Firms that pay for access to CashEdge technology don't generally force their advisors to use it. It's usually there as a value-add for those who want to provide financial-account aggregation and advisory services associated with it.

"Given the changes in the financial services industry in the past year, we are pleased broker dealers and advisors have continued to add our aggregation solutions to the core of their practices during this period," said CashEdge's brokerage and wealth managment channel boss, Tom Roberts. "In fact, volatile markets have helped demonstrate the importance of financial advice based on a holistic view of a client's financial portfolio."

But CashEdge said it helped matters along this past year with various tweaks aimed at improving the data quality and reliability of AllData Advisor. And the New York-based firm is on the verge of launching additional enhancements to "augment the usability and functionality of AllData Advisor while creating additional ways for advisors to subscribe to the solution."

Stamford, Connecticut-based RIA Asset Management Group uses AllData Advisor. Its chief executive LeGrand Redfield said the system gives him and his colleagues a sense of their clients' "complete financial situation" and their financial goals.

"This allows us to develop and deliver the best possible advice to help our clients preserve and grow their wealth," said Mr Redfield. "Our clients are continuously looking for cutting-edge tools that will better manage their financial future, particularly in today's environment, and AllData Advisor enables us to meet this client demand and increase the return on investment for our clients."

AllData Advisor can be integarted with wealth-management platforms like those of Albridge, eMoney Advisor and MoneyGuidePro