Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 511th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Ashlee deSteiger. Ashlee is the co-owner of Gunder Wealth Management, an RIA based in Birmingham, Michigan, that oversees approximately $150 million in assets under management for 100 client households.

What's unique about Ashlee, though, is how she made the decision to use an outsourcing platform for back-office services (and, later, paraplanning support) to support her goals of growing her client base while maintaining her desired lifestyle.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Ashlee decided to seek out a virtual assistant platform after reaching approximately 50 clients to be able to better focus on client growth and service (while freeing up mental capacity and time for higher-value tasks), why Ashlee sought a provider that not only could take on administrative tasks such as processing account paperwork but also could handle client requests (such as cash transfers) when she's out of office, and why Ashlee has decided to stick with her virtual assistant service (which she uses for 60 hours per month) rather than hire a full-time staff member for a similar cost.

We also talk about how Ashlee decided to pause new client onboarding for nine months in order to get a better handle on her firm's key performance metrics, how engaging in this exercise led Ashlee to move on from 5% of her client relationships each year (selecting clients based on both the revenue they generate and their engagement level with the firm), and how Ashlee adjusted her approach to producing (and charging for) one-time plans based on the findings of this exercise.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Ashlee shares how she's been able to generate new clients by posting graphics on Instagram (as it makes her top-of-mind for personal connections when they decide it's time to work with a financial planner), how Ashlee has balanced her approach to building a business with that of her business partner and husband, and how Ashlee has ultimately found success by creating a business that gives her the freedom to be able to work around her life instead of asking her family to build around her work.

So, whether you're interested in learning about outsourcing back-office tasks to remain a lean, profitable business, assessing KPIs to identify ways to improve a firm's efficiency, or how to run a growing firm while meeting lifestyle goals, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Ashlee deSteiger.

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A crucial part of marketing is, put simply, doing more of what works and less of what doesn't work. But how can advisors know what is effective? Many advisors look to their prospect calls for the answers: who shows up, and what do they ask about? This is a helpful starting point, but it may provide an incomplete picture – e.g., advisors may determine that since prospective clients don't ask about the advisor's CFP designation in a prospecting call, clients don't care about it. In reality, how people gather information and make decisions is more complex than that.

In this article, Senior Financial Planning Nerd Sydney Squires details how prospects actually evaluate financial planners, what information they seek, and how advisors can evaluate the effectiveness of the marketing strategies that they employ (in a way that allows visibility into 'more' prospective clients).

As a starting point, when narrowing down potential advisors, clients often have two sets of criteria. First, clients determine which traits an advisor must have and look to find all advisors who have those traits, such as a CFP designation (or similar demonstrations of expertise). Second, clients set criteria – such as location or pricing – that eliminate otherwise-viable firms as they seek to find the 'best' advisor (for them). A client's criteria will be personal – some clients may crave in-person interactions with an advisory firm, whereas others will prioritize the flexibility of remote meetings.

What various studies suggest is important, however, is that prospects are able to quickly and easily find this information. A recent marketing report indicated that even if a prospective client receives a referral from a friend, if they cannot find the information they need to assess potential fit on the advisor's website, the overwhelming majority will simply move on to another firm that does provide what they're looking for.

The good news for advisors is that most prospective clients are seeking relatively basic information, such as the advisory firm's fees (and minimums), demonstrations of the advisor's expertise (including reviews and testimonials), the nature of the advisor's investment strategies, and an overview of the discovery process. These components can be covered over the course of a few pages on a firm's website; the challenge to advisors is to ensure that this information is given in a clear, prospect-friendly manner. Advisors may consider adding some basic analytics to their website as well, which would allow them to better understand who is visiting the site, how long they're spending, and which pages they visit.

Once advisors have added this crucial information, they can then have a fuller view of the prospect's journey – as well as some added visibility into potential clients who don't reach out. Ultimately, the end goal is not to convert everyone who visits the website into a client, but rather, to ensure that prospects are receiving the right information to make informed decisions. From there, advisors can keep refining their marketing strategies to curate an experience that both attracts right-fit clients and speaks to their questions and issues – ultimately increasing the number of great, informed prospects the advisor meets!

