Financial advisers
An AI notetaker for financial advisors that keeps the recording on your own Mac
Ghosty Notes records client meetings using your Mac's own audio, transcribes them on the device, writes the summary locally by default with hosted processing as an optional Pro setting, and saves both as markdown files in a folder your firm already controls.
Ghosty Notes runs on macOS on a Mac with Apple Silicon, because transcription happens on the device; Intel Macs are not supported.
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what the other side sees while you record
Client meetings are where an advice business is actually made. The suitability conversation, the risk discussion, the moment a client says out loud what they want to do with the money. Those are the conversations you most want written down accurately, and they are also the ones you are least comfortable handing to a vendor you have never audited.
Ghosty Notes takes the recording out of that equation. It captures the meeting through the Mac's own system audio, so nothing joins the call as an attendee and the client does not see an unfamiliar name in the participant list. Speech becomes text using a model running on your machine. The transcript and summary land as plain markdown files in a folder you choose, which can sit inside whatever your firm already backs up.
That leaves you two questions to answer honestly, and this page answers both: what it does for your vendor diligence, and what it does not do for your books and records obligation.
Vendor diligence and the books-and-records problem, in that order
The 2024 amendments to Regulation S-P are live and their compliance dates have passed. They push registered advisers in a direction most firms have already felt: written policies for an incident response programme, and in particular due diligence and oversight of the service providers who receive customer information, including assurances about how quickly you would be told about a breach at their end. A cloud notetaker is squarely inside that. It receives the audio of client meetings, it stores the transcripts, and it becomes a service provider you have to diligence, monitor and get breach-notification assurances from.
The architectural argument for on-device processing is simply that this question stops having a subject. If the recording is captured, transcribed and stored on the adviser's own machine, there is no third party receiving customer information for that step, so there is no vendor in the data path to assess for it. We are not claiming a certification, a standard or a compliance status, and we do not have one. We are describing where the data physically goes, which is a claim we can actually stand behind.
Now the counter-risk, because it is real and any compliance reviewer will find it in the first five minutes. Rule 204-2 under the Advisers Act requires firms to make and keep specified books and records, and the recordkeeping obligation is the firm's, not the individual adviser's. Notes that exist only in one folder on one adviser's laptop can make that harder to satisfy, not easier. A laptop is lost, an adviser leaves, and the record leaves with them. A cloud tool, whatever else it costs you, at least gives the firm a central copy by default.
The practical answer is to treat the notes folder as firm records from day one. Point it at a location the firm already backs up and archives under its existing retention arrangements, so the markdown files are covered by the same process as everything else you keep. Because the output is plain text files rather than a proprietary database, that is a matter of choosing the right folder rather than building an export pipeline. Do it at setup, not after the first exam.
On where the market currently is: Kitces Research on Advisor Technology put Jump at the highest adoption among standalone AI notetakers at 9.7%, with Zoom AI, Zocks and Fathom behind it and no other provider above 0.5%. Adoption is most common among what the research calls "pure solo" advisers, though the same research notes such tools are "just as common amongst 5-person teams as they are amongst solos". So this is not a solo-only habit, and it is also not yet a settled category.
- SEC Regulation S-P, 2024 amendments
- Require written incident response policies, including due diligence and oversight of service providers that receive customer information and assurances on breach notification. The compliance dates have passed.
- Advisers Act Rule 204-2
- Requires advisers to make and keep specified books and records. The obligation sits with the firm, so records held only on one adviser's device can be harder to satisfy it with.
- Kitces Research on Advisor Technology
- Jump had the highest adoption among standalone AI notetakers at 9.7%, with Zoom AI, Zocks and Fathom behind and no other provider above 0.5%. Adoption is most common among pure solo advisers, but the tools are "just as common amongst 5-person teams as they are amongst solos".
How it fits a client meeting day
Put the notes folder somewhere the firm archives
Before the first meeting, set the notes directory to a location covered by your firm's existing backup and retention arrangements rather than a loose folder in your home directory. Everything the app writes is plain markdown, so whatever already archives your documents will archive these.
Tell the client, then record
Say you are recording and get agreement, exactly as you would today. Nothing about a local tool changes that, and recording-consent law varies by state. Then start the recording. Because audio comes from the Mac system output, no attendee appears in the meeting and the conversation does not detour into explaining a bot.
Review the summary while it is fresh
After the meeting you get a transcript and a summary as markdown. Read the summary before you file it. It is a drafting aid, not a compliance record you can sign without looking, and the ten minutes after a meeting is when you can still spot the thing it heard wrong.
