Avalara vs. Refinitiv Wealth Management Solutions: Which is right for you? [2026]

Choosing between Avalara and Refinitiv Wealth Management Solutions is about identifying your core business function, not just comparing features. Avalara is a specialized tool for automating sales and use tax compliance for businesses that sell goods or services. In contrast, Refinitiv is a comprehensive data, analytics, and workflow platform built specifically for financial advisors and wealth management firms. Your decision boils down to a fundamental question: is your primary challenge tax compliance automation or navigating the world of investment management?

What is Avalara?

Avalara is a cloud-based software that automates tax compliance. It handles the complicated and time-consuming tasks of calculating sales tax, VAT, and other transactional taxes in real-time. Avalara integrates directly into your existing business systems—like e-commerce platforms, ERPs, and accounting software—to apply the correct tax rates at the point of sale. Beyond calculations, it also manages exemption certificates and automates the preparation and filing of tax returns. It is designed for businesses, from small online retailers to large multinational corporations, that need to comply with ever-changing tax laws across multiple jurisdictions.

What is Refinitiv Wealth Management Solutions?

Refinitiv Wealth Management Solutions, part of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), provides a suite of advanced tools for financial professionals. This platform is not a tax automation tool in the way Avalara is; instead, it offers investment analytics, market data, client relationship management, and risk assessment capabilities. Financial advisors and wealth managers use Refinitiv to research investments, manage client portfolios, and adhere to strict regulatory compliance standards like Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC). It consolidates market information and powerful analytics into a single interface to help advisors make informed decisions and serve their clients effectively.

Comparing Avalara vs. Refinitiv Wealth Management Solutions

While both platforms address compliance, they operate in completely different worlds. One focuses on the tax obligations of commercial transactions, and the other centers on the regulatory and analytical needs of financial services. The following table and breakdown highlight their distinct purposes.

Summary Comparison Table

Feature

Avalara

Refinitiv Wealth Management Solutions

Core Functionality

Automated sales tax, VAT, and indirect tax compliance.

Investment analytics, client portfolio management, and financial regulatory compliance.

Target Industry

Retail, e-commerce, manufacturing, SaaS, and any business selling products or services.

Wealth management, private banking, and financial advisory firms.

Compliance Focus

Sales & Use Tax, VAT, Customs & Duties. Follows state and country tax laws for transactions.

Regulatory compliance (AML, KYC), fiduciary standards, and investment suitability rules.

Integration Ecosystem

Extensive pre-built connectors for ERPs (NetSuite, Sage), e-commerce (Shopify, Magento), accounting (QuickBooks).

Integrates with enterprise financial systems like CRMs, portfolio management tools, and proprietary market data feeds.

Data & Analytics

Provides tax rate data, filing history, and exemption certificate tracking.

Offers advanced market data, portfolio performance analytics, and risk modeling.

Pricing Model

Subscription-based tiers determined by transaction volume.

Custom enterprise licensing based on modules, data feeds, and number of users.

Key Differences Breakdown

Core Functionality and Purpose

Avalara's primary job is to ensure you charge the right amount of sales tax on every single transaction, no matter where your customer is located. It maintains a massive database of tax rates, rules, and boundaries for thousands of jurisdictions. Its system identifies the customer's location, confirms the taxability of the product or service being sold, and applies the correct, up-to-date tax rate automatically at checkout. It then helps remit those collected taxes to the proper authorities.

Refinitiv, on the other hand, is centered on managing wealth. Its functionality is about providing financial advisors with the data and tools they need to grow their clients' assets. This includes real-time market data from global exchanges, deep analytics to assess the risk and return of specific securities, and workflow tools to manage client relationships and report on portfolio performance. It helps an advisor answer questions like, "Is this investment suitable for my client's risk tolerance?" or "How is this portfolio performing against market benchmarks?"

Compliance and Regulation

Both tools are built around compliance, but they address entirely different regulatory frameworks.

