“Majority of IFAs have no plans to use AI in their practices”

Jan 15, 2025 | Financial Services

An independent (financial adviser’s) view

I remember sometime in the 90’s, attending a presentation by a successful adviser providing helpful hints to an audience of wannabes, young and old. He told us that he was using this new-fangled thing called email to message his clients. A gimmick, we all said, they’ll always prefer a letter/‘phone call/visit from us, none will spend all day looking at a computer…and now, email itself is becoming so last century! Although, according to a survey blah blah, a ‘majority of  advisers’ have no plans to introduce AI’, the headline in another trade paper was that a quarter of IFAs do, glass half-full and all that. The rest, I’d say, might find that AI is introducing itself to them whether they like it or not, as certain processes will require it. Or, if someone from one of the many fintech companies selling their wares does their job, they’ll find that more than a few of the most time consuming, repetitive report-writing jobs can be delegated to a very clever bit of software. Yes, to paraphrase the great Babs, people will always need people. But perhaps a bit of AI will mean we’ll have a bit more time to see them.     

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“Rachel Reeves may be forced to raise taxes”

“Rachel Reeves may be forced to raise taxes”

Why did she/they (in the old sense) think that tinkering around with IHT and CGT would be enough to sort out the NHS; and the potholes; and…and the list goes on. My guess is  that they asked the Treasury for a list of anything not involving income tax that they could get away with lightly, although they should already have learned from the winter fuel stuff that all publicity is not good publicity.