RIA startup Range plans to eliminate its advisor workforce as AI takes over

Range, a Virginia-based registered investment advisor managing about $700 million in client assets, plans to eliminate much of its advisor workforce within one to three years as AI replaces their roles, according to CEO Fahad Hassan.

“Over time, let's say over the next one to three years, our plan is to eliminate our own advisor base, or maybe have them work with ultra-high-net-worth individuals who no matter how good the AI is, they just want to talk to a person,” Hassan told InvestmentNews. “Our belief is if you are 50 or 60 years old and under, you're going to be comfortable with AI doing everything for you over the next probably decade.”

Range’s website currently lists names and faces of 26 financial planners on its staff, many holding CFP and CPA designations. According to its latest Form ADV filing from August 2025, Range Advisory LLC reported having 17 investment advisor representatives.

Range raised $60 million last November to continue building its AI wealth advisor tool called Rai, which the company says scored 95% on CFP exam practice questions. Investors in Range include the Google-affiliated Gradient Ventures and the 53 Stations venture capital firm backed by The Pritzker Organization.

Anthropic’s recent release of AI wealth management plug-ins for RIAs and broker-dealers has brought new attention to how AI could disrupt the financial advice industry. This week saw Morgan Stanley cut 2,500 jobs, while fintech giant Block said in February that AI usage was driving the company to lay off 40% of its workforce. 

“Our whole business is to build software for the consumer. We want to get rid of the advisor altogether,” said Hassan. “So if Anthropic is building tools for advisors, that kind of goes against our overall philosophy that, if AI is so good and you couple that with fantastic software, what is an advisor exactly doing for you? Why are you paying them?”

Rather than a 1% fee that advisors traditionally charge to manage portfolios, the Range app’s subscription model offers three annual flat-fee tiers—$3,000, $6,000, or $10,000. The tiers offer different levels of financial services across investing, portfolio management, real estate holdings, estate planning, taxes, retirement planning, equity compensation support, and more. 

“We have human financial advisors today because we're still building up the tech stack. Our journey has been since day one, let's hire a bunch of financial advisors—let's see what they do, how they think, what makes them amazing financial advisors. We had to deeply learn that,” said Hassan. “Our financial advisors are using internal Range tools to deliver services to our customers. But what we did about six months ago is we flipped a switch. Our advisors aren't just using the tools, now AI is using the tools we've built for advisors.”

Range custodies assets with Altruist, the startup that released an AI-powered tax assistant last month. More than 6,000 clients across roughly 3,100 households are Range users, according to Hassan. Hassan co-founded Range in 2021 with David Cusatis, a former software engineer at the Amazon-owned Twitch who now serves as chief AI architect at Range. 

Despite wanting to “get rid of the advisor altogether” — Range’s website currently lists seven open advisor roles for financial planners looking to be hired across New York City, McLean, VA, and Bellevue, WA. Hassan explained that Range is “really upfront” with its advisor staff about AI’s incoming job impact, and many employees still envision an upward career trajectory. 

“It's weird to join a company where your job is to automate your life away. So we get that, but the advisors that work for us see the future,” said Hassan. “They're like, I want to help you automate this job away in the hopes that I become a product manager in the future, an education expert of some kind or program manager at a tech company. For a lot of them, they're doing this for a career transition in a field they're passionate about.”