Range CEO Predicts AI Will Overthrow Private Wealth Managers
Like many proponents of artificial intelligence, Fahad Hassan, CEO of the AI-focused company Range, envisions a future where AI transforms entire industries. However, Hassan holds a particularly bold view regarding the wealth management sector. He predicts bots will fundamentally alter the industry, potentially eliminating the need for human wealth managers within the next decade.
“I tell them their job will not exist in the next five to ten years,” Hassan said, smiling. His company, Range, aims to automate an industry traditionally built on personal relationships.
Range, based in McLean, Virginia, was co-founded in 2021. The company has garnered substantial support from investors, including Google’s AI-focused fund, Gradient Ventures, which invested $12 million in Range’s Series A round in 2023 and further contributed to its $28 million Series B round in November. Hassan anticipates further fundraising, stating, “We’re getting inbounds every 24 hours from AI-based VCs and other investors. We’re probably going to do a megaround this fall or this winter to accelerate our growth.”
VCs are betting, as is common in Silicon Valley, that technological advancements will overturn established practices. For Range, this translates to the belief that direct personal relationships with wealth advisors will no longer be necessary to make profitable investments.
“Stock brokers are a really good example where people had traded millions of dollars on the phone and knew a person. And today, you don’t do that. You don’t even think about it,” Hassan argues.
This shift mirrors the evolution of stock brokerage, where technology has diminished the need for face-to-face interactions. However, the question remains: Can a platform leveraging new technology to grow people’s money gain enough public trust to challenge major financial institutions?
A critical factor will be regulation. The potential light touch of government oversight, as seen in Big Tech’s influence, could provide clues. Hassan describes the current situation as “the Wild West.”
Currently, Range does not offer client-facing AI tools, making Hassan’s predictions appear somewhat ambitious. According to David Cusatis, Range’s chief architect, “We’re still in the very, very early days of what a good AI user experience looks like.”
Range offers tiered pricing plans, starting at $2,655 annually, differing from traditional wealth managers who charge based on a percentage of assets. Currently, Range’s team of wealth advisors uses custom-built AI tools, created using major Large Language Models, to develop tailored strategies for clients. Range plans to launch its first client-facing AI programs in mid-year, while retaining its human advisory team, highlighting that despite the automation push, the company has no plans to automate its own workforce: “Range will have wealth managers, and it will always be a service they provide, if people want it,” a spokesperson told Inc.
The need for caution is supported by the sometimes-unstable history of some commercial AI rollouts. Self-driving cars, for example, have had problems, and Google’s AI search integration was once known for recommending using glue on pizza. Given these concerns, the challenge lies in convincing people to trust AI with significant financial decisions.
Alejandro Lopez-Lira, a University of Florida finance professor, has been experimenting with using Large Language Models. These models, he notes, can process and synthesize vast amounts of data. However, he questions whether AI can account for all the unforeseen variables that could impact investment portfolios over long periods.
“It’s extremely hard to test the performance of any of these AI [investment] strategies, because they have basically memorized the whole internet up until very, very recently,” Lopez-Lira says. For instance, the cutoff date for the latest ChatGPT models is 2024, limiting the timeframe available for simulating strategy performance.
The regulation of this new type of autonomous investment is another concern as agentic AI in private wealth management is a relatively new area. Algorithmic trading is already used by hedge funds and is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Lopez-Lira stated, “It’s a little bit of a gray area, for sure.”
Hassan views this regulatory ambiguity as an advantage for Range. “Our vision is to keep doing what we’re doing growing as fast as we’re growing, and candidly, lobby for the set of laws that will come around AIs giving you advice and what that looks like,” he said.
