One of One Financial Planning
By John H. Robinson, Financial Planner (June 8, 2026)
What Sets Financial Planning Hawaii Apart from Other Planning Firms, Including AI RIAs
It is no secret that AI-driven RIAs are aiming to put wealth managers and financial planners out of business. Microsoft's 2025 Future of Work Report listed Personal Financial Advisors at #29 on its list of the top 30 professions likely to be displaced. As of this writing, there are already AI-driven applications that will autonomously manage money, and several pure-AI and hybrid-AI Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) are encouraging consumers to abandon their human financial planners. Hybrid-AI firms employ human planners primarily to personalize the customer experience.
As you might expect, I am frequently asked whether I fear that Financial Planning Hawaii and Fee-Only Planning Hawaii's days may be numbered. My response is that "fearful" is the wrong adjective. "Paranoid" is a better descriptor.
Throughout my 37-year career, the planning industry has been in a constant state of disruption. I have survived and thrived by taking every potential existential threat seriously, whether it was the internet revolution, online trading, robo-advisors, or now AI. Survival requires a willingness to adapt.
There is no dispute that AI is advancing much faster than previous waves of innovation. Just as AI is disrupting software development, it appears poised to eliminate a significant portion of the financial planning community. I can envision accelerated retirements among planners in their 50s and older. I can envision younger planners deciding the profession no longer offers the future they expected. I can even imagine today's hot trend toward private-equity-fueled mega-RIAs flaming out.
However, I also believe there is a segment of the independent RIA community that will continue to survive and prosper.
These firms have developed operating principles and business strategies that differ dramatically from their peers. Their leaders dance to their own drummers. They are deliberately iconoclastic. They have resisted lucrative buyout offers from private equity firms and instead use their independence to remain nimble and adaptable.
While they all operate differently, they share one common characteristic: individuality. That individuality provides a degree of immunity from the AI virus. Succinctly stated, they are all "One of One."
Machine Learning in the Financial Planning Space
At the risk of grossly oversimplifying unimaginably complex algorithms, financial planning AI models train on millions of real-world financial planning experiences.
Today, the planning process at most firms begins with an intake questionnaire. The completed questionnaire is fed into financial planning software such as RightCapital, Orion, eMoney, Income Lab, or MoneyGuidePro, which then generates a lengthy "personalized" financial plan filled with industry jargon, charts, and graphs that create an air of sophistication and credibility.
Financial Planning Hawaii and Fee-Only Planning Hawaii provide all clients access to eMoney because it is an excellent platform for organizing financial information. However, we do not use eMoney's planning software.
This questionnaire-to-software model is by far the most common method of delivering financial planning advice in the United States. One does not need a Ph.D. in computer science to recognize that this approach lends itself perfectly to machine learning. Nor does one need to be clairvoyant to conclude that firms built around this process have a big problem.
Conversely, to the extent that One of One firms reject the standard planning process altogether, whatever financial plan AI produces will be apples to their oranges.
Spoiler alert: Financial Planning Hawaii and Fee-Only Planning Hawaii were built to be One of One. The remainder of this essay explains what that means through our lens.
Hyper-Personalization
I do not know how other One of One firms operate, but information gathering at FPH does not begin with a questionnaire.
Instead, clients upload as many as 50 to 100 documents into their eMoney Vault. These documents include employee benefits materials, real estate records, mortgage documents, loan agreements, insurance policies, business ownership records, estate planning documents, tax returns, beneficiary designations, account statements, and Social Security and pension information.
As we review these materials, we conduct multiple meetings to learn the client's story and understand the nuances of their financial life.
The first phase of our process culminates in a written Information Gathering Summary, typically eight to ten single-spaced pages. In total, the information-gathering process generally requires 10 to 15 hours.
Once clients review the summary and provide feedback, we prepare a Findings & Recommendations report. Each review typically identifies 20 to 30 or more unique findings, most of which require a level of understanding that no questionnaire can provide. Producing this report generally requires another 10 to 15 hours.
I often tell people that our RIA was built on the Hermes business model. Every Hermes handbag is created by a single highly skilled craftsman. Hermes does not outsource production, and there is not a sewing machine to be found in its workshops. The company is famous for its proprietary double saddle stitch, and every stitch is sewn by a human hand.
We apply the same philosophy to financial planning. Every review we produce is uniquely crafted. No one else performs financial planning exactly the way we do.
Like Hermes, we have built our firm to be multigenerational. My hope is that my children and grandchildren will someday work with the children and grandchildren of our clients.
