As an associate financial planner working under a lead planner at an RIA firm, this is an interesting article but I was very disappointed by the comments here in this thread, like "I don't understand why advisors still exist" (meanwhile the RIA world is absolutely exploding and our firm can't handle the amount of families contacting us for advice). The purpose of my job, and this profession, can be split into two halves. We work primarily with families with a net worth between $500k and $10M, for reference.

The first half: complex planning cases involving multiple generations, tax planning, inheritance issues, etc. Occasionally I'll Claude for an opinion on something and it gives me answers that I would flat out never recommend to a client, ever. These cases often involve weird tax scenarios, but do also involve investment planning. We work with a couple in their 30s who together earn seven figures in AGI, and both are incredibly cautious people. We had them complete a risk assessment through Riskalyze in which they both indicated that they are extremely uncomfortable with market drawdowns (even after counseling them on their long time horizon, etc), so we ultimately implemented a plan that is heavily weighted towards bond index funds. If this couple went to Claude and asked what they should do, Claude would've told them to put all their money in equity index funds. That is the unequivocally wrong answer for this client because they run the risk of freaking out during a market drawdown, selling in a taxable brokerage, and thus unwittingly creating a realization event which could be disastrous in the short term.

The other half: very smart, high earning people who find personal finance incredibly boring and uninteresting, and if it weren't for us they would never get around to implementing a plan because they're so busy. We have so many business owner clients in law and medicine (and some in engineering leadership) who are almost impossible to get ahold of and need a LOT of follow up in order to make sure the plan gets implemented correctly. These people often come to us in their late 30s or early 40s with NOTHING set up or optimized. Acting like these people are going to sit down on a Sunday afternoon for 3 hours and prompt a full financial plan and then implement it and then spend one hour every quarter checking in and optimizing is not realistic whatsoever.

This profession is incredibly psychologically rewarding and our clients love us. I understand why people who have simple cases and are also very self-motivated might not immediately see what a more complex situation might look like, but to cross the line by implying that Claude can do my job is insulting.