DOES YOUR FIRM HAVE AN OUTSIDE INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR?

“ You look at the tasks internally that take the greatest amount of effort that can be evolved using artificial intelligence, whether it’ s note-taking, financial planning, operational elements. And you basically build a plan around reducing the cycle time for all of those,” Bunch says.“ We’ re at a point now where all of our meetings use technology in order to capture all the notes and follow-ups and be able to create next steps for clients. Five years ago, even three years ago, that was all manual. Today it can all be done using data.”

Lest you think a Pollyanna attitude or misplaced enthusiasm has taken hold about how AI is going to make everybody’ s lives better, it’ s also probably a good idea to listen to a few concerned voices.

One of those is Stephen Galletto, an attorney with Stark & Stark who works in its investment practices and securities group. He believes RIA firms need to start thinking about compliance issues. In an age where more data will be stored on smaller and smaller drives, it’ s easy to forget how data-intensive artificial intelligence is and how much information, exactly, you’ re going to be vacuuming up into your firms’ systems when you start recording, processing and cleaning client information. Galletto says this could lead to compliance issues with the SEC eventually. So he warns firms that they need to start establishing procedures now to handle all this data, and he worries a lot of firms aren’ t thinking about it.

“ If you’ re using a service, who’ s keeping those records? Who’ s going to maintain access to those records? Are those records actually searchable?” Galleto asks.“ The SEC at any point in time can say, give me all the client communications, or electronic written client communications you have between the advisor and client Smith Ann Jones.”

■ Yes 17.26 %

■ No 82.74 %

ACTIONS FIRMS HAVE TAKEN IN THE LAST 3 YEARS

CATEGORY

If YES, what percentage of the firm do they own?

ACTIONS TAKEN IN LAST 3 YEARS %

■ 0-20 % 12.70 %

■ 20 %-40 % 22.22 %

■ 40 %-60 % 19.05 %

■ More than 60 % 46.03 %

ACTIONS LIKELY IN NEXT 12 MONTHS %

Hired strategy consultant 38.90 % 6.03 % Obtained a valuation appraisal 43.29 % 13.15 % Added one or more offices 38.63 % 14.25 % Held exploratory merger talks 33.15 % 11.78 % Rejected a merger proposal 26.03 % 3.29 % Hired a former registered rep to work at your firm 36.44 % 10.41 %

The Business Development Code

For firms seeking to crack the code on organic growth, AI is going to help in concrete ways, says Matt Cooper, the president of Beacon Pointe in Newport Beach, Calif.

“ There are programs that will identify publicly available data [ and ] certain types of people, so C- suite execs, tech firms in ZIP codes with an income greater than‘ this.’ And they deduce that by the home value of the home [ people ] own.” After that, he says, the AI will do iterative drip email campaigns to find warm or interested sources, and then a human being can reach out to them.

“ The other way is more intelligent search so your Google reviews and that kind of thing where the Google algorithm has vetted the local players down to a short list of three to five. … So the AI is actually identifying who you want to meet with out there.”

Cranston adds that AI will help on the investment side in the family office space too— especially with private investments that often have a lot more paperwork that’ s harder to glean information from than public investment documents.“ That alone takes an army of people,” she says.

Brodeski says the firms really embracing these changes will grow organically faster, but adds that AI also has the potential to expand the market.“ Traditionally, the mass affluent have been materially underserved because it wasn’ t efficient or profitable to serve that segment. Well, increasingly, AI— using process automation— it has the potential to be able to expand that marketplace— and also at the high end of the market you’ ve got family offices. Those are bespoke, but the technology has the potential to create some standardization there.” The operating leverage that results will mean that advisors can work with twice as many clients and deliver twice the quality of advice.

HAS THE PANDEMIC CHANGED THE WAY YOU ARE DOING BUSINESS?

84.11 %

Yes

15.89 %

If YES, how has it changed your business?

Increased use of meeting technology 100.00 % Slashed expenses to save on costs 6.80 % Changed investment strategy 5.83 % Expanded healthcare advice 3.56 %

No

32 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | JULY / AUGUST 2025 WWW. FA-MAG. COM