AI for Advisors newsletter
Many advisors spend January making the same annual goals they later abandon by March.
You know the pattern. You sit down with good intentions, maybe review last year’s numbers, jot down some version of “grow AUM by 15%” or “improve client communication,” and promise yourself this year will be different. Then February hits, client demands pile up, and by spring you’re running the same practice you were 12 months ago.
The problem isn’t your discipline. It’s that typical year-end planning asks the wrong questions. It’s too generic, not grounded in the actual dynamics of your practice. It focuses entirely on addition—what you’ll start doing, what you’ll add, what new goals you’ll chase—without ever asking what you should stop. And because it’s aspirational rather than diagnostic, you never really know where to start. So, you copy last year’s template, change a few numbers, and call it done.
The real issue is this: You’re planning the practice you wish you had instead of designing forward from the practice you actually run.
A different approach: One prompt, guided conversation
What if instead of starting with goals, you started with reality? What if you faced, unsentimentally, what really happened last year—what worked, what didn’t, and what no longer fits—before making a single decision about 2026?
That’s what this “Annual Practice Audit” does. It’s an AI-guided decision-making process that walks you through the hard questions most advisors avoid.
You start with one prompt, a clear set of instructions you paste into ChatGPT. From there, the AI becomes your guide, asking questions one at a time and building on your actual answers. Nothing is generic or pre-filled because the entire conversation is shaped by what you tell it about your practice.
One advisor used this process and identified two client types he was quietly resenting and two services consuming 15 hours monthly without proportional returns. He stopped both before setting a single new year goal. That’s the difference: subtraction before addition.
The audit has two parts. Part I is an unsentimental review of the year that just past—what worked, what didn’t, where you lost time and energy, and what you’re releasing. Part II is forward planning with clear constraints—defining who you are as an advisor now, establishing your boundaries, and selecting three to five anchor goals that fit your actual capacity.
Your annual practice audit prompt
Remember, this is designed for private reflection, not client-facing content. No one sees this but you. Low pressure, high clarity. The goal is decisions that stick because they’re grounded in reality, not aspiration. Here’s the complete prompt that starts the process. Copy everything in italics below—the full, two-part prompt—paste it into ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, or Gemini, and you’re off:
The prompt:
Act as my strategic coach and facilitator for a grounded, decisive year-end review of my financial advisory practice (2025) and a goal-setting session for 2026. Avoid emotional processing or motivational fluff—keep it clean and focused on clarity, performance, and alignment.
Step 1: 2025 Practice Review
Start by guiding me through a clear review of my 2025 practice. Ask one question at a time to help me:
- Identify what worked well in my business.
- Acknowledge what didn’t serve my clients or my goals.
- Pinpoint where I lost time, energy, or focus (e.g., unproductive meetings, draining services, underused tech).
- Consciously release outdated client types, service models, or professional roles.
Wait for my responses before moving to the next item.
Step 2: 2026 Goal Planning
Once the review is complete, lead me through a strategic goal-planning process for 2026. Again, ask one question at a time to help me:
- Set goals that align with the advisor I am today.
- Prioritize clarity, authority, and sustainable growth.
- Ensure consistent revenue, protected time for deep work, and capacity for excellent client service.
- Define 3–5 high-impact, executable goals that maintain compliance and service quality.
What the AI will ask you
Once you paste and submit that prompt, ChatGPT will guide you through the audit step by step. You won’t see all the questions at once—the AI generates them based on your specific answers. But here’s a preview of the types of questions you’ll encounter. Don’t try to answer these now. Just start thinking about them.
Part I: 2025 Practice Review
The AI will walk you through an unsentimental look at what happened last year:
- What worked in 2025: Not what you tried hardest at, but what clearly worked based on actual results. This forces you to distinguish between what created results and what just kept you busy.
- Where you lost time, energy, or focus: Meetings that didn’t convert, tech you never used, manual processes you tolerated. You’ll estimate how many hours per month each drain cost you.
- What you’re releasing: You’ll complete statements like “In 2026, I no longer accept clients who...” These are exits, not preferences. Real behaviors you’re ending.
Part II: 2026 Goal Planning
The AI will guide you through forward planning with clear constraints:
- Who you are as an advisor now: What problems are you best suited to solve today? Where do you provide judgment, not just information? This becomes the filter for every 2026 goal.
- Your operating priorities: What must remain protected at all costs for your practice to function at a high level? These are hard boundaries around time, capacity, and service standards. Your goals must fit inside them.
- Three to five high-impact outcomes: Not tactics or what you’ll do, but what will be true by year’s end. Think revenue quality, client mix, time leverage, intellectual satisfaction. Outcomes, not activity.
Use your voice to work through this
The fastest, most honest way to complete this audit is to speak your answers, not type them. That means clicking on the microphone icon in the ChatGPT interface to enter dictation mode.
Dictation works better for a simple reason: You don’t self-edit as you go. When you write, you’re already polishing and wordsmithing as the thoughts form. When you speak, thoughts come out more naturally and with less mental friction. You bypass the “make it sound good” filter.
The practice reveals itself when you’re not overthinking the words. You’ll surprise yourself with what comes out.
Start this week. Here’s how
Block 30 to 60 minutes of uninterrupted time in a quiet space. Open ChatGPT and paste in the opening prompt. Then tap the microphone icon. When the AI asks the first question, speak your answer. Talk in bullets, not polished paragraphs. Rough thoughts are fine. Don’t worry about “um” or pauses. Just keep going. When you’re done with one question, click on the up arrow that transcribes your answer and sends it to the AI model.
After each answer, the AI will ask the next question based on what you said. You can pause between questions if you need to. This isn’t a sprint.
When you’re done, review the full thread conversation of your audit. Ask ChatGPT to summarize your key decisions. You can tighten language or clarify points, but the core work is done.
That’s it. Just answer the questions and then copy your next year’s goals into a single document you review every Monday morning before you look at email—so every decision you make that week gets filtered through them. Set a weekly task for your review.
You’ll be following a practice plan built on what happened last year, not what you hoped would happen. You’ll know what you’re releasing, what you’re protecting, and what you’re building toward.
And for once, the plan will stick because it’s built on what happened, not what you wished had happened.
Ready to make the leap? Horsesmouth’s AI for Advisors Pro training programs provide the structured, advisor-specific approach that transforms occasional users into confident practitioners. Learn more at www.horsesmouth.com/aipro.