AI for Financial Advisers: Fact-Finds, Reviews and Paraplanning Prep

AI for financial advisers is most useful on the preparation around advice: chasing and checking fact-finds, summarising provider responses to letters of authority, building annual review packs, keeping KYC refreshes on schedule and drafting suitability report sections for a paraplanner to check. Suitability itself, attitude to risk, capacity for loss and every personal recommendation stay with the adviser and the firm.

Ask most advisers where the week goes and the answer isn't advice. It's waiting for provider information, chasing clients for documents, building review packs late on a Thursday evening and turning meeting notes into reports. That work matters, because good advice depends on accurate information, but much of it is repetitive and follows a pattern a well-designed workflow can carry.

This guide covers where AI helps an advice firm, the rules that set its limits, how targeted support fits in, and where to start. For the full picture across a client relationship, see our page on AI and automation for financial advisers.

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The rules AI has to work around

Suitability. COBS 9.2 requires a firm to take reasonable steps to ensure a personal recommendation is suitable for its client. Before recommending, the firm must obtain the information it needs about the client's knowledge and experience, financial situation (including their ability to bear losses) and investment objectives (including risk tolerance). That gathering is the adviser's responsibility, even when software helps collect it.

Records and AML. Firms must keep orderly records, and the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 add customer due diligence and ongoing monitoring.

The Consumer Duty. The Consumer Duty asks firms to deliver good outcomes for retail customers, including fair value and support that meets their needs, with particular care for customers in vulnerable circumstances under the FCA's vulnerability guidance.

Ongoing advice. The FCA's review of ongoing advice services, published in February 2025, looked at 22 of the largest advice firms. It found suitability reviews were delivered in around 83% of cases, clients declined or didn't respond in a further 15%, and in fewer than 2% the firm hadn't attempted a review. The FCA asked firms to check they delivered the services clients paid for. Whatever your size, being able to show each review happened, or that you tried, is now part of good practice.

AI itself. The FCA's AI approach page says it does not plan to introduce extra regulations for AI, relying on existing frameworks such as the Consumer Duty and the Senior Managers and Certification Regime. Using AI doesn't change who is accountable.

Targeted support: what it is and what it isn't

Since 6 April 2026, the FCA's targeted support regime, set out in PS25/22, has allowed firms with the right permission to make suggestions designed for groups of consumers with common characteristics, to help with pension and investment decisions. The FCA's examples include suggesting a more sustainable withdrawal rate to someone drawing down their pension too quickly.

For an advice firm, three points matter:

• It isn't a personal recommendation. Targeted support is built around groups, not a full assessment of one person's circumstances. It sits alongside regulated advice, not in place of it.
• It needs its own permission. Firms apply to the FCA for a targeted support permission.
• It doesn't loosen the rules on advice. When you give a personal recommendation, COBS suitability applies in full, however much AI helped prepare the file.

Some firms may use targeted support to reach people who can't justify full advice, and automation may help deliver the group-level journeys involved. That's a separate design exercise with its own rules. This guide focuses on the admin around full advice.

Where AI for financial advisers saves real time

Fact-finds that arrive complete

Fact-finds come back in pieces: a form half-filled, payslips by email, pension statements as phone photos. A workflow can send a secure fact-find with an upload link, match returned documents to each section, flag gaps such as a missing pension or an unclear income figure, and produce a short summary of what's outstanding before the meeting. The adviser confirms all the information used for suitability, including attitude to risk and capacity for loss. The summary points to gaps; it doesn't assess the client.

Letters of authority and provider responses

Waiting weeks for provider information is one of the biggest delays in advice. Automation can track every letter of authority, chase providers at set intervals, and when a response arrives, extract key details (fund values, charges, guarantees, safeguarded benefits, exit penalties) into a comparison table. The paraplanner verifies every figure against the source document, especially guarantees and safeguarded benefits, before anyone relies on it. Analysis and recommendations stay with the paraplanner and adviser.

