How Fox & Hare uses AI in Financial Advice

Paradino in practice

Fox & Hare tested ten AI tools before choosing Paradino.

Security was the first filter. Courtenay Walker says Paradino was “by far the most accurate” of the tools they narrowed down.

Today, Fox & Hare uses Paradino for file notes, paraplanning and advice documents.

In this edition of Paradino in practice, Courtenay Walker, Director & Head of Advice at Fox & Hare, speaks with Basis Points host Ally Selby about how the practice approached AI for financial advice.

Originally recorded for Basis Points by Equity Mates Media, hosted by Ally Selby.

Can AI help close the advice gap?

A client meeting can create hours of work once the conversation is over.

Ally asked Courtenay whether AI could help close the advice gap or simply reduce the amount of administration advisers have to get through.

Ally Selby:
Can AI actually close the advice gap, or is it just helping advisers spend less time on admin?

Courtenay Walker:
The administrative tasks are the issue. Advisers can meet with clients all day. But if they've got eight hours of admin per client, that's the issue.

Security came first

Fox & Hare was deliberate about how it introduced AI into the practice.

Courtenay Walker:
No, security was our biggest concern, so we were quite purposeful when we started. Paradino was the first AI tool we used. It was security first, and then, what's the application like when we use it?

Fox & Hare tested ten AI tools

The practice kept testing before making its choice.

Ally Selby:
Were there any tools you tried that didn't work, that you found weren't great for financial advice?

Courtenay Walker:
Plenty. We tested ten in total, narrowed it down to about three, and found that Paradino was by far the most accurate. We backed the right horse.

Who Fox & Hare chose to work with also mattered.

Ally Selby:
What do you mean from an ethical standpoint?

Courtenay Walker:
We wanted to make sure we were partnering with good businesses that were Aussie-led, and that we felt had ethical leadership.

How Fox & Hare uses AI for financial advice

File notes. Paraplanning. Advice Documents.

Courtenay explains where Paradino now fits into the working day.

Ally Selby:
How are you using it day-to-day at Fox & Hare?

Courtenay Walker:
We use it for file notes, and we've started using it for paraplanning as well as checking documents. It goes through our paraplanners, they take the document from Paradino, update it, and it goes back into Paradino to review the document and send it out from there.

Paradino can use a client meeting recording or transcript to create a structured file note from the practice's template.

Client information can then carry into strategy work and paraplanning.

Where does human review fit?

Fox & Hare asks three questions when deciding where AI belongs in its process.

Ally Selby:
Have you caught any errors, and what's the process for handling them?

Courtenay Walker:
Not errors as such. We ask three questions: what can we use AI for, what can we not use it for, and what can we combine with human review. Most things fall into that middle basket. There's very little going out to our members that hasn't been reviewed by one of our team.

No additional Paradino commentary after this. Courtenay’s answer should land on its own.

Has AI increased adviser capacity?

Ally put the question directly to Courtenay.

Ally Selby:
Have you seen an increase in the number of clients advisers can look after since adopting AI?

Courtenay Walker:
We definitely have far more efficient advisers, and it's more manageable for them now.

The wider operational results are covered in the full Fox & Hare case study.

Read the full Fox & Hare case study →
https://paradino.ai/case-studies/foxhare

The client comes first

Courtenay Walker:
It's just the right thing to do by clients. It wasn't even a licensee consideration for us, it was, what's going to be right for our clients, and who's going to deliver that?

Full transcript

Ally Selby:
Can AI actually close the advice gap, or is it just helping advisers spend less time on admin?

Courtenay Walker:
The administrative tasks are the issue. Advisers can meet with clients all day. But if they've got eight hours of admin per client, that's the issue.

Ally Selby:
Did you start out using Claude and ChatGPT before these purpose-built tools existed?

Courtenay Walker:
No, security was our biggest concern, so we were quite purposeful when we started. Paradino was the first AI tool we used. It was security first, and then, what's the application like when we use it?

Ally Selby:
Were there any tools you tried that didn't work, that you found weren't great for financial advice?

Courtenay Walker:
Plenty. We tested ten in total, narrowed it down to about three, and found that Paradino was by far the most accurate. We backed the right horse.

Ally Selby:
What do you mean from an ethical standpoint?

Courtenay Walker:
We wanted to make sure we were partnering with good businesses that were Aussie-led, and that we felt had ethical leadership.

Ally Selby:
How are you using it day-to-day at Fox & Hare?

Courtenay Walker:
We use it for file notes, and we've started using it for paraplanning as well as checking documents. It goes through our paraplanners, they take the document from Paradino, update it, and it goes back into Paradino to review the document and send it out from there.

Ally Selby:
Have you caught any errors, and what's the process for handling them?

Courtenay Walker:
Not errors as such. We ask three questions: what can we use AI for, what can we not use it for, and what can we combine with human review. Most things fall into that middle basket. There's very little going out to our members that hasn't been reviewed by one of our team.

Ally Selby:
Have you seen an increase in the number of clients advisers can look after since adopting AI?

Courtenay Walker:
We definitely have far more efficient advisers, and it's more manageable for them now.