AI legal tools face UPL prosecution. AI therapy apps face state psychology boards plus the FTC ($7.8M BetterHelp). AI financial advisors face the Investment Advisers Act plus the SEC Marketing Rule. The industry-licensing cluster covers all three.
If you vibe-coded a tool that drafts contracts, files small-claims paperwork, or answers legal questions, the question isn't whether UPL law applies to you — it's whether you've crossed the line your state's bar uses to decide. Here's the actual test, the language that gets investigated, and the mitigations the legal-tech category has converged on.
Mental-health software has a regulatory stack that's deeper than founders usually realise. State psychology licensing boards police diagnosis and treatment claims. The FTC enforces against deceptive data-sharing. The FDA regulates anything that diagnoses or treats — even via chatbot. And both major app stores now require crisis-resources disclosure. Here's the enforcement record, the four-layer compliance stack, and what to ship before traffic scales.
The line between a 'financial information tool' and an 'unregistered investment adviser' is narrow and the SEC has been actively enforcing it against AI-flavoured retail products. The Investment Advisers Act's three-part test (advice, securities, compensation) catches a lot of products founders didn't think were in scope. Here's the test, the Marketing Rule, the enforcement record, and the registration-vs.-disclaimer decision every operator has to make.