There’s a new AI plugin for financial planning that just launched.

It’s called the Wealth Management plugin for Claude.

And everyone in the industry is freaking out about it.

Most advisors tried it, got terrible outputs, and declared it useless.

“The recommendations are generic.”

“The allocations are cookie-cutter.”

“I could have written this myself in 10 minutes.”

They’re right.

The outputs are garbage.

But they’re also completely missing the point.

Because the plugin isn’t supposed to replace your thinking.

It’s supposed to scale it.

And the advisors who figure out how to use it properly are going to be writing financial plans in one-fifth the time while everyone else is still complaining that AI isn’t ready yet.

What is this thing and why is everyone freaking out?

The Wealth Management plugin is a tool built into Claude that’s designed to help advisors prepare client reviews, build financial plans, generate investment proposals, and optimize portfolios.

You give it a prompt like “build a comprehensive financial plan for a couple retiring in 10 years with $3M in assets” and it spits out a plan.

Sounds amazing, right?

Except when you actually use it, the output is… fine.

It’s not bad. It’s just generic.

Standard asset allocation. Standard risk tolerance questions. Standard Monte Carlo assumptions. Standard everything.

It reads like a template.

And most advisors look at that and think, “This is useless. I’m not using AI to create mediocre plans.”

So they close the tab and go back to doing it the old way.

And that’s the mistake.

Here’s what they’re missing

The plugin isn’t a vending machine.

You can’t just drop in a prompt, get a plan, and expect it to be good.

That’s not how this works.

The real power comes when you train it.

When you teach it how YOU think. How YOU structure plans. How YOU position recommendations. How YOU talk to clients.

Once you do that, the outputs are completely different.

They don’t sound like a template anymore.

They sound like you.

And instead of taking you 6 hours to write a financial plan from scratch, it takes you 45 minutes to review and refine what the AI drafted.

That’s the game.

How to actually use this tool (the right way)

Here’s the process most advisors are missing.

Step 1: Feed it your methodology and structure (not client data)

Here’s what you CAN upload safely:

Your process. The structure you use for plans. The questions you ask. The way you organize information.

For example:

“When I build a retirement plan, here’s my structure:

1. Current financial snapshot

2. Retirement income needs analysis

3. Gap analysis

4. Recommended solutions

5. Implementation timeline”

Or:

“When a client tells me they’re risk-averse, here are the types of investment options I typically recommend and why.”

What you should NOT upload:

Actual client names, account numbers, specific balances, personal information, or anything that would violate your fiduciary duty to protect client data.

You’re teaching the AI how you think, not giving it access to private client information.

Step 2: Feed it your decision-making framework

Tell it how you think.

“When a client is retiring in 10 years and has $3M in assets, here’s how I think about allocation. Here’s what I consider. Here’s what I ask. Here’s what I recommend and why.”

Again, no client names. No private data. Just your methodology.

Step 3: Give it anonymized context for the plan you’re building

When you’re ready to draft a plan, give it the relevant details.

“Client is 55, retiring at 65, $3M in assets, risk-averse, wants income certainty over growth, doesn’t trust markets because of 2008.”

That’s enough context for the AI to draft a plan in your style without compromising anyone’s privacy.

Step 4: Let it draft the plan

Now when you ask it to build a plan, it’s not giving you generic output.

It’s giving you a plan that sounds like you. That reflects your methodology. That uses your frameworks.

And you’re not starting from a blank page anymore.

You’re starting from a solid first draft that you can refine in a fraction of the time.

Why most advisors won’t do this (and why the ones who do will dominate)

Most advisors will try the plugin once, get a mediocre output, and give up.

And they’ll say, “AI isn’t ready yet.”

And for them, that’s true.

Because they’re treating it like a shortcut instead of a tool.

But the advisors who actually invest the time to train it, to teach it how they think, to feed it their methodology, those advisors are going to 10x their productivity.

They’re not replacing their thinking.

They’re scaling it.

And that’s the entire point.

