A financial plan can easily span dozens of pages of dense material that, let’s just say, isn’t exactly a beach read.

LPL announced last week it’s developing Cyan, an AI agent that, among other jobs, can take in client data and financial planning documents to produce digestible summaries and insights for clients. CEO Rich Steinmeier said in an earnings call that AI is quickly becoming a key differentiator and he’s not alone. Fintechs and wealth platforms like FP Alpha, Zocks and RightCapital have deployed similar AI agents. It marks a fundamental shift for financial advisors: AI is moving out of the back office, beyond meeting transcribers and email drafters, and into the core tools that are shaping client relationships.

“Nobody got into this business to assemble documents,” said Jordan Hutchison, VP of technology and operations at RFG Advisory. “We’re not trying to take the advisor out of the work. We’re trying to take out the parts of the work they never wanted.”

TLDR

Even though a financial plan is the foundation of the advisor-client relationship, esoteric materials often intimidate clients. If clients are executives, they don’t have the time to decipher complex documents. In fact, they’re paying their advisors to do it for them, said Toby Wade, CEO of AI-powered investment platform DeepVest. Advisors should aim to distill information into visuals and clear language. “Once you start going into jargon-land, you tend to lose people,” he said.

Kevin Feig, founder of Walk You To Wealth, uses Altruist’s AI agent, Hazel, for his solo RIA practice to analyze client accounts and draft simplified client-facing documents. “It’s quickly becoming indispensable,” he told Advisor Upside, noting that he feels comfortable with the tool since Altruist is also his custodian. “AI started out as a notetaker … it’s quickly evolving into something much broader and more beneficial for clients.”

Not in My House. Still, some advisors remain skeptical about delegating core planning or even office jobs to AI. Communicating plans and working through dense documents should be a training ground for junior advisors, argues Trey Prescott, head of business development at Advisory Services Network. “Let the younger generations do the dirty work to develop and hone in their skills, rather than rely on a piece of AI that may or may not work,” he told Advisor Upside.

We need to have a private discussion.

Advisor allocations to alternative investments are set to just about double over the next five years, topping $4 trillion, according to Cerulli. While there’s a lot of talk about wider access to private assets, much of that increase is driven by Washington policymakers pushing for alts in 401(k)s and asset managers selling products. Yet, some advisors on the ground are staying cautious and sifting through the hype to find practical opportunities inside client portfolios. It’s an area where advisors can add value as more and more products hit the market.

“Private market access is only going to keep expanding, and portfolio construction has to catch up,” said Erik Kratz, CIO at Arena Private Wealth.

Semi-Liquid Surge

Historically, private markets were reserved for high-net-worth investors because of high costs of entry, illiquidity, opacity and complexity. While plenty of those risks remain, advisors are pressing forward, with over 80% citing portfolio diversification as their primary driver. To bridge the liquidity gap, advisors are increasingly favoring semi-liquid interval funds, vehicles that typically hold both public and private assets:

• Interval funds reached $132 billion in assets across 147 funds by the end of 2025, up substantially from prior years, Cerulli found.
• Specifically, advisors are increasingly using the funds to target private equity, infrastructure and real estate.

Boutique Blueprint

Traditional asset managers have been partnering with each other and alternatives firms to launch semi-liquid funds meant for high-net-worth and mass-affluent clients. Almost 60% of asset managers cite the demand for income-generating investments as a significant industry growth driver, per Cerulli. Just last month, partnerships between Vanguard, Wellington and Blackstone, in addition to T. Rowe Price and Goldman Sachs, launched their own semi-liquid funds.

However, advisors deeply familiar with private markets aren’t necessarily buying in, at least for now. Chad Tischer, a CFP at family office Wealthspire, said his firm mostly works with boutique managers that have under $1 billion in capital to target investments in small-cap companies. “[Large managers are] obviously successful and have done great work, but in this specific alternatives market, it’s an area where we have less interest rather than more,” he told Advisor Upside.

Keeping Cautious. As hype for private markets balloons, some advisors remain skeptical. Hardik Patel, founder of Trusted Path Wealth Management, said there’s a meaningful gap between what makes sense for a small number of UHNW clients and what’s being marketed as suitable for everyone. “Our job as fiduciaries is to help clients understand the real trade-offs,” he told Advisor Upside. “That’s a different conversation than ‘This is the next big thing,’ but it’s the one that serves clients better.”

There’s an old adage that annuities are sold, not bought … and boy, are sales up.

US annuities hit a record $123.9 billion in sales in the second quarter, up 4% from last year, according to trade group LIMRA. It marks the 11th consecutive quarter of sales over $100 billion. An aging, pension-less generation is creating ever more customers, in addition to high market volatility, rising rates and more specific products that can be tailored to a client’s needs. Advisors shouldn’t expect momentum to slow down any time soon. “It’s the perfect storm of why you’re seeing large growth in the annuity space,” said David Byrnes, chief distribution officer at Security Benefit.

Slicing and Dicing

Today’s annuities let advisors do a lot more to solve specific client problems, said James Comblo, a partner at Prosperity Capital Advisors. “I kind of think of it like a butcher versus a surgeon. A butcher just kind of goes in and hacks away at the meat, and you get a steak at the end. Whereas a surgeon can go in and pick out specific things that they want from that piece of meat, and give you exactly what you’re looking for.”

Here’s a breakdown by category, according to LIMRA:

• Fixed-rate deferred annuities had the highest sales volume of any category, at $44.7 billion, followed by fixed indexed annuities at $30.7 billion.
• Registered index-linked annuity (RILA) sales hit a record $23.3 billion, up 22% from last year, and posted their second-highest sales month ever in June.

RILAs have drawn more interest as investors seek a middle ground between equity exposure and risk amidst strong but volatile markets, Comblo said. They “give you a lot of flexibility to still get market appreciation, but also give you different protections on the downside,” he said.

Com-Mission Impossible. Annuities can get a bad rap for heavy operating expenses, often tied to a salesperson’s commission. “The answer for why annuities keep growing in sales numbers is directly tied to the amount of compensation financial advisors receive,” said Byrke Sestok, a CFP with Moneco Advisors.

But the perception that fiduciaries make the best advisors, since they earn more as a client’s assets grow, may not hold up in retirement, said Tamiko Toland, founder of the consulting firm 401(k) Annuity Hub. “That’s great while you’re growing your assets, but once you’re in retirement, you need to spend that money,” she said.