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Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" – this week's edition kicks off with the news that Fidelity is planning to raise its minimum asset threshold for RIAs on its platform to $100 million, with affected firms having until June 30, 2027 to reach this minimum or start the process of finding a new custodial home. While this move is already leading to competition amongst other RIA custodians to serve the (few hundred) affected firms, more broadly it demonstrates the consequences of the current RIA custodial model (where neither RIAs nor their clients pay a direct fee to the custodian but rather 'pay' through the services clients use [e.g., relatively low-rate cash sweep accounts and lending products]) and suggests that an approach with more explicit fees could potentially serve custodians, RIAs, and individual clients alike.

Also in industry news this week:

• The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this week released a new examination handbook that offers fresh insights into how it determines which RIAs to examine each year
• The SEC also released a proposed framework for advisor custody of clients' cryptoassets, which could provide greater assurance for advisors interested in doing so

From there, we have several articles on Health Savings Accounts (HSAs):

• Why having an HSA 'succession plan' can help avoid the loss of attractive tax benefits associated with these accounts
• While the types of services and products eligible for reimbursement using an HSA might be broader than many clients expect, pushing the boundaries could lead to undesired penalties
• How families can execute an HSA "deathbed drawdown" to get assets out of an account in a hurry and avoid negative tax repercussions when an HSA is inherited by a non-spouse individual

We also have a number of articles on the elevated interest rate environment:

• Strategies for families to support children or grandchildren with the purchase of a home amidst elevated home prices and interest rates, including intra-family loans and disclaimers
• A recent study finds that a significant portion of homebuyers are ending up with higher rates and mortgage costs by not shopping around (with those with higher income and credit scores particularly prone to do so)
• An in-depth look into how financial advisors can support clients deciding whether to pay points to receive a lower interest rate on their mortgage

We wrap up with three final articles, all about wealth:

• Recent data indicate that the wealth of the top 0.1% of households has diverged from that of those in the next wealth bracket, creating a subgroup of astronomically wealthy households
• While the wealthiest households in the United States have seen their net worth soar during the past decade, those further down the wealth spectrum (including those in younger generations) have seen gains as well (perhaps opening new opportunities for financial advisors)
• How the difference between absolute and relative wealth (and the relationship between income and wellbeing) can be instructive at a time when certain individuals have seen their wealth explode

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

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The third quarter of 2026 saw a historic climb in interest rates, a new Federal Reserve rate hike cycle, and oil prices surging back above $100 a barrel. Given this combination of developments, many investors might have assumed that equity markets would struggle heading into year-end. Yet the S&P 500 notched its 27th record high of the year amidst continued strong corporate earnings, rewarding those who have been able to look past the headlines and remain invested.

In this article, James Liu, CEO of Clearnomics, walks through seven charts to help advisors put the quarter's headlines into context for clients, from the historic climb in bond yields, to what resurgent AI-related spending means for corporate earnings and productivity.

Interest rates have been the biggest story of the quarter, with the 10-year Treasury yield touching 5.30% in September, a level not seen since 2002, while the 30-year reached 5.64%. Unlike 2022, when rates climbed largely due to runaway inflation (hurting stocks and bonds at the same time), today's increases are being driven primarily by rising real (inflation-adjusted) yields – reflecting economic growth and heavy AI-related capital.

Inflation remains part of the picture as well, with headline CPI at 3.4% year-over-year and core CPI at 2.4%, both still driven largely by oil prices. This gave the Fed room to raise its target rate to a range of 3.75% to 4.00% in September – its first hike in three years – though new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh has also signaled a preference for stepping back from the central bank's traditional practice of forward guidance.

Corporate earnings, meanwhile, have been equally strong this quarter. S&P 500 earnings grew approximately 29% year-over-year, a third consecutive quarter of growth above 25% and well ahead of the historical average of around 8%, with all 11 S&P 500 sectors posting gains rather than returns being concentrated in a handful of mega-cap technology names.

Oil and copper were also in focus this quarter, with Brent crude climbing back above $100 a barrel amidst continued disruptions near the Strait of Hormuz, and copper rallying to all-time highs on surging demand tied to AI data centers.

With the midterm elections approaching in November, clients may naturally wonder whether a shift in Congressional control could affect their portfolios. History, though, suggests that markets have advanced under virtually every combination of political leadership over the past century, and that corporate earnings, interest rates, and other long-term trends are a far stronger indicator of market performance than one party or the other having political control.

