For the first time, the integration leverages research-guided AI agents to deliver behavioral coaching directly into advisor workflows, helping firms improve client conversations, advisor development and long-term outcomes

Focal, the AI-powered productivity platform purpose-built for financial advisors and enterprise wealth teams, today announces an integration with Shaping Wealth, the leading provider of behavioral science-based learning and engagement solutions for the wealth management industry. The integration brings Shaping Wealth’s research-backed behavioral coaching directly into Focal’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered meeting workflow platform, enabling advisors and teams to receive structured, actionable insights across all client conversations, upleveling the performance of every Focal advisor.

While AI meeting assistants have gained widespread use among wealth managers, many tools lack insights that can improve advisor performance. Focal’s integration with Shaping Wealth provides actionable behavioral intelligence scaled through original AI agents, enabling Focal to go beyond AI note-taking and meeting prep. For the first time, research-guided AI agents have been embedded into advisor workflows to deliver real-time behavior-based personalized coaching for individual advisors and team-level insights for management. This partnership will help individual advisors prospect more effectively, improve conversion of AUM across existing clients and build deeper trust with better scenario-specific questions that more effectively guide clients through complex financial decisions. Management teams gain centralized visibility into team-wide performance, with trend insights, sentiment tracking and precise callouts on in-meeting talking points to systematically improve results.

“At Ritholtz, we’re always looking for ways to elevate the performance of our advisor teams and ensure every client interaction is meaningful,” said Kristopher Venne, CFP^®, Managing Partner at Ritholtz Wealth Management. “Focal’s integration with Shaping Wealth is going to give the industry the tools to systematically coach our advisors, uncover opportunities for smarter, more engaged client conversations, and ultimately drive better outcomes for both our clients and the firm.”

By analyzing behavioral patterns across meetings, leadership teams can better understand what top-performing advisors do differently, identify coaching opportunities at scale and match training initiatives with client needs.

“For the first time, firms can systematically align behavioral coaching to what actually happens in client meetings,” said Jason Pereira, senior partner at Woodgate Financial, a Focal client and member of Focal’s advisory board. “Focal captures the conversation in real time, and Shaping Wealth’s behavioral framework then provides advisors and enterprise teams with clear insights to foster better training moments for continuous improvement.”

Guided by insights from leading wealth management executives, Focal designed the integration to provide actionable feedback across the categories most critical to client success. The result is a first-of-its-kind solution that bridges established expertise with AI-driven technology to enhance advisor performance and strengthen client relationships.

“What’s been missing in advisors’ technology stacks is truly personalized insight backed by industry-leading research into how advisors communicate, listen and guide clients through financial decisions,” said John Connell, chief executive officer of Focal. “By embedding Shaping Wealth’s applied behavioral science directly into every client conversation, we provide advisors with client-specific, actionable feedback that helps them ask better questions, identify opportunities informed by prior conversational context and ultimately build deeper trust and improve outcomes over time. For leadership teams, this unlocks a new level of visibility into what is actually driving performance, making coaching scalable, consistent and grounded in real client interactions and industry best practices rather than anecdotes or untrustworthy data.”

Shaping Wealth’s methodology, built on years of academic research and real-world advisor training, addresses the behavioral drivers that shape client experiences and decisions. Through the integration, Focal leverages Shaping Wealth’s proprietary behavioral intelligence agents to analyze meeting interactions, client communication patterns and advisor behaviors. Advisors receive structured feedback on categories including empathy, clarity, engagement and decision support, enabling them to identify strengths, uncover blind spots and apply targeted coaching insights immediately.

“Advisor success is built on impactful advisor-client interactions, and the right technology has the potential to drastically enhance the quality of those interactions,” said Brian Portnoy, CFA, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Shaping Wealth. “Together with Focal, our tools provide instantaneous, actionable learning that supports ongoing professional development, strengthens relationships and delivers more personalized guidance.”

Focal combines performance coaching with AI meeting assistance and workflow automation, securely connecting and managing processes across any advisor tool or platform, with or without an API. By capturing data from conversations and existing systems, Focal streamlines tasks like note-taking, pre-meeting prep, CRM syncing, onboarding and KYC workflows—helping advisors reclaim up to 50 hours per month, serve up to 30% more clients, and now access behavioral coaching insights from Shaping Wealth directly within Focal.

The integration reflects Focal’s broader strategy to evolve beyond meeting automation and deliver enterprise-grade intelligence that drives firm growth. Built with compliance-first architecture, stateless AI models and human-in-the-loop safeguards, Focal enables firms to deploy advanced AI capabilities while meeting the rigorous regulatory standards governing financial services.

To learn more about Focal, or to request a demonstration of the platform, please email info@meetwithfocal.com.

About Focal

Focal is an AI-powered productivity platform built for financial advisors and enterprise wealth teams. By transforming conversations into actions, Focal streamlines meeting prep, note-taking, CRM workflows, performance coaching, KYC and onboarding. With enterprise-grade security and compliance-first design, Focal enables advisors to reclaim time, increase capacity and improve client outcomes. To learn more or request a demo, email sales@meetwithfocal.com or visit meetwithfocal.com and follow Focal on LinkedIn.

About Shaping Wealth

Shaping Wealth is a learning and engagement platform that empowers financial professionals to thrive personally and professionally. Through live programs, digital content, and intelligent AI tools like Lydia™, Shaping Wealth helps advisors build stronger relationships, make better decisions, and deliver advice that truly resonates. Learn more at shapingwealth.com.

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