@jlevas Make no mistake, your insights are valued and valuable. This is the current state - the tool uses projections based on assumptions, even for "this year" which makes the data imprecise. The tax forms are just a way to do a rough spot check against reality.
Your request has me daydreaming about perhaps the (near?) future of a tool like this, where it would gather "real" data as we go along, to make the current year "precise" and solve this problem, and perhaps aid the forward projections by using AI to compliment the algos. Looking into the returns happening on taxable brokerage, for example, may provide precision on those pesky Growth Taxation calcs from 1099s we've been discussing, not to mention rates of return. I could see a tool looking at the funds you're in and providing recommendations based on their history. I know folks can already use tools that aggregate their accounts to get this info, iike Personal Capital/Empower. It would be nice to do it all in one place, quite powerful.
But, that would have to be optional, as a core tenet and attraction is the privacy aspect of the tool. Hooking it up to APIs to pull real data would drive the folks attracted to that aspect away. I do think this very thing will likely erase my job as a financial planner and result in all us hobbyists here having to find a new hobby 🙂 Just one example of the many jobs AI will erase, and soon.
@hines202 This kind of tool using future AI to its full power is likely to emerge from a silicon valley start up, sold to large companies like Fidelity and Schwab eventually as a feature, not from a "Pralana" or even a "Boldin". There will probably be thousands of niche companies utilizing AI for specialized purposes.
@jkandell I'm sure some will, but there is great value in a company like Pralana or Boldin either doing it or selling off to someone that plans to do it. That's to teach the AI by feeding it the existing code/algorithms, not to mention any existing plans that are permitted to be used for such a thing, to teach the tool what typical financial plans look like for different types of people. I kind of fear/dread that scenario in some ways. So many reasons to fear the immense power and likely abuse of AI.
@hines202 Boldin's more likely, since they have a cadre of "Bill Hines" types seamlessly integrated as part of their business model, completely separate from the programmers; so the managers of that advising dept are probably already incorporating it, and coming up with ways to do what you say. I personally feel investment advice is as much art as science-- there is skill and intelligence can be done via IA but no substitute for wisdom.
Interesting on how this all will evolve. I've been using AI queries to find a lot of financial information. Though I've found in my engineering profession it makes many mistakes and assumptions. That has been the case on the finance side as well. Double checking answers/results is still very necessary to not be lead down the wrong path. Thus the current tools are still very valuable to me to refine assumptions and goals. Thanks for the feedback.
