If a partner skips the assessment and goes straight to a large proposal, the estimate is a guess.
Ask who will work in your org and what wealth management systems they have handled. Your consultants should be comfortable with households and relationship groups, custodial data feeds, portfolio and planning integrations, and the way advisors, client service associates and operations teams use the same records differently. Ask whether any work is subcontracted, and meet your lead before signing.
The handover is when control is weakest. Credentials move between firms, automation gets switched off and on, and integrations can fail quietly. Ask the new partner how they will inventory and rotate administrative access, confirm that communications your firm must retain are still being captured, and record every production change so compliance can review it. Ask how they work in sandboxes and how they test changes that touch supervision or recordkeeping workflows.
Vendor oversight is also a regulatory expectation for many firms. The SEC's 2024 amendments to Regulation S-P require covered institutions, including registered investment advisers and broker-dealers, to maintain written policies for overseeing service providers "through due diligence and monitoring" (SEC fact sheet). Treat a partner change as a new vendor onboarding and an old vendor offboarding, with your compliance team involved in both.
Ask for the price of the assessment, of hourly blocks or retainers, and of any managed service, along with terms and minimums. Compare the shape of the pricing as well as the totals. A partner that publishes its rates is easier to compare and less likely to surprise you once the first invoice arrives.
Ask for references from wealth management firms that came to this partner from another one. Ask those references what the first ninety days looked like, what the partner found in the org that nobody expected, and how it was explained to the firm's leadership. A partner with only greenfield references may be excellent at new builds and still new to rescue work.
Two sets of documents matter here. From your outgoing partner, request credentials, configuration notes, integration details, custom code and any open work. From your new partner, agree in writing that documentation will be kept current and handed over if you ever leave them too. That second agreement protects you from repeating the same problem in three years.
Usually not. Most inherited orgs need targeted repairs: cleaning up automation, fixing integrations, improving data quality and documenting what exists. A full rebuild makes sense only when the assessment shows the data model or core design cannot support how your firm works.
For a typical wealth management org, a focused assessment is measured in weeks, not months. Its length depends on the number of integrations, the volume of custom automation and how much documentation already exists.
Often yes, as long as your contract allows it and access is managed carefully. An overlap lets the new partner ask questions while the outgoing team is still available. Check notice periods and confidentiality terms first.
Administrator credentials, connected app and integration credentials, configuration and integration documentation, any custom code and its repository, a list of scheduled jobs, and a summary of open requests and known issues.
Yes. A partner change moves administrative access to client data from one vendor to another, so compliance should review the new partner's due diligence, approve the access plan and confirm that recordkeeping and supervision workflows keep running through the cutover.
Vantage Point is one partner you can measure against these criteria. We are an employee-owned Salesforce and HubSpot consultancy founded in 2018, with headquarters in Dallas and a practice in Sofia. Our senior consultants have delivered 700+ engagements for 175+ clients that together hold nearly $2 trillion in client assets. You can see how we work with advisory firms on our wealth management page, and if you'd like a second look at your org, start here.