Anticipated public offerings from AI leaders such as OpenAI and Anthropic have kept investors focused on a familiar question: whether today's level of AI infrastructure spending will eventually be matched by real productivity gains. And although equity market breadth has declined in recent months, a wide range of asset classes are positive year-to-date – an opportunity for advisors to demonstrate the value of a well-diversified portfolio throughout an eventful year.

Ultimately, the key point is that underlying fundamentals, such as real economic growth and broad-based earnings strength, are what typically drive long-run returns, even amidst headlines about rates, the Fed, and oil.

And if you want to go deeper on this topic, hear directly from the author on the Financial Advisor Technician podcast.

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My guest on today's podcast is Michael Yoder. Michael is the founder of Yoder Wealth Management, an RIA based in Walnut Creek, California, that oversees approximately $400 million in assets under management for 64 client households.

What's unique about Michael, though, is how he has implemented a discovery meeting process that has converted all prospects who go through it into clients over the past 10 years and allowed him to maintain a tailored practice that meets his lifestyle goals.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Michael starts his discovery process with an intro call that helps him determine whether a prospect would be a good fit for him and to introduce the personal questions that he will ask in the next meeting, how Michael uses a "deep discovery" meeting to help prospects explore their values around money and unearth goals they might not have previously considered, and how Michael finishes this process with an "initial findings" meeting where he presents preliminary planning recommendations (demonstrating the value they could receive from working with his firm without getting too specific about the actions required to implement chosen strategies).

We also talk about how Michael transitioned his firm from a generalist practice serving 177 client households (which came at a significant personal cost of time and stress) into a lifestyle practice serving 64 clients (including the challenge of finding new homes for clients and staff members), how Michael narrowed his focus to providing advanced retirement income services before later transitioning to working with clients on equity compensation issues, and how Michael has regularly received referrals from CPAs by demonstrating his expertise in specific topic areas relevant to their clients (for example, knowing the ins and outs of qualified small business stock).

And be certain to listen to the end, where Michael shares how using "precise language" without veering into industry jargon demonstrates credibility to clients and centers of influence alike, why Michael doesn’t shy away from fee conversations with prospects (as they have already seen the depth of value that his firm can provide), and how Michael has ultimately found that transitioning into a more focused (yet still highly profitable) practice has allowed him to better balance his professional, family, and personal goals.

So, whether you’re interested in learning about how narrowing his expertise helped him build relationships with CPAs and generate referrals, why specialized knowledge in areas such as retirement income and equity compensation can create new opportunities, and how precise language can build credibility without relying on industry jargon, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Michael Yoder.

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Welcome to the October 2026 issue of the Latest News in Financial #AdvisorTech – where we look at the big news, announcements, and underlying trends and developments that are emerging in the world of technology solutions for financial advisors!

This month's edition kicks off with the news that Anthropic has announced the launch of Claude for Financial Advisors, an industry-specific plugin for its popular AI chatbot, which connects to a number of different existing advisor technology tools and moves data in and out to execute functions like creating a pre-meeting summary

From there, the latest highlights also feature a number of other interesting advisor technology announcements, including:

• Two new announcements in the financial planning space – the launch of Hazel's new AI Financial Planning Agent and Conquest's AI planning platform being released to individual (non-enterprise) advisors – show how AI-enabled financial planning startups are aiming to disrupt the incumbent "Big 3" of eMoney, RightCapital, and MoneyGuidePro – but with the slow pace at which advisors adopt new financial planning software, it could take years to know whether that 'disruption' is actually happening
• Savvy has announced the launch of a new custody platform – open to all advisors regardless of whether they're affiliated with Savvy's RIA – suggesting a potential shift in strategy towards technology and custody (and possible competition with Altruist in both categories) which could better allow for the tech-style growth and valuation that Savvy is seeking?
• The estate planning software Luminary has announced a recent $22M fundraising round, showing how despite a hard year for specialized planning tools – which have been pressured both by the potential of having their features co-opted by comprehensive planning software and by the ability for advisors to build their own low-cost tools using AI – there is still a path for success for software that can get into deeper and more complex planning than generalized financial planning software or homebuilt options are able to go

Read the analysis about these announcements in this month's column, and a discussion of more trends in advisor technology, including:

• The M&A and transition consulting firm FP Transitions has released a new valuation benchmarking tool, which is part of a new crop of business benchmarking software that can help advisory firm leaders go into greater detail and specificity than traditional benchmarking studies allow when comparing the details of their business operations (and overall firm value) with their peers
• The SEC is reportedly probing into how advisory firms train and supervise their employees on their use of AI tools, which has implications for firms whose employees build tools or automations using personal (i.e., non-enterprise) versions of tools like ChatGPT or Claude (that could inadvertently expose client data to parties outside the firm) and underscores the importance of having an AI policy in place – because just as the SEC fined numerous firms for off-channel communications by their employees, RIAs could soon find themselves disciplined for unsanctioned AI use by their 'amateur developer' employees!

