Posts by Rebecca Lake, CEPF®
Industry Trends
Niche Markets for Financial Advisors
One of the pieces of advice new advisors may hear is to choose a niche. A niche reflects your ideal client audience; it’s who you market your services to, based on your skill set, experience and who you’re uniquely equipped to service. When discussing the best niche markets for financial advisors, there’s no single winner.… read more…
Firm Management
How to Coach Advisor Clients on the Empty Nest Transition
Advising clients who are entering the empty nest phase requires an approach that’s both strategic and tactful. Clients may experience a range of emotions surrounding this change, which could make it more difficult for them to focus on their financial plan. Successfully coaching clients through the empty nest transition begins with validating those emotions, and… read more…
Marketing
Social Media Marketing Plan Template for Financial Advisors
Social media can offer advisors opportunities to connect with prospective clients while nurturing relationships with existing clients. Approximately 40% of advisors use social media as a marketing tool, according to a 2024 Kitces report titled “How Financial Planners Actually Market Their Services.”1 A social media marketing plan template offers a starting point for developing, implementing… read more…
Professional Development
Free Continuing Education Classes for Financial Advisors
Obtaining professional certifications or designations can enhance your credibility and help you attract new clients. Roughly one-third of advisors have a Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) credential, according to self-reported data maintained by the CFP Board.1 Maintaining your credentials often requires completing continuing education (CE) credits to ensure that you’re up to date on the latest… read more…
Compliance & Legal
AI Tools That Help Advisors Summarize Legal Documents
When you don’t have time to review and summarize a legal document, artificial intelligence can do the heavy lifting for you. Advisors may turn to AI to summarize legal documents into a scannable, more accessible format. AI summary tools scan digital versions of documents, and condense them down so they’re easily readable. These tools rely… read more…
Firm Management
Advisor Strategies to Manage Capital Gains for Clients
Incorporating tax planning into your suite of services could help you attract new clients and provide even more value to the ones you already serve. Proper tax planning allows your clients to hold on to more of their wealth, which may be important to them if they want to preserve a financial legacy for future… read more…
Firm Management
Client Management Software for Financial Advisors
Tech tools can make your life as a financial advisor easier, helping you run your practice more efficiently. Building a tech stack begins with identifying your organization’s needs. Client management software (CMS) for financial advisors can help centralize client data and pinpoint growth opportunities. And comparing software options can help you decide which program is… read more…
Firm Management
How to Create KPI-Based Bonuses for Financial Advisors
If you’d like to incentivize your team, you may consider introducing key performance indicator-based bonuses as part of your firm’s compensation structure. This approach ties salary bonuses to specific key performance indicators (KPIs) and is designed to motivate your employees to actively participate in driving success for themselves and your firm. Learn how to create… read more…
Professional Development
Recommendations That Advisors Can Give to Clients Now
When the economy feels uncertain and market volatility increases, it’s natural for your clients to have questions about what comes next. Certified Financial Planners™ (CFPs®) report that 53% of their clients are cautious, while only 36% are optimistic, according to the CFP® Board’s 2026 CFP Professionals Financial Outlook Survey. What are financial advisors telling clients… read more…
Firm Management
Custodians for Independent Firms Who Need Ops and Marketing Help
Going independent has its benefits, including flexibility and freedom. Half of advisors who go independent choose to start their own registered investment advisor firm, according to a 2024 Schwab survey. If you follow this path, you’ll need a trusted RIA custodian to hold client assets. What’s the best custodian for small independent advisors needing ops… read more…
Client Acquisition
What Advisor Services Attract High Net Worth (HNW) Clients?
Working with high-net-worth (HNW) clients can increase assets under management and revenue, but getting them in the door can sometimes be challenging. Wealthier clients often have specialized needs that require in-depth knowledge of taxation, estate planning and charitable giving, and may bring higher expectations for the advisor-client relationship, as well. Adding HNW services to your… read more…
Client Acquisition
Millennial Investor Strategies for Advisory Firms
As the oldest millennials enter their peak earning years, investing and retirement may be weighing heavily on their minds. While 82% of millennials say their financial plan could use some improvement, only 26% have sought out professional financial advice, according to Northwestern Mutual’s 2025 Planning & Progress Study.1 Leveraging technology, developing personalized solutions and targeting… read more…
Compliance & Legal
Does CCO Outsourcing Make Sense for Your RIA?
