When Phil Wickenden says Hazel “put a clock on the economics of advice,” the key insight is this:
Markets weren’t reacting to today’s AI. They were repricing the future business model of advice firms.
The sell-off in St James’s Place, AJ Bell, Quilter, Aberdeen, LPL Financial, Raymond James, and Charles Schwab was not about revenue today.
It was about margin compression tomorrow.
And the catalyst: Altruist’s Hazel.
The Three Structural Shifts Advisers Must Internalise
1. Scarcity Is Ending
AI increases adviser capacity per client.
When capacity rises, pricing power falls.
Old model:
“This is expensive because it’s complex.”
New reality:
“This is cheap because machines handle complexity.”
Implication: technical planning is commoditising.
2. Premium Is Moving Up the Value Chain
When tax modelling and scenario analysis become instant:
- they stop being premium services
- they become expected baseline features
Clients will still pay — but for:
- judgement
- interpretation
- accountability
- emotional regulation
- decision discipline
Translation: value shifts from calculation to consequence guidance.
3. The Relationship Anchor Is Migrating
Historically:
client → adviser → tools
Emerging:
client → AI platform → adviser (escalation layer)
This is the deepest structural change.
The adviser is no longer the default entry point.
They become the specialist called when stakes are high.
What This Means Specifically for Total Wealth Planners
This development is not a threat to your model — it validates it.
Because the Total Wealth Planner proposition is already aligned with where economics are moving:
| Old Advice Model | Emerging Model | Total Wealth Position |
|---|---|---|
| Sell knowledge | Interpret knowledge | Design outcomes |
| Paid for analysis | Paid for judgement | Paid for transformation |
| Product-led | Platform-led | Human-capital-led |
| Transactional | Behavioural | Developmental |
In other words:
AI compresses technical value
Total Wealth expands human value
The Real Competitive Divide (Next 10 Years)
Not adviser vs AI.
It will be:
Technical planners vs integrated planners.
The winners will be professionals who can combine:
- AI tools
- behavioural coaching
- life design
- decision architecture
- intergenerational facilitation
That combination is hard to automate.
The Strategic Signal Most Advisers Miss
The article’s most important line is subtle:
“Average advice becomes harder to justify.”
Markets aren’t saying advice disappears.
They’re saying mediocre advice becomes unviable.
Which means the profession isn’t shrinking.
It’s stratifying.
Future structure:
- AI-only planning for mass market
- elite human planners for complex lives
- very little middle ground
Strategic Takeaway for Your Movement
This news story is not about a product launch.
It’s a timestamp.
It marks the moment the market publicly acknowledged:
Advice economics have entered countdown mode.
And that creates a window — not a threat — for planners willing to evolve their identity before the industry is forced to.
Bottom line insight:
Hazel doesn’t replace advisers.
It replaces advisers who define themselves by tasks machines can now do.
Total Wealth Planners, by contrast, define themselves by outcomes machines cannot.
Academy of Life Planning 