eMoney Plans 2027 CoPlanner Chat Launch as Advisors Expand AI Use

eMoney Advisor is developing a chat interface for its CoPlanner planning tool, with a launch expected in 2027. The feature, called CoPlanner Chat, is in beta testing, according to Brandon Heid, the company’s senior financial planning practice management consultant. Its role would be to help advisors interact with client information and planning functions through questions posed in a chat window.

The planned addition points to a practical next step for software that already generates recommendations from client data. CoPlanner, launched in March, uses rules to assess a client’s fact set and identify recommendations suited to that person’s circumstances or profile. Chat would sit above that process: the planning tool would remain responsible for surfacing recommendations, while the conversational interface would give advisors another way to access information and work with the platform.

Chat as an entry point to planning data

Heid described the distinction as one between the system that produces planning output and the interface an advisor uses to engage with the broader platform. An advisor could ask what real estate a client owns and have the system surface the relevant data. Another example he gave was asking for help modeling a Roth conversion.

Those tasks illustrate two different uses. A question about real estate focuses on retrieving information already held in the client’s data. A Roth conversion scenario involves using planning capabilities to model a possible financial decision. Both could reduce the steps needed to find relevant information or begin an analysis, though the source does not specify what data the chat will access, how advisors will verify its responses, or how much of a modeling workflow it will complete.

That distinction matters to firms considering conversational tools. A chat window can make existing software easier to query, but the usefulness of its answers depends on the quality and completeness of the underlying client information and the tool’s ability to interpret a request correctly. For advisors, a faster route to data or a scenario model may save time; the resulting analysis still has to fit the client’s full circumstances and the advisor’s planning process.

Adoption is broad, but advanced use is less common

eMoney’s development comes as AI use among financial advisors grows. Morningstar research cited in the source found that 80% of advisors use AI in some form, compared with 67% the prior year. The share who said AI had significantly or moderately improved their efficiency also rose, reaching 48% from 36%.

Those figures suggest that adoption and perceived efficiency gains are advancing together. They don’t, by themselves, show which tasks account for the improvement or whether the gains are consistent across firms. A tool that helps retrieve client facts may affect day-to-day work differently from one that automates a sequence of planning or administrative tasks.

Brock Sutton, Capital Group’s head of emerging client capabilities, described a gap between general use and more advanced applications. He said 83% of advisors in recent Capital Group research used AI in their business week over week, while 13% used what he called “frontier capabilities,” including workflow automation. Sutton also said at the Schwab IMPACT event that many advisors had not yet put AI to its full capacity.

The figures from Morningstar and Capital Group come from separate research, so they shouldn’t be treated as directly comparable measures. Together, though, they point to a market where basic use is spreading faster than more involved applications. CoPlanner Chat appears aimed at making AI interaction part of an existing planning workflow, but its beta stage means the final feature set and day-to-day value are still to be established.

What remains to be seen

The 2027 launch target gives advisors time to assess how the feature develops. The details that will shape its usefulness include which client records it can search, how it handles incomplete or ambiguous questions, and whether it can show the information behind a response. For modeling tasks, firms will also want to understand how advisors review assumptions and results before using them in client discussions.

For eMoney, the product’s significance will depend on whether chat becomes a reliable route into CoPlanner’s planning capabilities, rather than simply another way to ask for information. For advisory firms, the immediate takeaway is that AI use is becoming common while deeper workflow integration remains less widespread. CoPlanner Chat’s beta and eventual launch will offer a clearer test of whether a conversational interface can bridge that gap in financial planning work.