Jun 12, 2025
The Evolving Role Of Financial Advisors In The Age Of AI
It's rare to find a voice that blends the experiential wisdom of the past with an unapologetically forward-looking vision. Steve's career path from clinical pharmacy to becoming a flat-fee financial planner with a tech-forward advisory model offers a compelling case study in how the financial advice profession is both evolving and being redefined from within.
A Non-Traditional Start: From Healthcare to Wealthcare
Steve's journey didn't begin in finance. It began in pharmacy, an industry with its own set of regulatory rigors, fiduciary responsibilities, and client-centric decision-making. That experience, far from being irrelevant, laid the foundation for his uniquely empathetic and consultative approach to financial advice.
As Steve puts it, pharmacists are consultants on health; financial advisors are consultants on wealth. The throughline is unmistakable: both professions are rooted in personalized guidance, trust, and long-term client well-being.
But what truly differentiates Steve's story is how early he found his passion. In sixth grade, he was already charting stocks on graph paper using data pulled from newspapers. That early passion simmered for years before boiling over into a career move in the late 1990s, when he pivoted from medicine to finance - starting at a major brokerage and eventually launching his own independent RIA practice in 2002.
His first stock purchase tells the story perfectly: when he called a brokerage firm to buy Glaxo (armed with insider knowledge from his pharmacy work), the broker steered him toward Metropol instead. Steve bought both - Glaxo through Charles Schwab and Metropol through the broker. His pick went up; the broker's went down. The lesson? Sometimes the client knows best.
The Evolution of Financial Advice: From Sales to Service to Stewardship
When Steve entered the industry, financial advice was still largely synonymous with product sales. Advisors were compensated through commissions, portfolio management was opaque, and planning was often an afterthought. The shift to AUM-based fees was heralded as a step toward transparency, but as Steve highlights, this model came with its own biases - primarily a revenue consistency boon for firms rather than an alignment of interests with clients.
This realization drove a fundamental rethinking of Steve's practice structure. Three years ago, he made the decisive shift to a flat-fee model. The underlying logic? Charging clients based on the value and complexity of services delivered, not the size of the investment portfolio being managed.
Under this flat-fee framework, clients receive guidance across all five core areas of financial planning:
Comprehensive Financial Planning
Cash Flow & Budgeting Strategies
Investment Management (agnostic to asset location)
Insurance & Risk Management
Tax Planning and Coordination with CPAs and Attorneys
This holistic model doesn't just challenge traditional compensation paradigms - it reorients the advisory relationship around stewardship, not salesmanship.
The Future-Proof Advisor: Why Flat-Fee Planning Is More Than a Pricing Strategy
As the wealth management landscape becomes increasingly democratized, thanks in part to platforms like YouTube, Robinhood, and DIY financial tools - clients no longer seek out advisors purely for access to investments. They want partners who can synthesize information, not just dispense it.
Steve's model responds to this trend by shifting the advisor's value proposition from portfolio performance to life outcomes. Clients don't thank him for beating benchmarks; they thank him for helping them pay off a mortgage, fund a child's education, or plan meaningful family vacations. In other words, the value lies in helping clients live their values.
His "Personal Finance CEO" approach positions the advisor as a hub, coordinating across estate attorneys, tax professionals, and even healthcare providers to deliver 360-degree value.
Client Expectations Are Changing - And Advisors Must Change With Them
One of the most insightful themes from Steve's story is how client expectations vary by generation:
Baby Boomers and Gen Xers tend to be "delegators" - they trust advisors to do the work.
Millennials and Gen Z are "collaborators" - they want to understand the process and co-create strategies.
Rather than seeing this as a threat, Steve embraces it. The more informed the client, the more sophisticated the conversations. This elevates the advisor-client relationship from transactional to strategic - allowing for deeper planning and more meaningful impact.
"The old advisors used to tell you, this is what you absolutely should do, and you would listen to them," Steve observes. "Today's advisors are more collaborative with the client, the younger generation."
This shift mirrors changes in other professions. Just as physicians have evolved from paternalistic "doctor knows best" models to collaborative patient partnerships, financial advisors are becoming guides rather than dictators.
The Looming Talent Crisis: 100,000 Advisors Expected to Retire
The advisory profession faces a demographic cliff. With an estimated 100,000 advisors expected to retire over the next decade, and fewer young professionals entering the field, the industry confronts a potential talent shortage of unprecedented scale.
Steve attributes this partly to generational shifts in how people access financial information. "In the late 90s, early 2000s, if you wanted to find out about a stock, there wasn't as much information out there," he explains. "Fast forward to today and it's a lot easier to learn... YouTube makes it easier to learn how to buy a stock, sell a stock, short a stock, do options."
This democratization of financial knowledge has created a paradox: younger generations feel less need for traditional advisory services, even as they simultaneously express interest in having an advisor. The key is that they want different types of conversations - more collaborative, more educational, more strategic.
The AI Inflection Point: How Technology Is Redefining Advisor Efficiency
Technology has long been reshaping financial services, but Steve sees artificial intelligence as the industry's next transformative wave. Not as a replacement for advisors, but as a powerful augmentation.
He envisions a near future where AI agents handle the administrative grunt work: data extraction, document parsing, CRM updates, and even first-draft financial plan generation. This allows human advisors to focus on high-impact activities like goal alignment, behavioral coaching, and cross-disciplinary coordination.
