Pershing unleashes AI tools amid ‘foundational change’

Financial advisors can handle the important questions from clients. For the others, they'll soon have chatbots.

So says Michelle Feinstein, the director of technology and client engagement at BNY Mellon Pershing. The clearing and custody giant oversees $1.9 trillion in client assets, and Feinstein’s team is creating tools that will enable advisors to leverage artificial intelligence and predictive analytics.

Pershing recently launched what it calls “Money in Motion,” a predictive tool displaying the flows in and out of a practice or a portfolio. AI tools are expected to roll out by about the beginning of next year, Feinstein said in an interview with Financial Planning Senior Editor Tobias Salinger.

Feinstein also discussed the ongoing “foundational change” at Pershing to advisory services, its approach to software integrations across its 1,300 clients among broker-dealers, RIAs, banks and other firms and how future tools under development will also leverage behavioral finance.

Advisors’ ability to tap into such tech tools will revolve around three factors, according to Feinstein. Advisors will need training, approval from their compliance departments and an openness to learning new operational processes, she says.

“It is a new world. The technology is here to stay. And in order for these advisors to show up differently and attract the next generation, they need to be using it to some extent,” Feinstein says. “If they can get the right training, if they can get the right incentives for adoption, if their compliance can get behind it, the barriers should come down.”