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A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.

Market data firms have been pitching artificial intelligence as the key to locating elusive ultra-high-net-worth clients. But leaders at elite advisory firms told Inside Wealth they aren’t sold.

For starters, while AI products can surface data and contact information on ultra-high-net-worth individuals, that’s only half the battle.

“When we’re looking for clients with north of $100 million, I struggle to think they’re going to take a cold email and say, ‘Yes, here’s my balance sheet,'” said Matthew Fleissig, CEO and co-founder of Pathstone, a registered investor advisory with $182 billion in client assets.

Instead, he said referrals come when the company works on a more personal level, like when Pathstone once secured a private jet in under an hour for a client who needed to get from New Orleans to Albany, New York, before their mother died.

“Those types of things are how we are able to grow the business,” he said. “We create moments that matter.”

Fleissig said AI for client prospecting hasn’t been the gamechanger that startups purport it to be.

“These databases have been around forever, and now people have added an AI overlay to be able to mine the database,” he said. “Most of the time, it’s very similar strategies of aggregating data sources that are public or you can pay for, and trying to feed you lists of people. We, at this point, can do that ourselves.”

A growth executive at a high-end national RIA told Inside Wealth that he had done at least 20 demos of AI client prospecting tools in the past six months and said most are built on widely available large language models like Claude and GPT.

“You’re slapping a coat of paint on one of five major LLMs and selling through the fact that ‘Oh our info is better,'” said the executive, who requested anonymity to talk about client acquisition strategies. “Do I pay them $100,000 or do I talk to my IT team and figure out a way of doing it for cents on the dollar?”

Andrew Douglass, head of growth at AlTi Tiedemann Global, said there is little competitive advantage to using nonexclusive data. When the independent wealth management firm used to cold call clients from these types of databases, the client usually already had an advisor or had been called by dozens of other firms already, he said.

For the past five years, client referrals and personal networks have made up 40% and 30%, respectively, of AlTi’s organic growth, he said. Another 30% comes from networking with experts like trusts and estates lawyers and accountants who are likely to be working with clients going through a liquidity event, such as inheriting a fortune or selling a business.

“Most people go out and say, ‘Our minimums are $25 million so whoever has $25 million in liquid assets makes a great client.’ We don’t think that that is a strategy that ultimately works,” said Douglass, calling from the Heckerling estate planning conference in Orlando, Florida. “We think really being looked at in the market as a subject matter expert, consistently showing up to places like Heckerling and where the professional community is and being able to provide value, is the most effective way to grow the business,”

Word-of-mouth referrals are not inherently scalable and can be slow-going. Douglass said the sales cycle with an ultra-high-net-worth client can take 12 months, if not longer.

However, advisories focused on the ultra-rich like AlTi Global are looking for quality, not quantity, he said. The firm’s annual target for organic growth is 25 to 30 new clients in the U.S., which could add about $1.5 billion to $2 billion in new assets.

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Eden Ovadia, CEO of AI client prospecting startup Finny, said she is used to encountering skepticism. Ovadia, who co-founded Finny in late 2023, said she views AI prospecting as a complement to traditional outreach rather than a replacement.

She said a popular way for high-end advisors to use Finny is to promote exclusive events to the right audience. For instance, an advisor looking to invite prospects to a suite at a Miami Heat game can use Finny to identify people who work in real estate and are interested in the team. Ovadia also said Finny can be used to identify clients who might need advice after a life transition, such as finding people who recently bought a property worth at least $5 million near Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

“There’s definitely a little bit of cynicism we have to get over when we talk to ultra-high-net-worth firms and they’re, ‘No, we don’t do AI. We want everything to feel really personalized, really white glove,'” she said. “I couldn’t agree more. The idea here is we actually can surface more data about your clients or your prospects than even you know.”

Finny can also be used to keep an eye on existing clients and monitor for signs they may be unhappy, such as searching for investment advice online, Ovadia said.

Fleissig said he is more excited about customers finding Pathstone through AI platforms like Gemini and ChatGPT. In the past two weeks, he said, Pathstone has received five inbound inquiries from clients worth at least $100 million from AI search engines.

Douglass said while AI hasn’t changed the way AlTi Global finds new business, he’s open-minded.

“If someone has a better mousetrap, we’re certainly excited about what the market’s going to look like and bring to bear,” he said.