And be certain to read to the end, where we have provided an update to our popular "Financial AdvisorTech Solutions Map" (and also added the changes to our AdvisorTech Directory) as well!

*To submit a request for inclusion or updates on the Financial Advisor FinTech Solutions Map and AdvisorTech Directory, please share information on the solution at the AdvisorTech Map submission form.

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Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" – this week's edition kicks off with the news that the IRS issued guidance and a revenue ruling drawing boundaries around what it perceives to be legitimate uses of the increasingly popular 351 exchange strategy. While the strategy as a whole remains a viable way to manage securities with large embedded capital gains, the agency warned against certain tactics within ETFs leveraging it, including the rapid turnover of contributed securities, seed baskets that don't match the ETF's stated strategy, and transactions that appear pre-arranged. Which suggests that advisors can support clients not only in considering this strategy when appropriate but also in evaluating funds to ensure they will stay on the right side of IRS guidelines (and avoid a potential negative tax surprise for their clients in the process).

Also in industry news this week:

• The Treasury Department announced this week that it auto-enrolled more than 60 million children in the "Trump Accounts" program (though parents still need to claim the accounts to access available government and philanthropic contributions to them)
• A recent survey suggests a valuable role for financial advisors in helping hesitant clients (with the means to do so) spend more in retirement

From there, we have several articles on tax planning:

• Four mistakes related to IRAs that can't be undone (and how advisors can help clients avoid them), with indirect rollovers being a major culprit
• Why October 15th represents a key deadline for several transactions related to IRA contributions
• While the Federal government is in the midst of modernizing the IRA rollover process, advisors continue to have a valuable role to play in ensuring rollovers of workplace retirement plan assets are completed correctly (avoiding negative tax consequences in the process)

We also have a number of articles on marketing:

• The content, activity, and strategies that help advisors connect with prospective clients on LinkedIn
• A "3-2-1 Method" for consistent (but not necessarily time-intensive) engagement on social media
• How financial advisors can scale their social media marketing by leveraging evergreen content

We wrap up with three final articles, all about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and thinking:

• How thinking (and writing) for oneself can help professionals stand out at a time of increasing use of AI for these activities
• Why "cognitive delegation" in the workplace could make it harder to attribute original work to up-and-coming employees
• Seven principles for writing with (and without) AI, including the importance of maintaining an original voice

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

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Given that financial advice is usually, to say the least, not inexpensive, financial advisors often need to be prepared to explain their fee in the context of the value that is offered. This conversation includes how advisors charge for their advice and what they are charging for, especially as the fundamental value proposition of financial advice has evolved significantly over the last decade, transforming from product sales to investment management to goal-focused life planning. Yet as the financial planning process has become more holistic, it has also become more intangible in some ways. For example, the value of a product or investment management may feel immediately related to a client’s problem… but the value of goal-based spending and behavioral finance may be more challenging to articulate, in the moment, to prospects and clients.

In this 200th (💙!) episode of Kitces & Carl, Michael Kitces and client communication expert Carl Richards discuss how the value of advice has changed over time… and how to explain it to clients. Given how abstract life planning can be, when a client first engages an advisor, it is often best to start with the ‘presenting problem’ that first brought a client into the office – such as college planning, an impending retirement, or a sudden inheritance. Advisors can take that first issue as an opportunity to build trust with the client, then can slowly dig deeper from there. Opportunities to go deeper with clients often present in cash flow conversations, where an advisor can help clients explore which spending decisions will ‘actually’ make a difference in the long term.

Another component of the value of advice is related to client implementation. Many clients will acknowledge that they intended to follow through on different action items, such as estate planning or transferring accounts, but life, inevitably, got in the way. While the advice itself may be helpful, ensuring the agreed-upon actions are implemented may be invaluable for some clients. And if/when clients don’t act, that can provide another signal for a deeper conversation to see what (if anything) may be ‘missing’ from the financial planning recommendations.

