Workflow automation for independent RIAs

A full workday a week back for each person on your team.

The same AUM figure lives in your ADV, your agreements, your letters and your invoices, and someone types it four times. I'm William. I build the automations nobody at the firm has time to build: onboarding, client documents, quarterly letters, the handoffs in between.

Get in touch

The same work, before and after

A few situations that might apply to you.

Manual workAfter we build it
The AUM figure typed into the ADV, the agreement, the letter and the invoice.Entered once. All four documents pull it from there.
The onboarding packet made from the last client's, find and replace.Generated from the intake form.
Performance numbers pasted into the quarterly letter.The letter pulls the numbers in itself.
Fee invoices checked against the agreement one at a time.Checked automatically. You only see the ones that don't match.

Who I've helped

Two builds I've done that are both still in use. An overview of what the teams did by hand, how it runs now, what I built, and some numbers.

6 to 7 hours a week back for the people who did the looking up

Government of Canada · Policy chatbot · 2026
17,000
staff who ask instead of reading
6 to 7 hrs
a week back for the people who used to do the looking up
220
policy documents searched in one go, some of them hundreds of pages

The story

A federal department runs on 220 policy directives. Some are a page, some run to hundreds of pages, and a few are old PDFs that barely open. When someone needs the rule, they find the right directive and read through it by hand. 17,000 staff work under those directives, and the people who look things up most were losing hours a week to it.

What they do now

They type the question and get the answer, with the passage it came from. The people who used to do the most looking up get 6 to 7 hours a week back. Still in use today.

What I built

Two human steps, ask and read. The search between them runs itself.

a person does thisruns on its own
  1. Ask

    A question in plain words.

  2. Search

    The right passages are found across all 220 directives.

  3. Answer

    An answer in plain words, with the passage it came from.

  4. Read

    Check the source if you want to. Rate the answer if it's wrong.

Runs in the department's own accounts. Still in use today.

200 hours of lookups by hand, gone

University of Alberta · Research lab · 2025
200 hrs
of lookups by hand, gone
7,000
papers tracked without anyone searching
5,000
experiment files that answer a question in plain words

The story

A research lab needed to know who was citing 7,000 papers, and where. Each one was a search by hand, about two minutes a paper, so 200 hours of someone's time. The lab's own experiment files, 5,000 of them, sat on one computer and were found by clicking through folders.

What they do now

The lookups run on their own, and what comes out is a map of who cites what, by region, that the lab uses in its talks. The experiment files are in one place, and a researcher can ask in plain words: what did this run show, how does today compare with last week. Still in use today.

What I built

A person at each end. Everything between the folder and the answer runs itself.

a person does thisruns on its own
  1. Hand over

    The list of 7,000 papers and the folder of experiment files. That is the whole input.

  2. Look up

    Every paper is looked up and every citing author pulled, the way a person would, without the person.

  3. Load

    The citations and the 5,000 experiment files go into one place.

  4. Map

    Who cites what, drawn by region.

  5. Ask

    Put the map in the talk. Ask the files a question in plain words and get the answer.

Built at the lab, left with the lab. Still in use today.
Start with the free audit →

What this proves to you

Neither client is an RIA. What carries over:

The shape of the problem is the sameThe same figure looked up and typed four times, because it lives in the ADV, the agreement and the letter. Same shape as 17,000 people reading 220 directives to find one rule.
Still in useBoth are running today, without me. Nothing was left half done.
Nobody had to learn a systemStaff type a question. Researchers ask a question instead of clicking through folders. The work they were already doing got shorter.

What usually gets automated first at an RIA

Taken from Form ADV filings and from the RIAs I've talked to. Yours will differ, which is what the audit is for.

Client onboarding packetsagreement, IPS and custodian forms from one intake
Quarterly letterswith the performance figures already in it
Fee invoicesfrom custodian data, checked against the agreement
ADV annual amendment prepthe numbers gathered before the deadline week
Meeting notes into the CRMand the follow-up tasks that come out of them
Compliance calendarreminders and evidence collected as you go

The offer

Three steps. You see each piece working before you pay for it, and you keep everything at the end.

01

Audit

A 30-minute call. I map where the hours go. You get one page back: what to automate first, what it saves, what it costs. Free, and yours to keep if you stop here.

02

Build

Scope and milestones agreed up front. I build inside the tools you already use where possible, and you see each milestone running before you pay for it.

03

Handover

Documentation, a walkthrough for whoever runs it, and the code. It keeps running without a retainer, and I'm reachable if something changes.

3 principles of Wren

Accountability

Milestones agreed up front, paid after each one meets your needs. Frequent updates and checkins are done to ensure alignment, and actual ROI is personally guaranteed.

Scalability

Built to support a whole team of users. When the team grows or a tool changes, the automations maintain usability and are easy to extend.

Utility

I solve the real problem. If the piece we scoped is not useful or we discover major blockers during development, I'll ensure you still get value from my work.

Start with the free audit →

Why not a bigger agency, a consultant, or one more hire?

Each one is a fair option. Here is where they cost you.

A bigger agencyTheir smallest project is bigger than yours, and the retainer runs whether or not anything ships. Here you pay per milestone, and the person on the call is the person who builds it.
A consultantYou get a recommendation. You still need someone to build it. The audit is the recommendation, free, and the build is the next step.
One more hireA new hire does the typing faster. The typing is still there, and it grows with the client list. Once the job runs itself, the people you have get their week back, and the work they keep is the work that needs a person.

Questions you probably have

Short answers. Ask me the long ones on the call.

I don't know what I'd automate yet. Is it too early to talk?

No. That's what the audit is for. Bring the job that annoys you most and we start there.

What does it cost?

Quoted after the audit, which is free. You pay per milestone, after each one runs, with nothing hourly and no retainer.

Where does our client data go?

It stays in your accounts. I build inside them, copy nothing to my own systems, and my access is removed at handover.

Do we need new software?

Usually not. Most builds run on what you already pay for. If something new is better, I'll say so and you decide.

We have an IT person, or a compliance consultant. Do they get a say?

Yes. They see everything as it's built, and the documentation is written for them.

What if it breaks after you leave?

You have the code and the documentation, so anyone technical can fix it. If it's my mistake, I fix it at no charge.

About

I'm William. I'm a software engineering student at the University of Waterloo, and Wren Automation is the business I'm building.

My work so far has been internships: data cleaning, pipelines that connect systems, and CRMs. The two builds above came out of that work.

I want to get good at this work. The fastest way is to do it for firms that have the problem.

Why me

I have the genuine software engineering qualifications and the technical knowledge to build a reliable system for you. Most agencies can give you something beautifully packaged at demo time, but with hidden bugs and inefficiencies that show up over time.

I'm building a business on this kind of work, and I want each build to be so good that you're not just satisfied, but you want to refer me to every business owner you know. I'm willing to relax the financial terms to get this kind of result.

Thanks for taking the time to read this far.

Get in touch

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Look for an email from [email protected]. Check spam or email me directly if you don't find it. Talk to you soon!