Wealth advisers log each AI agent draft or proposal they decide during a two-week practicum: suitability reports, rebalancing proposals, replies to clients, and instructions to move money. Each entry captures the client's profile and how current it is, what the agent drafted, the adviser's decision and reason, a senior adviser's independent call, and any red line.
Where does the agent stop and the adviser start?
In a typical advice firm, the agent prepares and the adviser advises. The agent assembles the client's holdings and history at depth 1, drafts suitability reports and rebalancing proposals at depth 2, answers factual service questions within bounds, and holds anything that looks like personal advice or an instruction to move money. Recommendations reach the client only through the adviser.
The practicum tests the line between the two. A reply about how a fund has performed is service; a reply suggesting the client should switch funds is advice. Agents can blur that line in a well-meant draft, and an adviser in a hurry can approve it. Setup for the fortnight is covered in how to run a two-week practicum for wealth advisers.
How should advisers fill it in?
- Profile currency. Record when the client's risk profile and circumstances were last confirmed. A suitability draft based on a profile three years old is a draft built on declared facts that may no longer be true.
- Advice or service. Mark each client-facing draft as one or the other.
- Instruction channel. For any money movement, record how the instruction arrived and how it was verified.
- Vulnerability. Record any sign, such as bereavement, illness or confusion.
- Senior's view first. The senior adviser records a decision before reading the adviser's.
The practicum log template
Header
| Field | Entry |
|---|---|
| Adviser | |
| Senior adviser and certificate | |
| Client segment | |
| Dates | |
| Bar | At least 95 correct in every 100; no missed red line |
| Red lines | A recommendation reaches a client without a current suitability basis; money moves on an instruction not verified through a known channel; a vulnerability sign goes unrecorded and unaddressed |
Entries
| Field | Entry |
|---|---|
| No. and date | |
| Client reference | |
| Item type | Suitability report, rebalancing, client reply, money instruction |
| Profile last confirmed | Date |
| Advice or service | |
| Agent's draft and verdict | |
| Instruction channel and verification | For money movements |
| Vulnerability sign | None / possible / clear |
| Adviser's decision and reason | |
| Senior's decision | |
| Match | Yes / no / defensible |
| Red line | None / caught / missed |
A worked example
Take a sample UK wealth manager, where the FCA's Consumer Duty expects good outcomes for retail clients. Values are illustrative.
Entry 14. Rebalancing proposal for a client whose equity holdings have drifted above their target. Profile confirmed eight months ago. Adviser: approve and send for the client's agreement. Senior: approve. Match: yes.
Entry 15. Client reply: the client asks whether a bond fund is "safe". The agent's draft explains the fund's objective and adds "given your age, you may wish to move more into this fund". Adviser: send. Senior: remove the second sentence; it is personal advice without a suitability assessment. Match: no. Red line 1: missed.
Entry 16. Money instruction: an email from the client's address asks to withdraw 40,000 to a new bank account for "a house deposit". Agent: holds. Adviser: call the client on the number on file; client confirms, but the new account is unfamiliar to them, as their son set it up. Adviser: pause and arrange a meeting. Senior: same. Red line 2: caught.
Entry 17. Suitability report for a client whose spouse died two months ago. Profile last confirmed two years ago. Agent's draft recommends no change. Adviser: hold the report; arrange a review meeting to update circumstances and objectives; record the vulnerability. Senior: same. Red line 3: caught.
Entry 15 fails the bar. The draft was friendly, accurate in its facts, and crossed into advice in one clause.
How do wealth logs compare with HR and payments logs?
HR advisers face a similar split between drafting and deciding, with employment policy in place of suitability; compare the practicum log for HR advisers. Payments operations staff apply the same instruction-verification discipline at volume; see the log for payments operations staff. Firms preparing advisers for the Certified Pryme Operator practicum at Pryme Intelligence Academy can use this format as the decision record; the wider picture is in AI literacy and certification for people who work with agents.
Questions people ask
Can the agent ever send a reply to a client without an adviser?
For factual service answers within its bounds, it may, depending on the firm's rules. Anything that could be read as a recommendation should be held.
Should a practicum include clients who are vulnerable?
Yes, where they appear in the live queue. Those decisions are the hardest and the most important to see an adviser make under supervision.
Who answers for advice an agent drafted and an adviser sent?
The adviser and the firm, as for any advice. See are wealth advisers accountable for an AI agent's mistakes and do wealth advisers need a certificate to approve AI agent actions.