Move what belongs in the CRM into the CRM
There is no integration that writes into Redtail, Wealthbox or Salesforce. Copy the follow-up items and the meeting summary across yourself, or paste the markdown into your existing note template. This is manual work and it is the honest cost of a tool with no vendor in the middle.
What advisers and compliance officers raise
- Our compliance officer will ask where the client data goes.
- The recording and the transcription happen on the adviser's Mac and the audio never leaves the device on any tier. If Pro's hosted AI models are switched on, the transcript text goes to that service for the summary or chat, and the audio still does not. In local mode nothing is sent. That is an architecture statement, not a compliance certification, and we do not claim one.
- If it is all on one laptop, how do we meet our recordkeeping obligation?
- You handle it the same way you handle your other records, and you have to do it deliberately. Rule 204-2 puts the obligation on the firm, and files sitting only on one adviser's machine are a weaker record than a central one. Point the notes folder at a location your firm already backs up and archives. If your firm has no such location, fix that before adopting any local tool.
- Does it write into our CRM?
- No. Jump, Zocks and Fathom integrate with adviser CRMs and we do not. If pushing a structured summary straight into Redtail or Wealthbox is the thing that saves you the hour, one of those is the better buy and we would rather say so than sell around it.
- Can our compliance team review meetings across the firm?
- Not through this product. There is no team plan, no admin console and no shared library. Each adviser has their own notes on their own machine. A firm can buy individual licences for several advisers, and a supervisor can read files in a shared archive folder, but there is no view that lets one person search another's meeting history.
- What about accuracy on financial terms and product names?
- We do not publish accuracy figures, because we have no measured data for the on-device model and any number we gave you would be invented. Product names, fund tickers and client surnames are where any transcription tool struggles most. Treat the transcript as a draft you check, and test it on a real meeting first, the free tier has no meeting limit.
- Our firm runs on Windows.
- Then this is not for you. Ghosty Notes runs on macOS on a Mac with Apple Silicon. There is no Windows build and no web version, and there is no plan we can promise you a date for.
Against the notetakers advisers actually shortlist
| Ghosty Notes | Alternatives | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the recording is processed | On the adviser's Mac, using a model on the device | Jump, Zocks and Fathom process on their servers |
| Service provider receiving client information | None in local mode, the recording stays on the device | Yes, so it falls inside your Reg S-P service-provider diligence |
| Bot in the client meeting | No participant joins, audio comes from system output | Commonly joins as a visible participant |
| CRM integration | No, you copy the summary across yourself | Yes, into the main adviser CRMs |
| Where the notes are stored | Markdown files in a folder your firm can back up and archive | In the vendor account |
| Firm-wide supervision view | Not available, notes are per adviser and per machine | Available on team plans |
| Platform | macOS on Apple Silicon only | Mac, Windows and web |
Questions from advice firms
- What does Pro's hosted AI actually send?
- The transcript text, for the feature you turned on, such as a hosted summary or fast cross-meeting chat. The audio never leaves your Mac on any tier. Leave the app in local mode and nothing is transmitted at all, because the model runs on the machine.
- What hardware do we need?
- A Mac with Apple Silicon. Transcription runs on the device, so Intel Macs are not supported. Any Apple Silicon Mac works, including the base configurations.
- Do I still need client consent to record?
- Yes. Recording-consent law varies, the federal floor is one-party consent and a number of states require all parties, so ask and get agreement as you do now. A local tool changes where the recording is stored, not whether you are allowed to make it.
- Can we buy this for a five-person office?
- You can buy a licence per adviser. What you cannot buy is a shared library, an admin console, seat management or central billing, because none of those exist. Pro is $5.00 a month or $54.00 a year per person.
- Does it work for phone meetings and in-person reviews?
- It records the Mac's system audio, so any call running through the Mac works regardless of platform. For an in-person review it depends on your microphone picking up the room, and that is worth testing before you rely on it.
- What happens to our notes if we stop paying?
- Nothing. They are markdown files in your own folder and they stay readable in any text editor. Dropping to the free tier keeps unlimited local meetings, on-device transcription, the MCP server and local Apple Calendar detection; you lose cloud calendar sync, hosted models, fast cross-meeting chat, Obsidian sync and speaker identification.
- Can it tell clients apart in a joint meeting?
- Speaker identification is a Pro feature, and like any such feature it works better with clear audio and distinct voices. In a joint meeting with a couple, check the labels rather than assuming them.
Record your next client meeting on your own machine
Free for unlimited local meetings. Pro is $5.00 a month or $54.00 a year when you want hosted models, cross-meeting chat and speaker identification.
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