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How to start using AI at your advisory firm: a first-90-days plan

Q: Do I need a technology background to do this?

No. Everything covered here is made for advisory firms, and setup amounts to creating an account, connecting the CRM, and adding a consent line to meeting confirmations. The one step that rewards care is the archive hookup, and a local consultant can take it over if it stalls.

Q: Why meeting notes first instead of tax planning or marketing?

Meeting notes touch every client meeting you already run, need no new service to sell, and follow a well-worn compliance workflow: consent, review, archive. Tax scanning is a strong second act once the note-taking habit and the archive are proven.

In a sentence: don't buy a stack — pick the one leak that costs you the most (for most advisors, meeting notes and prep), get your compliance officer's sign-off, run one tool for one month with the archive wired up, and only then add tax-scan software. A solo advisor can run the whole first-90-days plan for roughly $108 to $159 a month.

Start with meeting notes → Read the compliance guide →

The short version

One leak, one tool, one month. Meeting notes first for most firms; resist the urge to buy everything in week one.
Compliance before clients. Sign-off and a written policy come before the first client meeting touches an AI tool, not after.
Wire the archive early. Summaries and AI-assisted emails flow to books and records from day one.
Budget $108–$159/mo to start. Wealthbox at $59/user/mo plus either its $49 AI Notetaker or Jump at $100/advisor/mo. Redtail at $39/mo billed annually is the leaner CRM entry.
Add tax scanning at day 60–90. Holistiplan starts at $749/year once the notes habit sticks.

Step 1: pick the one leak that costs you most

Before you spend anything, name the hole. For most independent advisors it's the meeting wrapper: prep that eats the morning, write-ups that eat the evening, and follow-ups that slip. If that's you, start with AI meeting notes.

If your real problem is that client records live in spreadsheets and inboxes, start with the CRM itself — notes have nowhere to file until the CRM exists. Either way, choose one problem and ignore the rest for 90 days.

Step 2: get compliance sign-off and a written policy

Whoever owns compliance at your firm — even if that's you wearing the second hat — approves the tool and the workflow before any client interaction runs through it. Then write the policy: approved tools, permitted uses, review-before-send, archiving, consent. A page or two is enough.

This step costs nothing and prevents the expensive kind of surprise. The RIA compliance guide has the full six-item checklist.

Step 3: run one tool for one month

Pick from three proven routes and commit to a month of real meetings:

Zocks — the value pick at $67/user/mo billed annually ($80 if you'd rather stay monthly while you decide).
Jump — the deepest advisor workflow at $100/advisor/mo, with prep briefs and planning-tool sync built in.
Wealthbox plus its AI Notetaker — the one-vendor route at $108/user/mo all-in ($59 CRM plus the introductory $49 add-on), with a free 14-day CRM trial to start.

Don't run two notetakers side by side. Pick one, use it in every meeting for a month, and judge it on your own calendar.

Step 4: wire the archive before the first client meeting

Confirm where summaries and AI-drafted follow-ups land, attach them to the client record, and make sure your books-and-records system captures them. Then do a dry run: record a mock meeting with a colleague, approve the summary, and trace it to the archive.

Add consent language to your meeting confirmations in the same sitting. When the first real client meeting arrives, both rails are already down.

Step 5: add tax-scan software when the notes habit sticks

Around day 60, if meeting notes have become routine, add the second win: Holistiplan starts at $749/year (Basic Tax, up to 30 households) and turns a client's uploaded 1040 into planning observations you review before the next annual meeting. Our tax-planning guide compares it with FP Alpha at $1,995/year if you want estate and insurance reading too.

Step 6: revisit the stack at 90 days

At the 90-day mark, ask three questions. Are meetings genuinely lighter to prep and close out? Is every summary landing in the archive without hand-holding? Is anything you're paying for going unused? Keep what earned its seat, cancel what didn't, and only then consider the next addition.

Step 7: hire a local pro if setup stalls

If the CRM migration, the archive hookup, or the tool setup keeps sliding down the to-do list, hand it off. The find-a-pro search below shows local AI consultants who do this work for advisory firms, by zip code. Free to use, and we don't take a cut of what you pay them.

What should you budget for the first 90 days?

Starting stack	Pieces	Monthly total
One-vendor	Wealthbox Basic $59/user/mo + Wealthbox AI Notetaker $49/user/mo (introductory)	$108/user/mo
Best-of-breed	Wealthbox Basic $59/user/mo + Jump Meet $100/advisor/mo	$159/mo per advisor
Leaner CRM entry	Redtail Launch $39/mo billed annually (up to 5 users) + your pick of notetaker	$39/mo + notetaker

So the realistic solo starting range is about $108 to $159 a month, with Redtail trimming the CRM line if you're cost-first. Tax scanning adds Holistiplan from $749/year when you're ready. Prices are vendor-published and can change — confirm current pricing with each vendor before you sign up (checked 2026-07-09).

Common questions

Do I need a technology background to do this?

No. Everything on this page is made for advisory firms, and setup amounts to creating an account, connecting your CRM, and adding a consent line to your meeting confirmations. The one step that rewards care is the archive hookup — and if that stalls, hand it to a local consultant.

Why meeting notes first instead of tax planning or marketing?

Because it touches every client meeting you already run, it needs no new service to sell, and the compliance workflow is well-worn: consent, review, archive. Tax scanning is a strong second act, but it lands better once the note-taking habit and the archive are proven.

What if the first tool doesn't fit after a month?

Switch without guilt. Zocks has a monthly option at $80/user/mo, and Wealthbox's CRM trial is free for 14 days, so the exit cost of a wrong first pick is small. The written policy and the archive wiring carry over to whatever you choose next — that work is never wasted.

When does compliance sign-off happen if I'm a solo advisor?

You still do it, formally. Write the one-page policy, date it, and file it as if a second person were reviewing it — because one day an examiner might. Solo firms answer to the same rules; the paperwork just has one signature. See the compliance guide for what the page should cover.

Reviewed by James Mills, founder of The Agentic AI Index — an independent directory of AI tools and local consultants. Some links on this page are affiliate links; we may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no cost to you. We refer local pros; we do not recommend or endorse providers.

Sources: pricing pages published by Zocks (zocks.io), Jump (jump.ai), Wealthbox (wealthbox.com), Redtail (redtailtechnology.com), and Holistiplan (holistiplan.com) — vendor-published, checked 2026-07-09. Compliance context: Advisers Act Rules 206(4)-1 and 204-2 (sec.gov); FINRA Rules 3110 and 4511 (finra.org). Nothing here is legal, compliance, tax, or investment advice. Last reviewed: 2026-07-09.

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