AI For Financial Planners: Practical Ways To Use It Now
AI isn't a trend to wait out. It's a tool that can compound your time and sharpen client work-if you set the right rules. Industry groups like the Financial Planning Association are encouraging advisors to test it with guardrails and clear outcomes.
Here's a straightforward playbook for putting AI to work in a fiduciary practice without creating new risks.
Where AI Helps Today
- Client prep and follow-ups: Summarize discovery calls, extract goals, concerns, time horizons, and next steps. Draft concise recaps and pre-meeting briefs.
- Research and monitoring: Scan earnings, fund fact sheets, and macro updates for key signals. Produce plain-English summaries with sources.
- Planning workflows: Draft first-pass cash-flow narratives, Roth conversion pros/cons, Social Security timing notes, and scenario comparisons you'll verify in your planning software.
- Compliance support: Generate meeting notes, suitability rationales, IPS drafts, and consistent risk disclosures-then review and approve before filing.
- Operations: Categorize emails, triage service tickets, tag CRM notes, and create task checklists. Small time wins add up across the team.
- Marketing: Outline educational articles, FAQs, and event invites that reflect your niche and compliance standards.
Smart Guardrails (What Industry Guidance Is Pointing To)
- Human-in-the-loop: AI drafts; advisors decide. No autonomous approvals for advice, trades, or client communications.
- Data discipline: Don't paste PII into public tools. Use enterprise versions with encryption, access controls, and logging.
- Model error awareness: Validate numbers, links, and citations. Keep an audit trail of your review.
- Bias and fairness: Be careful with risk profiling and lending-related prompts. Document your methodology and rationale.
- Vendor due diligence: Assess data handling, SOC reports, uptime, and exit terms. Add AI vendors to your annual review.
If you want a neutral framework to shape policy and controls, see the NIST AI Risk Management Framework for practical guardrail concepts here. For investment context, the CFA Institute's guidance on AI in investment management is a useful overview here.
30-60-90 Day Implementation Plan
Days 1-30: Assess and pilot
- Pick two use cases: client meeting summaries and compliance-ready follow-ups.
- Decide on the tool: enterprise chat assistant or your firm's approved option.
- Create prompts and a review checklist. Define success metrics (time saved, error rate, client response time).
Days 31-60: Systematize
- Template the best outputs: recap format, IPS outline, research summary structure.
- Plug into your CRM and document retention. Add approval steps before anything client-facing.
- Train the team. Short, focused sessions beat long workshops.
Days 61-90: Expand carefully
- Add one planning use case (e.g., Roth conversion memo) and one operations task (email triage).
- Run a mini risk review: data exposure, access rights, logs, exception handling.
- Update your compliance manual with AI usage policy and oversight.
Prompt Playbook (Copy, Paste, Adjust)
- Client recap: "Summarize this transcript for our CRM. Sections: Goals, Concerns, Timeline, Risk Tolerance Cues, Action Items, Open Questions. Keep it under 200 words. No guesswork."
- Research brief: "From the following sources, list 5 material points for a balanced client update. Include links, dates, and a one-line implication for a 60/40 retiree."
- Planning memo: "Draft a first-pass memo on a potential Roth conversion for a married couple, ages 62/60, filing jointly. Provide 3 benefits, 3 risks, and factors that would change the recommendation. No tax advice-flag items for CPA review."
- Compliance note: "Create a meeting note in plain language that covers suitability rationale, costs, alternatives considered, and client consent, based on these bullets."
Metrics That Matter
- Time per client meeting prep and follow-up.
- Turnaround time on client emails and service tickets.
- Rework rate (how often you must correct AI drafts).
- Compliance exceptions and documentation completeness.
- Advisor capacity gained (more proactive touches, planning depth).
Practical Tips From The Field
- Write your own "voice guide" with tone, phrases to avoid, and formatting rules. Paste it into prompts.
- Always feed source material. Ask for citations with links. No sources, no confidence.
- Keep sensitive data out of prompts unless you're using an approved, secure environment.
- Save winning prompts as templates inside your CRM or SOP library.
Training And Tools
If your team needs structured, finance-focused upskilling, you can explore curated AI resources and tools:
Bottom Line
AI won't replace advisors who lead with judgment, context, and trust. It will replace repetitive busywork and expose weak processes. Start small, keep humans in control, document everything, and let compounding efficiency fund deeper client work.
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