AI for financial planners · Sydney

AI for financial planners: less time on the file, more time with the client

In most advice practices the paperwork has grown faster than the client list. File notes typed up after the meeting, Statements of Advice assembled section by section, fee consents tracked in a spreadsheet. I help planning practices turning over one to ten million take that load off, one small step at a time, with the adviser deciding and signing everything.

Start a conversation How it works

Where a planning practice’s week actually goes

Talk to any adviser running a full book and the story is the same. The advice is under control. The work around it is not: a client meeting on Monday whose file note is still a page of scribbles on Thursday, a Statement of Advice waiting in the paraplanning queue, annual reviews that need a week of preparation each, and fee consents that have to be renewed on time, every time.

None of it is the advice itself. All of it is constant, and it falls on advisers and paraplanners whose hours are the practice’s capacity. That is exactly the kind of work AI is now good at: turning a meeting into notes, pulling figures out of statements and the client file, drafting in your templates, and putting it in front of a person to check.

This is not about a new advice platform. You keep Xplan, AdviserLogic or Midwinter, your licensee’s templates and your shared drive. The job is to connect AI to what you already run, so the drafting and record-keeping around the advice is done for you and the adviser reviews it instead of writing it.

What I’d take off your plate first

Usually Xplan, AdviserLogic or Midwinter for clients and advice, platform portals for holdings, Xero or MYOB for the practice, and Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace for everything else. I connect AI to those, rather than asking you to replace them.

File notes from client meetings

A recorded meeting or the adviser’s voice memo turned into a file note in your format, with goals, decisions and actions pulled out and attached to the client record for the adviser to read and correct.

Statements of Advice drafted from the adviser’s recommendations

The adviser sets the strategy and the products. The SoA is then drafted in your licensee’s template from the fact-find, the file notes and those recommendations, so the paraplanner reviews and refines rather than builds from scratch.

Annual review preparation

Before each review, current holdings, changes since last year, open actions and life events from the file gathered into one briefing, with a draft agenda the adviser can take straight into the meeting.

Fee consent renewals

Every renewal date tracked, the consent form prepared from the client’s current arrangement, and reminders drafted well before the deadline rather than after. A person checks and sends each one.

Record-keeping and the paper trail

Emails, signed documents and phone calls filed against the right client, and a gap list each week of records that look incomplete. It keeps your files tidy. Whether the advice is compliant stays your and your licensee’s call.

Billing and the product paperwork

Fee invoices and revenue reconciliation against what platforms actually paid, application forms pre-filled from the client file, and mismatches drafted into a query for someone to approve.

And the admin every office has

The same work turns up in every advice practice: email, spreadsheets, documents, and a Microsoft or Google setup that grew without a plan.

Invoicing and accounts payable

Supplier bills read, coded and matched to the order or the job before they reach Xero or MYOB. Mismatches drafted into an email for someone to approve. Overdue invoices chased politely, on a schedule.

Email that answers itself, nearly

The inbox triaged each morning, routine replies drafted in your tone, attachments filed to the right folder, and a short list of what actually needs you today.

Spreadsheets you stop rebuilding

The weekly report that someone copies and pastes together every Monday, produced before you arrive, with a sentence on why the number moved.

Documents and slides

Proposals, letters, reports and board slides drafted from your own templates and your own past work, so the first draft is eighty per cent there rather than a blank page.

Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, set up properly

Shared drives that make sense, permissions that match who you are now, and AI connected to mail, calendar and files the same way for everyone instead of five people doing it five ways.

Project and job tracking

Status updates written from what actually happened in email and the job system, tasks pulled out of meeting notes, and a morning brief per person of what is due.

How it works: audit, roadmap, implementation, training, support

Sold one step at a time. Each step is quoted before it starts, stands on its own, and you decide after each one whether to take the next. Most businesses your size go from the audit to a working, trained setup in three to six months.

Audit

Two weeks, fixed price. A map of every system you run, a ten-minute staff survey, a few five-minute screen recordings of the work that eats the week, and short conversations with the people who run the business. It costs your team minutes, not hours.
Roadmap

A ninety-day plan written from what the audit found: which processes first, ranked by admin removed against cost and risk, which AI plan and accounts your team should be on, and a two-page policy on what may go in. Every item has its own price.
Implementation

I build the first one or two automations inside your own Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, connected to the systems you already run. AI drafts, a person approves anything that leaves the building, and it runs beside the manual way until you trust it.
Training

Your team learns on their own work, not on demos. One standard setup for everyone, a short session per group, and one-to-one time with the two or three people who will carry it once I step back.
Support

A light monthly retainer: one call, a one-page summary, fixes, and the next routine your team worked out promoted into something the business runs. I read the AI news so your people do not have to.

