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AI for Advisors
RDBA is investigating how Deposit Brokers can leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to enhance their practice. The financial media continues to cover the topic of AI, and many financial advisors and their companies are already leveraging these tools. For this article, which is limited in scope; we used the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT with a prompt about AI for financial advisors. We have summarized the results of ChatGPT’s responses and used this to research the media landscape on AI in the financial industry and gain insights into how financial advisors and fintech companies are using AI. We also asked ChatGPT about AI features for three popular Advisor CRMs.
ChatGPT prompt:
Give me a news roundup from the last 6 months of Canadian financial advisors using AI tools.
Summary of results:
- AI is moving into everyday advisor workflows
- Investment research and portfolio analysis are being augmented
- Advisors want AI – but firms lag behind
- Compliance and governance around AI is becoming a major topic
- AI-driven fintech tools are raising disruption fears
- The bigger industry shift: “human + AI” advisory
Key AI Use Cases for Canadian Advisors Right Now
- Meeting prep and client summaries
- Compliance documentation and KYC reviews
- Investment research summarization
- Marketing content and client communications
- Scenario modelling and tax planning tools
Relevant Articles
From the article: The rapid adoption of AI technology across the Canadian financial services industry has significant legal implications for financial advisors, their firms and clients. While the technology grows increasingly ubiquitous, it’s worth noting where advisory firms are on this and the potential legal risk associated with the use of AI.
An AI Prompt to Draft an Internal AI Usage Policy for Advisors
Sample Prompt:
Persona: You are a Certified Financial Planner (CFP).
Context: Our firm is beginning to use AI tools and needs to establish clear guidelines.
Objective: Create an Internal AI Usage Policy that outlines permitted and prohibited uses, establishes data privacy protocols, and outlines compliance requirements.
Audience: All employees who use AI tools in their work.
Tone: Professional, authoritative, and clear.
Format: A policy document with the following sections: Purpose, Scope, Permitted Uses, Prohibited Uses, Data Privacy Requirements, Compliance Protocols, Employee Responsibilities, Violations and Consequences, and Review Schedule.
Constraints: Do not include client-specific information, investment recommendations, or market forecasts.
Financial giant adds AI to investment teams
Manulife Wealth & Asset Management has introduced a new artificial intelligence (AI) platform designed to integrate into daily research processes to help analysts quickly extract insights from vast and complex data. It consolidates financial reports, earnings transcripts, sell-side commentary, internal notes, and news stories into actionable summaries.
91% believe AI is a powerful tool that can help elevate their practices and they expressed a desire for greater access to AI-powered technologies. 31% are concerned about compliance implications and 66% are concerned about the potential negative impact AI could have on the advisor-client relationship.
OSFI introduces new validation rules for planning tools you use
OSFI released Guideline E-23 in September 2025, with an effective date of May 1, 2027, for all federally regulated financial institutions. That means tools from retirement calculators to robo-advisors that carry non-negligible model risk will need formal validation, ongoing monitoring, and clear documentation of how they work and where they fall short.
Statement on FINTRAC’s use of artificial intelligence
Janak Alford, FINTRAC’s Chief Technology Officer, developed, on his own personal time, an application called mPersona, which is a ‘chat interface’ to underlying GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) services with source code that is open, available, and free for anyone to use, modify and/or distribute. Mr. Alford’s disclosure was thoroughly assessed, in accordance with FINTRAC’s Code of Conduct, Values and Ethics.
AI Disruption Fears Slam Charles Schwab, Wealth Managers
Altruist, an AI-driven fintech company and custodian serving independent financial advisors, has developed an AI-powered platform, Hazel, which can produce personalized tax insights and strategies for wealth advisors. The article cites a Bloomberg analyst who noted broader concerns about AI disrupting the financial advice and wealth-management model.
Generative AI Adoption in Canada’s Financial Sector
A study from Toronto Metropolitan University conducted a sector-wide occupational exposure analysis with a novel task-level assessment using real usage data from Anthropic’s Claude and Microsoft’s Copilot. They proposed recommendations for the sector on where generative AI can add value, where it introduces risk, and how to implement the technology to support productivity while safeguarding privacy and compliance.
AI Features offered by 3 Advisor CRMs
- AI Client & Relationship Summaries
- AI Meeting Preparation
- AI Opportunity & Next-Best Action Suggestions
- AI Lead Scoring & Qualification
- AI Timeline & Activity Summarization
- AI Data Capture & CRM Auto-Population
- AI Sales Coaching & Insights
- AI Meeting Transcripts & CRM Updates
- Intelligent Data Sync & Auto-Population
- Smart Pre-Filled Financial Needs Analysis (FNA)
- Automated Workflow & Case Intelligence
- Smart Data Linking (Email & Calendar Intelligence)
- Compliance Intelligence & Audit Tracking
- AI Meeting Notetaker
- AI Meeting Preparation
- AI-Generated Reports
- Suggested Actions (AI-Assisted Workflow)
- AI Insights from Integrations
- AI Lead Generation (via Integrations)