Oliver Bourke, MD of Chartered and Accredited Financial Planning firm Mercury Wealth Management, told delegates at today’s CISI Financial Planning Conference that traditional Financial Planning firms could fail to survive the next 10 years without evolving.
He told delegates at the conference: “I firmly believe that Financial Planning firms will not be here in 10 years time. Technology firms who offer Financial Planning will be.
His session - Getting Copilot to augment your business - was one of the opening sessions on the first day today at the two day CISI Annual Financial Planning Conference taking place near Windsor. Hundreds of Financial Planners and industry experts are attending the event today and tomorrow.
He added: "Advisers need to take technology seriously. Firms need to dedicate time and resource to building technology and AI expertise in house if they are to survive.”
He claimed that without using AI, and Copilot in particular, Financial Planning firms will be left behind by those firms using the tools to service clients at a lower cost.
At Mercury Wealth Management the firm has undergone a major 'digital transformation' project to bring the firm into the AI age.
The firm uses a variety of tools including Transact, Hubspot, Asana, Moneyinfo, Voyant, Xplan and Sharepoint. Previously data was entered and held separately within each of these tools.
Mercury has now integrated Microsoft Dataverse which pulls data from these tools and enables advisers to see everything about each client in one place. The integration also means that any of the tools are now easily replaceable, making it easier to switch providers should they wish, he said.
The firm is also moving towards a single point on data input using Dataverse, which Mr Bourke expects the save the firm’s advisers considerable amounts of time.
Four in five (83%) of 8,095 global Financial Planners surveyed for the second annual 'Impact of AI on Financial Planning' research from the global professional body FPSB said they expected AI to help them better serve clients, an increase from 78% in 2026. Two thirds (68%) said they expected AI to reduce the cost of financial advice, a rise from 59% in 2025.
Adoption of AI tools has increased significantly from three in five (60%) to four in five (80%) Planners who were either already using AI within their firms or planning to do so within the next 12 months.