Let’s talk about what’s really happening here

We’re at the beginning of a massive shift.

The SaaS companies, the software-as-a-service businesses, have lost trillions in market cap over the last year.

Why?

Because the assumption is that software development costs are going to zero.

If AI can write code, if AI can build tools, if AI can automate workflows, then the value of traditional software companies collapses.

And I’ve heard people say that any job where you’re staring at a screen all day is at risk.

A lot of that can be replicated by AI.

But here’s the thing.

Financial advisors aren’t just staring at screens.

We’re in the people business.

The value we provide isn’t running calculations or building plans or crunching numbers.

The value we provide is understanding clients. Having real conversations. Explaining complex ideas in simple terms. Being present when people are making the biggest financial decisions of their lives.

That’s not going away.

But the work behind the scenes?

Building financial plans. Running projections. Preparing recommendations. Updating allocations.

That’s all changing.

And it’s changing fast.

The future of financial planning is already here

Here’s what I think is coming.

You sit down with a client. You have an AI notetaker running in the background.

It takes notes. It listens to the conversation. It prompts you to ask certain clarifying questions.

You’re having a great conversation. The client is engaged. You’re building trust.

In the background, the AI is preparing the notes. It’s feeding those notes into your financial planning software. It’s updating the plan on the fly.

By the time the meeting is over, the plan is 80% done.

You don’t have to touch it. You don’t have to spend 4 hours after the meeting building the plan from scratch.

You just review it. Refine it. Make sure it’s right.

And then you send it to the client.

That’s the future.

And it’s not 10 years away. It’s happening right now.

Why this can’t live inside your CRM (and why that’s actually a good thing)

A lot of people think CRM tools are going to evolve to do all of this.

I don’t.

And here’s why.

Salesforce just updated their terms of use. From what I’ve heard, they’re making it harder to export your data. They’re making it harder for outside AI tools to access the information sitting in their system.

Why?

Because Salesforce wants to sell you their AI.

And they’re not the only ones. Every major CRM company is doing the same thing.

They’re building AI into their platforms. And they’re locking down the data so you have to use their AI.

But here’s the problem with that.

Their AI is specific to their system.

It’s controlled by them, not by you.

And it has limitations you don’t even know about.

You don’t know who its master is. You don’t know what it can and can’t do. You don’t know how it’s being optimized or what trade-offs are being made behind the scenes.

The future isn’t AI inside a CRM tool.

The future is YOU owning your own AI.

You pay for it. You control it. You train it.

And it has a direct relationship with you, not filtered through some third-party company that has its own business interests.

Your AI pulls data from your CRM. It pulls data from your financial planning software. It pulls data from your portfolio management tools.

But it doesn’t live inside any of them.

It lives with you.

And that’s the key.

The CRM companies are terrified of this

They’re terrified because they see what’s coming.

If advisors start using their own AI, and that AI just treats the CRM as a database, a place to pull information from and push information to, then the CRM becomes a commodity.

It’s just storage. Just compliance documentation.

The intelligence, the automation, the value, that’s all happening somewhere else.

And CRM companies know that if that happens, their revenue falls off a cliff.

So they’re trying to lock you in.

They’re trying to make it harder to use outside AI. They’re trying to force you to use their AI. They’re trying to control the ecosystem.

And I get it. That’s good business strategy.

But it’s not good for you.

Because their AI will never be as good as an AI you control.

It can’t be.

Because it has to serve their interests, not just yours.

The same thing is happening with financial planning software

A lot of financial planning tools are building AI into their platforms too.

And it’s the same story.

Their AI can only do what their system allows. It can only pull from their data. It can only operate within their constraints.

But your AI?

The one you own and control?

It can pull from your CRM. It can pull from your planning software. It can pull from databases. It can pull from illustrations. It can pull from anywhere you give it access.

That’s where the real power is.

Now, this is going to take time to fully integrate.

Not because the technology doesn’t exist. It does. They could probably do it tomorrow.

