Notes on sourced intelligence.
Field notes on using AI for advisor research without the compliance risk — citations, audit trails, and what regulators actually expect.
The Marketing Rule meets AI content: what the latest risk alert reveals
The SEC's December 2025 Marketing Rule risk alert documents widespread non-compliance on testimonials, endorsements, and third-party ratings. As advisors start generating client-facing content with AI, that enforcement pattern is the map for what gets scrutinized.
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11 articlesReg BI in the exam data: why AI raises the documentation bar
Reg BI and Form CRS are repeat top examination priorities, and enforcement is active. As AI starts informing recommendations, the documentation burden the rule already imposes only gets heavier. Here's what the exam data implies.
The advisor capacity crunch: the math behind review automation
Firms are growing clients and assets while the advisor workforce ages and shrinks at the bottom. The benchmarking and demographic data explain why review automation stopped being a nice-to-have and became a capacity necessity.
Inside the 2025–26 exam cycle: what regulators are asking about AI
The SEC made AI and emerging technology a named examination priority for 2025, and the Division of Examinations is publishing risk alerts that read like a roadmap. Here's what the exam-priority data signals — and how to read it as a firm.
Where advisor time actually goes — and why meeting prep is the target
Advisors spend under 20% of their time in client meetings and 5.3 hours a week preparing for them. The time-allocation data is the clearest case for why pre-meeting prep — not advice itself — is the part of the workflow worth compressing.
The AI governance gap: adoption is racing ahead of supervision
63% of RIAs now use AI, but only about one in ten have integrated it at the firm level. That gap between bottom-up adoption and top-down supervision is the defining governance story of 2026 — and the one regulators are built to find.
The small-RIA segment: who they are and how they actually adopt AI
The typical advisory firm serving individuals runs on 8 employees and $424M in assets. That structural fact — not vendor marketing — explains how small RIAs adopt AI, and why their path looks nothing like an enterprise rollout.
The recordkeeping reckoning: what the off-channel sweep tells RIAs about AI
The SEC's multi-year off-channel communications sweep has produced more than $2 billion in penalties. That enforcement pattern is the clearest available signal for how regulators will treat AI-generated research records next.
The state of AI adoption among independent RIAs in 2026
AI adoption among independent RIAs more than doubled in two years, but most firms are still experimenting at the individual level. Here's what the market data says about where advisor AI actually stands — and where the spend is going.
FINRA-defensible AI research: what advisors actually need
AI can draft research in seconds — but if you can't show where a number came from, it's a compliance liability. Here's what makes AI research defensible for RIAs.
Is ChatGPT safe to use for regulated financial advice?
ChatGPT and Claude are useful for advisors — but using them for client research has specific compliance risks. Here's where the line is and how to stay on the right side of it.