Since the start of this year, I've been sitting down with advisers and watching how a piece of advice actually gets made. Since the summer, I've done it as often as I can. Not the version in the process document. The version that happens at the desk.
It usually starts with a first meeting. Some advisers record it. Many would rather not, and write everything down with pen and paper instead. After the meeting, they go back to those notes and build the fact find. Once the fact find is done, they do the research. Once the research is done, they pull it together into options for the client. Then they sit down with the client again, and this time the whole meeting is recorded, because this is where the two of them agree what happens next.
Everything from that second meeting has to be kept, because it becomes the suitability letter. The letter has to say what was discussed, what was ruled out, what is being recommended, and why.
None of these steps is unusual. Together, they make a long process, and a surprising amount of it is moving information from one place to another: from the notepad into the fact find, from the documents into the research, from the meeting into the letter. Every time it moves, someone has to check where a figure came from.
That is the work Chunkbase is for.
What is Chunkbase?
Chunkbase is AI software for financial advice teams: advisers, paraplanners and administrators. It works through the client case with your team, from the first meeting to the letter. It proposes. Your team decides what goes in.
What works today?
- Meeting notes, from a transcript or from your own notes. You can also dictate.
- The fact find. Chunkbase proposes the facts from the meeting, each one showing where it came from. Nothing goes in until someone on your team accepts it.
- Recommendation letters. Tell Chunkbase what research you've done and what you and the client agreed, then ask it for a first draft of the letter.
- Ask Chunkbase, for questions about the case in front of you.
What isn't ready yet?
Chunkbase is in alpha. That means more than unfinished. Things will break, some screens will change from one week to the next, and you'll find gaps we haven't. When you do, we'll fix them as quickly as we can.
Some things are simply not built yet:
- Recording calls and meetings is coming soon. Today, Chunkbase works from transcripts and your notes. So keep your notepad.
- The client's documents. We're working on reading them into the fact find. Today, the fact find is built from the meeting.
- intelliflo and other back-office systems are coming soon. Founding firms will help decide which connection comes first.
- Research. Chunkbase doesn't do the research for you yet. Today, you tell it what you found. Later, we want it to help with the research itself, including cash flow modelling, with the tools your firm already uses.
Two things won't change while we build. Nothing becomes part of a client's record unless someone on your team accepts it. And client data is processed in the UK and the EU, and never used to train AI models.
What do we believe?
Software should fit the firm, not the other way round. Developers shape their tools around how they work. Advice firms usually get software built around one person's idea of the process, and then bend their process to fit it. Every firm runs advice a little differently. Chunkbase should bend to yours.
One tab should be enough. Today a single case lives across the back office, the notes, the research tools, email and a folder of PDFs. We want to get to a place where the whole case lives in one place. We're a long way from that, and we'll build it with the firms that use Chunkbase first.
It should be good to look at. Advisers and paraplanners spend their whole day in this software. It should be calm and clear, not something they put up with.
Who are founding firms for?
Firms that want to shape Chunkbase rather than wait for it.
We ask for one adviser and one paraplanner or administrator who will use it, a short session with me every week or two, and honest feedback on what helps and what doesn't.
In return, you get:
- the earliest version, while it's still easy to change around how your firm works;
- a direct line to me, not a support queue;
- recording, connections and every new feature as they ship, at the founding price;
- £199 per licensed adviser a month, held until 12 months after general launch. Paraplanners and administrators are free.
We plan to charge £299 at general launch. Both are early prices, and founding firms will hear from us before anything changes.
You pay from the first month, so we both take it seriously. If Chunkbase isn't useful to your firm in that month, we refund it.
If you're a network, talk to us about one agreement for your firms.
Why does the website look different?
If you've been to chunkbase.ai before, you'll notice it has changed. Again. Since January, the site has had eight versions and seven different headlines.
The earlier versions described what we wanted to build, and asked you to take our word for it. When I looked at the last one honestly, I had to admit that if I were an independent adviser, I wouldn't have understood what we did. So we changed it. That's how we work: when something isn't working, we change it.
The new site shows the software doing the work, and says plainly what is in alpha and what is coming. I'll write separately about how we got here, and every version along the way.
How do I join?
Apply on the founding firms page. I read every application and reply myself.
If you'd rather see it first, write to me at rohan@chunkbase.ai and I'll show you.
Chunkbase will be built with the firms that use it first. If that sounds like your firm, I'd like to hear from you.
Rohan KumawatFounder, Chunkbase
