AI Gives Advisors A Chance To Take A Break

Before AI took hold of the financial advisory landscape, it was more challenging for advisors to take a day off or go on a summer vacation. That involved a lot of trust in their teammates and technology’s capabilities, let alone whatever efforts it took to go on the trip. Now, according to a recent case study detailing how AI is changing the advisor workday, over two-thirds of financial advisors use AI day-to-day, and it’s helping them take their time back in ways that really matter.

But now with the adoption of AI assistants, many more advisors are looking forward to leveraging some more newfound freedom this summer thanks to AI assistants. In fact, advisors utilizing AI can save between one and three hours of work per day thanks to the efficiencies it allows them and their team to achieve. That could be a long lunch or stacked up to create regular three-day-weekends.

Catching Everything Even When You’re Not at Your Desk

For Danielle Darling, CDFA, Founder of Darling Wealth Management, she’s often traveling either with clients or having interactions with them while away from her desk.

“We’ll have a conversation and then I’ll plug it in my CRM,” she said. “And then when it comes time to schedule the initial call, the notes or the pre-meeting prep already pops up.”

Enabling Delegation of Responsibility

“I no longer feel like my brain is the only place where the essence of client conversations live, allowing me to step away from my desk with confidence,” said Emily Rassam, CFP, Partner at Archer Investment Management. “As a result, I also save time during the workday and experience far fewer interruptions, since my team can access the context they need to follow through on post-meetings tasks without coming to me for clarification.”

And since AI assistants have become that centralized repository where all team members get their information and tasks to complete, Sarah Cicero, CFP, Financial Advisor at StoneBridge Advisors, has saved time and energy from having to delegate tasks to her teammates while she’s away. Since her AI assistant is enabled on all her meetings, when Cicero was recently out of town performing eight annual review meetings, her team reviewed the notes from each interaction and began performing their associated tasks shortly thereafter, without any prompting from Cicero.

What would this situation have been like before AI assistants?

“In the past, that would have meant balancing meaningful client conversations with the constant task of taking detailed notes, documenting action items, and making sure my team had everything they needed once I returned,” Cicero said. “It’s a great example of how AI can strengthen continuity and collaboration while allowing advisors to focus on what matters most: the client relationship.”

Furthering Trust

For Matthew Koppelman, CFP, Co-Founder of Precision Wealth Planners, a self-proclaimed “control freak,” his AI assistant enables him to review how client interactions and tasks are being completed while he’s away from the office without letting the team know what he’s doing. Given that the boss calling while on vacation tends to make everyone’s stomach drop, this saves his employees anxiety and fear while also “scratching the itch” as he termed it to see how everything’s going while he’s away.

Bringing in Pinch Hitters Without Much Disturbance

Drew Boyer, CFP, Founder of Boyer Financial Group, recently had his long-time office assistant away on her honeymoon at the same time as his new junior planner was on his first vacation as part of the Boyer Financial Group. While this could have meant that Boyer had to split himself into three to cover all the different duties, instead his wife assisted by answering phones. Boyer’s wife is not a financial advisor and was not familiar with these clients.

“But here’s the thing: she doesn’t need to know our clients; Jump does,” Boyer explained. “The dilemma of not knowing a client, or their situation, has been eliminated by her being able to quickly scan our Jump meeting notes or tapping into the seamless connection to Wealthbox. That’s the difference between a client having confidence in your business – even with two employees out – and feeling like they reached a clueless answering service.”

Being in Two Places at Once

Amanda Dunlap, RFC, Chief Executive Officer of Absolute Financial Planning, is both the owner of a financial planning business in Texas as well as a campground company in central New York. Given the rather large distance between those two destinations, her firm has always leaned on creativity, ingenuity and technological advances to make everything work as seamlessly as possible. Her AI assistant has allowed her to feel as if she’s in Texas with her team and clients who are being well served by others while she can be at the fireside, literally, managing her other business.

“Being physically separated from the office can sometimes create challenges around communication and continuity, leaving team members feeling disconnected from client conversations and ongoing account activity,” Dunlap noted. “With AI-powered meeting notes and workflows, any member of our team can quickly access the context they need, understand next steps, and provide seamless support to clients without waiting for my involvement.”

Will Hoffman, AIF®, President at Hoffman Wealth Management, sympathizes as he’s had his AI assistant on during meetings as he’s been on a long drive or other trip with his young sons.

“When I’m in the middle of North Carolina driving to Florida or in the middle of an airport chasing a seven-year-old the wrong way down a people mover and in the middle of a phone conversation and nothing gets missed, even though I know I’m missing something in that moment,” that’s when Will is grateful for his AI assistant. “Our clients don’t even realize that we are unfortunately missing part of this conversation, but everything’s still getting done as effectively as possible.”