Custom AI Assistant: Build Your Firm's Writing Assistant in Claude Projects

What This Builds

A persistent Claude Project configured as your firm's writing assistant — already briefed on your firm's name, communication style, client demographics, investment philosophy, compliance rules, and common tasks. Instead of re-explaining your context at the start of every AI session, you open your project and it knows everything about your practice. Every email draft, newsletter, meeting summary, and compliance document will sound consistent and on-brand from day one.

Prerequisites

• Comfortable using Claude for basic writing tasks (Level 3)
• Claude Pro subscription ($20/month at claude.ai)
• 60 minutes to write your system prompt and test it
• A clear picture of your firm's voice and compliance requirements

The Concept

A Claude Project is like having a new associate who has already read your firm's entire employee handbook, your communication style guide, and your compliance manual — before their first day. Every conversation you start in the project begins from that shared understanding.

Without a project: You type "Draft a follow-up email from my firm" → Claude asks what firm, who the client is, what the tone should be.

With a project: You type "Draft a follow-up email for Tom Henderson after our annual review — we discussed Roth conversion and updating his beneficiaries" → Claude immediately drafts in your voice, with your firm name, your compliance language, and your standard formatting.

Build It Step by Step

Part 1: Create the Project

1. Log into claude.ai. In the left sidebar, look for Projects. Click + New Project.
2. Name it something like "[Your Firm Name] Writing Assistant" or just "Advisor Assistant."
3. You'll see a Project Instructions field. This is your system prompt — the persistent context that runs before every conversation in this project.

Part 2: Write Your System Prompt

Your system prompt is the most important part. Take 30 minutes to write it carefully. Here's a template — fill in every bracket with your real details:

You are the writing assistant for [Firm Name], a [registered investment advisor / fee-only financial planning firm] located in [City, State].

**About the firm:**
- Advisor: [Your Name], [CFP® / CFA / etc.]
- Founded: [Year]
- Clients served: [Description, e.g., "primarily pre-retirees and retirees aged 55-75 with $500,000 to $3 million in investable assets"]
- Services: [e.g., "comprehensive financial planning and investment management on a fee-only AUM basis"]
- Investment philosophy: [e.g., "evidence-based, low-cost, diversified index investing with a long-term perspective"]
- Custodian: [e.g., Schwab Advisor Services]

**Communication style:**
- Tone: [e.g., "warm, direct, and plain-English — no financial jargon unless defined"]
- Client relationship: [e.g., "we know our clients by name, reference personal details when appropriate"]
- Formality: [e.g., "professional but personal — signed with first name, not formal titles"]

**Compliance rules (always follow these):**
- Never include specific investment performance predictions or promises
- Always recommend clients consult their CPA or attorney for tax or legal questions
- Do not reference specific investment products by name in client communications unless approved
- All investment-related claims should reflect long-term historical context, not short-term performance
- [Add any firm-specific rules]

**Standard signature block:**
[Your Name], [CFP® / etc.]
[Firm Name]
[Phone] | [Email]
[Website]

**Your primary tasks in this project:**
- Drafting client emails, follow-ups, and responses
- Writing newsletter content and LinkedIn posts
- Preparing meeting agendas and summaries
- Drafting financial plan narrative sections
- Creating compliance policy first drafts
- Writing client education materials

When drafting anything for client communication, always assume it will be lightly reviewed before sending. Flag any place where you're uncertain about compliance implications with [COMPLIANCE REVIEW].

Paste this (with your real details) into the Project Instructions field. Click Save.

Part 3: Test Your System Prompt

Start a new conversation inside your project. Give it a basic task:

Test 1 — Email draft: "Draft a follow-up email after an annual review meeting with Patricia Nguyen. We discussed her retirement income projection showing 89% plan success, agreed to increase her bond allocation by 5%, and she mentioned her son is getting married next spring."

Test 2 — Newsletter section: "Write a 150-word newsletter section on why sequence-of-returns risk matters for clients in the first 5 years of retirement."

Test 3 — Compliance flagging: "Write a sentence saying our clients have historically earned 10% per year."

Evaluate each response:

• Does it use your firm name correctly?
• Is the tone right?
• Does the compliance prompt (Test 3) produce appropriate pushback?

If something is off, go back to your system prompt and add a clarification. Iterate until the outputs feel authentically like you.

Part 4: Build Your Project Knowledge Base

Claude Projects allows you to upload documents that Claude can reference. Upload:

• Your current Form ADV Part 2A (your brochure) — Claude will reference your actual disclosed services
• A sample of 3-5 emails you've sent that represent your best writing — Claude will calibrate to your style
• Your current compliance checklist — Claude will apply it automatically

To upload: Inside the project, look for the Add Content or Upload Files button. Upload PDFs or paste text.

Real Example: End-to-End Workflow

Setup: You built the project with your system prompt last Tuesday. It took 90 minutes.

Monday morning: You have three client meetings today — Hendersons, Martinez family, and a new prospect. Before your first meeting, you open your Claude project.

Pre-meeting prep (Henderson annual review): You type: "Draft a meeting agenda for the Henderson annual review. David is 62, Linda is 59. Retiring in 3 years. Since last meeting: they sold their investment property, have $340k in sale proceeds sitting in money market. Portfolio is up 14% YTD. Key topics: deploy proceeds, Roth conversion analysis update, beneficiary review."

Output: A structured 60-minute agenda with specific discussion points under each topic — already mentioning their names, reflecting your philosophy on how to handle lump sum deployment, and flagging the Roth conversion opportunity.

Post-meeting (15 minutes later): You type: "Draft a follow-up email for the Hendersons. Decisions: will invest proceeds over 3 months using dollar-cost averaging into target portfolio. Will run Roth conversion analysis and send by April 15. Beneficiaries are current. David mentioned they're visiting their daughter in Portland next month."

Output: A warm, professional follow-up email in your voice, mentioning the Portland trip naturally, confirming all three decisions with action items, and signed with your name.

Time saved: What would have taken 30 minutes of writing (agenda + follow-up) took 4 minutes.

Time saved: 100-150 hours/year for an advisor with 3-4 meetings daily.

What to Do When It Breaks

• Output doesn't sound like you → Go back to the system prompt. Add 2-3 examples of sentences you would actually write. Add explicit tone instructions: "Avoid phrases like 'It is important to note' — just say what you mean directly."

• Compliance flags are over-triggering → Clarify in the system prompt: "Flag with [COMPLIANCE REVIEW] only when the content involves investment performance claims, specific product recommendations, or legal/tax advice. Do not flag general educational content."

• Claude doesn't remember your clients between sessions → Projects remember your system prompt and uploaded documents, but not conversation history from previous sessions. For recurring clients, start each session with a brief context: "Working on correspondence for Patricia Nguyen — long-term client, retiring in 2 years, conservative investor."

• Output is too long → Add to your system prompt: "Default to concise output. For client emails: under 200 words. For newsletter sections: under 250 words. For meeting agendas: under one page. Unless I specify longer."

Variations

• Simpler version: Skip the project setup and just paste your firm context at the top of each ChatGPT or Claude conversation. Takes 2 minutes but works.
• Extended version: Create separate projects for different workflows — one for client communications, one for compliance documents, one for prospect marketing. Each has a specialized system prompt.

What to Do Next

• This week: Write your system prompt and run all three tests
• This month: Upload your ADV, sample emails, and compliance checklist to the project knowledge base
• Advanced: Connect your project to a Zapier workflow so incoming client emails automatically route to the project for draft reply generation

Advanced guide for financial advisor professionals. Claude Project features may evolve — check claude.ai for current capabilities.