Paraplanners before advisers, and mandates before agents. A wealth manager should map each client mandate to what an agent may do, certify the paraplanners and client services staff who will review drafts first, then train advisers on exactly what they sign, and widen only when suitability decisions, operations releases and the agent's certification all have evidence.
Why map mandates first?
A wealth manager's authority over a client's money depends on the mandate. Under a discretionary mandate, the firm may trade within agreed limits without asking each time. Under an advisory mandate, every recommendation needs the client's agreement. An agent must sit inside the same structure: rebalancing a discretionary portfolio within its model and limits might be routine work at depth 3 once certified, while the same action on an advisory account must stay a draft for the client to accept.
If staff learn the agent before this mapping, they learn depth in the abstract. If they learn it after, they see immediately why the agent holds an advisory rebalance it would carry out on a discretionary account.
What order should training follow?
- Partners, investment committee and compliance. Map mandates to depth; decide which capabilities to target first; learn what the record shows.
- Paraplanners and client services. The reviewer path with a practicum on the agent's real drafts: suitability reports, review packs, meeting notes, onboarding files.
- Advisers. A focused path on what they sign: reading a draft against the client's recorded objectives and risk profile, and recognising when the agent has filled a gap with assumption.
- Investment operations. Before any agent prepares trades, transfers or withdrawals for release.
- Builders. Whoever designs agents, after time on the paraplanning queue.
- Second line and audit. Tracing a recommendation from the record to its sources.
What must reviewers learn specifically?
Suitability against the record. A recommendation must fit the client's objectives, risk profile, capacity for loss and circumstances, as recorded in the firm's own systems. A client's comment in a meeting note is declared until it is confirmed in the fact-find. Reviewers must check that the draft's reasoning rests on confirmed facts.
Performance and fee figures. Figures in client reports should come from the firm's sealed portfolio records, not from a third-party page or an emailed statement, which are external. A reviewer should hold any draft whose figures they cannot trace.
Good outcomes. In the UK, the FCA's Consumer Duty expects firms to deliver good outcomes for retail customers. Reviewers should be trained to ask not only whether a draft is accurate but whether the client will understand it and whether the outcome serves them.
Money movement red lines. A withdrawal to bank details changed by email; a transfer requested by someone claiming to act for the client without recorded authority. Both should be held, and operations staff must never release them on the strength of the request alone.
What may the agent do, and what stays with a person?
| The agent may | Stays with a person |
|---|---|
| Read portfolios, fact-finds and meeting notes (depth 1) | The recommendation to an advisory client |
| Draft suitability reports, review packs and letters (depth 2) | Changing a client's risk profile or objectives |
| Rebalance discretionary portfolios within model and limits, once certified (depth 3) | Any action on an advisory account without client consent |
| Prepare withdrawals and transfers (depth 2) | Releasing money out of the firm (depth 4) |
What should be proven before widening?
Before the agent rebalances discretionary portfolios on its own, the firm should see four things: the agent certified at depth 3 on past rebalances; paraplanners' practicum decisions with no missed red line; an investment committee sign-off on the limits; and a compliance trace of a sample of filed verdicts. Banks run a similar test before money movement, described in how banks should train staff.
An example
Take a hypothetical wealth manager with 18 advisers and 10 paraplanners. The investment committee maps mandates in week one. Paraplanners take reviewer certification while the agent drafts annual review packs in shadow for a month. Advisers follow with the focused path. Operations trains on held withdrawals. After compliance reviews 40 filed verdicts, the agent rebalances discretionary model portfolios within tolerance at depth 3. Advisory accounts stay at drafting.
The firm-level schedule is in the AI agent training plan template for wealth managers, and the individual view in the training plan template for wealth advisers.
Where the Academy fits
Pryme Intelligence Academy's Operator track certifies paraplanners and advisers through a written exam and a practicum of real review decisions. Certificates can be checked at source through VerifyDoc.ai, which helps when a platform or client asks who reviews their reports.
Questions people ask
Can a firm use agents before staff are certified?
At depth 1 or 2, with an adviser approving every draft, yes.
Do discretionary and advisory teams need different training?
The same core, different limits. Discretionary teams must understand what the agent may do within a mandate; advisory teams must hold everything for consent.
What do wealth managers get wrong?
Training advisers and forgetting operations. More in what wealth managers get wrong about AI agent training and the guide to training teams for AI agents.