Guardian Partners with Avantos to Accelerate AI-Driven Wealth Management
NEW YORK, Feb. 26, 2026 - The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian) announced a strategic partnership with Avantos, an AI-native operating system that streamlines how financial institutions onboard and service clients. The collaboration equips Guardian's financial advisors with next-generation tools to deepen client relationships and better support holistic financial well-being.
Why this matters for leaders
This move consolidates fragmented onboarding and servicing into a single, intelligent system. Expect shorter onboarding cycles, fewer handoffs, and higher advisor capacity-all while tightening compliance and data quality. The intent is simple: more time with clients, less time in systems.
Phase one: what advisors get
- Connect data, teams, and workflows in a single intelligent system for streamlined, compliant, and consistent onboarding experiences.
- Reduce friction in client management to improve advisor productivity.
- Gain agility and scalability to service clients more effectively.
Roadmap and investment
Over time, Guardian's financial advisors will access additional Avantos-powered capabilities to support investment and protection needs. Guardian is also a strategic insurance partner to Avantos and has made an early-stage investment in the company-signaling a long-term commitment to AI-enabled platforms and enhanced wealth management capabilities.
Leadership perspective
Mike Perry, Head of Client Solutions and Wealth Management at Guardian, emphasized that advisors need sharper tools to improve productivity and help clients pursue their plans through uncertain markets. Avantos Co-Founder and Co-CEO Rabih Ramadi noted the platform was built to help advisors spend more time with clients and less time juggling software.
What leaders should track
- Onboarding time to first interaction and time to funded account.
- NIGO (not-in-good-order) rates and rework volume.
- Advisor capacity: clients per advisor and revenue per advisor.
- Client satisfaction and attrition trends at 30/90/180 days.
- Compliance exceptions, audit trails, and model-driven decision logs.
- Data completeness, accuracy, and straight-through-processing rates.
Risk, compliance, and controls
AI in onboarding and servicing raises clear oversight needs: data security, model governance, explainability, and human-in-the-loop controls. If you are shaping rollout plans, align your supervisory framework with standards such as the NIST AI Risk Management Framework for consistent risk evaluation and monitoring. NIST AI RMF
Implementation priorities for management
- Unify client data ownership and policies across wealth, protection, and retirement lines.
- Define clear success metrics and a baseline before pilots start.
- Stand up a cross-functional squad (advisors, ops, compliance, data, and tech) to run the first wave.
- Codify AI use policies, monitoring, and escalation paths prior to scale-up.
Related resources
For leaders evaluating how AI improves onboarding, servicing, and advisor productivity, explore practical use cases and frameworks in AI for Finance.
Recent enhancements to Guardian's wealth platform
Guardian's partnership with Avantos builds on other upgrades, including the addition of Mike Perry as Head of Client Solutions and Wealth Management. In January 2026, Guardian introduced the Guardian Wealth Advanced Markets team-attorneys, CPAs, CLUs, ChFCs, and tax professionals-with 255+ cumulative years of experience in advanced planning for individuals, businesses, and wealth transfer.
The team launched its inaugural "The Year Ahead" report to provide real-time insights, counsel, commentary, and resources that help advisors support every angle of clients' financial lives.
About Guardian
Guardian makes a difference in the lives of people when they need it most. With 165 years of stability and fiscal integrity, the company supports millions of consumers and business owners through life, disability, dental, and other benefits. As a modern mutual insurance company, Guardian invests in its colleagues, fosters an inclusive and innovative culture, and supports communities through corporate impact programs.
Guardian's commitments rest on a strong financial foundation, which included a 2026 dividend allocation of $1.7 billion-the largest in the company's history.
Financial snapshot and disclosures
Dividends are not guaranteed. They are declared annually by Guardian's Board of Directors. The total dividend calculation includes mortality experience and expense management as well as investment results.
Financial information concerning Guardian as of December 31, 2024, on a statutory basis: Admitted assets = $86.8 billion; liabilities = $77.5 billion (including $60.7 billion of reserves); and surplus = $9.3 billion.
Guardian is a registered trademark of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, New York, NY. Copyright © 2026 The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America. All rights reserved.
About Avantos
Avantos is an AI-native operating system for financial services firms. It replaces fragmented legacy systems with a unified, context-aware platform, enabling consistent, high-quality client experiences across wealth, protection, and retirement. The platform brings together the client, the servicing team, and the work being performed into a single intelligent environment-moving AI from isolated insights to real execution at scale.
Media contacts
For Guardian: mediarelations@glic.com
For Avantos: avantos@streetcredpr.com
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