Question 1

Can advisers safely use AI to draft Statements of Advice?

Accepted Answer

Yes, with proper boundaries. AI is good at translating a clear adviser recommendation into a compliant document structure: 80 to 90% of the way to finished. The remaining 10 to 20% is judgement that lives with the human. The adviser owns the recommendation and signs off the document. The AI compresses the assembly work, not the call.

Question 2

What is ASIC's view on AI in advice?

Accepted Answer

ASIC has been technology-neutral. Section 912A obligations to provide financial services efficiently, honestly and fairly do not disappear because an algorithm touched the workflow. Best-interests duty still applies. Misleading conduct risk still applies. Director duties still apply. The obligations have not changed; the artefacts have. The work is to map AI outputs to existing obligations, not to write a new AI policy.

Question 3

Do licensees need to approve our AI workflows?

Accepted Answer

In practice, yes. Most licensees now treat AI workflows as a change to the supervised practice and want visibility into the data sources, the human approval point, and the audit trail. We design the workflow, the controls, and the evidence trail in a form licensees can review without a six-month back-and-forth.

Question 4

How does this work for an independent practice versus a large licensee?

Accepted Answer

Independent practices can move faster: smaller surface area, fewer approval layers, sharper feedback loops. We typically ship a first production capability inside 8 to 12 weeks. Large licensees and dealer groups need additional governance scaffolding and a change-design layer for the adviser network. Same architecture, more deliberate rollout.

Question 5

Where does AI give advisers the most leverage?

Accepted Answer

Post-meeting administration (file notes, task routing), Statement of Advice drafting, fact-find synthesis from client conversations, compliance pre-flight before licensee review, and adviser-side research. Each of these compresses an unrewarding hour into a reviewable minute, with the adviser still owning the substance.

AI for financial planning, built inside the regulatory frame.

Where AI gives advisers genuine leverage.

For advisers, paraplanners, and licensees.

Paraplanning in the age of agents

The note-taker trap

The compliance translation layer

Faster advisers. Quieter compliance queue.