Use AI without handing over your clients’ data

An advice practice holds the whole of a client’s financial life: tax file numbers, super and investment balances, health and insurance details, family circumstances and estate plans. None of it needs to leave your own systems for AI to be useful.

The work happens inside your Microsoft or Google tenant and your advice software, on a business AI plan that does not train on your data, with company accounts for every person who uses it. Nothing goes into a free chatbot, and anything that goes to a client, a platform or a product provider waits for the adviser to approve it.

The basics, every time

Company accounts on a business AI plan, never personal logins. Business plans do not train on your data.
AI connected to your own Microsoft or Google tenant, so files stay where they already live and access is revoked in one place.
A two-page policy your team can actually remember: which accounts, what may go in, what never does.
Everything I build lives in your accounts and is logged. I work from a staff login, not the master key.

Where most start

A typical first project: file notes drafted from client meetings

Most audits in an advice practice land on the same quick win. Every client meeting becomes a file note in your format, with actions pulled out and attached to the record, ready for the adviser to check the same afternoon. It runs beside the old way for a fortnight until you trust it. From there, review preparation and SoA drafting are usually next.

Where I work

Based in the Sutherland Shire. In person across these areas, remote everywhere else in Australia.

Sutherland Shire

Cronulla, Miranda, Caringbah, Sutherland, Gymea and around.

Southern Highlands

Bowral, Mittagong, Moss Vale, Exeter, Robertson and around.

St George

Hurstville, Kogarah, Rockdale, Sans Souci, Bexley and around.

Eastern Suburbs

Bondi Junction, Double Bay, Paddington, Woollahra, Randwick and around.

Frequently asked questions

Will AI give financial advice to our clients?

No. The adviser decides the strategy and the recommendations. AI drafts the notes, the review packs and the document that sets out that advice, and the adviser reads and signs every word. Judgement stays with the person licensed to exercise it.

Will this make our advice compliant?

No, and I would be wary of anyone who says it would. It makes your record-keeping more complete and your files easier to check. Whether the advice meets your obligations is a matter for you and your licensee, and the setup is built around their requirements, not mine.

We use Xplan (or AdviserLogic, or Midwinter). Do we need to change?

No. The point is to connect AI to what you already run. Where your platform has a way in, I use it. Where it does not, I work from exports and documents and keep everything filed back to the client record.

Is this worth it for a practice our size?

If your advisers are writing file notes at night or SoAs are queuing for weeks, almost certainly. The audit will tell you honestly, and if a better template would do the job, I will say so.

How much of my team’s time does this take?

Minutes, by design. Ten for the survey, ten for an optional screen recording, an hour with the key people. Whoever runs operations spends two or three hours across the first fortnight.

Do we have to commit to the whole thing?

No. Every step is quoted on its own and you decide after each one. Plenty of businesses take the audit and one project, and stop there until they see it working.

Are you tied to a particular AI vendor?

No. I lead with Claude because I think it is the strongest all-rounder for business work today, and I work just as happily with Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT or Gemini if that is what your team already uses. Everything is built so the model is one part you can swap.

Questions financial planners ask me

Is it safe to put client data into ChatGPT or Claude?

On a business plan with company accounts, it can be: ChatGPT Business and Enterprise and Claude Team and Enterprise do not train on your data by default. On a free or personal account, treat it as unsafe for client information, which is also what Australia’s privacy regulator recommends.

How do I start my day with AI?

Give it a short briefing document about your job and open every day with the same request: read my briefing, then show me today from my calendar and inbox. Close the loop with a short daily note, and within a few weeks the assistant knows your work.

My staff are using their own AI accounts. Should I ban it?

No. A ban rarely stops it and always hides it. Give your team one approved AI tool on a company account, write down what may go into it, and ask people to move across. Keep one firm rule: company logins and client information never go into a tool the business has not approved.

Running a advice practice and doing the admin at night?

Tell me what you run, how many people, and what eats the most time. I will tell you honestly whether an audit is worth it.

Tell me about your business

Tell me what you're dealing with

Three lines is plenty. I reply personally, usually within a day, and the first call is free.