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Put RingCentral's AI receptionist on firm phones so callers get routed to the right person instead of another voicemail

who Christopher Haigh, CEO of Iconoclastic Capital (fee-only RIA in Rochester, NY; ~$60M AUM, ~120 households), on the Kitces Financial Advisor Success podcast

The problem

A hybrid five-person advisory firm was collecting missed calls and voicemails while people were in client meetings, so callers waited and the wrong teammate often got the callback.

What happened

Self-reported qualitative: the AI receptionist 'routes it to the right people a lot more effectively' and they get fewer missed calls and voicemails. No firm-wide answer-rate percentage is published for the receptionist alone.

Quoted in the source: Christopher Haigh, CEO, Iconoclastic Capital. Source: Kitces FASuccess ep. 477: Christopher Haigh / Iconoclastic Capital — AI tools, RingCentral AI receptionist (2026-02-17) · Added 2026-10-14.

How to set it up yourself

1. What Iconoclastic Capital did: keep RingCentral as the phone system, enable the AI receptionist with routing prompts, and hand complex advice calls to humans.
2. List every call type you get (new prospect, existing client, custodian, vendor, wrong number) and the teammate or department each one should reach, plus after-hours rules.
3. In RingCentral, turn on AI Receptionist (AIR), load those routing prompts and your firm name/hours, and require it to offer a human transfer for advice, complaints or urgent money moves.
4. Test 15 scripts (new prospect, existing client needing a same-day call, spam, custodian). Review the call log daily for the first two weeks and tighten prompts where routing was wrong.
5. DIY adaptation (not RingCentral): if your carrier has no AI receptionist, use a general AI phone agent pointed at the same routing sheet, or keep a shared intake form plus Calendly links in every voicemail greeting.

Copy-paste prompt

You are the phone receptionist for {FIRM NAME}, a fee-only advisory firm. Hours: {HOURS}. Route using ONLY this directory: {NAME → ROLE / EXTENSION}. For new prospects, collect name, phone, email and whether they want a {INTRO CALL TYPE}, then offer to transfer or take a message. Never give investment, tax or legal advice. If the caller asks for advice or is upset about money, transfer to a human or take a callback number. Caller said: {PASTE}

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