Guides for fee-only advisors
How clients find and choose an advisor now, what each channel costs, and how AI assistants decide who to recommend.
Practice guide · October 31, 2026 Financial advisor directories: do they work? Yes. In Kitces' 2026 survey of 506 advisors, online directories had the lowest marketing cost per dollar of new revenue of any channel, $0.28, yet only 18% of firms used them. Sophia Carrington · 6 min read
- Practice guide How AI assistants choose which financial advisors to recommend AI assistants don't keep a list of advisors. They search the web while they answer, read a handful of pages, and name the firms those pages describe clearly. Firms with thin, inconsistent or hidden facts rarely come up. October 31, 2026 · 6 min read
- Practice guide How much financial advisor leads cost Pay-per-lead services charge from about $25 to over $1,000 a lead, and revenue-share networks take 15% to 35% of a client's fees, often for as long as the client stays. Worked out per client, a bought lead usually costs more than the $2,551 the typical firm spends to win a client. October 31, 2026 · 6 min read
- Practice guide How to get clients as a financial advisor The typical advisory firm now spends $2,551 to win a client. Directories, referrals and SEO cost the least per dollar of new revenue; social media and client events cost the most. October 31, 2026 · 6 min read
- Practice guide How to get your firm recommended by AI assistants AI assistants name the firms they can read clearly and check elsewhere. Publish your fees and specialties in plain text, keep your facts identical everywhere, let the AI crawlers in, and get onto the independent sources assistants trust. October 31, 2026 · 6 min read
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