• Avalara’s Compliance: This is all about tax compliance. After the South Dakota v. Wayfair Supreme Court decision, businesses are responsible for collecting and remitting sales tax in states where they have economic nexus, even without a physical presence. Avalara automates this process, calculating complex rates based on product type and delivery address, reducing the significant audit risk and administrative burden of multi-state tax compliance.
• Refinitiv’s Compliance: This focuses on financial industry regulations. Wealth managers have legal and ethical obligations to their clients. Refinitiv helps firms meet requirements for AML to prevent financial crime, KYC to verify client identities, and fiduciary standards to ensure investment recommendations are in the client's best interest. It provides audit trails and reporting to prove adherence to bodies like the SEC and FINRA.

Integration and Ecosystem

A tool's value often depends on how well it fits with your existing software. Here, the two platforms show their different intentions.

Avalara is built to connect with the operational heart of a business. It offers hundreds of pre-built integrations for systems where transactions occur. This includes:

• E-commerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and Magento.
• ERPs like NetSuite, SAP, and Microsoft Dynamics.
• Accounting software like QuickBooks Online and Xero.
• Marketplaces like Amazon and eBay.

Refinitiv integrates with the ecosystem of financial services. Its connectors are designed for CRM systems used by advisors, portfolio accounting software, trading platforms, and other data providers. Its APIs allow large institutions to pull raw market data directly into their own proprietary analysis tools and client-facing portals.

Pricing and Scalability

The pricing structures reflect their target audiences.

Avalara offers a tiered subscription model that is accessible even to small businesses. Pricing generally starts with a base fee and scales based on the number of transactions processed per year. This makes it a scalable solution; a small e-commerce startup can start with a basic plan and upgrade as they grow and expand into new states. While costs increase with volume, the model aligns with a company's growth.

Refinitiv Wealth Management Solutions follows a custom enterprise pricing model. There are no standard price lists publicly available. A firm's cost depends on the specific modules they need (e.g., market data, risk analytics, client reporting), the number of advisors using the platform, and the scope of data access required. This model is typical for high-end enterprise software and is priced for established wealth management firms and financial institutions, with costs easily running into five or six figures annually.

Which One Should You Choose?

As a professional accountant or financial decision-maker, the choice between these two platforms should be clear-cut once you define the problem you need to solve.

Choose Avalara if:

• Your business sells tangible goods, digital products, or services across multiple U.S. states or other countries.
• You are concerned about maintaining sales tax compliance and mitigating audit risk related to economic nexus.
• You need a solution that integrates out-of-the-box with your e-commerce, inventory, or accounting system.
• You want to automate the end-to-end process of tax calculation, certificate management, and return filing without hiring a dedicated sales tax team.

For example, an online apparel retailer shipping nationwide or a SaaS company with customers in every state would find Avalara's functionality indispensable. It offloads a significant compliance headache in an efficient, automated way.

Choose Refinitiv Wealth Management Solutions if:

• You work for a financial advisory firm, a private bank, or a wealth management institution.
• Your core responsibility is managing client investment portfolios and providing financial advice.
• You need access to reliable, real-time market data, advanced analytics, and portfolio modeling tools.
• You must adhere to strict financial industry regulations (FINRA, SEC) and need tools to support AML, KYC, and Fiduciary compliance.

A registered investment advisor managing millions in client assets needs Refinitiv's deep capabilities. The ability to research equities, analyze portfolio risk, and generate investment proposals that meet regulatory standards is what the platform is built for.

Final Thoughts

In summary, Avalara is a specialized tool for transactional tax automation for nearly any product- or service-based business. Refinitiv Wealth Management Solutions is a broad platform designed exclusively for the complex data, analytical, and regulatory needs of wealth management professionals. The right choice is the one that solves your specific industry's biggest compliance or operational challenge.

For accountants and tax compliance specialists working in these areas, accurate, accessible research forms the foundation of good advice. For the complex scenarios behind an audit or proactive client planning, having an answer isn't enough—you need the citation to back it up. We help with this by providing Feather AI—a tool that provides immediate, source-backed answers to your tax questions from the IRC, IRS guidance, and all state codes so you can advise with absolute confidence.