Former KPMG Adviser Launches AI Advisory Service for Wealthy Families

Tony Cowell, who left KPMG in 2023 after three decades advising hedge funds and private equity funds in the Cayman Islands, has launched a new AI advisory platform aimed at wealthy families and investors.

When the old guard was leaving

Until recently, advising the ultra-wealthy remained a craft: personal relationships, years of experience, an adviser's intuition, access to closed investment syndicates. When Cowell started his career in finance, artificial intelligence seemed like science fiction. By 2023, when he decided to retire, many still saw AI as an experimental tool.

"I watched ChatGPT and other large language models transform what I had done by hand for 30 years,"

Cowell said.

Instead of retiring for good, he decided to retrain and build a service that combines his experience with the new capabilities of AI.

What the platform offers

It automates key wealth management functions that used to require the constant presence of an experienced adviser:

• Real-time portfolio analysis and asset rebalancing recommendations
• Personalized tax planning that accounts for international jurisdictions
• Tracking of regulatory requirements and compliance obligations
• Long-term financial strategies based on life goals and time horizons
• Integration with asset management platforms and brokers

The target audience is families and investors with assets above $10 million who want to digitize wealth management and get analysis at machine speed, but are not ready to give up human judgment entirely.

A new wave in financial services

The market for managing the capital of wealthy investors has historically been conservative. KPMG, Deloitte and other large consultancies spent years without integrating AI into their core processes, fearing a loss of trust and wanting to protect high margins. But once ChatGPT demonstrated it could process complex financial documents and generate investment strategies, demand for automation rose sharply.

Cowell combines deep experience in traditional finance with an understanding of new technology. His service competes with the partial automation offered by the big players, but is positioned as a more flexible, faster and more affordable alternative.

What this means

The arrival of AI advisory for the HNWI segment signals that even the most conservative parts of the financial industry are undergoing digital transformation. For wealthy clients, this may mean access to faster and cheaper strategies. For traditional advisers, it means a risk of obsolescence if they fail to adapt.