# We Let Our Financial Planners Write the Agents

Matt Ragone · AI Engineer NYC 2026 · October 13

[Watch recording](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12408s)

[03:26:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12408s) Hi everyone, I'm Matt Ragone and I'm a financial planner at Range.

[03:26:52](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12412s) I want to show you how our financial planners ended up writing the agents that we use every day.

[03:26:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12419s) And none of us, the financial planners for that matter, write code.

[03:27:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12423s) This is the build guide.

[03:27:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12425s) How we did it step by step so you can take it back to your own teams, companies, etc.

[03:27:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12431s) So a quick bit about me because it matters for how you'll hear this talk.

[03:27:16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12436s) I'm not an engineer.

[03:27:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12437s) I'm a certified financial planner.

[03:27:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12439s) and I spend my days with clients talking about cash flow, taxes, insurance, retirement, estate, you name it.

[03:27:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12445s) I also lead the AI adoption for the planning team at Range, which is an all-in-one wealth management company.

[03:27:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12453s) Most agent talks you'll hear come from the people who built the platform.

[03:27:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12458s) This talk comes from someone on the other side, the people you hand the platform to.

[03:27:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12463s) We work in a regulated business. The output is financial advice to real clients. And the review step is not optional. So this isn't a vendor pitch. It's a method and it's what actually worked for us.

[03:27:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12479s) We started where everyone starts, AI as a chatbot.

[03:28:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12483s) I'd write a client message, paste it in, and ask it to make it a little clearer or friendlier.

[03:28:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12488s) And that was useful.

[03:28:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12489s) It saved me a few minutes here and there, but I was still doing all of the work manually.

[03:28:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12495s) I was just doing it a little bit faster.

[03:28:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12497s) The change that actually mattered came later.

[03:28:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12502s) Here's what we figured out.

[03:28:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12503s) A planner's constraint was never typing speed, for example.

[03:28:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12508s) It's that we can only be in one place at a time.

[03:28:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12511s) If I'm on a call with a client, I'm not building someone else's plan.

[03:28:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12516s) Writing faster doesn't fix that problem.

[03:28:39](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12519s) What fixes it is work that happens while I'm somewhere else.

[03:28:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12523s) So here's what a day looks like now.

[03:28:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12526s) I'm on a call with one client at the same time an agent is drafting a full cash flow analysis or an insurance analysis for a different client.

[03:28:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12536s) When the call ends, I open that draft, I fully review it, adjust what needs to be adjusted, and send the client their recommendations.

[03:29:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12545s) I want to be really clear about that last step.

[03:29:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12548s) The agent doesn't send anything.

[03:29:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12551s) A planner reviews every single recommendation before a client sees it.

[03:29:16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12556s) What changed is that the first draft no longer needs me sitting in front of it.

[03:29:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12562s) Getting there took a lot more than a good prompt, however.

[03:29:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12566s) Two things had to be true.

[03:29:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12568s) First, the agent has to work where the work lives,

[03:29:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12572s) not in a separate chat window I'm copying and pasting it into.

[03:29:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12576s) Second, it has to know how we do it,

[03:29:39](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12579s) not how financial planning works in general.

[03:29:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12582s) The model already knows that,

[03:29:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12584s) but the agent needs to know how range does it,

[03:29:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12587s) what we look at first, what we always flag,

[03:29:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12590s) how we phrase a specific recommendation.

[03:29:52](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12592s) That combination is what a skill is.

[03:29:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12595s) our firm's way of doing one specific piece of work written

[03:30:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12600s) down so an agent can follow it.

[03:30:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12603s) The bulk of this talk is how you build one. Five steps. Pick, teach, pack, test, and then ship. None of them require writing code.

[03:30:16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12616s) Every one of them requires knowing the work really well,

[03:30:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12620s) which is exactly why the people doing the work should also be the ones building it.

[03:30:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12627s) Step one, pick a workflow you repeat.

[03:30:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12630s) Your initial instinct is to go for the flashiest work,

[03:30:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12634s) whatever's taking the most amount of time and the most complex.

[03:30:37](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12637s) Don't. Pick something you do every week where you already know what good looks like,

[03:30:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12642s) where you can spot a bad draft at a glance.

[03:30:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12645s) Additionally, we recommend choosing some of the least complex workflows to start, but some that require the most manual work.

[03:30:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12654s) For us, that meant things like cash flow analysis and insurance reviews.

[03:30:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12659s) Just for us here at Range, that required the most manual work.

