Financial planning has traditionally centered on major milestones such as buying a home, changing jobs, or preparing for retirement. But many of a person’s money decisions happen between those moments, when decisions about spending, saving, and debt can still shape whether those larger goals stay on track. For many consumers, those everyday decisions fall outside the traditional financial-planning relationship. At times, they assume their situation isn’t sophisticated enough for a financial planner.
SoFi Coach, an AI-powered financial guide launched in June this year, takes a different approach by bringing financial guidance into those everyday decisions. Rather than waiting for a member to seek out a planner around a major life event, Coach stays connected to the financial context the member has already shared and uses it to shape its guidance. A member saving for a home, for example, can ask about taking an expensive vacation and get advice that considers that larger goal. Coach can also suggest concrete next steps, such as opening a Vault for a savings goal, with the member approving each action.
More than 200,000 members used Coach during a recent 30-day period, according to SoFi. In early testing, nearly 70% of engaged test members took action based on Coach’s guidance, including paying down high-interest debt and moving money into higher-yield accounts.
Tearsheet Managing Editor, Sara Khairi, spoke with Lauren Anastasio, SoFi’s Principal Financial Planning Expert, about how Coach brings planning into everyday money decisions. The discussion explores how SoFi is using AI to make financial guidance more continuous and contextual, where the tech can add value, and where human financial advisors still fit.
Q: What is AI changing about how people approach financial planning?
Financial planning has a timing problem. People are expected to think about their financial lives at defined moments – when they meet with an advisor, change jobs, buy a house, have a child, or start thinking seriously about retirement. But most money decisions happen in between those milestones: Should I pay down this credit card or keep the cash in savings? Spend more on rent and push my home-buying goal further away? These decisions may seem too small or immediate to warrant a meeting with a financial planner, but they can shape whether someone ultimately reaches their goals and when.
SoFi Coach is a useful example of how financial planning could evolve in an AI-driven world. Launched this summer as an AI-powered financial guide, Coach has already been used by more than 200,000 members in a recent 30-day period, generating nearly half a million conversations. The questions span the traditional boundaries of financial planning: 31% focused on investing, 29% on budgeting and cash flow, 19% on debt and loan payments, 11% on retirement, and 6% on net worth.
Members may not think they’re building a financial plan when they use Coach, as they’re simply trying to make sense of the money decisions in front of them. But those decisions add up over time, pointing to a different model of financial planning that fits into everyday life and evolves continuously rather than being revisited only at set intervals.
Making financial planning part of everyday decisions
Lauren Anastasio, Principal Financial Planning Expert at SoFi
Lauren Anastasio, Principal Financial Planning Expert at SoFi, has spent years talking with members about their finances. One thing she has heard repeatedly is that people sometimes feel their financial situation is not important or sophisticated enough to warrant professional advice.
Launching a startup is challenging. It becomes even more difficult when tackling personal and business finances that confound entrepreneurs. Enter Uprise, the brainchild of Jessica Chen Riolfi and her co-founders. Uprise offers human-driven financial advisory services embedded into small business (SMB) platforms, like banks or personal finance sites.
Uprise addresses the unique financial needs of entrepreneurs which include dealing with personal and professional cashflow. Jessica has extensive experience from companies like Robinhood, Earnin, Wise, and eBay. This background drives her approach to financial services.
Jessica shares, “Financial advisory, in this context, combines personal and business finances. It helps entrepreneurs make holistic financial decisions.” Lack of personalized financial advisory services at Robinhood inspired the genesis of Uprise, especially for SMBs. Jessica shares a passion for simplifying financial products with her co-founders Chris and Nantha. Together, they work to make financial solutions more accessible, bridging the gap between business and personal finance for small business owners.
Uprise initially targeted Gen Z and millennials but quickly pivoted to focus on older SMB owners. This shift met the growing demand for comprehensive financial advice. It specifically targeted consultants, freelancers, and creators. “The small business world is one where personal and financial lives are intermingled,” Jessica notes. She underscores the intricate needs of her firm’s clientele.
