Anthropic on Tuesday released 10 agent templates designed to automate tasks such as pitch deck generation and compliance screening, deepening its push into financial services. The templates, which include skills, connectors, and subagents, target the white-collar grunt work common at banks, asset managers, and insurers. The rollout is the latest in a series of AI agent deployments across the wealth and investment industry.
In recent months, several firms have introduced or upgraded AI agents. Raymond James launched its proprietary chat agent and an AI Academy. BNY and Goldman Sachs deployed so-called digital employees. Wealth.com introduced estate and tax planning bots. Altruist's Hazel agent drew attention, though it was not the cause of an April selloff in the wealth sector. Wells Fargo also unveiled an AI-enhanced advisor gateway.
For advisors already integrating AI into their practices, Anthropic's move creates urgency around defining what the technology can handle and what should remain off-limits. Andrew Altfest, president of Altfest Personal Wealth Management and founder of FP Alpha, has embedded AI into his firm's workflow. He argues that time savings from AI should be reinvested into client relationships, not just operational efficiency.
“We are doubling down on human relationships,” Altfest said. “Where an email would suffice, pick up the phone; where a phone would suffice, do a video; where a video would suffice, go see the client.” He added that AI can elevate someone with limited knowledge but still requires human review. “If I had an assistant, wouldn't I want to review the assistant's work first?”
Brian Green, chief product officer at Merit Financial Advisors, said some tasks remain manual because the act of reviewing them reinforces accountability. “Things like trade requests, reviewing the details, seeing the magnitude of the numbers … It reinforces that this is someone's life savings and not just data moving through the system,” Green said. “That moment of personal accountability is important, especially for developing advisors.”
Both Altfest and Green highlighted that analytically correct recommendations may not suit every client. “Very few decisions in this industry are black and white,” Altfest said. “The 80-year-old widow may prefer simplicity over optimizing every last cent – those things matter and AI can't capture that.” Green added that “any moment where context, nuance or consequences matter more than optimization” is where he is least comfortable handing judgment to an algorithm.
On the client-facing side, both executives stressed that human involvement is critical when conversations turn personal. “Clients expect a human to be listening when the conversation turns emotional, uncertain, or personal,” Green said. Altfest noted that live interactions require real-time responses: “No one can Gemini their way out of a live question.”
Anthropic's announcement emphasized that users remain in control. “Users stay firmly in the loop – reviewing, iterating on, and approving Claude's work before it goes to a client, gets filed, or is acted on,” the company stated. Green and Altfest agreed that accountability is the ultimate boundary. “The line is accountability,” Green said. “AI can surface insights, model scenarios, and speed up execution, but when a recommendation affects someone's retirement, family or sense of security, a human must own the decision.”
