CDA Technology Forum November 2026

Learn how your advice firm can adopt AI while keeping client data secure, putting the right governance in place and getting real value from the technology

The Consumer Duty Alliance Technology Forum met on 10 November 2026 for a session on getting your advice firm ready for AI. The discussion was hosted by Ian McKenna and featured two panellists:

• Curtis Berry, Head of Service and Technology at TFP Financial Planning,
• Daniel Hobbs, CEO at New Leaf Distribution.

The purpose of the session was to explore how advice firms can use AI while keeping client data secure and meeting ICO and GDPR requirements, what governance they need in place, the key steps to implementing AI successfully, and the impact firms can expect. The panel brought two contrasting perspectives: a nine-person financial planning firm and a network supporting more than 400 advisers across around 220 firms.

The first half of the session focused on governance and data security. Daniel Hobbs described the challenge for a network when appointed representatives can now build their own client portals and even CRMs in an hour, and explained how New Leaf had introduced checklists and a sandbox approach so that firms could innovate without putting client data at risk. Curtis Berry set out the steps a smaller firm should take before switching on any AI tool: taking advice from cyber security professionals, updating the privacy and marketing declaration to explain where AI is used, putting data protection agreements in place with every tool, and producing both an internal AI policy for staff and a simpler external version for clients. He also explained how TFP had built new tools against its CRM’s open API using test data rather than live client records. Lawyer Paul Lockyer joined the discussion from the audience to explain the data transfer questions firms must answer, from the US Data Privacy Framework to mapping trackers and cookies back to their privacy policies, and the panel agreed that many firms do not yet know where their data is processed. Audience polls on cyber security accreditation and cyber insurance prompted Ian McKenna to stress that cyber cover is ideally written as part of a firm’s professional indemnity insurance.

The second half of the session turned to implementation and the impact AI is already having. Daniel Hobbs explained that firms should start with their business and its inefficient processes rather than with the technology, and described New Leaf’s compliance chatbot, which lets advisers question 25 years of compliance documentation, can answer nearly 5,000 unique questions and passes anything it cannot answer to the supervision team so that the answer is added for next time. Curtis Berry argued that AI is only as good as the data behind it, urging firms to agree a data standard, decide what question they are trying to answer and map their processes on paper before automating them.

The panellists then described the processes they had replaced. New Leaf has used what Daniel Hobbs called “boring AI” to streamline adviser onboarding, speed up pension switch reports and organise file checking, and is taking a more open approach to the CRMs its advisers use. Curtis Berry explained how TFP now syncs its compliance registers, including the vulnerability register, with its CRM through an open API, so that data no longer has to be entered in several places, and why a small firm should stay flexible rather than tie itself to one supplier. Ian McKenna closed by warning that the cost of AI tokens is likely to rise, pointing to growing interest in smaller private models, and advising firms to budget for data security, cyber security and AI governance on a similar scale to their compliance spend.

Watch the full recording of the session