Episode summary
The Advisor Talent Shortage Will AI Solve... Or Exacerbate It? - Kitces & Carl Ep 190
Financial Advisor Success (Kitces)
· · 30 min · Hosts: Michael Kitces · Guests: Carl Richards
Summary
The host and Carl Richards push back on the idea that artificial intelligence will simply turn advisory firms into ultra-efficient client-meeting machines. They argue that if AI removes too much back-office and middle-office work, firms may end up with advisors spending most of their day in meetings, which sounds less like a productivity breakthrough than an emotionally draining job redesign.
Their deeper concern is that AI could solve today’s capacity problem by creating tomorrow’s talent crisis. If firms automate the entry-level work that teaches judgment, client judgment, and planning skills, they may hollow out the apprenticeship pipeline needed to develop future advisors. Richards frames the issue as a training problem more than a talent problem: firms keep saying they need experienced advisors, but they have not built enough systems to train them.
They also note that AI can be genuinely useful, especially when experienced people can spot its limits. But they worry that a generation trained only with automation may not know how to check the work, understand the assumptions, or build the underlying skills themselves. The long-term winners, they suggest, may be the firms that use AI selectively while still investing in human development.
Key takeaways
- Carl Richards argues that pushing advisors toward 80% client-meeting time could be emotionally unsustainable, not ideal productivity.
- The host warns that AI could eliminate the entry-level work that creates future advisors, worsening the industry’s talent shortage.
- Richards says the real issue may be a training shortage, because firms want experienced advisors but have not built enough pipelines to produce them.
- The host and Richards both suggest AI is most useful when it augments experienced people who can still detect errors and limitations.
- A firm with a longer time horizon may benefit more from preserving apprenticeship and using AI selectively than from maximizing short-term efficiency.
Notable quotes
“What if we only spend 25 or 30% of our time in client meetings? Because more than that becomes exhausting”
“I gutted all the entry level jobs that train everybody to eventually get to the ends job where you're an experienced advisor”
“we have a training shortage”
“what are we actually trying to solve for”
How the episode opens
Hello, Michael Kitsus. — Hello, D. David Carl Richards III. — Hey, somebody at uh is it FPA New England? Is that what they call it? Yeah, FPA New England came up to — Massachusetts is now New England. Yep. — Yeah. came up to me and said, "Hey, it's came up to me and greeted me that said, "Hey, David Carridge is the third." AND I WAS LIKE, "OH, thank you. That's so I'm going to I want the whole world to resp." I actually don't, but that's really
I was say cuz like if you really want — No, no. — For everyone who's listening, you heard Carl's latent desire just expressed itself. He couldn't help. — It's a Freudian slip is what that was. Yeah. — That you need to greet him. David Carl Richards III, his full given name.
Yes. That would be amazing. That would be amazing. Um, what are we talking about today? Some I'm sure some AI related thing. — I actually did want to do an AI saying that jokingly, but I actually do want to do We haven't done We haven't done some AI. I don't know some AI things in a little while.
Oh, remember we're supposed to say it out. Artificial intelligence. — Artificial intelligence — To remind ourselves.
Artificial intelligence things for a while. is I I feel like this we're so now we seem to largely be past the AI is going to replace all the financial advisors like doesn't seem to be we seem to be doing okay now like now now it's a tool to make us better and more efficient and then we can like handle more clients and then we won't have a talent shortage because we'll finally have enough advisors to serve all the clients we want to serve and then it brings the prices down and we can serve more people which we can do because we're more efficient.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- ai and financial planning
- advisor productivity
- automation and job entry-level roles
- training vs talent shortages
- client discernment in an ai world
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Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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Financial Advisor Success (Kitces), this episode and its artwork belong to Michael Kitces. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
