Both start with the tax return
This is the comparison people expect to be the difference, and it isn’t. Stratum ingests the return too — upload the PDF for AI extraction, or pull IRS transcript data directly on the Advisor plan. Getting the 1040 into the software is table stakes for both tools.
Holistiplan is the category leader here and deserves the position — it leads advisor tax planning at 38.92% market share with the highest satisfaction rating in the category, per the 2026 T3/Inside Information Software Survey. If the job is getting from a client’s actual return to a shareable report fast, that is what it is built for.
The difference is what a “scenario” is
In Holistiplan, a scenario is a hypothetical tax return. It is inherently a “one-year-at-a-time” modeling tool that allows the advisor to create as many single-year slices as they need, potentially deriving each scenario from another. Comparing two scenarios means comparing one hypothetical tax year to another.
In Stratum, a scenario is a complete hypothetical lifetime modeled with and without a sequential set of planning strategies. Every year from the tax year through life expectancy is calculated in full — brackets, capital gains netting, IRMAA, NIIT, AMT, FICA, and state tax — including the survivor years after a first death, when filing status shifts to Single and the brackets compress. Comparing two scenarios means comparing two entire lifetimes, not two versions of one year.
That requires the balance sheet, not just the return
A tax return tells you what happened last year. It cannot tell you what a client will owe in 2041, because that depends on what they own. Stratum takes the household’s accounts alongside the return — balances, basis, account type, contributions — and projects them forward. That is what makes a lifetime tax analysis fall out naturally rather than having to be assembled year by year, and it is what lets twelve strategies interact:
- Strategic Contributions
- Structured Withdrawals
- Supplemental Income
- Social Security Optimization
- Roth Conversion
- Stock Options
- Business Structure
- Business Liquidation
- Charitable Giving
- Deduction Bunching
- Tax Harvesting
- State Relocation
Each strategy’s output serves as the next one’s input, and the advisor controls the order.
And Stratum solves, not just scores
Modeling software answers “is this Roth conversion plan any good?” You bring the plan; it grades it. That still leaves the advisor guessing at the plan worth testing.
Stratum answers the harder question: what is the best plan? The Roth Conversion Optimizer (Advisor plan) splits the projection into life phases — pre-retirement, post-retirement, survivor — and independently tests every combination of bracket ceiling and IRMAA constraint in each: 1,728 candidate plans, each one a full lifetime projection. It ranks them by NPV of lifetime taxes and hands back the winner, along with the reasoning.
Side by side
This comparison reflects features and pricing as of August 2026, based on publicly available information. Competitor information is independently verified by Stratum from each company’s published website and may not reflect all features, limitations, or configurations. Competitor details may change; this page was last verified August 3, 2026 and will be updated within 30 days when material changes are identified. Sources are linked beneath the comparison.
Holistiplan prices by household band, from 30 to 750 households. Stratum is a flat annual rate with 100 households included. The packages are structured differently, so direct per-household costs will vary.
| Stratum | Holistiplan | |
|---|---|---|
| Published price | Planner $999/yr (100 households); Advisor $1,299/yr (100 households) | Basic Tax from $749/yr (30 households); Premium Tax from $1,499/yr (30 households)1 |
| What the price covers | 100 households included, unlimited scenarios; expansion packs add 10 households | Tiered by household count, 30 to 750. Unlimited users. 12-month commitment.1 |
| Tax planning capability, as published | Tax return in by PDF extraction or IRS transcript import (Advisor plan), combined with the household balance sheet. Twelve strategies run in an advisor-controlled sequence across a projection to life expectancy, with federal and state tax, capital gains netting, IRMAA, NIIT, AMT, and FICA modeled every year. The Roth Conversion Optimizer searches 1,728 candidate plans and ranks them by NPV of lifetime taxes. | Basic includes "Federal tax scenario analysis & projection modeling". Premium adds "State tax scenario analysis & projection modeling" and "Multi-year Roth conversion projections".1 |
Sources — all figures taken from each vendor’s own published pages, verified August 3, 2026.
Competitor pricing and features change. This comparison reflects what each vendor published as of the date above and is not updated in real time — check the linked sources for current terms. Product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners and are used here for identification and comparison only.
On the multi-year question
Worth stating plainly, because comparison articles get this wrong: Holistiplan does model multiple years. Its dedicated multi-year Roth conversion modeling is a Premium-tier feature, starting at $1,499/year for 30 households, and its documentation describes showing the impact of a conversion sequence on portfolio growth, lifetime taxes, and Medicare surcharges. Stratum’s Advisor plan is $1,299/year and includes 100 households. The meaningful differences are how many strategies are coordinated inside a single projection, whether the projection runs to life expectancy including the survivor years, and whether the software searches for the best plan or evaluates the one you supply.
Which one should you use?
Holistiplan is the better fit when
- Your primary job is reviewing this year’s return and spotting opportunities
- You want a client-ready tax report in minutes from an uploaded 1040
- You need scanning across a large book with unlimited users on one plan
- Your firm already standardized on it — it is the category leader for good reason
Stratum is the better fit when
- You want the software to find the best conversion plan, not grade the one you brought
- You need to see how several strategies interact over a lifetime, not one at a time
- The sequencing question matters — what runs before what, and why
- You want the projection to run to life expectancy, including the survivor years
- You want to trace any number from the lifetime summary down to the year and line item
Plenty of advisors run both. They answer different questions, and the tax review job and the projection job are not the same job.
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Holistiplan are trademarks of their respective owners. All trademarks are used here for identification and comparison purposes only. Stratum is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by any product listed on this page.