[03:31:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12663s) And if you can't judge the output quickly, you can't test it and you can't trust it.

[03:31:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12669s) So look for two things. You do it often and you know how to judge it.

[03:31:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12675s) Step two, show it several real cases for previous plans you've delivered.

[03:31:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12680s) Take several actual client cases and walk through the work start to finish.

[03:31:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12686s) And as you do it, narrate your judgment out loud.

[03:31:29](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12689s) Not just, next I open the pay stub, why you're opening it.

[03:31:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12694s) What you're looking for.

[03:31:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12695s) What would make you stop and ask a question.

[03:31:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12698s) That narration is the whole game.

[03:31:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12701s) The steps are easy to write down.

[03:31:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12703s) the judgment is what makes it your firm's work instead of generic advice.

[03:31:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12710s) Step three, pack it into a skill. A skill isn't just a list of steps. Two things matter most.

[03:31:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12718s) The questions it must ask. Before it starts, what does it need to know? What should it confirm with

[03:32:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12724s) me instead of simply guessing? And the limits it must respect. What it never does on its own.

[03:32:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12730s) In our world, the big one is that it never sends anything to a client.

[03:32:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12735s) It drafts, and then a planner decides if it gets sent or needs to be adjusted.

[03:32:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12741s) If you only write the steps, you get something that simply just runs on its own.

[03:32:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12745s) If you write the questions and set the limits, you can get something you can trust.

[03:32:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12750s) Think of a skill as a recipe.

[03:32:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12753s) Once Claude knows how to do the skill, it will repeat your process on command.

[03:32:39](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12759s) Step number four, run it five or 10 times on real cases before anyone else sees it.

[03:32:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12766s) This is the step everyone wants to skip.

[03:32:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12769s) Every run teaches you something the skill didn't know yet, an edge case, a question it should have asked, a spot where it sounded confident and was wrong.

[03:32:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12777s) You need to fix it, save the skill, and run it again and again and again.

[03:33:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12783s) 5-10 runs sounds like a lot, but it's a lot less work than cleaning up after you hand a half-baked skill to 15, 20, 100 people in your team.

[03:33:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12795s) Step 5. Ship it with an owner and a reviewer.

[03:33:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12799s) The owner keeps it current. Our processes change, tax rules change, and a skill that was right in March can be wrong by December.

[03:33:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12808s) Remember, the reviewer checks it before the team relies on it, and it's someone other than the author.

[03:33:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12815s) Same as a plan. You don't grade your own work.

[03:33:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12818s) Once other people depend on a skill, somebody has to be accountable for it.

[03:33:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12823s) That's the difference between a clever personal shortcut and something a team can build on.

[03:33:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12830s) So where are we at currently?

[03:33:52](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12832s) Six months in, we have 24 skills across the company and 17 of them are in planning.

[03:33:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12838s) And here's the part I didn't expect.

[03:34:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12840s) It spread to sales, product, marketing, all without a mandate.

[03:34:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12845s) Nobody sent a memo.

[03:34:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12846s) People saw what the planners were doing and started building their own agents.

[03:34:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12851s) Every one of those skills was written and is maintained by planners, marketers, and salespeople, not developers or engineers.

[03:34:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12861s) A couple of things changed once subject matter experts started building for their own niche.

[03:34:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12867s) The skills got a lot more specific.

[03:34:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12870s) The person who knows insurance, for example, best builds the insurance skill.

[03:34:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12874s) The person who best knows tax, tax code, tax law should be building the tax one.

[03:34:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12880s) And a review came naturally.

[03:34:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12882s) We already review each other's plans, and that's just how planning works.

[03:34:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12886s) So now we review each other's skills in that same way. It's the same habit, just a new thing to review.

[03:34:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12895s) So why does this matter right now? Because the bottleneck has moved. Whether a model can draft a cash flow analysis, that question's already been settled. It can.

[03:35:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12906s) What's not settled, who writes down how your firm does it? Who tests it before it ships? Who owns it once 15 other people depend on it?

[03:35:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12915s) If you're being asked to push agents out past the engineering org, you're about to hit these exact questions.

[03:35:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12923s) There isn't much field data on this yet, but this is how we've done it here at Range.

[03:35:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12930s) So that's it. Thank you so much for listening to this talk.

[03:35:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12933s) I'm Matt Ragone from Range, and you can reach me at mattatrange.com.

[03:35:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=12938s) Have a great day.