How we work
Map first. Then train, build, or both.
The RIA AI Opportunity Map is the front door. We stay vendor-neutral: buy what already works, build only the gaps.
The front door
RIA AI Opportunity Map
We analyze your workflows, technology, data, and existing vendor coverage to identify the highest-value AI opportunities that are commercially meaningful and not already better solved off the shelf.
- 01Firm-wide AI opportunity inventory
- 02Existing-vendor coverage analysis
- 03Workflow and integration gaps
- 04Estimated financial and capacity impact
- 05Security and compliance requirements
- 06Data readiness
- 07Buy-versus-build recommendation on every finding
- 08Ranked 90-day roadmap
- 09One detailed implementation specification
You are not paying us to sell you a build. You are paying us to determine what should be bought, integrated, customized, or built.
The wealthtech AI landscape, and where we fit
Every layer of your stack now ships AI. We map what your tools already cover, recommend the best product where one exists, and teach or build only where nothing serves your firm.
Dozens of capable AI notetakers, and every major CRM now ships its own. Picking wrong costs a migration.
We help you select the right one for your stack, then train your team to supervise the loop. No reason to rebuild what you can buy.
Strong point solutions for tax returns. Much thinner coverage for brokerage statements, estate documents, and insurance policies.
Buy the proven tool where one exists. We extend the same extraction pattern to the documents nothing on the market reads for you.
Every custodian and portfolio platform is racing to add AI inside its own walls. All of it stops at the edge of their product.
Sit on top of whatever you run. We automate reconciliation, cash and RMDs, constraints, tax lots, and trade-list prep around it.
Content platforms and general AI tools produce first drafts equally well. Differentiation here is gone.
We teach the Marketing Rule pre-screen and the retention pipeline, so the commodity layer does not become an exam finding.
New products automate account opening and service tasks for standardized stacks. Promising, and built for someone else's workflow.
Where a product fits your stack, we recommend it. Where it does not, we build embedded, custom, and governed, including mixed stacks and Excel.
Almost nobody serves RIAs on cross-system agentic automation with real governance.
This is the build: your CRM, portfolio system, and custodian data working together, with approval gates and audit trails.
Which specific tools?
That is part of the engagement. The Opportunity Map includes an existing-vendor coverage analysis and a buy-versus-build recommendation on every finding. We do not sell software or take referral fees, so the recommendation serves your firm, not a commission.
Governance wrapper on everything
Approval gates, audit trails, and a written policy the principal owns. Compliance is the architecture, not a footnote.
Human-in-the-loop is the product
Anything client-facing and every Trade Order list is a draft until a named person signs off. Advisors will not buy unsupervised AI on life savings. We design for that.
RED data stays out
Client PII and account data never enter consumer free-tier tools. Firm-approved accounts, a written data map, and Reg S-P vendor diligence on every tool that touches client data.
Recordkeeping by default
Material prompts and outputs that inform advice or client communications are retained with timestamps (Rule 204-2). Built for the exam, not just the demo.
No AI-washing
We teach the Delphia / Global Predictions cautionary tale. Do not market AI capabilities the firm does not use. Wealth Systems and Expert AI Labs are not an RIA, broker-dealer, custodian, or law firm.
Who teaches and builds it
Douglas Schwartz
Five years as Head of Trading and Research at Alder Financial Group (2012 to 2017), reporting to the CIO and CEO. He ran model portfolios, drift and variance monitoring, and daily Trade Order lists off Schwab and TD data feeds. CFA Level II. UGA Terry finance. Since then: a decade building AI and automation systems as a founder.
Most AI consultants have never touched a rebalance. Most people who have run an RIA back office cannot build with AI. This work exists because one person has done both.
Signature case
The portfolio-ops morning, rebuilt with a human at the trigger
At Alder, the job was not "run the rebalancer." It was reconcile the custodian file, chase exceptions, surface cash and RMD needs, honor household constraints, think about tax lots, and put a Trade Order list in front of the people who owned the fiduciary trigger. That analytical glue is still manual at most firms. Today the same morning is a supervised pipeline: feed in, exceptions and draft list out, human release, audit log. That is Module 2, and usually the first system we build.
Questions firms ask
Our rebalancer already computes drift. Is this redundant?+
No. Rebalancers compute drift and propose rebalances. Training and our builds cover the manual workflow around them: reconciliation exceptions, cash raises, RMDs, client constraints, tax lots, and a trade list a human signs off on. We work with whatever you run today, including Excel.
We already use an AI notetaker and our platform is adding AI. Why this?+
Vendors own AI inside their own products, and it stops at their edges. Kitces research keeps finding that integration, not another AI feature, drives tech satisfaction. We teach and build the between-the-platforms layer and the portfolio-ops prep vendors under-serve, wrapped in governance your CCO can defend. And where a product is the right answer, we tell you to buy it.
What about compliance and the June 2026 Reg S-P deadline?+
Governance is Module 0 and returns in Module 5. You leave training with a policy draft, use-case inventory, traffic-light data rules, and a vendor-diligence checklist. Builds ship with approval gates and audit trails. We are not a law firm. Your CCO and counsel remain the authority.
Is this a software product?+
No. Training teaches your team. Done-for-you builds systems in your environment. You own what we build. Nothing multi-tenant to log into. Demos use fake data.
What does it cost?+
Every firm's stack, size, and starting point differ, so we scope after a 30-minute intake. The Opportunity Map is a fixed-fee diagnostic. Training is priced per day. AI Systems Sprints are priced per system. You will have exact numbers before any commitment, and there is never a subscription.
Will you promise hours saved?+
No. The defensible floor from St. Louis Fed research is roughly 2.2 hours per week among generative-AI users. Vendor claims on the meeting cycle are illustrative and attributed. We measure your baseline in the 30-day roadmap and let your numbers speak.
Virtual or on-site for training?+
On-site is one day. Virtual is a full day or two half-days. Same curriculum either way.
How large can the training team be?+
Up to 15 people: advisors, CSAs, ops/trading, billing, CCO, and principal. The owner should attend governance, the portfolio-ops anchor, and the roadmap at minimum.
What do we need to prepare?+
A 30-minute intake, laptops for training, paid firm-provisioned AI accounts (not free consumer tiers), and a light sanitized data pack when we get to hands-on work. No real client PII on the projector.
Book the 30-minute intake
We decide together whether the Opportunity Map, training, a build, or a combination is next.
30 minutes. We map your stack and decide whether training, an AI Systems Sprint, or both is the right next step.
Email to book intakeOr call (678) 524-6180 · info@expertailabs.com