If you've been watching the World Cup this summer, you've seen these moments where the crowd takes a collective breath. A player slides in for a tackle. The referee blows the whistle. The stadium shares its opinion of the call while the call gets reviewed. Moments later, the decision is confirmed or overturned, and the game moves on with the knowledge that the right call was made (not that the fans always agree).
That's VAR. Video Assistant Referee technology. And depending on who you ask, it's either the best thing to happen to soccer in a generation or the most frustrating innovation the sport has ever seen. What almost nobody disputes is that it has made the game more accurate at the moments that matter most.
It has also become one of the clearest illustrations I've seen of what AI is actually supposed to do in a professional context. Not take over or replace people. Rather, it intends to give the people responsible for the outcome better information before they make an important decision. Of course, like VAR, some people love it, others hate it and the majority of us sit somewhere in the middle.
That idea has implications to consider as we think about how AI fits in wealth management right now.
What VAR Actually Does
Before drawing its parallels to investing, it's worth being clear about what VAR does and doesn't do, because the misconception about one mirrors the misconception about the other almost exactly.
VAR does not play the game. It doesn't select the starting lineup, determine the tactical formation, or decide when to bring on a substitute. It doesn't replace the referee standing on the pitch or remove the manager from the sideline. What it does is review specific high-stakes moments such as goals, penalties, and red card incidents. This provides the officials with better data before a final decision is made. The referee still blows the whistle. The call is still theirs to make. VAR just makes sure that the call is informed by everything available rather than one official's view from thirty yards away at full speed.
When it was introduced, the reaction was mixed. Purists felt it removed the human element from the game. Others worried it would slow everything down and interrupts the flow that makes soccer worth watching. Some of those concerns turned out to be valid. VAR has had its share of controversial moments and calls that still didn't land right, even with the benefit of replay. But its overall impact is harder to argue. High-stakes decisions made with better information tend to be better decisions.
The Same Logic Applies to Your Portfolio
AI tools in wealth management operate on the same principle. They don't manage portfolios independently. They don't replace the conversations advisors have with their clients or make financial decisions on anyone's behalf. What they do is review, analyze, flag, and inform in ways that improve the quality of the decisions and the overall plan.
The processing capability alone has changed the landscape considerably. AI can analyze thousands of data points across a portfolio in the time it takes to have a single client conversation. It identifies concentration risks, surfaces exposures that might not be visible in a standard review, and is capable of stress testing the portfolio against a range of market scenarios. Tax inefficiencies that could cost a family real money over a decade can be flagged sooner. Risks that live in the gap between asset classes, or between a financial plan and the life circumstances it was built around, become visible in ways they simply weren't before.
None of that replaces the advisor. Rather, it makes the advisor more useful.
The families who benefit most from AI-enhanced advisory work aren't the ones handing decisions to an algorithm. They're the ones working with advisors who treat these tools the way good referees treat VAR. As a resource that enhances judgment rather than substitutes for it.
The Players Still Play. The Manager Still Leads.
This is the part of the conversation that gets lost when people talk about AI in any professional field, and it matters a great deal in wealth management.
Watch any World Cup manager during a match, and you'll notice something that no data set captures. They're reading things the cameras don't always catch. The body language of a player who ran hard in the first half and has another thirty minutes left in him. The shift in momentum before the scoreboard reflects it. The tactical adjustment that needs to happen now, not in five minutes. A good manager knows his players in ways that go well beyond their statistics, their history under pressure, how they respond when faced with adversity, and what they need to hear at halftime versus what they need to be allowed to figure out.
The relationship between a financial advisor and a client works the same way. An AI model can stress test a portfolio against a hundred different market scenarios. It cannot tell you that a client is more anxious about sequence-of-returns risk than their questionnaire suggested because their parents ran out of money late in life. It cannot read the room when a family is having a harder conversation about inheritance than the estate documents reflect. It cannot weigh the emotions of a business owner who built something over thirty years and is now being asked to consider what selling it actually means beyond the transaction value.
Those things require a person who knows the client. The technology informs the conversation. The advisor leads it.
For the families I work with, what AI tools have changed is the quality of preparation that goes into every meeting and recommendation. What hasn't changed is that the relationship, the judgment, and the accountability for getting it right are still mine. That's not a limitation of the technology. It's the point.
When VAR Gets It Wrong
VAR is not perfect, and neither is AI.
Anyone watching this World Cup will see moments where VAR reviewed a call, took what felt like forever, and arrived at a decision that left half the stadium unconvinced. Technology operates within the boundaries of the data it has access to and the questions it was set up to answer. It can miss context and be applied inconsistently. And when it is wrong in a high-profile moment, the fallout is experienced by millions of people.
AI in investing carries parallel limitations that any serious advisor should be honest about. Models trained on historical data have genuine blind spots when markets behave in ways that have no real precedent. The assumptions built into a scenario analysis are only as good as the framework that generated them. AI can identify patterns with impressive precision and still be caught off guard by the unexpected event that defines a market era.
Over-relying on any single tool, technical or otherwise, creates its own category of risk. The advisor's role includes knowing when to trust what the model is showing and when to override it based on judgment, client context, and pattern recognition that only comes from years of experience sitting with real people through real market challenges. Good technology paired with poor judgment produces poor outcomes. The human layer is not a nice addition to AI-enhanced advisory work. It is the thing that makes the whole system work the way it should.
What This Looks Like in Practice
When I sit down with a client today, the preparation that went into that meeting looks different than it did ten years ago. AI tools have changed what I'm able to see before you walk into the room. Concentration exposures that might have taken a full portfolio review to surface are visible immediately. Tax implications across accounts can be identified and quantified. Scenario modeling that used to require significant time and manual calculation now happens in a fraction of that, which means more of the conversation can be spent on what the numbers actually mean for the client’s financial plan.
What that preparation doesn't replace is the conversation itself. The questions that reveal the clients goals and how they’ve changed over time. The moments where the right thing to say isn't a data point but a perspective from someone who has seen similar situations play out over time. The judgment calls that have nothing to do with analytics and everything to do with knowing you and your needs.
The best advisory relationships I've seen, and the ones I try to build with every client, aren't defined by the sophistication of the technology behind them. They're defined by what that technology makes possible when it's in the hands of someone who understands how to use it.
Back to the Pitch
The teams still standing in this World Cup aren't the ones who handed their strategy to a computer and waited for the answer. They're the ones whose managers used every available resource, including data, analytics, opponent modeling, and then trusted their players to perform under pressure when it mattered most. The best outcomes in soccer and in wealth management come similarly. Preparation, the right tools, sound judgment, and a person who is accountable for the result. Technology raises the floor on decision quality. It doesn't replace the person responsible for making the call.
If you've been thinking about how AI fits into your financial plan, or you're curious how it factors into the work we do together, that conversation is always worth having. The tools have gotten better. The commitment to getting it right for the people who trust us hasn't changed, and it never will.
This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or investment advice. Please consult with a qualified financial professional regarding your specific situation.