So, a fintech company most people outside the RIA world have never heard of just wiped over $20 billion off the market caps of Charles Schwab, LPL Financial, and Raymond James in a single day. The culprit? A tax planning feature inside an AI tool that costs about $125 a month. Let that sink in.
On February 10th, [Altruist dropped the tax planning module for Hazel](https://altruist.com/news/hazel-ai-tax-planning/), its AI platform built for wealth advisors. Hazel had already been around since September 2025 — it started as a meeting intelligence tool called Thyme (a Y Combinator-backed startup Altruist acquired) and grew into a full-blown AI assistant that could handle note-taking, CRM entries, scheduling, and client research. But the tax planning piece? That’s what made the market lose its mind.
Here’s what Hazel actually does on the tax side: you feed it a client’s 1040, pay stubs, account statements, even meeting notes and emails, and it spits out a fully personalized tax strategy in minutes. Not a generic checklist — actual scenario modeling where advisors can ask “what if my client sells their house next year?” or “what happens if they retire early?” and get projected tax outcomes in real time. The kind of analysis that used to take hours of specialist work and cost clients thousands of dollars is now available for a flat monthly fee. Over 1,000 advisors are already using it.
The market reaction was wild. LPL dropped 8.3%, Schwab fell 7.4%, and Raymond James lost 8.75%. [Seeking Alpha flagged the selloff](https://seekingalpha.com/news/4549697-wealth-management-and-tax-prep-stocks-sink-as-altruist-launches-new-ai-tool) almost immediately, and [CNBC ran a piece](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/10/the-ai-threat-wrecked-software-stocks-now-broker-stocks-look-next-with-lpl-down-11percent.html) comparing it to the earlier AI-driven software stock rout. [BusinessWire carried the official announcement](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260210142841/en/Altruist-Introduces-AI-Powered-Tax-Planning-in-Hazel-Helping-Advisors-Deliver-Tax-Strategies-in-Minutes), and [InvestmentNews did a detailed breakdown](https://www.investmentnews.com/goria/custodian/altruist-expands-hazel-ai-with-tax-planning-capabilities/265211) of what the feature means for the industry. People are calling it the “DeepSeek moment” for financial services — a moment where a relatively small player proves that expensive, entrenched services can be replicated cheaply with AI, and the incumbents suddenly look very exposed.
Now, is the panic justified? Probably overblown in the short term. Adoption takes time, and most high-net-worth clients aren’t switching advisors because of one tool. But the signal is clear: if you can deliver $5,000 worth of tax strategy for $125 a month, the pricing pressure on traditional wealth management is real and it’s not going away. You can check out the platform yourself at [hazel.ai](https://hazel.ai/) — they offer a free trial if you want to kick the tires.
Altruist CEO Jason Wenk apparently [didn’t even expect this level of market reaction](https://riabiz.com/a/2026/2/12/altruist-ceo-jason-wenk-says-he-was-caught-off-guard-in-mexico-when-his-firms-deepseek-moment-triggered-a-big-3-wall-street-meltdown-but-his-ai-revolution-is-only-beginning-he-tells-riabiz) — he was in Mexico when the stock carnage happened. But intentional or not, Hazel just became the most talked-about AI product in finance this year. Whether you’re an advisor, an investor, or just someone who hates overpaying for tax advice, this one is worth watching closely.
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