When great advice is combined with implementation support, it can create an incredibly valuable experience for the client. While marketing "peace of mind" may be cliché, the reality is that it is immensely powerful to have one’s financial affairs in order (and continually updated so that they stay in order!). Ultimately, the key point is that while some components of advice shift with technology and markets, the fundamental value today’s advisors can offer is not just expertise, but a listening ear. When advisors can combine both elements, clients may be surprised not just at how much gets done, but at how aligned their financial capital is with what matters most!

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For many years, the U.S. tax code has incentivized individuals to give to charitable causes by allowing an itemized deduction for charitable contributions. Although the amount that an individual could deduct was limited to a certain percentage of their Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) based on the type of property contributed and the type of organization it was contributed to, any contribution made within those limits could be deducted dollar-for-dollar to reduce the taxpayer's taxable income.

However, under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), passed in 2025, two new rules are set to come into effect for the 2026 tax year that will reduce the tax benefits that individuals receive from making charitable contributions. The first is a new 'floor' on charitable deductions that reduces a taxpayer's charitable deduction by 0.5% of their AGI (and if total contributions don't exceed 0.5% of AGI, the deduction is reduced to zero). And the second is a reduction of taxpayers' cumulative itemized deductions by a factor of 2/37ths, which takes effect only for taxpayers whose taxable income (before itemized deductions) exceeds the threshold for the top 37% Federal tax bracket.

The overall effect of the new limitations will be to slightly reduce the tax benefits of giving to charity – but only slightly, given how small the 0.5%-of-AGI floor and 2/37ths reductions are relative to the taxpayer's total income. However, the limitations will have a more noticeable effect on the ability to deduct charitable contributions for higher-income households, where the 0.5%-of-AGI floor creates a higher hurdle for deducting contributions – to the extent that for donations of smaller sizes, higher-income taxpayers might receive less of a hard-dollar tax benefit than lower-income taxpayers, despite being in a higher bracket! However, the tax benefits of charitable contributions steadily increase in favor of higher-income households for donations of bigger sizes. Which ultimately means that, rather than disincentivizing charitable contributions for higher-income households, OBBBA's new limitations actually incentivize taxpayers to contribute more as income level increases.

Although the relative impact of the new charitable contribution limitations isn't large enough to meaningfully change many individuals' giving plans, there are steps that can be taken to minimize their effect. One is to 'bunch' together several years' worth of charitable contributions into a single year to avoid being subjected to the 0.5%-of-AGI floor over multiple years, which can be aided by using a donor-advised fund (DAF) which decouples the timing of the taxpayer's contribution (and corresponding deduction) from that of the ultimate grant disbursement to another charity.  Taxpayers who don't itemize their deductions every year can take advantage of a new charitable deduction for non-itemizers of up to $2,000 that was also created under OBBBA, and which isn't subject to the 0.5%-of-AGI floor or the 2/37ths reduction for itemized deductions. And IRA owners over age 70 1/2 can consider making Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) instead of deductible charitable contributions, which for individuals taking RMDs can reduce the amount of RMD income the owner is required to recognize, and at the very least can reduce the amount of future RMDs the owner needs to take.

Ultimately, while charitable giving is often done with selfless intention, tax implications commonly play a role from a financial planning standpoint as well. And so while OBBBA's new rules may not require a complete overhaul of most individuals' charitable strategies, advisors who engage in careful planning can help their charitably inclined clients get the most out of their giving!

And if you want to go deeper on this topic, hear directly from the author on the Financial Advisor Technician podcast.

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My guest on today's podcast is Dana Anspach. Dana is the founder of Sensible Money, an RIA based in Scottsdale, Arizona, that oversees $850 million in assets under management for 330 client households.

What's unique about Dana, though, is how she has stood out as a retirement planning expert by leaning into decumulation planning and running multiple tests on client plans to give them greater confidence that they will meet their retirement goals.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Dana holds a first meeting with new clients that includes a rough analysis of whether they appear to be on track to meet their retirement goals (where she leverages Monte Carlo analysis but is willing to accept a probability of success well below 100%), how Dana further tests client plans by calculating a fundedness ratio (comparing the present value of cash flows a client needs to the current value of their assets) that she likes to see be at least 110% or higher, and how Dana also leverages historical data to stress test client portfolios across a range of return sequences that actually occurred.

