What advisors need to know about AI notetaking apps

By Jonathan Got | March 20, 2025 | Last updated on March 21, 2025
5 min read
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An AI-powered notetaking software can help advisors save time by transcribing meetings, drafting follow-up emails and searching through notes. But it takes time to choose one that’s right for your practice.

Advisor.ca reached out to experienced users to find out how they made their choices. Their guidance — look for apps that recognize Canadian financial terms, integrate with other practice management software and meet security requirements.

We also interviewed the CEOs of three U.S.-based software providers that cater to the Canadian market: Focal, Jump and Zocks. While the main features are similar, they give advisors different levels of workflow customization.

The app must know Canada

With many notetaking apps developed in the U.S., Canadian advisors should look for options that recognize financial terms specific to Canada, such as RRSP and TFSA. Those with francophone clients might also want French-language support.

All three apps can recognize Canadian financial terminology. Jump and Zocks can transcribe in French while Focal will support French transcriptions beginning March 21.

Software integration

Each advisor’s technology stack is unique, so they should ensure that the notetaking app they choose integrates with their practice’s virtual meeting and customer relationship management (CRM) software.

One advisor said he was more willing to use a specific notetaking app because it integrated with his CRM and calendar software. However, another advisor noted users should check with their firm to ensure they have permission to do so.

Focal, Jump and Zocks all work with major CRM software like Redtail, Salesforce and Wealthbox, in addition to video-meeting programs like Google Meets, Microsoft Teams and Zoom.

Once integrated, Focal can consolidate discussions from previous meetings to generate an agenda ahead of a client call, and draft a to-do list and follow-up emails after the call. It can also take information from conversations to fill out forms.

Focal recently released its ask-me-anything feature. It lets advisors ask the AI questions like how many kids the client has or their level of risk tolerance.

Zocks doesn’t create its own audio or video recordings when it joins a call as a security feature. But advisors can upload separate recordings for recordkeeping and transcription.

Zocks can trigger workflows with a linked CRM and draft a follow-up email for the advisor after a client meeting. Advisors can choose what they want to include in the email and select whether it’s drafted in paragraphs or bullet points. It can also pull information from the CRM and past conversations to fill in forms and notify the advisor of missing information.

Users can ask Zocks’ AI to pull client data from conversations, CRM data and emails to provide information, such as drawing a family tree. In addition, advisors can query their database to pinpoint, for example, clients who don’t have life insurance.

Jump users can choose whether to retain the audio or video recording. The app creates a one-pager for the advisor ahead of a client meeting and drafts follow-up tasks and emails. Advisors can customize the automated post-meeting workflow.

As well, Jump’s AI can fill in forms, plug financial data into planning software and track keywords in meeting summaries. Its ask-anything feature can dig into a specific client’s historical conversations or search the entire client pool for answers.

Although AI is able to draw information quickly from multiple sources, advisors say their peers should always double-check the source of the information to ensure it’s accurate.

Security

Security is top of mind for advisors implementing AI-powered tools into their practice. One advisor said he was willing to pay a premium for an app with strong security safeguards.

All three apps are compliant with SOC 2 Type 2, an international standard for auditing information technology controls for service organizations.

Focal is built on Microsoft Azure’s cloud architecture. Its AI models do not store private information and never use client data for training. AI output is also protected by a virtual private network and end-to-end encryption.

Jump’s AI does not remember personally identifiable information and does not use it to train its models. Advisors can customize data retention and archiving preferences and make standard disclosure statements.

Zocks is designed to be geofenced and geolocated with data centres in the U.S., U.K. and Germany for the EU. While Canadian law doesn’t require data to be domiciled in Canada, Zocks is adding a Canadian data centre in the second quarter.

Pricing

While advisors with a firm might have technology provided to them, software pricing is a major factor for independent advisors. One advisor said he switched software providers when he was “priced out” of a more expensive app.

Note-taking apps offer different tiers with more expensive versions having additional features or unlimited transcriptions. There’s also a discount on annual subscriptions over monthly plans and all three companies offer enterprise plans with custom pricing.

Focal’s cheapest version starts at US$50 a month when billed annually, which supports up to 20 meetings per month. For US$100 a month, it will support unlimited meetings and include collaboration features with other team members.

Jump starts at US$75 a month when billed annually, limited to one seat and 60 AI outputs a month. Unlimited AI outputs start at US$100 a month.

Zocks costs US$67 a month when billed annually for its standard version, which supports 50 meetings per month. For US$109 a month, advisors get 100 meetings monthly. Additional meetings cost US$0.99 each for both plans. It’s not widely advertised, but a discount is available for Canadian advisors.

Methodology

This article was created with the input of the following advisors: Carlo Valle, founder of Delta Financial Analytics in Montreal; Christian Batistelli, senior wealth advisor at Unified Advisory Group, Assante Financial Management in Bowmanville, Ont.; and Scott Sather, president and financial planner at Awaken Wealth Management in Regina.

All three software firms responded with demos and interviews: John Connell, co-founder and CEO of Focal in San Francisco; Mark Gilbert, founder and CEO of Zocks in San Francisco; and Parker Ence, co-founder and CEO of Jump in Salt Lake City.

The article was updated to include feature changes Focal made between the time of the interview and the publication date.

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Jonathan Got

Jonathan Got is a reporter with Advisor.ca and its sister publication, Investment Executive. Reach him at jonathan@newcom.ca.