As more Americans navigate increasingly complex financial decisions, a growing disconnect has emerged between people who say they value financial advice and those who actually work with advisors.
According to Vaughn Bowman, CFA, head of wealth management with the issue is rooted in both the complexity of modern financial lives and the evolving ways people seek information.
“The financial environment has grown exponentially more complicated and so have people’s financial lives,” Bowman told InvestmentNews. “They have become more complex and nuanced, beginning at younger ages today with all of the choices and options available.”
Despite rapid advances in technology, Bowman believes the human element of advice will remain essential.
“Despite rapid advances in digital tools, the future of financial guidance will be built on enduring human strengths and the premium on human-led advice will persist,” Bowman said.
That challenge has become more pronounced as younger investors increasingly turn to financial influencers and artificial intelligence tools for guidance. While Bowman sees value in these resources, he cautioned against viewing them as substitutes for professional advice.
“Advisors are an addition to the mix. Not a replacement,” Bowman said.
He added that online personalities and AI platforms can play an important educational role for younger investors.
“Fininfluencers and AI tools open the door to new concepts, ideas and perspectives that young investors may not have thought about,” Bowman said. “They can help expand their minds to be curious and to formulate questions. They cannot, however, fully address someone’s full financial picture.”
As AI adoption accelerates across the financial services industry, Bowman expects it to significantly reshape how advisors operate over the next several years, particularly in terms of efficiency and scalability. But he does not believe the transition will happen overnight.
“AI is powerful, and it will change the way financial advice is delivered,” Bowman said. “But the pace and impact could be more gradual and uneven than some predictions suggest. Real breakthroughs may likely come from steady, deliberate integration over time.”
He expects the industry’s top-performing firms to increasingly combine specialized advisor teams with AI-powered support systems.
“I expect that the fastest-growing advisors will be part of well-structured teams using agentic AI to prepare and assist with client interactions,” Bowman said. “Platforms that allow team members to specialize will be essential, as will the ability to manage complex family dynamics across generations.”
Even as automation expands, Bowman argued that the foundation of the advisor-client relationship will remain deeply personal.
“Yet the core of the profession will remain the same: people trusting other people to guide them through complexity,” he said.
For Bowman, that human role becomes especially important when financial decisions involve uncertainty, nuance and emotional judgment — areas where he believes AI still struggles.
“Today, AI excels at narrow, well-defined tasks: analyzing large data sets, drafting reports, streamlining compliance checks,” Bowman said. “But when it comes to real-world complexity — understanding contexts and nuances, synthesizing shifting market signals, making judgment calls under uncertainty, and assessing the impacts of one financial decision on another — it falls short.”
The growing amount of online financial information has also created new challenges for advisors trying to connect with consumers before costly mistakes happen. Rather than discouraging independent research, Bowman believes advisors should position themselves as complements to it.
“Conducting online research is an ‘and’ -- not an ‘or’ – alongside the guidance of credible, credentialed experts when it comes to your finances,” Bowman said.
He acknowledged that people naturally seek input from multiple sources.
“Online research and talking with family and friends plays a role,” Bowman said. “It opens the door to new concepts, ideas and perspectives that you may not have thought about. It expands your mind to be curious and to formulate questions. It does not take the place of human expertise.”
Bowman also sees financial planning as the central pillar of a modern advisory relationship, particularly as firms work to integrate investing, insurance protection and long-term planning into a seamless client experience.
“Everything starts with planning,” Bowman said. “Financial planning is the connective tissue—the ‘zipper’—that brings protection and wealth together. It reframes the conversation from ‘What should I buy?’ to ‘What outcomes are we funding and protecting over time?’”
Creating a more integrated client experience requires firms to simplify how information flows across the advisory relationship, he added.
“A truly modern client experience operationalizes that relationship,” Bowman said. “Client information is entered once—through a single fact find and unified household record—and reused everywhere. Onboarding, implementation, and ongoing reviews flow seamlessly and consistently.”
“The result is one relationship and one integrated workflow,” he continued. “Clients experience a single, cohesive financial picture, while advisors can naturally connect goals, investments, and protection—without forcing clients to move through disconnected product journeys. Planning becomes not an event, but a continuous relationship that evolves with the client over time.”
When it comes to engaging younger investors earlier, Bowman said personal relationships and referrals still matter most.
“Introductions to financial advisors by trusted family members and friends can be helpful,” Bowman said, “bringing younger clients into the fold early on, letting them observe the value of planning and working with an advisor firsthand, and simply getting started.”
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