A bio that works in AI answers states the facts an assistant can match to a client’s question: who you serve, the situations you handle, how and what you charge, where you work, and credentials a reader can check. Your own site is often what gets read: in our study of 600 AI answers, 77% cited a fee-only firm’s own website. Most advisor bios are career histories and values statements, which answer none of the questions a client actually types.
What an assistant can match on
Clients describe a situation to an AI assistant, often in full sentences: “I’m 58, we have about $1.5 million saved, and we want to retire at 62. Who should we talk to in Columbus?” The assistant searches for those pieces and names the advisors whose pages contain them. A bio can supply six:
- Clients served. A profession, a life stage, a kind of family. “Physicians in their first ten years of practice” matches a question. “Individuals and families” matches every question equally, which means none.
- Situations. The decision that brings people to you, in their words: when to claim Social Security, what to do with vesting RSUs, whether to keep the house in a divorce.
- Fees. The model and a number. Clients ask what advice costs, and an assistant can only answer with a price it found. In our website study, only 52% of fee-only firm websites published a price we could verify.
- Place. Your city in words, the states you serve, and whether you work virtually.
- Credentials and registration. What you hold and where it can be checked. 40% of the AI answers in our study told readers to look the advisor up with the SEC before hiring.
- How you work. Ongoing or one-time, minimums or none, in person or virtual.
What it can’t use
Words that describe every advisor tell an assistant nothing about you: passionate, client-focused, holistic, comprehensive, tailored, trusted. So do statements of belief (“we believe every family deserves a plan”). They aren’t wrong, they just don’t match anything a client asks.
This is where most firms are thin. Of the sites in our website study, about 4 in 10 named no specialty beyond retirement, tax or estate planning. A bio is the cheapest place to fix that, because it’s one page you control.
Example 1: the generic bio, rewritten
These are templates, not real advisors. Replace everything in brackets.
Before:
[Name] is a passionate, client-focused financial professional with over [X] years of experience helping individuals and families pursue their financial goals. [He/She/They] believes in a holistic, comprehensive approach tailored to each client’s unique needs. When not working, [Name] enjoys spending time with family.
After:
[Name], CFP®, is a fee-only financial planner in [City, State] who works with [tech employees in their 30s and 40s whose pay is mostly RSUs and stock options]. Most clients come to [him/her/them] deciding [what to sell when shares vest, how to cover the tax bill, and when they can afford to leave]. [Firm] charges a flat [$X] a year for ongoing planning, with no asset minimum, and works with clients virtually in [states]. Before founding [Firm] in [year], [Name] spent [N] years as [a tax manager at a regional accounting firm]. [Firm] is registered with [the SEC / the State of X], CRD [number].
The second version answers the next five questions before anyone asks them: who, what decision, where, what it costs, whether there’s a minimum, how to verify. Each sentence can be quoted on its own.
Example 2: a retirement planner who sells one-time plans
Before:
With a commitment to excellence and integrity, [Name] guides clients through every stage of life, from building wealth to enjoying a secure retirement.
After:
[Name], CFP®, is a fee-only planner in [City] for [couples within five years of retirement who have $500,000 to $2 million saved]. [He/She/They] builds one-time retirement plans that answer [when to claim Social Security, whether to take a pension as a lump sum, and how much they can spend each year]. A plan costs [$X] and takes [three meetings over six weeks], and clients can add an annual review for [$Y]. [Name] doesn’t manage investments, so the advice comes without an asset fee.
For context when you set your numbers: the median one-time plan among fee-only firms that publish prices is $2,000, with the middle half between $845 and $3,600 (fee report).
Example 3: a firm with several advisors
Team pages often give every advisor the same paragraph with a different name. An assistant can’t tell them apart, and neither can a client. Give each person one line of their own:
[Name], CFA, leads [Firm]‘s work with [business owners planning a sale in the next five years], including [entity structure, the tax on the sale, and what to do with the proceeds].
[Name], EA, prepares [clients’ tax returns and handles] [Roth conversion and withdrawal planning for retirees].
Then state the firm’s facts once, below the team: fees, minimum, location, registration.
A template you can fill in
Write the short version first, in this order, one sentence each:
- [Name and credential] is a [fee-only / advice-only] [planner / advisor] in [city, state] who works with [specific clients].
- Most come to [me / him / her / them] [deciding or dealing with a specific situation].
- [Firm] charges [model and number], with [minimum or no minimum].
- [He/She/They] works with clients [in person in city / virtually in states / both].
- Before [Firm], [Name] [one line of relevant background].
- [Firm] is registered with [the SEC / state], CRD [number].
Keep it to about 80 to 120 words. Add a longer background section underneath if you like, but the short version is what gets quoted, so it has to stand on its own.
Getting the details right
- Say “fee-only” only if it’s true. A reader or reporter can check your Form ADV, and an assistant that finds a conflict may say so.
- Write credentials the way the issuer requires. CFP Board’s rules say the CFP® mark is always in capitals with the ® symbol, and that it goes directly after the certificant’s name or with an approved noun such as “CFP® professional”. It belongs to the person, not the firm.
- Use the name clients know. If everyone calls you Bob, say “Robert (Bob) [Surname]” once, so both versions match.
- Leave out performance and testimonials. They raise compliance questions, and they aren’t what clients ask an assistant for.
- Use text, not an image. A bio set inside a graphic or a PDF is hard for anything but a person to read.
Where the bio should live
Put the short version on your own bio or about page as plain text. Then make every other place say the same thing: your LinkedIn summary, any directory profiles, and the brochure supplement (Form ADV Part 2B) that describes your education and business background. Assistants compare sources. When your site, LinkedIn and your SEC record agree, you’re easy to describe. When they disagree, an assistant has to guess or leave you out.
Your Wellspent record has fields for the same facts: the audiences you serve, your ideal client in your own words, your fees as numbers, credentials, and your background under “How did you get here?”. Paste your short bio’s facts into those fields rather than writing a new version. How to complete your Wellspent record walks through each one.
Test it
Ask an assistant the question your ideal client would ask, the way they’d ask it, in a fresh chat with web search on. See whether you’re named, and whether what it says about you comes from your bio. How to check what AI says about your firm has the full method. If an assistant describes you vaguely, your bio probably does too.
Where Wellspent fits
A Wellspent record is a structured version of a good bio, in the public graph at find.wellspent.co that AI assistants and search read: your clients, situations, fees, place and credentials, with your SEC registration checked against your CRD. Membership is $89 a month and includes introductions from prospects with no lead fees, a monthly report on who AI assistants recommend, and quarterly press placement with media partners. See How it works.