Independent RIAs have set the standard for a modern, highly visual client experience, and next-generation heirs increasingly expect that same level of polish wherever their assets sit. That expectation is most exposed at the exact moment it matters most, when an account passes from an aging client to an heir with far less familiarity with the mutual funds that make up many legacy portfolios.

Advisors needed a way to explain those holdings with clarity and to show, not just tell, what a proposed change would mean for a client's portfolio. For a trust company, matching that RIA-level experience while still operating within a more rigorous fiduciary and compliance framework is a narrower path to walk than it is for an independent firm. Falling short on either side risks losing the very relationships the bank is working to retain through the transition.

That next generation is showing up inside the firm as well. A growing share of Stock Yards' advisors and associates are younger and already comfortable working with YCharts' suite of AI tools, including Statement Extraction and Y.

The firm is looking to put that familiarity to work as more of that group gets licensed, while ensuring compliance with the bank's mandates to protect sensitive client information.

Younger advisors on the team have also started using Y to handle reporting and communication work that used to eat into their day, turning dashboard data into client emails, newsletters, and meeting prep instead of building those materials from scratch.

Underneath that pressure sat a more basic problem. Stock Yards' wealth team was effectively running three separate systems: two tiers of a legacy research platform split across advisors, plus a third platform used by a separate group. The firm was paying for overlapping capabilities across three tools, with no single system built to serve the entire team.

"Consolidating our two tiers of legacy platforms with YCharts is saving us thousands of dollars per year."

YCharts gave Stock Yards a way to close that gap. Reports built on the platform are modern and highly visual, giving next-generation clients a presentation-quality experience that feels current while staying within the review and disclosure standards a trust company operates under.

That shows up most directly in how Stock Yards handles account transitions and inherited investment accounts. When a client inherits an account or a relationship shifts to the next generation, advisors can ease the transition by pulling the old statement into YCharts through Statement Extraction rather than keying in holdings by hand.

From there, they build a clear breakdown of what a fund actually holds, compare it against alternatives, and identify tax opportunities, such as a step-up in basis, that support moving a legacy mutual fund into a comparable, lower-cost and/or better-performing ETF.

On the licensing side, Stock Yards evaluated what its team actually used the legacy platform's higher tier for and found that nearly all of it could be replicated in YCharts at a fraction of the cost. The bank's Manager Due Diligence Committee also uses YCharts' fund comparison tools to evaluate underperforming holdings against alternatives, decide when a call with a fund manager is warranted, and bring specific data points into that conversation.