Wealth management group Fairstone has hailed the ‘game-changing’ effect of AI technology introduced in its business in partnership with Saturn AI.
The group, which manages more than £21bn of client assets, estimates that the technology has already saved around 2,000 hours of adviser time since it was introduced in November last year.
And Fairstone, which operates from over 55 offices across the UK and Ireland, says the AI assistant – called Fairstone CoPlanner – is helping its 500-plus advisers build deeper relationships with clients.
Nick Stebbing, Chief Product & Proposition Officer at Fairstone, said: “It’s safe to say that Fairstone CoPlanner is already starting to transform the way in which we do business and interact with clients.
“Not only does it free up adviser time and create and distribute client reports quicker, it enables our advisers to really make the most of client meetings and enhance the human interaction.
“Instead of scribbling notes and worrying whether they’ve captured all the right information, advisers can spend client meetings really listening and responding to what is being discussed.
“It makes meetings more conversational and human and we think that’s invaluable in terms of helping to secure better client outcomes.”
Fairstone CoPlanner is an advanced AI-powered transcription and meeting management tool, integrated with the Saturn platform.
It has been designed specifically for the financial advice sector, and enables advisers to record, transcribe, and manage client and prospect meetings with ease and confidence, whether over Microsoft Teams or face-to-face using a dedicated App.
The technology creates meeting transcripts from which it generates editable structured meeting notes, ensuring that the information captured directly supports good client outcomes and regulatory requirements.
Fairstone estimates that CoPlanner saves around 30 minutes per client meeting and its advisers have already used it in 4,000 meetings since its introduction.
Fairstone Business Principal Del-Ryan Rafter called it “a game-changer”, adding: “I have used it in meetings and the output has been fantastic.
“I have also used it to record my meeting notes in a more formal manner for a client meeting prior to its release, again extremely useful and significant time savings.”
Fairstone Independent Financial Adviser Ajay Naik says the technology has given him some valuable client insights.
He explained: “CoPlanner had no difficulty in identifying the spoken words of a client with some speech challenges.
“It picked up so much more detail than I was expecting and put it all in a really coherent, detailed summary.
“CoPlanner also picked up that my client is a Chelsea fan, and in the summary follow-up email, put in a nice sentence about the recent Chelsea match – a fantastic touch!”
Fairstone chose Saturn AI as its technology partner following an extensive evaluation process.
Nick Stebbing explained: “We were looking for a genuine best-in-class solution which was easy to use and integrate and gave us the ability to realise benefits straight away.
“Saturn AI stood out for its strong client-centred values – which matched with ours – its responsiveness, track record and for its technology’s particular skill at capturing ‘soft’ facts during client meetings.”
Rohit Vaish, President and Co-Founder of Saturn, said: “Saving 30 minutes per client meeting at scale has a transformative impact on how advice firms operate.
“CoPlanner demonstrates how purpose-built AI, embedded within compliance infrastructure, can remove the manual effort required to produce robust, compliant outputs by capturing the highest possible quality data and integrating it directly into adviser workflows.
“Our focus is on lowering the cost to serve through scalable compliance infrastructure and AI technology. By reducing cost and improving efficiency, firms are better placed to spend more quality time supporting their clients, ensuring they can provide them with the best possible service.”
Fairstone expects the technology to develop further and to reap further benefits for the business.
Nick Stebbing said: “In many ways, this is just the beginning for CoPlanner. There are lots of other areas where we can see the potential for its use to enhance our service to clients and allow our advisers to do what they do best: building lasting relationships and securing better financial outcomes for clients and their families.”
