Triad's compliance chief says onboard Anthropic's Claude like a new employee

Advisors weighing Anthropic's Claude for Financial Advisors should onboard it like a new employee, according to a compliance framework from Shannon McGinnis, chief compliance officer at Triad Partners, published by WealthManagement.com on Oct. 15.

McGinnis discussed the framework on the "Do Business. Do Life." podcast with Quin Kilgore, Triad's chief technology officer. "Just because it exists doesn't mean it's ready to immediately turn on," she said. "AI has come mainstream for advisors, but that means your compliance program has to also be elevated to that level."

The framework breaks into five steps. Vendor due diligence is finished before the tool touches client data. A written AI use policy has a named owner and concrete rules. System access is limited to an approved list of tools, users and off-limits data. Training covers each tool's limitations and the workflows built around it. Ongoing supervision covers both the application and the team using it.

Kilgore flagged one purchasing detail: the audit logging an RIA needs requires the Claude Enterprise tier, not the Teams plan. Logs alone do not settle the question, McGinnis said; regulators expect someone to supervise them. That work puts compliance and technology side by side on practical questions: what the tool did, where the data went, what prompt was used and whether that prompt was a problem.

The SEC assumes nearly every firm uses AI in some form, per McGinnis, so advisors should expect to explain how the firm uses it, who uses it and who is responsible for oversight. She said regulators will not accept “We don’t use AI” as a response.

WealthManagement.com also noted the cost split when Schwab priced the same integration: the seat is the visible line item, but the process work around it is where the budget goes.