Annual review preparation

A review pack typically needs current valuations, contributions, withdrawals, any changes the client has mentioned during the year and last year's recommendations. A workflow can invite the client to a review with a short pre-review questionnaire, gather valuations, and assemble a draft pack showing what changed. Clients who don't respond get a reminder, and repeated non-response is followed up personally and logged, which is also the evidence the FCA's review was looking for. The adviser decides whether the plan remains suitable.

Drafting suitability report sections

Once the adviser has made a recommendation, AI can draft standard sections from the meeting notes, fact-find and research: the client's circumstances and objectives in their own words, the product features, the charges table. The recommendation and its reasoning are the adviser's. Drafted sections are a starting point that the paraplanner and adviser check in full, and the firm remains responsible for every report that goes out.

KYC refreshes and AML checks

KYC slips because nobody owns the calendar. Automation can schedule refreshes based on your risk policy, send clients a secure request for updated documents, trigger your electronic verification provider and file the results. Risk ratings, enhanced due diligence and any suspicion reporting are decided by the compliance officer or MLRO. A workflow should never contact a client about a concern.

File checks before compliance review

Before a file reaches compliance, a completeness check can confirm the expected items are there: fact-find, attitude to risk assessment, research, illustration, suitability report, signed authority. It shows what's present; it doesn't judge quality. The compliance officer judges whether advice was suitable.

The division of work

Data protection

Clients share income, assets, family circumstances and sometimes health details for protection or retirement planning. Health data is special category data under UK GDPR. Before any AI service sees client data, assess its security, data location and retention, confirm it doesn't train on your data, sign a processor agreement, send only what each step needs and update your privacy notice. Meeting transcription tools deserve particular care, because a recording of a review meeting can contain everything.

Advice firms are also prime targets for email fraud, from fake withdrawal requests to spoofed provider messages. Check your domain with the free email deliverability checker and DMARC checker, and use the password generator for shared service accounts held in a proper password manager. PDF merge is handy for combining provider responses into one file for the paraplanner. More are on the free tools for accountants and finance page, and our guide to email fraud protection applies just as well to advice firms.

Where to start

Letters of authority chasing or annual review preparation is usually the best first project. Both are repetitive, both affect clients directly, neither automates any advice, and review preparation also strengthens your evidence of ongoing service. Run it for one adviser's book first, then widen it once the paraplanning team is happy with the output.

Make It Flow maps how a case moves through your firm first, checks what your back-office system and platforms genuinely support, and designs focused workflows with clear review points. If that sounds useful, contact us.

FAQ

How can financial advisers use AI?

Advisers use AI to send and chase fact-finds, track letters of authority, extract provider data for checking, build annual review packs, draft standard suitability report sections and schedule KYC refreshes. Every output is reviewed by the paraplanner or adviser. Personal recommendations, attitude to risk, capacity for loss and AML decisions stay with qualified people.

Can AI write a suitability report?

It can draft standard sections, such as the client's circumstances, product features and charges, from the fact-find and the adviser's notes. The recommendation and its reasoning must come from the adviser, and the paraplanner and adviser should check every drafted section in full. The firm remains responsible under FCA rules for each report it issues.

What is targeted support?

Targeted support is an FCA regime, live since 6 April 2026 under PS25/22, that lets firms with the relevant permission suggest options to groups of consumers with common characteristics for pension and investment decisions. It isn't a personal recommendation and sits alongside full regulated advice rather than replacing it.

Does the FCA regulate AI use by advice firms?

The FCA says it does not plan extra regulations for AI and relies on existing frameworks, including the Consumer Duty and the Senior Managers and Certification Regime. If you use AI in your process, the usual rules on suitability, record keeping, fair value and vulnerable customers still apply, and named people remain accountable.

How can AI help evidence ongoing advice?

By inviting clients to reviews on schedule, logging every invitation, reminder and response, and flagging clients who haven't had a review for personal follow-up. The FCA's 2025 review asked firms to check they delivered the ongoing services clients paid for, and a consistent automated log makes that much easier to show.

Is it safe to use AI meeting note tools with clients?

Only business tools you've assessed for security, data location, retention and model training, with a processor agreement and the client informed. Review recordings can include health and financial details, so keep access tight, set short retention and have the adviser check any notes before they enter the client file.