I think by now most people are familiar with AI, in many homes better known as ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude or Gemini. What once seemed futuristic has very quickly become part of everyday life.

I have been fascinated by listening to how my eldest son, who is in his final year at Stellenbosch University, uses AI. He combines lecture notes, recordings and textbooks, then spends his evenings engaging with Claude, asking questions, working through examples and exploring areas where he may be struggling. In my day, we had tutors.

At Chartered Wealth, we are also trying to understand this new world and where AI may help us work more efficiently and serve clients better. Our management and advice team are currently doing weekly training sessions as we learn more about this rapidly evolving technology and where it may add value within the business.

While the technology is impressive, I still firmly believe that experience, judgement, trust and personal relationships remain at the heart of good financial advice.

A Growing Concern: Cybercrime

At the same time, one of the growing concerns we are experiencing as a business is the increasing level of cybercrime and online fraud. Sadly, many people are falling prey to highly sophisticated cybercriminals operating predominantly through SMS messages and email.

This serves as an important reminder to all our clients and their families to remain extremely cautious. We are seeing attempted fraud and phishing activity on an almost daily basis.

Staying Vigilant Online

We are looking into running another awareness session on Zoom for all our clients, and the date will be finalised soon. In the interim, please be particularly vigilant around:

• Links sent via SMS or email
• Requests for confidential information
• Urgent payment requests
• Emails advising of changes to banking details
• Any message that creates a sense of urgency, i.e. suggesting there will be consequences for not acting immediately

Importantly, none of our providers change banking details. Any communication suggesting a change of banking details should immediately be treated as suspicious and most likely fraudulent unless independently verified telephonically with a trusted contact.

In today’s world, a healthy level of caution has unfortunately become essential. The safest option when transacting with us is to always phone your Financial Planning Specialist to confirm any transaction.