His tech stack already includes AI tools to assist with research, scripting, and client communication. The next frontier? Seamless integrations across advisory software systems - making it possible to push action items from a meeting transcript directly into task management platforms and marketing tools.
"I truly think in ten years from now, the advisory business will be taken over by AI - and I don't mean that in a bad way," Steve clarifies. "I love being in front of clients, helping them plan... I don't particularly like entering the data, doing the grunt work."
The Ethics of AI: Proceeding with Caution and Care
Steve is also mindful of the risks. He advises advisors to be extremely cautious with client data, only using AI platforms that are explicitly firewalled and compliant. As regulators begin to include AI usage in their examinations (as seen recently in New Jersey), fiduciary advisors must be diligent not only in what tech they use - but in how they use it.
For now, Steve recommends using AI to accelerate advisor output - not to automate client interaction. Technology should enhance human connection, not replace it.
"You don't want to just go to ChatGPT itself and load in all your clients' information, because I think that's dangerous at this point in time," he warns. "But if you use a program that's basically firewalled off... I think that's what you have to look for."
The AUM Model Under Pressure: Why Flat Fees May Be Inevitable
Steve's critique of the AUM model is particularly sharp because he lived through its initial adoption. "I was in the business at the time when it was starting to convert from commissions to AUM," he recalls. "The firms that I worked for billed it as not better for the client, but better for the revenue of the firm because it was consistent."
The fundamental tension he identifies: if a client's portfolio grows 20% due to market performance, the advisor receives a 20% raise despite providing the same level of service. "Where's the fiduciary part of that?" he asks.
This misalignment becomes more problematic as investment management becomes increasingly commoditized. When clients can access sophisticated portfolio construction through robo-advisors and low-cost index funds, charging basis points on assets becomes harder to justify.
The flat-fee model solves this by decoupling compensation from asset size and linking it directly to service complexity and value delivery.
Succession Planning: A Multi-Generational Legacy of Advice
Steve's story also contains a deeply personal dimension: his children are entering the profession and joining the family practice. But unlike firms where succession is purely a numbers game, this transition is grounded in shared values.
His children were drawn to the business not because they were pressured - but because they saw firsthand how meaningful it is. And because his model isn't purely focused on portfolio management, the next generation of planners can bring fresh insights, technological fluency, and a shared commitment to a more human-centric advisory experience.
"We see how much you love what you do, and we'd like to do that too," his children told him. This organic succession speaks to something deeper than financial planning - it speaks to purpose-driven work that transcends generations.
Technology's Logarithmic Progression: Preparing for Exponential Change
Drawing on the insights of technology futurist George Gilder, Steve sees the current AI revolution as part of a larger pattern of logarithmic technological advancement. "Every advance in technology creates a whole different curve," he explains, referencing what's commonly known as Moore's Law.
In his 25-year career, Steve has witnessed several technological inflection points:
Manual trade tickets to electronic order entry
Spreadsheet-based planning to integrated software platforms
Dial-up connections to cloud-based data aggregation
Static planning tools to AI-powered automation
Each shift compressed timeframes, improved accuracy, and freed advisors to focus on higher-value activities. The AI revolution follows this pattern but at an accelerated pace - what previously took years now happens in months.
The Wealth Transfer Tsunami: Positioning for the Great Handoff
As Baby Boomers transfer an estimated $68 trillion to younger generations over the next two decades, advisory firms face a critical question: Will they retain these inherited relationships, or will the money flow to advisors who better understand the next generation's preferences?
Steve's flat-fee, collaborative model positions him well for this transition. Younger clients who inherit wealth often seek advisors who can provide comprehensive life planning, not just portfolio management. They want partners who understand their values, not just their net worth.
The firms that thrive will be those that can serve multiple generations simultaneously - offering the delegation model that older clients prefer while providing the collaborative partnership that younger clients demand.
Building the Advisory Practice of 2035
Looking ahead, Steve's vision for the future advisory practice is both ambitious and practical:
Service Delivery: Comprehensive life planning across all five core areas, supported by AI-powered operational efficiency and seamless technology integration.
Compensation Model: Flat fees tied to service complexity and value delivery, not asset size or product sales.
Client Relationships: Collaborative partnerships that evolve with client sophistication and generational preferences.
Technology Integration: AI agents handling administrative tasks while human advisors focus on strategy, coaching, and coordination.
Professional Networks: Deep partnerships with CPAs, attorneys, healthcare providers, and other specialists to deliver holistic client value.
What Comes Next?
With industry demographics pointing to a looming talent gap - up to 100,000 advisors expected to retire in the next decade - the profession is at a crossroads. But if Steve's story is any indication, the path forward is clear:
Reorient around value, not AUM. Price services based on complexity and outcomes, not asset size.
Embrace technology while protecting client trust. Use AI to enhance human capabilities, not replace human judgment.
Design practices around life impact, not market alpha. Clients remember how you helped them achieve their goals, not how you performed relative to benchmarks.
Create advisory models that appeal to both clients and next-gen advisors. Build practices that attract talent and serve evolving client expectations.
The future of financial planning isn't a threat to be feared - it's an evolution to be embraced. Advisors who understand this distinction won't just survive the coming changes; they'll thrive in them.
As Steve's journey in financial planning demonstrates, the most successful advisors are often those who bring outside perspectives, embrace technological change, and never stop asking: "How can we serve our clients better?" The answer to that question will define the next chapter of our profession.
