The suitability problem no one is talking about

Financial planning tools powered by AI can produce risk profiles, recommendation frameworks, and client-facing reports faster than any adviser working alone. That speed is useful. It is also a trap.

Consumer Duty has raised the standard for demonstrating genuine client understanding. An adviser who has outsourced the analytical thinking to a tool they do not fully understand cannot easily demonstrate that understanding when a regulator asks for it.

The question is not whether advisers should use AI. They will. The question is whether they are using it as a calculator or as a substitute for thinking.

What Steve covers for Financial Advice and Wealth Management audiences

Steve's talk for financial advice audiences focuses on the specific cognitive habits that separate advisers who genuinely understand their clients from advisers who are comfortable presenting AI-generated analysis they have not interrogated. That distinction matters professionally and regulatorily.

The talk covers how to recognize when an AI output should be questioned, how to build the habit of forming an independent view before running a tool, and how to document reasoning in a way that reflects real judgement rather than summarised outputs.

Practical examples are drawn from suitability assessments, risk profiling, and the kind of client-facing recommendation work where AI tools are already widely used in the sector.

Why this is a compliance and culture issue, not just a skills issue

Firms that have adopted AI planning tools quickly are now discovering a gap. The tools produce confident outputs. The advisers have become comfortable with those outputs. Neither the tool nor the adviser has necessarily done the work of understanding the individual client's situation.

That gap is not closed by training advisers to use the tools more efficiently. It is closed by training advisers to think more independently before and alongside the tools they use.

Steve's talk gives compliance directors and L&D leaders a practical approach for addressing that gap, and gives advisers the language to understand why it matters for their own professional standing.

Topics for Financial Advice and Wealth Management audiences

Who books Steve

Compliance directors, L&D leaders, conference organisers for financial advice industry events, IFA networks.

To discuss whether this is a good fit for your event, use the form on the Work with Me page.