AI + CRM + Financial Advisors

in which I foretell the future

THIS POST BEGAN ITS LIFE as a few LinkedIn posts on the topic - usually after a Zoom call with an Ai-advisortech founder.

Let me see if I can find them.

Ah yes, here they are:

• Tech should be so good it fades into the background… with Alex Mathé-Cathala of Vega Minds

• So how is AI actually helping advisors save time & money? - in which I identify specific use cases and specific tools

• Here’s a good one: Can AI take meeting notes without recording the meeting? - the correct answer is no.

"50-60% of client data comes from meetings, 30% comes from emails, the rest comes from data-gathering efforts"

Imagine a tool that did all three!

• And then of course there’s this one: The Super CRM: Marketing

Ok, so now let me take a step back.

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You’ll notice a couple things different about this post. First, its coming from Substack not Beehiiv. Yes, I’m trying out a new email platform.

Two, this one’s going to be all text - usually I try to have some pictures, quotes, videos, things to spice up my emails, but Substack I feel like actually shines with just words.

And third, a word about our sponsor, FinMate AI.

It better be a good word.

How about early-careful-AI-adopter-firms?

That’s who FinMate AI is perfect for - the larger firms, the ones with layers of approvals, the ones who want to implement AI right now, but want to partner with an AI notetaker that takes data, security, privacy… seriously.

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And now for the crystal ball.

AI, CRM, and Financial Advisors. But truth be told, it all boils down to data.

There’s three kinds of data in this hopper.

1. Prospect / Client data

This is the data about the client, that the client knows. It can be simple data like net worth, address, kids’ names or it can be complex data like “what legacy do you want to leave?”, “what are your vacation goals?”, how much risk do you tolerate / have capacity for?

Then there’s data that the advisor knows.

2. Advisor data

All the things one learns when taking the Series 65, studying for the CFP®, reading too much stock market news, maybe some dabbling in financial therapy data, behavioral finance…

But then there’s a third kind of data, the stuff that happens when these two worlds collide. We’ll call this:

3. The good stuff

This is when the prospect / client shares much of their data with the advisor, the advisor runs it all by their “advisor data” and produces “recommendations” or FINANCIAL ADVICE, and then also ACCOUNTABILITY to make sure the client acts on the advice. (I think AI will be very useful here in gamifying progress, reminders, etc)

So, quite simply, where’s all this data supposed to be stored?

Most advisors say “The CRM” is the hub, the source of truth. And currently, much of this data is hand-typed into forms by the client, into CRMs by the advisor / staff, and into financial planning software by paraplanners.

But hand-typing is soon to be a thing of the past (well, except I’m hand-typing this… but I digress).

The first indisputable use case of AI for financial advisors is AI Notetakers (like FinMate AI - the early-careful-AI-adopter-firm one). Recording, Transcribing, Summarizing prospect/client meetings.

And soon I see this across all communication channels - AI will record emails, phone calls, texts, Zooms, in-persons… everything that an advisor will know about a client, AI will also know.

So the CRM of the future will include all this - from the initial introductory call, AI will be summarizing data and start building out a contact record in the CRM, AI will schedule the follow-up meeting, AI will recommend to the Advisor financial planning topics to tackle first. AI will review all these notes and auto-draft emails at the right times, about the right topics… AI will nudge advisors and clients when something needs done, something needs un-done.

Back to the three data types, all the advisor knowledge will be catalogued, ready to deploy via agents or the like. All the client data will be compiled during conversations or via smart-forms. And all “the good stuff” will be auto-generated when these two other data types collide… in the CRM. Probably this CRM will need to be tightly integrated with financial planning, if not within the same solution.

The AI CRM will be the hub and it will talk with all the other systems to gather, catalog, and serve up “the good stuff”.

And someday, maybe in 2040, “the good stuff” will become “the great stuff”.

Warmly,

Joe

P.S. Comment below, what’s your vision for the future of AI & CRM?