Property Investment
3 min read
If you’ve just created a Wealth Plan – you might have tried out Opes AI.
This is a new feature we’ve recently added to My Wealth Plan, and you might have a lot of questions.
Things like: “How does this work? What does it take into account? And why have you created an AI in the first place? Was it really needed?”
These are great questions, because you don’t want to create a financial plan and then think: “Wait, a small part of this was created by AI. How do I know it’s accurate?”
So in this article, I’ll explain (as simply as possible) what Opes AI is and how it works. And we’ll keep the tech-speak to a minimum.
That way you don’t need a PHD to understand your financial plan.
Great question. Here’s the problem we’re trying to solve:
In the past, our advisers would create Wealth Plans for investors. This included planning future property purchases. For example, the adviser might say, “You’ll buy a property in Auckland for $1 million in 3 years time.”
But one of the big questions clients have posed is: “But, will I really be able to afford that property?”
That’s why we then built a financial model to forecast how many properties investors could actually buy.
But then comes another problem. You might then ask: “Well, now that I know how many properties I can buy … which properties should I buy? And in what order?”
It turns out there are over a trillion scenarios you could run through this model. And as good as our advisers are, they can’t run those many scenarios for every investor.
That’s why we created Opes AI, because AI models are very good at running lots of scenarios very quickly. That way you can get closer to a ‘perfect’ scenario much faster.
We worked with financial experts to create a financial model that forecasts how many properties you can buy.
This programme simulates banks’ lending criteria to see how many properties you might be able to buy.
This model wasn’t created by AI; it was created by humans who understand finance and how banks lend. AI then uses the model to find the ‘right’ properties to buy and in what order.
Not quite. Opes AI doesn’t give you financial advice.
Instead, it’s a tool our financial advisers use to run a lot of financial scenarios very quickly.
They can then tweak and adapt what Opes AI gives you.
Ultimately, your financial adviser is the one making a recommendation, but they are using AI (and our other tools) to reach that recommendation.
Think of it less as AI financial advice – and more as having an AI-powered financial adviser.
You do not have to use Opes AI when you create a Wealth Plan. Your adviser can input the properties you buy and when.
Opes AI is just a tool that helps you find a potential investment scenario faster ... and you don’t have to accept whatever AI outputs.
You can either tweak what Opes AI gives you or tell your adviser: “Can you do it without AI?”
One of the big questions people ask is: “This says I can buy a property in 3 years. How accurate is that? Can I 100% buy that property in 3 years?”
The answer is ‘no’. There’s no guarantee you absolutely can buy that property in 3 years. That’s because life changes, your income could change, and the banks can change policies.
What the model does is project what you may be able to purchase.
So we do our best to project what the future might look like and then say, “Based on that projected future, what properties can you buy and when?”
The model isn’t perfect; it’s not foolproof … but it’s a lot better than just guessing.
Sometimes AI models ‘hallucinate’ and give weird or inaccurate results.
The good news is that Opes AI only does one small part of creating your Wealth Plan. It’s just planning out the potential property purchases (and the order of those purchases).
It operates within the very defined rules we’ve given it.
But, let’s say it does hallucinate. For example, let’s say it recommends you buy 10 properties, when you can’t afford them.
You can always double-check Opes AI’s work in My Wealth Plan.
In this scenario, you can look at the graphs and say: “Well, AI is saying buy 10 properties today, but I can see in the graph this is not affordable!”
Then your financial adviser can adapt the plan to fix AI’s hallucination.
We use Open AI’s ChatGPT model to power Opes AI.
Have another question about Opes AI? Let us know down in the comments section and we’ll come back to you with the answer.
Managing Director, 20+ Years' Experience Investing In Property, Author & Host
Andrew Nicol, Managing Director at Opes Partners, is a seasoned financial adviser and property investment expert with 20+ years of experience. With 40 investment properties, he hosts the Property Academy Podcast, co-authored 'Wealth Plan' with Ed Mcknight, and has helped 1,894 Kiwis achieve financial security through property investment.
