On Wednesday morning, Charles Schwab introduced a chatbot named Charley, which might be the friendliest name anyone has ever given to software that can add a beneficiary to your account.
The next day, Vanguard published the numbers that should make every advisor feel a little better about Charley and all his cousins. And down in San Diego, the XYPN crowd picked up a discount on the AI tool its members had been asking for two years running.
Three stories from this week that matter for your practice.
Vanguard Asked 6,686 Investors About AI. The Ones Using It Value Their Advisors More.
On Thursday, InvestmentNews covered new research from Vanguard's Investment Strategy Group, which surveyed 6,686 of Vanguard's own investors in June about how they use AI for money questions.
About 32% have used AI for financial guidance, and the split by age is wide. It's 43% of Gen Z and millennial investors, 41% of Gen X and only 15% of baby boomers and older.
Here's the part worth reading twice. Investors who used AI were about 11 times as likely to say it increased the value they place on human advice as to say it reduced it (32% versus 2.9%). Among Vanguard's advised clients, 41% said they value their advisor more because of AI, and 2% said they value their advisor less.
Last week this cheat sheet covered research showing people trust chatbot money answers anyway. Vanguard's data adds a wrinkle. Among younger investors, 63% report low or no trust in AI guidance, 37% of AI users say they've received incorrect or misleading information, and another 44% couldn't tell whether what they got was right.
Why you should care: The most useful finding for a small practice is how people actually use these tools. Vanguard found investors are roughly three times as likely to use AI to prepare for or review a conversation with a financial professional as to replace one.
That means a good share of your clients are already doing homework before they sit down with you. They're showing up with questions they've tested on a chatbot and answers they aren't sure about.
You can treat that as a threat to your expertise or as the best meeting prep your clients have ever done for free. I'd pick the second one, and this week's exercise below helps you invite it.
Source: InvestmentNews
Schwab Is Rolling Out an AI Assistant Named Charley to Retail Clients.
On Wednesday, Schwab announced Charley, a generative AI assistant that will roll out in phases starting in October to eligible U.S. retail clients on Schwab.com and Schwab Mobile.
Clients can talk or type in their own words and get help with transfers, trading, balances, statements and tax documents. Charley can also complete a handful of tasks on its own, like adding a beneficiary, enrolling a holding in dividend reinvestment and updating contact information, and it hands clients off to a Schwab representative when they need a person.
Schwab paired the launch with a survey of more than 500 clients and prospects, taken September 21 through 25. About two-thirds (65%) said AI can either help with routine tasks or play a meaningful role in investing when it's paired with human expertise.
Why you should care: The announcement covers Schwab's retail clients and says nothing about accounts held through independent advisors, so don't expect Charley inside your custodial accounts next week.
But plenty of your clients probably hold a retail account somewhere, and the big firms are teaching them to expect an instant, plain-English answer about their money at any hour. That raises the bar for how quickly your own office responds to the simple stuff.
The other detail worth noticing is how Schwab sold it. Even the largest brokerage in the country framed its chatbot around "the expertise, trust and relationships" behind it. When the giants are pitching AI as a way to stay connected to people, the relationship you already have with your clients looks pretty valuable.
Source: Charles Schwab
XYPN Members Can Now Get 40% Off Jump's AI Meeting Tools.
On Tuesday, at the XYPN Live conference in San Diego, XY Planning Network announced a partnership with Jump. Starting September 29, XYPN members get 40% off Jump's Meet, Grow and Onboard products, which cover meeting prep, note-taking, follow-up emails, CRM updates and account opening.
According to WealthManagement.com, AI efficiency tools were XYPN's most-requested partnership category in both 2025 and 2026, and Jump was the most-requested product. Jump says it now supports more than 45,000 financial professionals.
XYPN's announcement also spelled out the compliance setup. Jump has zero data retention agreements with the AI companies that process its data, goes through annual SOC 2 Type II audits, lets the firm review AI drafts before anything goes out, and offers options to keep only a transcript or summary and delete recordings automatically.
Why you should care: This is what a network is for. A solo advisor negotiating alone rarely gets enterprise pricing, and 40% off a tool you'd use in every client meeting is real money for a small firm.
If you're not an XYPN member, the useful part is that compliance list. It's a pretty solid set of questions to ask any AI notetaker before you sign up, and you can hold every vendor you're considering to the same standard.
XYPN's announcement also cites Kitces Research showing the average advisor spends an hour on prep and an hour on follow-up for every hour in a client meeting. Those are the hours this whole category is built to give back.
Source: XY Planning Network
Watt, the Amplify for Advisors Agent
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Vanguard found that 44% of investors who use AI couldn't tell whether the answer they got was right. That's the opening for you. This week, set up a second-opinion checker for the AI money answers your clients bring you, so you can turn one around in a few minutes.
Step 1. In Claude, create a Project called "AI answer check" (in ChatGPT, a custom GPT works the same way). Open its instructions and paste this.
You help me, a financial advisor, review money answers my clients got from AI tools before I talk them through it. I'll paste the client's question, the AI's answer and a few facts about their situation, with no names, account numbers or other details that identify them. For each one, give me five things. First, what the answer gets right. Second, anything wrong, outdated or stated with more certainty than it deserves, and flag every number, limit or deadline that needs checking against this year's figures. Third, what the answer couldn't know about this client that would change the advice, such as their taxes, other accounts, timeline, family or employer benefits. Fourth, the three questions I should ask the client before we decide anything. Fifth, a short, warm reply I can send that thanks them for asking, explains in plain words what fits their situation and what doesn't, and invites them to talk it through. Keep the whole thing to one page. Never recommend a specific product or promise a result, and when something depends on tax or legal rules, say so and suggest they confirm it with their CPA or attorney.
Step 2. Test it before a client needs it. Ask ChatGPT something your clients actually ask, like whether to pay off the mortgage early or invest the extra, then paste that answer into your project with a few made-up facts and see what it catches.
Step 3. When a real one comes in, read the reply out loud, fix anything that doesn't sound like you, and send it through your normal compliance review. Keep the client's questions in a running list, because they make a pretty good map of what to write about next quarter.
The chatbot gets the first answer. You get to be the second opinion they actually trust.
Sam is the creator of Amplify for Advisors and Watt, the Amplify for Advisors Agent. A former RIA owner whose work has been featured in Forbes, NerdWallet, Nasdaq, and more, he teaches financial advisors to use AI in their own voice while staying compliant.