But because the companies that control these systems, the CRM providers, the carriers, the planning software vendors, they’re hesitant.

They want to protect their business. They want to control the data. They don’t want to make it easy for outside AI to plug in.

And there are legitimate concerns. Compliance. Privacy. Regulation.

I get it.

But the infrastructure is being built anyway.

And eventually, it’s going to get there.

In the meantime, start building the blocks

You don’t have to wait for everything to integrate perfectly.

You can start now.

You can start by training your AI to help you build financial plans faster.

You can start by feeding it your methodology, your frameworks, your approach.

You can start by using it to draft recommendations, draft allocations, draft projections.

And as the technology improves, as the integrations get better, as the systems start talking to each other more seamlessly, you’ll already be ahead.

Because you’ll have spent the last year or two training your AI.

While everyone else is still figuring out how to use it.

Here’s what I think happens next

Eventually, the illustrations will integrate too.

Right now, carriers control that. They don’t want to make it easy for AI to run comparisons in the background. They don’t want to give up that control.

But it’s coming.

Because the technology is there. And once enough advisors start demanding it, once enough pressure builds, the carriers will adapt.

They have to.

And when that happens, when the AI can run illustrations in real time during the meeting, when it can compare products across carriers, when it can optimize recommendations on the fly, the entire industry changes.

You’re sitting with a client. The AI is listening. It’s running scenarios in the background. It’s comparing options. It’s drafting recommendations.

And by the time you finish the conversation, the plan is done.

That’s the future.

The advisors who are going to win are the ones who start training their AI now

Here’s what I know.

In five years, there are going to be advisors who can produce 10 financial plans a week.

Not because they’re working harder.

Because they’ve trained their AI properly.

They’ve fed it their methodology. They’ve taught it how they think. They’ve built systems that scale their thinking instead of replacing it.

And there are going to be advisors who are still doing everything manually.

Still spending 6 hours per plan. Still starting from scratch every time. Still treating AI like a curiosity instead of a tool.

The gap between those two groups is going to be enormous.

And the scary part is, most advisors don’t see it yet.

They see the Wealth Management plugin, try it once, get a mediocre output, and assume AI isn’t ready.

But AI is ready.

They’re just not using it right.

What you should do right now

If you’re reading this and you want to be on the right side of this shift, here’s what I’d recommend.

1. Stop waiting for your CRM or planning software to build AI for you

They’re not moving fast enough. They can’t.

And even if they do, you’ll be locked into their system, using their AI, playing by their rules.

Build your own. Train your own. Own your own.

2. Start feeding the AI your methodology

Teach it your process. Your frameworks. Your approach.

The more you feed it, the better it gets.

And you can do this without compromising client privacy.

3. Use it for drafting, not final output

Don’t expect the AI to hand you a perfect plan.

Expect it to hand you a solid first draft that you can refine.

That’s where the leverage is.

4. Focus your time on the things AI can’t do

The conversations. The relationship building. The trust. The human connection.

That’s where your value lives.

Let the AI handle the rest.

5. Stay ahead of this

AI is moving faster than most people realize.

The advisors who invest time now to understand how these tools work, to train them properly, to integrate them into their workflows, are going to have a massive advantage in the next 2 to 3 years.

The ones who wait are going to be playing catch-up.

One more thing

I know this is uncomfortable for a lot of people.

The idea that AI is going to change how we do financial planning, how we build recommendations, how we serve clients, it’s scary.

Especially in an industry with so much regulation and so much at stake.

But here’s what I keep coming back to.

The value of a financial advisor has never been the plan itself.

It’s always been the ability to help someone make sense of their life through the lens of money.

To sit across the table from someone and help them understand what’s possible. What’s at risk. What matters.

That’s not going away.

What’s going away is the 6 hours you spend after the meeting building the plan.

And honestly?

Good.

Because that’s not where your value is.

Your value is in the conversation.

And if AI can handle the rest, that means you get to spend more time having the conversations that actually matter.

That’s the future.

And it’s already here.

Talk soon,

Andrew