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SMA Crown Confidential:
Our News and Updates


SMA Crown Confidential Notebook – Note: Begin with the person, not the assets
Occasion: Two platforms surface in the log offering family-office-grade infrastructure to the same wealth tier with opposite accountability structures — Farther Family Office (advisor-led, human advisors remain the primary interface) and Eton Solutions EtonAlpha (self-directed from $15M+, no human-advisor layer as a standard feature, self-described as "billionaire-grade"). The position occasioned: beginning with the person, not the assets — both platforms disagree about the a


AI in Finance — Deployment Digest – Week of 30 June 2026
Weekly AI-in-finance deployment digest: Goldman Sachs and FIS put Anthropic agents into trade accounting, KYC and financial-crimes work; the FCA, Colorado and EU AI Act on AI governance; Farther and Eton for ultra-high-net-worth clients. Each item graded for provenance.


SMA Crown Confidential Notebook – Note: The Merrill AI-Powered Meeting
Institutional AI optimises what institutions do. On Merrill's Meeting Journey, the 17% personalisation gap, and which side of the table gains the hours.


Who I’m actually dealing with — a tool, or a colleague of my advisor?
A tool, or a colleague of your advisor? An institution can only personalise how it handles your money — never attention to you. What the friendly AI really is.


AI in Finance — Deployment Digest – Week of 23 June 2026
A weekly reading of AI deployment in private wealth from the client's side — what institutions are building around high-net-worth clients, and what they now face.


SMA Crown Confidential Notebook – Note: From Pyramid to Diamond
Occasion: CFO Dive survey data — 91% of CFOs expect finance teams to hold flat or shrink; the composition is shifting from pyramid to diamond, with fewer junior roles and more mid-level as automation takes the entry-level floor. The position occasioned: an institution was never constituted to hold the person — only to employ people who sometimes did, and those are the roles going. Not a depth being lost, but an absence becoming legible. The surveys released this week describe


SMA Crown Confidential Notebook - Note: Citi Sky
Occasion: Citi has announced Citi Sky, an AI advisor for Citigold clients built with Google DeepMind — real-time voice and video, always-on, framed as “an AI-powered member of the Citi Wealth team,” rolling out summer 2026. The position occasioned: on the client’s side of the table. This week Citi announced Citi Sky, an AI advisor for its Citigold clients, built with Google DeepMind: real-time voice and video conversations about their finances, always on, framed as “an AI-pow


AI: Specialist vs Generalist — Reading the Wealth Architecture
The Decision-Maker lives in four worlds — wealth, art, philanthropy, lineage. Wealth is the most documented, and the most easily misread. Mass AI handles the vocabulary fluently. Discretionary trusts, family limited partnerships, holding structures, jurisdictional layering, generation-skipping vehicles — the terms are explained with confidence, the mechanisms described with precision. A Decision-Maker asking what a particular instrument is, or how it generally functions, will
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