For years, advice technology has defaulted to one model, a single all-in-one platform trying to handle everything from CRM to modelling to SoA production. Andrew Gardner and Ivon Gower join Rob to explain why that default is starting to look more like a liability than a convenience, and what's actually made a different approach possible.

Andrew is the founder and managing director of RetireMap, a cash flow modelling platform for financial advisers. Ivon is RetireMap's operations manager and works day to day with advisers as they adopt the platform.

The conversation centres on the Model Context Protocol, MCP, and why it's succeeding where API integrations have long fallen short. Instead of connections that might land anywhere from 50 to 90 percent of the data on a good day, MCP moves it across as a complete bundle every time. Andrew and Ivon walk through a real-world example of what that makes possible, modelling a complex retirement village decision for an elderly client, three entry options, different fee structures, a five-year exit fee, using Claude and RetireMap side by side. What would once have taken days of paraplanning work was produced, reviewed and ready to present in minutes, including a set of questions to help the client weigh the financial decision against the personal one.

We also get into:

Why familiarity bias keeps advisers locked into tools they've already mastered, even once better ones exist
The client who walked into a meeting armed with an AI-generated report already showing what he should be paying
What a well-run advice practice's technology stack could look like five years from now, once modular, MCP connected tools become the norm rather than the exception

Andrew's message for anyone still fully embedded in the old system: embrace it now, because there's no going back.