Artificial intelligence is moving quickly from novelty to daily utility. Financial advisors are already testing out tools that can draft newsletters, summarize regulations, or scan large sets of data. The appeal is obvious: less time spent on routine work, more time to focus on client relationships.
That opportunity comes with responsibility. Compliance expectations have not changed. Regulators still expect every communication and every recommendation to reflect your professional judgment. For independent firms, which often operate without the compliance departments of larger organizations, that balance deserves attention.
Below, I’ll walk through five practical ways you can start using AI responsibly in your practice. Each one is designed to help you capture the benefits of new tools while keeping compliance and client trust front and center.
Related: Augment, Not Replace: Use AI to Support (Not Replace) Your Expertise
How Advisors Are Experimenting with AI
Independent advisors wear many hats. You’re often the investment manager, the operations lead, the marketer, and the relationship-builder all at once. It makes sense that many are looking at AI for support.
I’ve seen advisors use generative tools to draft first versions of client emails, others lean on AI to condense new tax or estate planning rules into quick summaries, and some repurpose educational content into shorter pieces for marketing.
There’s also growing curiosity about how AI might help with analysis. A spreadsheet that once required hours of review can now be scanned for trends in minutes. Even if the output is only directional, it can point you toward the areas that deserve deeper focus.
These examples highlight how AI can lighten the load. What they don’t change is your role as the decision-maker. Clients aren’t hiring you for speed alone. They’re hiring you for judgment and for advice they can trust. That’s why compliance needs to stay central to any conversation about AI.
What Regulators Are Saying
The SEC and FINRA have already made it clear that AI is on their radar. The SEC has raised concerns about predictive analytics and whether these tools could steer investors toward products that aren’t in their best interest. FINRA has reinforced that the same rules apply to AI-generated content as to anything written by a member of your team. Communications still require review, recordkeeping, and supervision.
State regulators are moving in the same direction. Some are already asking how firms are using AI in advertising, client engagement, and suitability reviews. Independent advisors should not assume this will remain a “big firm” issue. Oversight will apply across the board.
Looking ahead, expect regulators to push for more clarity around disclosures, suitability testing, and supervisory structures that include AI-driven processes. Marketing materials created with AI may face closer scrutiny as well. Advisors who already have good processes in place will be better prepared when these expectations become formal rules.
- Maintain Accuracy Through Review
Generative AI is known for producing confident but incorrect information. If a client newsletter includes a misstated statistic or an outdated rule, you—not the software—are responsible.
The simplest way to manage this is to treat AI output as a draft. Review, edit, and approve it the same way you would if a junior team member wrote it. Keeping your judgment central is the best protection.
- Protect Client Privacy
Most public AI systems process data externally. That means any client details you enter are leaving your control. Even if the risk feels small, the potential consequences are serious. Unless you’re working with an enterprise platform that guarantees security, keep private information out.
Protecting client data also means setting clear boundaries with your staff. Write down policies that explain what can and cannot be shared with AI tools. Having rules in place reduces the chance of an accidental misstep.
- Strengthen Recordkeeping and Supervision
If AI plays a role in creating communications, those drafts fall under the same retention rules as everything else. Advisors who treat AI outputs as “just brainstorming” could easily miss compliance requirements.
Keep copies of what AI produces, along with the final version you share with clients. Note how it was reviewed. These small steps show that you’re applying the same discipline to AI as to any other tool in your practice.
- Limit Bias and Over-Reliance
AI is trained on large sets of historical data, which means it can reproduce unfair patterns. If portfolio analysis or marketing language comes out skewed, the consequences can range from reputational damage to regulatory attention.
There’s also the temptation to lean too heavily on technology. Fiduciary duty can’t be shifted to software. Regulators will not accept “the system recommended it” as a defense. The best use of AI is to surface insights you can evaluate, not to make the final call.
- Create Policies and Train Your Team
AI itself isn’t the problem. The problem comes when oversight is skipped. Staff who experiment with these tools without guidance can create gaps that put your whole firm at risk.
A few examples make this clear:
- An advisor uses AI to summarize a new tax regulation before sending an update to clients. The summary is efficient, but it leaves out key details. With the right review process, the mistake is caught before it reaches clients.
- Another advisor uploads client notes into a public AI platform to generate portfolio commentary. The text looks polished, but sensitive data is now exposed externally. A simple policy against entering PII could have prevented that.
- An advisor asks AI to draft an invitation to an educational event. The language is persuasive, but it introduces performance claims that won’t pass compliance review. Running it through normal supervision avoids the issue.
Policies and training keep your team aligned. They also make it easier to show regulators that AI is being used with oversight.
Compliance as a Trust Builder
Clients are already asking about AI. Some are excited while others are cautious. Either way, they want to know that their advisor is paying attention. By showing that you’re using AI carefully, with controls in place, you strengthen their trust.
Transparency goes a long way. If AI helps you with back-office tasks, say so, but make it clear that every recommendation still comes from you. Clients respect both efficiency and accountability.
Education plays a role here, too. Marketing that teaches, rather than sells, naturally aligns with compliance expectations. At FMT Solutions, that principle is built into our classroom-based model. We provide advisors with an education-first growth strategy that scales without adding unnecessary risk.
Where Advisors Should Focus Now
The rules around AI are still developing. Over the next year or two, expect more clarity from the SEC and FINRA on disclosures, supervision, and testing requirements. Advisors who already document their use of AI and apply consistent review will be in a stronger position when new rules arrive.
The safest approach is not to predict every detail of future regulation but to create a culture of transparency and oversight today. If you do that, your practice will already be aligned with the spirit of whatever rules come next.
AI can lighten your workload, but it does not remove your responsibility. You remain accountable for accuracy, compliance, and the trust your clients place in you. With the right guardrails, AI can save time while leaving the decision-making exactly where it belongs—with you.
That same philosophy guides how we think about growth. Our classroom-based marketing system gives advisors a way to scale through education that builds trust and meets compliance standards from the start.
If you’d like to explore how to modernize your marketing while keeping compliance front and center, reach out to us today.