I built FinChat to prove voice can work in financial advice
FinChat is a voice-powered planning platform for two professional audiences who both need to move faster than legacy software allows: financial advisers running client meetings, and super funds engaging members at scale — built on Amazon Alexa and AWS.
I’m Steve Manning, and I built FinChat.
I’ve got a foot in both law and financial services — a law degree from Rhodes University, a commerce degree from USC (FPA prize winner), and over 30 years in financial services technology. I’ve held the CFP designation, been authorised as a financial adviser in Australia, and spent three years lecturing law at university level.
I built FinChat because I’ve sat on both sides of the advice process, and I know exactly where the money and time disappear. A paper fact find goes to a paraplanner running software that’s over twenty years old. Months of back-and-forth follow. By the time the client sees a plan, the practice has burned a lot of money in production cost before compliance — and the adviser’s margin on that file has already been decided by everyone else’s inefficiency.
FinChat replaces that whole chain with a conversation. An adviser speaks a scenario — “what if we increased contributions to $500 a fortnight?” — and gets a comparison chart, as a discussion point. Compliance is covered with a recording of the meeting, a transcript and AI analyses this to produce a compliance report. No paraplanner queue, no legacy software licence, no weeks of drafting. The saving isn’t a client-facing gimmick — it’s hours and dollars back in the adviser’s own practice, on every single file.
FinChat’s been a finalist in the Australian AI Awards, and the same engine now powers SMFP — the plain-English version for SMSF trustees and everyday Australians managing their own money.
What sets FinChat apart
Voice-first, not screen-first
Advisers and fund members run scenarios by speaking, on any Echo Show, Fire TV or Fire Tablet — no laptop, no legacy planning software.
Two audiences, one engine
The same voice and AWS stack serves financial advisers running client meetings and super funds engaging members at scale — each within its own compliance framework.
Adviser in a briefcase
A Fire TV Stick and a power bank turn any client’s TV into a full planning terminal — charts, scenario testing, and compliance documents on the spot.
Meeting transcription, handled
Every client meeting is recorded, transcribed and AI-analysed into scope of advice, recommendations and tasks — no more manual note-taking.
Compliance built in
Statement of Advice generation is part of the workflow, not a separate step — giving advisers a proper audit trail from every session.
Built on real experience
Thirty-plus years of financial services technology and a law background, wired into a platform where the licensed adviser stays fully responsible for the advice given.
The mission
To prove that voice can carry the weight of a regulated, compliance-heavy profession — giving advisers and super funds a faster, more human way to plan, without cutting any of the corners that protect clients.