Feathery’s Chris Mills on Why Data Intake and Workflow Automation Eliminate the Need for Rip-and-Replace
By DWN Staff
As the wealth management industry prepares to gather at INSITE 2026, leaders across the sector are focused on a familiar challenge: how to grow efficiently while delivering a better experience for advisors and clients. The annual gathering is viewed by many as a convening point for conversations around growth and operational strategy. INSITE also brings together industry players, including new and emerging wealthtech firms, that understand advisor efficiency and scalable operations are key themes across the industry. Some of these technology providers realize that there is broader pressure on firms to modernize, but also know adding complexity or disrupting existing systems should never be part of the answer.
In 2026, wealth firms may be at a fork in the road, as they rethink infrastructure behind the client experience. Few companies are closer to that operational shift than Feathery, which works with wealth management firms to streamline the workflows that sit behind onboarding, transitions and client servicing. Chris Mills, head of wealth solutions at Feathery and former president of Kovak Securities, brings nearly 30 years of experience across broker-dealers, RIAs and wealthtech. An increasingly sought-after voice on workflow automation and AI in wealth management, Chris is refining Feathery’s focus on digital workflow automation and data intake across the advisor and client journey. In this Q&A ahead of the conference, Digital Wealth News spoke with Chris about what he’s watching across the industry – from advisor workflow modernization to the evolving role of AI.
DWN: From June 1 to 4, INSITE 2026 is bringing together leaders from across wealth management around innovation and the future of the industry. What are you most looking forward to at this year’s conference?
Chris: INSITE is one of the best places to hear how firms are actually operating today. We can learn what’s working, where teams are hitting friction and what leaders are prioritizing next. We’re especially looking forward to conversations around advisor efficiency and operational scale. Across wealth management, firms are under pressure to grow without adding complexity. We’re excited to be part of that discussion and to hear directly from industry leaders about how they’re thinking about the next generation of client and advisor workflows.
DWN: Feathery focuses heavily on workflow automation and data intake. Why is that becoming such an important area for wealth management firms right now?
Chris: A lot of firms still rely on email, spreadsheets and manual handoffs for critical workflows like onboarding and transitions. That creates duplicate work and unnecessary risk. What we’re seeing now is a real push toward simplifying those processes without forcing firms to rip out existing systems. That’s where Feathery fits in. We help firms automate the operational workflows around client and advisor data while connecting with the tools they already use. The result is information moves faster and teams spend less time on manual work.
DWN: AI will be a major theme at INSITE this year. How is Feathery thinking about AI’s role in wealth management operations?
Chris: For us, AI is most valuable when it removes operational friction in the background. At Feathery, a major recent innovation is Robin, an AI workflow builder and assistant embedded throughout the Feathery platform that serves every stakeholder in the workflow cycle. Robin empowers operations and IT teams to design, execute and scale operational workflows through a unified intelligent interface, while giving advisors and clients an on-demand assistant to navigate those workflows in real time. The goal isn’t replacing people. It’s giving advisors and operations teams more time to focus on clients.
