Start a new wealth adviser on the paperwork the agents draft, not on clients. For the first week they check meeting notes, fact-find summaries and draft suitability letters against what was actually said and recorded. In the second they approve client-facing drafts under a senior's countersignature. The advice itself, and every trade, remains theirs from day one.
What do agents do around a wealth adviser, and what never moves?
In a wealth team the agents handle preparation and follow-up. One drafts meeting notes from the adviser's recording or notes. One assembles a fact-find summary from the client file. One drafts a suitability letter or a review pack for the adviser to edit and sign. Another answers routine client questions about valuations or statements at depth 2 or 3.
What never moves is the recommendation. The adviser decides what is suitable, explains it, and answers for it. Trades and transfers sit at depth 4 at most, and most firms keep them with a person. Anything suggesting a client may be vulnerable goes to a person immediately.
The head of advice or practice principal owns the onboarding; a senior adviser is the buddy. How the day itself changes is covered in what changes in a wealth adviser's day when AI agents arrive.
A ten-day onboarding plan
- Day 1. Person (head of advice): grants read access to the workspace and client files for the buddy's book. No approval rights.
- Day 1. Person (buddy): sets out the red lines. No recommendation leaves under the agent's name. No trade instruction is executed by an agent without a person. Any sign of vulnerability, such as confusion about past decisions or a third party speaking for the client, goes to the adviser and is recorded.
- Days 2 to 4. Agent, depth 2: drafts meeting notes and fact-find summaries; person (newcomer) checks them against the source. The common error is subtle: a client said they "might" need capital in five years, and the note says they will.
- Day 5. Person (newcomer): reads provenance on a suitability draft. Holdings from the platform's records are sealed. The client's stated income is declared. An old valuation forwarded by email is external. The newcomer marks which statements need confirming before the letter is signed.
- Days 6 to 8. Agent, depth 2: drafts review packs and client replies; person (newcomer) edits and approves; buddy countersigns. Client replies on valuations come first; suitability letters come last.
- Day 9. Person (newcomer): writes back corrections. If the agent keeps describing a model portfolio with last quarter's allocation, the source is stale; fixing it is how the agent learns.
- Day 10. Person (head of advice): reviews the record and grants approval rights for routine client replies. Suitability letters stay countersigned until the newcomer's competence is signed off under the firm's own scheme.
| Step | The agent does | Depth | Stays with a person |
|---|---|---|---|
| Read access | Runs as normal | As certified | Access grant |
| Red lines | Holds matching messages | 2 | Recognising vulnerability |
| Check notes and fact-finds | Drafts them | 2 | Accuracy against source |
| Read provenance | Labels each fact | 1 | Confirming declared facts |
| Supervised drafts | Drafts packs and replies | 2 | Editing, approval, countersign |
| Write back corrections | Uses corrected sources | 2 | The correction |
| Grant rights | Continues | 2 to 3 | Advice, trades, suitability sign-off |
Which controls do the work, and what evidence remains?
Advice is never sent by an agent. Suitability drafts are held for a named adviser every time. Evidence: every sent letter shows the adviser who approved it.
Countersignature on early drafts. Two names on each approval in week two, which a compliance reviewer can sample later.
Trades held at depth 4 or kept with a person. Evidence: any trade instruction shows who released it.
Vulnerability flags recorded. When the newcomer spots one the agent missed, the record shows the flag and the handover, and the source or bound that should have caught it is reviewed.
What should the head of advice measure?
- Errors the newcomer caught in agent drafts against errors a reviewer later found.
- Suitability drafts needing heavy rework after the newcomer's edit, read individually.
- Vulnerability signs spotted versus missed. Any miss extends supervision.
- Sources corrected, and whether the same error recurs.
Where does wealth onboarding go wrong?
Treating the meeting note as the meeting. If the note is wrong, the suitability letter built on it will be wrong in a confident, well-written way. The newcomer must reread the source until the habit sticks.
Signing letters they did not shape. A new adviser under pressure may sign an agent's suitability draft with light edits. The recommendation must be theirs; if they cannot defend each sentence to the client, it is not ready.
Skipping the record. Every verdict and every human decision is filed in an append-only record. A new adviser should learn early that their edits and approvals sit there alongside the agent's draft, so that a complaint handler or compliance reviewer can see what the agent proposed and what the adviser changed. That visibility is a protection for the adviser, not a threat.
Learning the agents but not the firm's process. Advisers need to know who signs off what in the firm's own competence scheme. Adviser roles elsewhere face similar starts; compare onboarding a new HR adviser and onboarding a new student services adviser. Planning formats are in the AI agent training plan template for wealth advisers and, for the firm level, the template for wealth managers. The whole method is in training teams for AI agents.
Questions people ask
Can an agent draft the suitability letter at all?
Yes, as a draft at depth 2. The adviser edits it, owns the recommendation and signs. The agent saves time on structure and facts, not on judgement.
Should a new adviser see the agent's draft before meeting a client?
It helps, if they also read the client file. A pre-meeting summary from the agent is a starting point; the adviser should check it against the file before relying on it.
How long does supervised drafting last?
Routine replies may be released after two weeks. Suitability letters usually stay countersigned for longer, until the firm's own competence process signs the adviser off.