We also talk about how Dana takes an asset-liability matching approach to portfolio management that seeks to generate sufficient cash flow to meet clients’ lifestyle spending needs over the following five to eight years (further boosting their confidence that they could endure a market downturn), how Dana measures whether clients are ahead of a ‘critical path’ to identify opportunities to sell equities following periods of strong returns and extend their income ladder, and how Dana’s firm serves as the ‘architect’ for designing these client portfolios but works alongside a partner firm to execute them.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Dana shares why she uses her own in-house retirement planning software rather than commercially available products, why Dana decided to stop offering standalone financial plans (even though they had previously been a good business line for her firm), and how Dana has navigated the challenges that come with leading a growing firm (including the need to be judicious with language to avoid setting unintended expectations for team members).

So, whether you’re interested in learning about what it takes to attract and retain clients through a retirement planning specialty, implementing an investment approach that boosts client confidence in their ability to meet their goals (and in their advisor), or key decision points that arise as a firm scales over time, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Dana Anspach.

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Client referrals have long been a cornerstone of organic new client growth because they tap into a resource every established advisor already has: an existing client base. But before getting into specific referral strategies, there is a prerequisite to receiving any referrals at all: clients need to feel that the advisor provides enough value to be worth recommending. After all, referrals require clients to spend their time and put their own reputation on the line with those in their network. Clients who aren't highly satisfied are less likely to think of recommending their advisor in the first place—let alone trust the advisor to take good care of someone they refer.

The emphasis on clients 'feeling' that the advisor provides value – as opposed to simply 'providing value' – is deliberate. What matters for referrals isn't just the work the advisor does, but whether clients recognize its value. That is, value must be both created and communicated. One example identified in our Kitces Research data is the use of client service calendars, which help practices demonstrate ongoing value and avoid 'shadow work' that advisors complete behind the scenes without clients' knowledge. Practices using client service calendars have a 1.1-percentage-point greater referral-driven client growth rate than practices not using them, and a 'failure rate' (i.e., gaining no new clients via referral over the last 12 months) of less than 0.5%, compared to 9%.  This suggests that helping clients see the value being delivered can also make them more comfortable referring others.

Once advisors are running the kind of practice worth referring to, many will naturally start asking their clients for referrals.  But doing so can feel awkward for both parties; clients may feel 'put on the spot' and question whether the advisor's motivation is genuine concern for their well-being or generating additional revenue.  Interestingly, we find that asking for referrals doesn't actually correspond with getting more of them: practices that never ask have a referral-driven client growth rate of 5.4%, declining to 3.0% for practices that ask more than once per year. Which suggests that any referrals generated by asking in the moment may be offset by clients becoming less inclined to refer in the future!

What does seem to help is simply making clients aware that referrals are accepted and appreciated, thus keeping the idea top of mind without explicitly asking. Advisors can do this on their website, in standardized communications, or through regular conversations with clients.

It's also important that clients know who they should refer. Some argue that conveying an ideal client persona (ICP) creates too much of a burden by requiring clients to remember the advisor's target market and judge who fits it, ultimately reducing referrals. However, we find the opposite: knowing the ICP helps clients recognize when someone in their network is a good fit, making them more likely to refer: advisors who verbally articulate their ideal client persona for referrals have a referral-driven client growth rate of 5.0%, versus 4.3% for those who don't.

A final, often underappreciated step is simply thanking clients for referrals. Advisors who don't thank clients have a referral-driven new client growth rate of 4.2%, rising to 5.2% with a personal "thank you" correspondence and 6.5% when that correspondence is coupled with a gift.

While these strategies are all designed to help advisors increase their number of referrals, some important context is necessary for how advisors should think about referrals within their broader marketing strategy. Our research has consistently found that practices achieving standout organic growth get only 25%–35% of their new clients from referrals, compared to 60%+ for practices not achieving standout growth. Which means practices looking to accelerate growth – or overcome persistently low growth – are unlikely to get there by optimizing referrals alone. Doing so ultimately requires succeeding with other marketing strategies that demand more work and/or capital. So while referrals aren't the solution to organic growth challenges, they are an important piece of the broader marketing recipe – and these strategies can help advisors make the most of the referral potential already embedded in their client base.

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