I gave Claude Cowork direct access to all my financial accounts across 5 institutions. The analysis I got back is something I never got from a human advisor, the kind that typically charges 1% AUM every year.
I've been using AI for financial analysis since ChatGPT launched. ChatGPT, then Perplexity, now Claude Cowork. Each iteration got better. But I kept hitting the same walls:
I spent weeks testing options. Most didn't fit. What I eventually landed on was 4 connectors inside Claude Cowork that any non-technical professional can set up today.
Claude Cowork is Anthropic's desktop application for Claude AI. It runs as a local AI agent on your computer with direct access to your folders and files. You can connect it to external applications through connectors. You can run multiple tasks in parallel. With a single click, you can enable plugins and skills, which are structured processes you define for AI, think of them as your SOPs. And if you set it up correctly, it has memory. It knows what you've discussed before, what your goals are, and what context matters to you.
A standard Claude or ChatGPT session starts from scratch every time. No memory of what you talked about last week. No access to your local files. Limited connections to outside applications. Claude Cowork is a different category of tool. To access it, you need a Claude Pro for $20/month or higher paid subscription.
Truthifi is a free app that securely connects all your financial accounts in one place. Think of it like Mint, but built to work directly with AI. Through the Truthifi connector in Claude Cowork, Claude sees 28 of my accounts across Schwab, Chase, Merrill Lynch, and Fidelity: brokerage, retirement, Roth IRA, checking, credit cards, mortgages, and real estate equity. Everything syncs automatically every week.
Setup takes about 15 minutes. You download the Truthifi app, connect your accounts, then add Truthifi as a connector inside Claude Cowork. After that, your full financial picture loads automatically every time you open a session.
If you have crypto investments and you use Coinbase, then like me, you can connect it directly to Claude Cowork using the free Coinbase API. This is a direct connection between your Coinbase account and Claude Cowork, set up through an API key you generate inside your Coinbase settings. Takes about 5 minutes. Once it's connected, Claude pulls my crypto balance automatically every morning. No manual entry, no outdated numbers.
Step-by-step instructions for setting up your Coinbase API key are here.
FMP is a financial data provider I connected to Claude Cowork as a native MCP connector. Once it's configured, Claude has access to real-time stock prices, ETF data, and options chains. When I'm looking at a specific position, Claude pulls the current price in the same conversation without me doing anything. No delay. No outdated data. FMP has a free tier that covers the most common use cases, which is what I use.
Bigdata.com is a plugin you can install inside Claude Cowork with a single click. Once it's installed, Claude has access to sector fundamentals, company earnings data, and market positioning across thousands of companies. When I'm evaluating whether a position still makes sense, Bigdata.com is what gives Claude the context to reason about it instead of just calculate raw numbers.
I configured everything with read-only access. Claude sees my full financial picture, but I approve any action that happens on any connector or account. I stay in control. Review the access and privacy settings for each of your connectors and plugins, and decide what level of access you're comfortable granting.
I don't download anything. I don't copy-paste anything. I just ask.
"Take a fresh look at my portfolio and flag anything I should be thinking about this week."
Claude already has my full account balances from Truthifi. It pulls current pricing from FMP. It adds sector context from Bigdata.com. What comes back is a structured analysis covering position concentration, live price data, and anything worth looking at this week. Advisor-level context, on demand, for $20 a month.
From there I go deeper on whatever surfaces. Tax implications if I sell a position this quarter. Allocation gaps against my target. Sector rotation questions. Claude holds context across the entire conversation and remembers what we discussed in previous sessions: my goals, my risk tolerance, decisions I've already made. It's working from my actual financial situation, not a generic template.
I'm workong on building out the execution layer to use AI to give me better timing on entries and exits, real options data, buy and sell recommendations tied to live market conditions.
Getting to a point where AI keeps me on track with my performance goals the way Morgan Stanley or Fidelity would, without handing over a percentage of my assets to get there. I haven't cracked that part yet, but I'm working on it and I'll share what I find.
If AI can do this for $20 a month, is it justified to pay an advisor a percentage fee of your assets to manage? Drop it in the comments 👇
Want to set this up yourself?
I run live Claude Cowork workshop for professionals to show you how to set up Claude, Connectors, Plugins, Skills and more, step by step.
JOIN MY CLAUDE COWORK WORKSHOP
Want your own AI Financial Brain done for you?
Follow me and join 16,000 readers of my AI Newlstter where I share practical strategies and tactics. No hype. No jargon.
Alejandra Teran is an AI advisor with 25 years in technology and a former Managing Director at Deloitte. She helps professionals, entrepreneurs, business owners, and real estate investors use AI consistently in their work and their finances.