AI and Wire Fraud Risks Rise Sharply Among RIAs, Survey Finds
Independent registered investment advisors (RIAs) are growing increasingly anxious about liabilities tied to artificial intelligence (AI) errors and wire fraud, even as cyber breaches remain their most pressing risk, according to the 2025 RIA Bi-Annual Risk Survey conducted by insurance brokerage Golsan Scruggs.
The survey revealed that nearly 80% of RIAs cited wire fraud, crime, or social engineering as a top corporate threat, while 40% identified AI-related application errors as a new and emerging risk. This marks the first year either issue was tracked in the Golsan Scruggs survey.
While cybersecurity breaches continued to rank as the number-one concern, their intensity declined slightly from 2023 levels. However, the rise of wire fraud and AI risks has now overtaken regulatory exposure, which previously held the second position among top RIA worries.
“Independent advisors are clearly concerned about how sophisticated technology can negatively affect their practices,” said Ken Golsan, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Golsan Scruggs. “Whether it’s wire fraud, cyberattacks, or mistakes from AI, we’ve seen a marked increase in the desire to manage and mitigate those risks.”
Other significant risks identified include trade execution errors and failures in due diligence, though both ranked lower than in the 2023 survey as attention shifted toward technology-driven vulnerabilities.
“It is telling that, as hacks to steal client information have become more successful—often powered by AI and other advanced technologies—advisors are turning their focus to these new exposures,” Golsan added. “We expect these areas to top future surveys as their impact on advisory firms grows.”
The 2025 survey polled approximately 8,000 independent RIAs between May and August 2025, asking participants to rank 10 categories of corporate risk based on their perceived significance and potential business impact.