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Millionaires are increasingly dissatisfied with their wealth managers and accountants, but they prize their personal trainers and therapists, according to a new survey.

Only a third of millionaires use a wealth advisor for their financial planning and 1 in 5 plan to fire their advisor due to high costs and poor service, according to a new survey from Long Angle, the professional network for startup founders and CEOs. Among those who do use an advisor, 26% are considering switching and 18% may stop using an advisor altogether.

By contrast, millionaires are highly satisfied with their personal trainers, therapists and other professionals who help with their overall wellness and family care, rather than financial issues.

“Improving your balance sheet or bank account doesn’t deliver the same emotional value as improving your health and family life,” said Chris Bendtsen, market intelligence lead at Long Angle. “Services for personal well-being or your children score the highest.”

The results highlight the growing importance of so-called “soft services” for the wealthy, as wealth managers, private banks and other firms look to attract and retain more high-net-worth clients. Once considered superficial next to financial advice and tax planning, services for health and wellness, family and kids, and travel and self-improvement are becoming core competencies in the business of advising and helping wealthy families.

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For the study, Long Angle surveyed 114 people worth at least $2 million, with a majority having net worths of between $5 million and $25 million. It asked them to rank their satisfaction levels on 14 of the most common professional services used by the wealthy, from investment advice and estate planning to sports coaching and housekeeping.

Personal services, child care and education ranked at the top for satisfaction. Out of a score of 1 to 10, millionaires surveyed gave their personal trainers an average score of 9.3, the highest satisfaction for any category of service. They were also happy with their investment-visa advisors (8.8), followed by their personal sports coach and therapist. They also placed high values on services for their kids, including private school (8.3) and day care (8.2).

Financial, home and property services ranked at the bottom. The results for wealth management are especially notable. The satisfaction levels for wealth advisors was 7.2, with most of the respondents saying they don’t even use an advisor. The use of financial managers increases with wealth. Among those with $5 million or less in wealth, only 22% use an advisor, compared with 44% for those with $25 million or more.

Their chief complaint is cost. The median spending for financial advisors is $10,000 a year, according to the survey. A majority of respondents pay a fee based on a percentage of assets under management. A third of respondents pay a flat annual fee.

Many clients increasingly see asset-based fees as inherently lopsided, since the manager gets paid more simply as a function of asset size rather than performance or service quality. The frustration over costs is one reason more advisors are moving to flat fees.

“Flat fee structures reflect a growing client preference for transparent pricing and reduced conflicts of interest,” the report said.

Beyond cost, wealthy investors are also frustrated with service.

“The general feedback is that advisors are often slow to respond and the advice is not personalized,” Bendtsen said.

Accountants and tax lawyers didn’t fare much better. While 82% of respondents use a CPA or tax professional for their taxes, 42% are considering switching tax advisors. Their main complaints were that CPAs were slow to respond and weren’t proactive or strategic enough.

On estate planning, half of millionaires surveyed don’t use an estate lawyer, although their use is highly dependent on wealth levels. Among those with $25 million or more, 69% use an estate lawyer. When it comes to satisfaction levels, estate attorneys ranked below pool services.

The poor grades for financial and legal providers, and high marks for more personal services, go beyond the predictable emotional benefits of feeling and looking better every day. Athletic trainers, sports coaches, teachers and even housecleaners seem to be better at providing the kind of highly customized, goals-driven help that the wealthy are looking for, rather than cookie-cutter solutions commonly provided by wealth managers and lawyers.

“What we heard is that the wealth managers, estate lawyers and CPAs feel more transactional,” Bendtsen said. “They don’t feel personalized.”

Services for children also get high marks and a high share of the wealthy’s spending. The respondents spend an average of $53,558 a year on their nanny, $30,000 a year on private school and $20,000 a year on day care. Private school and day care both scored above an eight on satisfaction despite the price.

Therapy is becoming increasingly important to the wealthy, especially the younger rich. Millionaires gave their therapists an average high score of 8.3. Their median spending on therapy is $5,000 a year.

Nearly half (43%) of millionaires under the age of 40 use a therapist, compared to only 13% for millionaires over 50. Among those who use a therapist, the main benefits cited were quality of care and impact, as well as kindness and having a personal connection.

“I think people under 40 are more proactive about their mental health and emotional well being,” Bendtsen said.

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A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.