Starting a registered investment advisor (RIA) firm or growing an existing one means having a chief compliance officer (CCO) on board to ensure that your business satisfies regulatory requirements. The question is, should you hire in-house or outsource the role to a third-party? According to Schwab’s 2025 RIA Benchmarking Study, 83% of advisors outsource compliance… read more…
Compliance & Legal
Relying Adviser: Characteristics, Requirements, Examples
Registering an investment advisory firm with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is a complex process that requires, among other things, the filing of Form ADV. Umbrella registration may be an option for entities that qualify for relying adviser status. A relying adviser is eligible to register with the SEC, but has another adviser handle… read more…
Client Acquisition
Reputation Management Strategies for Financial Advisors
A good reputation can help attract new clients to your advisory firm, as well as retain the ones you have. A 2025 Wealthtender study of households earning more than $100,000 found that 83% of respondents took time to research an advisor’s reputation, taking into consideration online reviews and awards1. This highlights just how important online… read more…
Firm Management
How to Prepare Clients for Retirement as a Financial Advisor
For many clients, retirement is a goal that can feel far away, until one day, it’s right around the corner. Preparing clients for retirement means addressing their financial concerns, as well as their mental and emotional readiness. How you approach your planning and preparation strategy depends on how close (or far away) your clients are… read more…
Firm Management
5 Ways Financial Advisors Can Maintain Work/Life Balance
Work-life balance can often feel elusive for financial advisors. Your working hours are split between client meetings, business development and the back-office tasks necessary to keep your firm running. It may become all too easy to slip into a pattern of taking work home with you or sacrificing weekends to complete any unfinished tasks. Maintaining… read more…
Firm Management
How Does the Outsourced CIO (OCIO) Model Work for RIAs?
Outsourcing allows advisors to delegate operational tasks and, in some cases, certain organizational roles. For example, RIAs may opt to handle investment management with the help of an OCIO, or Outsourced Chief Investment Officer. Examining the benefits of an outsourced CIO for RIAs, as well as the potential drawbacks, can help advisory firms determine if… read more…
Firm Management
5 Platforms to Find a Financial Planning Business for Sale
Acquiring an existing business is one avenue to growth, but it can also meet other needs for your advisory firm. Over the past five years, 41% of registered investment advisors have engaged in mergers and acquisitions, according to Schwab’s 2025 RIA Benchmarking Study1. If you’re interested in finding a financial planning business for sale, several… read more…
Firm Management
Retirement Planning Software Options for Financial Advisors
Technology can help you run your business more efficiently and produce better results for your clients. A majority of advisors, 84%, use financial planning software to better serve their clients, according to the T3 Inside Information 2025 Software Survey1. And only 19% of advisors use software that’s exclusively focused on retirement distribution planning. But retirement… read more…
Firm Management
AI Lead Gen Tools and Software for Financial Advisors
Lead generation plays a vital role in growing your practice, and you can employ a variety of techniques to attract new clients to your business, such as artificial intelligence (AI). AI could help you to streamline your lead gen efforts so they’re more efficient and generate better results. Comparing lead gen AI tools based on… read more…
Firm Management
AI Lead Gen Best Practices for Financial Advisors
More advisors are exploring the possibilities of artificial intelligence for lead generation to scale their businesses. Tech companies are rising to the challenge to deliver user-friendly, results-driven tools that offer advisors a streamlined way to connect with high-intent leads. Developing some AI best practices for lead gen can help ensure that you’re using these tools… read more…
Compliance & Legal
Cross Border Compliance: Guidelines for Advisory Firms
With 21% of Americans interested in moving to a new country, becoming an expat financial advisor could open up new opportunities to scale1. Advising clients who live and work abroad raises new concerns surrounding compliance, however. In addition to observing U.S. regulatory guidelines, you must also navigate international regulations for advisor conduct. Familiarizing yourself with… read more…
Client Acquisition
Financial Planning Sales Strategies for Advisors and Planners
If you want to grow your practice, building a high-converting sales funnel is a skill that’s worth developing. Developing sales systems can help you attract more clients who fit your ideal buyer persona and increase conversion rates. The challenge lies in determining which financial planning sales strategies are most effective for your business and the… read more…
Compliance & Legal
Text Message and SMS Compliance Rules for Financial Advisors
Your clients value transparent communication. So in addition to phone calls and emails, you may rely on text messages to stay connected. While test messages are a quick and convenient way to check in with clients, it’s important to tread carefully to avoid compliance violations. Developing a text messaging compliance strategy can help you avoid… read more…