A complete Wellspent record states your fees as numbers, the specialties where you have real depth, the clients you serve, and your ideal client in your own words. That detail is what AI assistants take from a record when they cite it. In our study of 600 AI answers, ChatGPT cited the public graph at find.wellspent.co in 37% of its answers, and it read the graph for the facts it holds about each firm: fees, specialties, the clients served and SEC registration. A record that says only “fee-only, retirement planning” gets you through the first question. The rest of the conversation is answered from what else you wrote.
Why detail matters as a conversation narrows
Clients rarely ask an assistant one question. They start broad, “a fee-only advisor in Denver”, and narrow: “Do they work with physicians?” “Would they handle selling my practice?” “What would a plan cost?” Each follow-up is answered from the facts the assistant already pulled from the pages it cited.
That’s the point of the study’s advice to be a source, not a listing. Being on a list gets a firm named. Having specific, accurate facts on the page gets it chosen when the question gets specific. The study also found that rewording a question changed most of the list: the same assistant, asked for a fee-only advisor and then for retirement planning in the same city, named firms that overlapped by only 28%. Every client’s situation is a slightly different question, and the record with more matching facts is named in more of them.
There’s a second reason. Your monthly AI visibility report is built from your record: we write the questions your ideal clients would ask based on what you’ve published, then put them to an assistant. A specific record gives you specific questions, and a report that tells you something.
What’s in your record
Your portal groups the record into five parts. Firm, location and credentials are pre-filled from public registrations where we have them.
| Part | Fields | Shown on your record |
|---|---|---|
| Practice | Firm or practice name, your title, CRD number (US), years practicing, primary location, also serves, virtual, fee model, engagement or minimum, fees in numbers | Yes |
| Credentials and education | Credentials, education | Yes |
| Expertise | Core specialties, audiences you serve | Yes |
| Your story | How did you get here?, outside of work, describe your ideal client | Yes |
| Your story (private) | Where do you want to grow?, notes for our team | No, for our team only |
Four fields complete onboarding: firm name, location, fee model and at least one specialty. That’s enough to go live. It isn’t enough to be quoted for much.
Fees: the fields AI quotes most directly
Clients ask what advice costs, and an assistant can only answer with a number it finds. Only 52% of fee-only firm websites state a price we could verify, so a record with numbers answers a question most firms leave open.
There are three fee fields:
- Fee model. Pick every one that applies: flat fee, hourly, AUM-based, retainer or mixed.
- Engagement / minimum. A short phrase in your words, such as “Flat fee $8,500/yr · no asset minimum”.
- Your fees, in numbers. Four optional boxes: planning fee from (your lowest annual flat or retainer fee), AUM fee on the first $1 million, hourly rate, and asset minimum.
Two rules in the number fields matter. A blank box says nothing; it never means zero. And an asset minimum of 0 means “no minimum”, which is itself worth saying: of the US firms in our fee report that state an asset minimum, 50% say they have none, and prospects with less saved look for it.
For context, the median ongoing planning fee among fee-only firms that publish prices is $4,500 a year, with the middle half between $2,400 and $7,200 (fee report). Make the numbers here match your website and your Form ADV Part 2A. An assistant that finds two different fees has to guess. See Publish your fees: why price pages get cited.
Specialties and audiences: depth, not range
The portal’s advice is “Pick the specialties where you actually have depth, not everything you can handle.” Specialties include equity compensation, cross-border (US and Canada), physicians, founders before an exit, divorce planning, pension planning, student loans and others. Audiences include pre-retirees, tech employees, physicians, cross-border families, newcomers, multi-generational families and more.
Your record appears on every specialty, region and list page you fit, so each choice is a page a client might find you from. Picking everything dilutes all of them. Two or three specialties you’d stake your reputation on, and the audiences you work with most, are worth more than a full row.
This is also where most firms are thin. In our website study, about 4 in 10 fee-only firm websites named no specialty beyond retirement, tax or estate planning.
Your ideal client, in your own words
This is the field that carries a narrowing conversation, and it’s shown on your record as you write it. The specialties say what you know. This says who you do it for, and an assistant can quote it.
Write it the way you’d describe your best client to a colleague:
- Who they are. Age or career stage, profession, where they live.
- Their situation. The decision or problem that brings them to you.
- What you do for them. The specific work, in their words.
- How you work. Virtual or in person, ongoing or one-time.
Compare “Families planning for retirement” with “Tech employees four to ten years into their careers with RSU-heavy pay, deciding what to sell and when, mostly in the Bay Area and virtually.” The second answers three follow-up questions before anyone asks them.
Where you work
Set your primary location, then add every state, province or metro you serve under “Also serves”, and tick virtual if you work with clients across state lines. Each area is recorded on its own, so a client in a city you serve virtually can find you, not just clients near your office.
Credentials and your CRD
Select your credentials and add any not listed. In the US, add your CRD number: we check your registration on the SEC’s adviser search, the same database prospects are told to use. In our study, 40% of AI answers told readers to look an advisor up there before hiring, so a record that already shows the check answers that step for them.
Your story
“How did you get here?” appears as your background, and “Outside of work” as a short personal section. Neither is required, but both help a prospect choose between two advisors with similar facts, and the background often explains a specialty better than a label can: a former tax attorney who now plans for business owners is easier to trust on a sale.
“Where do you want to grow?” and “Notes for our team” stay private. Use them to tell us where you’re taking the practice and anything else we should know.
Check your work
Your portal dashboard shows a checklist of what’s missing: specialties, who you serve, your ideal client, how you charge, your prices, where you work, credentials, your story, and in the US your CRD. Fill every line.
Then test it. Ask an assistant your ideal client’s question, the way they’d ask it, and read what comes back. How to check what AI says about your firm walks through it. Your record goes live the moment you save, and you can edit anything at any time, so revisit it when your fees or focus change.
Where Wellspent fits
If you aren’t a member yet: Wellspent gives fee-only advisors a verified record in the public graph at find.wellspent.co, read by AI assistants and search and queried by partner apps through our API and MCP server. Membership is $89 a month and includes introductions from prospects with no lead fees, a monthly AI visibility report, and quarterly press placement with media partners, matched by specialty. See How it works.