Advice teams that work with an AI agent need a short list of skills on top of their professional qualifications: telling service from advice in an agent's draft, checking that a suitability basis is current, verifying instructions to move money, and spotting vulnerability. This competency matrix sets those skills, four levels for each, and a grid of who holds them.
Why does an advice team need its own matrix?
Professional qualifications cover advice. They do not cover reviewing an agent's draft of it. In a typical advice firm, the agent assembles client holdings at depth 1, drafts suitability reports, rebalancing proposals and client replies at depth 2, and holds anything that looks like a recommendation or a money movement for a named adviser. The new skill is reading a fluent, accurate draft and noticing the one sentence that turns a factual answer into personal advice.
Whether an agent may give financial advice at all is its own question, covered in can an AI agent give financial advice. This matrix assumes it does not, and asks who on the team can keep it that way.
How do you fill it in?
- Rate paraplanners and client service staff as well as advisers. They see the agent's drafts first.
- Use four levels, defined below, and attach evidence for anything at "approves" or "owns".
- Add each person's credential and expiry, because approval rights should follow a current certificate.
- Read the matrix alongside the approver authority matrix for the advice team: competence says who can; authority says who may.
Levels: Knows (can explain the skill and spot it in an example); Does with oversight (applies it, countersigned); Approves (applies it alone and may release held items that depend on it); Owns (assesses others and sets the team's standard).
The competency matrix template
Skills
| Code | Skill | What "approves" looks like |
|---|---|---|
| A1 | Advice or service | Classifies each agent draft correctly and removes advice from service replies |
| A2 | Suitability basis | Checks that the client profile behind a draft is current; holds drafts on stale profiles |
| A3 | Reviewing suitability drafts | Confirms the recommendation, risks and costs are right for this client |
| A4 | Money instructions | Verifies instructions through a known channel; never acts on an emailed instruction alone |
| A5 | Vulnerability | Records signs and adapts the process, including pausing a draft |
| A6 | Reading verdicts | Explains why an item was held or refused, from the workspace |
| A7 | Teaching the agent | Corrects product facts and sources when the agent repeats an error |
| A8 | Agent certificate events | Knows the agent's certificate lapses after 90 days and what a failed run changes |
Who holds what
| Person | Role | A1 | A2 | A3 | A4 | A5 | A6 | A7 | A8 | Credential | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Use K, D, A and O for the four levels, and leave blank where the skill does not apply to the role.
A worked example
Take a sample independent advice firm of six. Values are illustrative.
| Person | Role | A1 | A2 | A3 | A4 | A5 | A6 | A7 | A8 | Credential | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E. Ward | Principal adviser | O | O | O | A | O | A | A | A | Operator certificate | 31 Oct |
| J. Moss | Adviser | A | A | A | A | D | A | D | K | Operator certificate | 28 Feb |
| C. Ahmed | Adviser | D | A | A | D | A | D | K | K | None | |
| L. Frost | Paraplanner | A | A | D | K | A | A | A | Operator certificate | 30 Jun | |
| P. Dunn | Client service | D | K | D | D | D | K | K | Foundations badge | No expiry | |
| T. Byrne | Compliance reviewer | O | A | A | A | A | A | K | A | Operator certificate | 31 Jan |
Two gaps stand out. C. Ahmed is a qualified adviser but only "does with oversight" on A1, which is the skill most likely to cause harm: an agent's service reply that slips into advice. Until that moves to "approves", C. Ahmed's client replies should be countersigned. And P. Dunn, who handles most client messages first, is only "knows" on A2: they may pass a draft to an adviser without noticing the profile is three years old.
The firm's plan: C. Ahmed completes a supervised period focused on A1; P. Dunn gets a short session on profile currency; J. Moss, who is close to "owns" on A3, starts reviewing paraplanner drafts. The approver rule for the advice team then ties release rights to "approves" on A1 to A4 plus a current certificate. Paraplanning teams in other firms may sit separately; compare the competency matrix for a practice team.
Where the Academy fits
Pryme Intelligence Academy's Foundations badge gives everyone in the team the vocabulary at "knows". Certified Pryme Operator, with a written exam and a two-week practicum on real review decisions, is a reasonable evidence standard for "approves" on A1, A4 and A6, and its module tests are set in the learner's own industry and role. See AI agent skills by role.
Questions people ask
Do advisers with professional qualifications need this at all?
Yes. Their qualifications prove they can advise; the matrix shows whether they can review an agent's draft of advice, which is a different task.
How does this matrix affect the review rota?
The rota needs at least one person at "approves" on A1 and A4 for every session the agent is drafting client messages. The reviewer rota for the advice team shows how.
Who should own the matrix?
The principal adviser or head of advice, with compliance checking ratings at "approves" and above.