HowTheF.ai Journal
Expert guides on AI implementation for wealth management firms. From compliance to automation, actionable lessons from real deployments.
An AI CRM is not a native feature on a vendor roadmap. Keep Wealthbox, Redtail, or Salesforce. Buy the note-taker. Own a context layer across CRM, custodian, and the compliance archive, with human approval before anything writes to a household record.
Automate RIA client reporting as internal ops: retrieve verified performance data, draft commentary, require human review, and publish to the portal you already have. Not a client-facing advice bot and not a new reporting platform.
Buy commodity tools when the vendor owns the artifact. Build or hire a firm-owned context layer on CRM, custodian, and the archive, scoped to one internal workflow, when off-the-shelf cannot file the packet. For US RIAs between $1B and $10B AUM.
AI tools for SEC compliance help a CCO review ads, email, and books-and-records. They are not a chatbot that signs off. Buy commodity surveillance when the vendor owns the exam artifact. Build or hire the context layer when work crosses CRM and the archive. The human stays accountable.
Default no for unmanaged ChatGPT. Consumer chat is not a books-and-records system. A licensed model API behind a firm-owned context layer, with redaction, retention, and human approval, is the workable pattern.
A five-step plan for US RIAs: pick one internal workflow, map it to books-and-records, run a licensed model behind a firm-owned context layer, require human approval, then measure hours before you expand.
Build vs buy AI for RIAs is the wrong frame. Buy commodity tools, license models, and own the context layer where client data and compliance controls live.
Who helps RIAs implement AI is a partner that can put governed workflows on your CRM, custodian, and compliance archive. Buy note-takers. Hire for the internal layer.