SmartAsset and Wellspent both promise new clients, but they work in opposite ways. SmartAsset runs consumer finance content and a matching quiz, then sells the people who fill it in to advisors, usually several advisors at once. Wellspent doesn’t sell people. It keeps a verified record of each fee-only advisor in the public graph that AI assistants and search engines read, and a prospect who finds you writes to you directly.
The short version
| SmartAsset (SmartAdvisor and AMP) | Wellspent | |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay for | Leads, priced by the prospect’s assets | A flat membership |
| Price | No public rate card. Reported: about $250 per lead for $1M+ prospects (2023); $150 to $300+ per lead and $3,000 to $5,000+ a month typical (competitor estimate, Nov 2025) | $89 a month ($890 billed yearly) |
| Exclusive? | No. Each prospect goes to about three advisors (Kitces, March 2024) | Introductions go only to the advisor the prospect chose |
| Contract | AMP runs on 6 or 12 month subscriptions; the referral page cites a 12 month minimum | Cancel any time |
| Who can join | RIAs and broker-dealer affiliated advisors | Fee-only advisors only, checked against SEC data |
| How prospects arrive | They fill in SmartAsset’s quiz and are matched | They find your record through AI assistants, search or the public graph and write to you |
| Extras | Account managers, Salesforce integration | Monthly AI visibility report, quarterly press placement |
How SmartAsset works
SmartAsset publishes a large library of consumer money content: calculators, retirement and tax articles, and city lists of financial advisors. Nearly every page ends at its matching tool. A reader answers a few questions, and SmartAsset passes them to advisors who pay for leads in that area and asset band.
Advisors buy leads two ways. SmartAdvisor is pay per lead against a monthly budget. AMP, launched later, is a subscription that delivers a set range of referrals, sold on 6 or 12 month terms.
Kitces reported in March 2024 that each prospect is provided to three advisors, and that conversion runs about 5% for email leads and about 20% for “Live Connections”, where SmartAsset puts the prospect on the phone with you. SmartAsset accepts both RIAs and advisors affiliated with broker-dealers.
What advisors report
Advisors who use SmartAsset tend to describe it as a numbers game that works if you have the budget and the follow-up capacity.
- An advisor on r/CFP who stuck with it: “I close 1 out of every 20 leads I get.” (thread)
- Another, on budget: “If you can put $10,000/m into it you may break even by the end of the year.” (thread)
- One long-time user: “I’ve used SA for 4 years… Budget is 6k/mo.” (thread)
- A frequent complaint is reachability: “Half the leads never answered, a good chunk said they didn’t complete a survey.” (thread)
On Trustpilot, SmartAsset rated 3.8 from 48 reviews, with 27% of them one star, at the time of our research.
How Wellspent works
Wellspent keeps one record per fee-only advisor in the public graph at find.wellspent.co: fees, specialties, the clients you serve, credentials, and your SEC registration. The graph covers 24,501 fee-only advisors and 9,148 firms across 61 US and Canadian regions. AI assistants and AI search read Wellspent pages 38,670 times in the 28 days to October 30, 2026, counting only verified AI crawlers and answer fetches.
As a member you keep your record current, and a prospect who finds you writes to you from your page. Lists and matches rank on fit to the question. There are no paid boosts. Membership also includes a monthly report on what AI assistants recommend when your ideal clients ask, and quarterly press placement with partners such as Forbes, CNBC, Kiplinger and Yahoo Finance. See how it works and the methodology.
What a client costs on each
Take a planning client paying the median ongoing fee for fee-only advisors who publish prices, $4,500 a year (fee report).
- On SmartAsset, at a reported $250 per lead and the 1 in 20 close rate one advisor described, a client costs about $5,000 in leads. SmartAsset’s phone Live Connections close more often (Kitces reported about 20%), but they’re priced separately and the price isn’t published. Either way you pay for the leads that don’t close too.
- On Wellspent, a year costs $890 billed yearly whether you get one client or several. The catch is the other side of that: you pay the $890 even in a year when no one writes.
For the full math across vendors, see how much financial advisor leads cost.
Where SmartAsset is the better choice
SmartAsset is a fit for some firms, and it’s fair to say so.
- Volume on demand. If you need conversations this month and have the budget, SmartAsset delivers prospects at a pace you can turn up or down. Wellspent can’t promise a number of introductions.
- Phone connections. Live Connections put a prospect on the phone with you, which Kitces reported converting at about 20%.
- Firms built for follow-up. Teams with someone whose job is to call leads quickly do better with shared leads, because speed decides who wins.
- Broker-dealer advisors. If you’re affiliated with a broker-dealer, SmartAsset will take you and Wellspent won’t.
Where Wellspent is the better choice
- You don’t want to compete for a lead three ways. An introduction on Wellspent comes from someone who chose you.
- You want a fixed cost. $89 a month is the whole bill, with no budget to manage and no contract term.
- You’re fee-only and want that to count. The fee-only check is the entry rule, so every advisor next to you on a list passed it too.
- You want to be found where people now ask first. Your record is built for AI assistants and search, and the monthly report shows whether it’s working.
Many advisors run both: a lead service for short-term volume and a durable record for the clients who look you up. See SmartAsset alternatives and Zoe vs SmartAsset vs Wellspent for other options.
Bottom line
SmartAsset sells volume: shared leads, priced per lead, paid whether or not they close. Wellspent sells a place in the record AI and search read, for a flat $89 a month, with introductions that are yours alone. If you need calls this month and can staff the follow-up, SmartAsset can supply them. If you’d rather be the advisor a prospect picks, start with your record.