Over the next 25 years, more than $120 trillion in wealth will be passed down to inheritors, according to Cerulli Associates.

Only 27% of these future beneficiaries — primarily widows and children — plan to keep their benefactor’s wealth advisor, per Cerulli’s survey of investors with at least $250,000 in financial assets. The share drops to 20% for those who have already inherited their riches, according to the report released in September.

However, most heirs aren’t firing their benefactors’ wealth advisors in favor of self-directed investing and digital products. When asked why they chose another route, half of those surveyed said they already had their own advisor. The second-most popular reason, at 28%, was not having a relationship with their benefactors’ advisor. Only 14% said they didn’t want to work with a financial advisor at all, and 10% said the advisor didn’t meet their specific investment needs. Respondents to the survey could pick multiple reasons.

“Keep in mind, if the parents die in their 70s or 80s, the inheritor is between 40 and 60,” said John McKenna, research analyst at Cerulli. “In most of these cases, they have matured into wealth management clients. They have relationships, and they’re just going to be adding incrementally to their existing relationships rather than starting a new one with a legacy advisor.”

For their part, benefactors who are planning to pass their wealth down are largely ambivalent about whether their heirs use the same advisors despite saying they are largely satisfied with their service, Cerulli found. While just over a quarter of those surveyed said they wished their inheritors would keep their advisor, more than half said they were unsure or that it was up to their beneficiaries. Seven percent said they did not want their heirs to use their advisor, with the most popular reason being that the parties didn’t already have a relationship.

The crux of the problem, according to Scott Smith, senior director of advice relationships at Cerulli, is that clients are often reluctant to discuss their estate plans with their families. Even among investors with more than $5 million in financial assets, 20% said they intended for heirs to learn about their wealth after their death. The actual number of procrastinators is likely higher, as 34% of high-net-worth heirs said they were told these details after their benefactor died.

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“Benefactors believe that they will talk to their next generation about this stuff before they die,” said Smith. “But when we ask the next generation, these conversations didn’t happen.”

As a result, advisors may have few opportunities to talk to their client’s children and explain what they can offer, Smith said. It’s up to the advisor to encourage clients to stop putting off uncomfortable discussions, he said.

“Reinforce it with the primary contact that it’s important for the survivor to get involved early on so they have their feet securely on the ground and they aren’t panicking as soon as it happens,” he said. “It’s not just that we’re trying to retain the assets. We’re trying to make it easier for your survivor when you pass.”

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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon attend a Make America Healthy Again Commission event, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, May 22, 2025.

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

A key, revamped government panel of vaccine advisors appointed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will soon vote on a shot preservative that contains mercury, which is safely used in some flu jabs but has been incorrectly linked to autism in the past. 

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, will hear a presentation about the preservative, called thimerosal, at a planned meeting on June 26. The panel will also vote on “thimerosal-containing vaccine” recommendations, according to a draft agenda for the two-day meeting posted Wednesday. 

It is the panel’s first meeting with Kennedy’s newly appointed members, many of whom are well-known vaccine critics. He named the eight advisors last week after firing the previous 17 members of the committee, which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine policy.

It is unclear what will be discussed in the presentation or what exactly the panel will vote on.

Thimerosal has been widely used for decades as a preservative to prevent the growth of harmful bacteria in several medicines and vaccines with multiple doses. But its use in approved vaccines has dropped sharply as manufacturers have shifted to single-dose packaging for their shots, which don’t require preservatives. 

Some multi-dose forms of flu vaccines for adults still contain thimerosal, including Sanofi‘s Fluzone and two shots from biotech company CSL Seqirus. All vaccines routinely recommended for children 6 years of age and younger in the U.S. are available in formulations that do not contain thimerosal, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

The FDA and other health bodies have emphasized that many well-conducted scientific studies have found no link between thimerosal and autism, despite unfounded concerns decades ago about a potential connection.

“The scientific evidence collected over the past 20+ years does not show any evidence of harm, including serious neurodevelopmental disorders, from use of thimerosal in vaccines,” the FDA said on its website.

The new ACIP members will play a significant role in shaping immunization policy in the U.S., as the panel reviews vaccine data and makes recommendations that determine who is eligible for shots and whether insurers should cover them, among other efforts. The committee is also scheduled to review data and vote on other vaccines, including shots for Covid and RSV, during the two-day meeting.

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