More than half of U.S. adults now use AI to help manage personal finances, the TD Bank survey reported, a jump that has pushed large language models into everyday money decisions 55% of Americans.
MarketWatch reported that LLMs such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini have made advice widely accessible but also bring a high volume of misleading or incomplete guidance.
"AI is a remarkable tool when used properly," said David Schneider, a certified financial planner at Schneider Wealth Strategies.
Advisers say the machines miss the human and behavioral dimensions of planning, and they pointed out that AI has no such responsibility to act as a fiduciary.
Practical harms include an AI-drafted estate plan that, as one planner described, omitted a critical state-specific provision required for a properly structured Special Needs Trust.
Other examples from advisers included AI recommending illiquid investments, private credit, and hedge funds without understanding a client’s liquidity needs.
Advisers also flagged routine tax-planning errors, such as AI assuming clients should do it all in one year for a Roth IRA conversion rather than staging conversions.
The consensus from planners MarketWatch interviewed: use AI for calculations and to generate questions, but fact-check outputs and keep a human, fiduciary adviser involved.