The genesis of Uprise
Uprise emerges from a vision shared by Jessica and her co-founders, Chris and Nantha. They noticed the gap in financial advisory services for SMBs, where personal and business finances often overlap. As Jessica puts it, “We help them make financial decisions. And we kind of ignore the line between business and personal.” This approach recognizes the unique needs of entrepreneurs.
Role of embedded finance in Small Business growth
Embedded finance is at the core of Uprise’s model. It is integrated into SMB platforms and Jessica explains, “Every small business owner interacting with our platform is assigned a human advisor.” This strategy not only builds trust but also addresses the specific financial advisory needs of SMBs. It offers a personalized experience. Jessica highlights the importance of understanding the distinct needs of different SMB sectors.
For example, therapists using the vertical SaaS platform, Heard, prioritize personal relationships. This prompted Uprise to offer more direct communication channels like Zoom calls. “Calls matter a lot to therapists,” Jessica observes. She illustrates Uprise’s adaptability to various client preferences.
Financial planning for entrepreneurs
Uprise has tailored its services to the intricate financial landscapes faced by entrepreneurs. Jessica emphasizes the importance of understanding personal and business finances. She highlights how they are interconnected. She offers advice on entity setup, retirement account options, and mortgage applications. “These are business-related questions, but they very much impact their finances,” Jessica emphasizes. She highlights Uprise’s holistic approach.
Building successful partnerships with SMB platforms
Uprise’s success is intertwined with its partnerships, where Jessica sees a collaborative effort. She notes, “It’s very much a revenue driver for our partners, who are SMB platforms.” Uprise customizes its offerings to meet the unique needs of each platform. This ensures that both partners and end users enjoy their financial advisory services.
The Big Ideas
Uprise focuses on the integration of personal and business finances. “We help them make financial decisions and we kind of ignore the line between business and personal” Jessica explains. She emphasizes the interconnected nature of entrepreneurs’ financial lives.
Personalized financial advisory as offered by Uprise. Jessica states, “Every small business owner who interacts with our platform is assigned to a human advisor.” This ensures that tailored financial advice is adapted to individual circumstances.
Crawl, Walk, Run Approach: “We very much believe in sort of a crawl-walk-run type of embedded approach,” Jessica describes. She highlights Uprise’s phased integration strategy with partners. The purpose is to ensure successful deployment and user adoption.
Uprise focuses on revenue generation for partners. “It’s very much a revenue driver for our partners, who are SMB platforms,” Jessica notes. She highlights how Uprise’s model serves as a revenue generator for its SMB platform partners.
Continuous product evolution is a key attribute of Uprise. “Making sure that our product continues to scale with the new customers coming on board,” Jessica says. She emphasizes Uprise’s commitment to ongoing product development. The aim is to enhance advisor efficiency and meet diverse client needs.
So, top-dog personal finance website, Mint.com, just announced a further step into financial planning with some goals-based tools to help users plan financially for the future.
Mint’s new Goals feature seeks to take the difficulty out of both setting goals and regularly tracking your progress towards those goals. With a few clicks of the mouse, you can set up a savings goal, and then use Mint.com to help you achieve that goal.
Using Goals for Saving for the Future
So, if a Mint user wanted to save for something like home improvements, they’d use Goals to:
Set funding source
Set goal dollar amount
Blend in financing options
Establish target date
Specify monthly savings target
Makes perfect sense, right?
So, the move from helping people track to helping them plan is an obvious one and a good move for Mint.
And Mint’s revenue model/value proposition work well for this foray into planning. I assume Mint will begin to gain referral fees as they recommend loans, travel services — anything that helps assist in the savings and planning process.
We’ve seen investment platforms begin to automate professional grade services to their client in an effort to round out their offering and attract full-service clients (see my review of E*Trade’s Online Adviser). Now, we’re seeing personal finance sites begin to creep into the financial planning/investing/future-oriented space.
What get’s me juiced is that sites like Mint have a TON of information about their users — the type of information the investment portals and online brokers drool over. This positions them better for a move into investing — much like the much ballyhooed-TechCrunch Disrupt-winner Betterment is focused on.
Additional Resources
Mint.com Expands Into Financial Planning Tools (NY Times)
How To Set and Track Financial Goals With Mint (Mint blog)