Become a Domain Authority
Setting aside the threat from AI planning algorithms, consumers often ask, "Why do I need a financial planner when I can simply ask ChatGPT?"
The answer is simple: you don't know what you don't know.
You have only your own experiences and whatever information you have picked up from social media, podcasts, articles, and friends. My knowledge base reflects the cumulative experiences of hundreds of clients and decades of research, writing, and problem-solving.
Over time, I have written journal articles, financial publications, blog posts, and educational content. In industry parlance, I have become a domain authority.
That expertise not only helps me identify mistakes, oversights, and opportunities that many consumers would never uncover on their own, but it also turns AI into an ally. To the extent that AI search engines cite my content, they help extend its reach and reinforce our competitive moat.
Likewise, if AI planning systems have not been trained to identify the same issues I routinely uncover, those issues will never appear in their recommendations.
Challenge the Orthodoxy
The industry's widespread adoption of financial planning software is one example of orthodoxy. Portfolio management provides another.
Many widely accepted practices have surprisingly little empirical support. Examine portfolio models from Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Betterment, Fidelity, or Charles Schwab and you will often find a dozen or more mutual funds or ETFs, along with automatic rebalancing and tax-loss harvesting, which are promoted as valuable portfolio management services.
As I often joke, holding a dozen funds merely creates the appearance of sophisticated portfolio management. We call this "deworsification."
Academic research suggests a more minimalist approach may be more efficient. Likewise, empirical support for automatic rebalancing and tax-loss harvesting is mixed at best. All three practices add complexity without necessarily adding value.
At FPH, we embrace Occam's Razor: “plurality should not be posited without necessity.” This is just one of many examples of how critical thinking leads us to different conclusions than the rest of the herd.
Another salient example is our proprietary retirement saving and spending simulation software.
Most planners rely on Monte Carlo simulations to assess retirement readiness. One of the well-known limitations of Monte Carlo analysis is that results depend heavily on user assumptions regarding returns and volatility for every asset class. Small changes in assumptions can produce dramatically different outcomes over a 25- or 30-year retirement and the same client data may produce dramatically different Monte Carlo simulations from one advisor to the next.
This inconsistency inspired me to develop our own propriety software that eliminates the need for advisor-generated assumptions and presents results in a format that is more tangible than the output from Monte Carlo-based applications.
While much of the industry still discusses retirement planning in terms of the out-dated “4% rule” and ill-conceived “probabilities of success,” both researchers and innovative planners have moved far beyond those primitive concepts. Having our own client-facing simulation software is a visible example of being One of One.
Rethink and Innovate
Ongoing communication is a critical element of financial planning.
Many firms either create generic content or purchase ghostwritten material for their newsletters and blogs. The average financial planning newsletter has an open rate below 20%.
Our Nest Egg News publication consistently achieves open rates above 80%, with most readers clicking through to more than one article.
Humor, sarcasm, strong opinions, video, images, and attention-grabbing headlines create engagement. It is a One of One newsletter.
The same philosophy applies to our websites and social media presence. We are constantly adapting, testing, and refining every client touchpoint.
We are keenly aware of the AI threat. We also recognize that one of our greatest advantages remains something AI still struggles to replicate: the human experience.
Summary - One of One has always been part of our DNA
The concept of building Financial Planning Hawaii and Fee-Only Planning Hawaii into a One of One financial planning practice did not arise because of AI. It has been part of my professional DNA for almost as long as I have been in this business.
In fact, I can identify the exact moment of my epiphany.
As a rookie investment broker at A.G. Edwards & Sons in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in the early 1990s, a prospective client asked me to review a financial plan that had been prepared by his Merrill Lynch advisor. He handed me a navy-blue hardcover book with his name embossed in silver on the cover.
The plan was roughly 60 pages long and filled with industry jargon, colorful charts, and impressive-looking graphs.
The client admitted he had never actually read it.
What caught my attention were the rings on the cover. Several water stains revealed how the “financial plan” had ultimately been implemented : as an expensive drink coaster.
That experience left a lasting impression.
I hope this essay has helped explain why One of One financial planning firms are better positioned to withstand the coming wave of AI-driven planning solutions.
Will AI eventually replicate what we do?
Only time will tell.
For now, I remain skeptical.
And to the current generation of AI RIAs that believe they can duplicate our processes and expertise now, I welcome the challenge.
Let's see what you've got.
John H. Robinson is the founder of Financial Planning Hawaii and Fee-Only Planning Hawaii