Describe what you do in one sentence that names a specific kind of client, the decision they bring you, how you charge, and where you work. “Fee-only financial planning and wealth management for individuals and families” can’t be repeated usefully by anyone, because it fits nearly every firm. “We help Ohio teachers within ten years of retirement decide what to do with their pension, for a flat fee of $3,000 a year, by video anywhere in the state” can. That second kind of sentence is what a client passes to a friend, what a CPA says when making an introduction, and what an AI assistant can match to a question.
Why the usual sentence doesn’t work
We read 1,792 fee-only firm websites for our website study. The same few words were everywhere. The words that would set a firm apart were rare.
About 4 in 10 firms named no specialty beyond retirement, tax or estate planning. For those firms, the honest one-sentence description is the same as their neighbors’. “Fee-only” and “fiduciary” are true and they matter, but they’re qualifications. They tell a prospect a firm is safe to consider, not which firm to call.
Who repeats your sentence now
A one-sentence description used to be for networking events. Now it gets repeated in three places you don’t control:
- Clients making referrals. A client who can say “she works with teachers on their pensions” gives a friend a reason to call. A client who says “she’s great, she does financial planning” gives them a name to forget.
- Referral partners. A CPA or attorney introduces you in one line. Give them the line. How CPAs and attorneys vet advisors covers what else they check.
- AI assistants. In our study of 600 AI answers, 77% cited at least one fee-only firm’s own website, so your site is part of what they read. They also answered different wordings differently: asking for a fee-only advisor and asking for one for retirement planning, in the same city from the same assistant, produced lists that overlapped by only 28%. Clients describe their situation, and the firm whose pages name that situation is the one that can be matched.
The formula
[Firm] helps [a specific kind of client] [make a specific decision or handle a specific situation], for [fee model and starting price], [in a place, or virtually in named states].
Each part does a job:
- The client is a group someone could recognize themselves in: a profession, a life stage, an employer, a kind of family. “Pre-retirees” is broad but usable. “Families” is not.
- The decision is the reason they call, in their words: when to claim Social Security, what to do with vesting RSUs, whether to keep the house in a divorce. It’s what makes the sentence match a question.
- The price screens before the first call. A starting price in the sentence is unusual, which is part of why it works. Only 52% of the firm websites in our study published any price we could verify.
- The place settles “can you work with me?” for a prospect in another city, and it’s how assistants match local questions.
Then add a second sentence for the qualifications: “We’re fee-only, we act as a fiduciary, and we’re registered with the SEC.” They belong in the description, just not first.
For speaking, cut the price and the place: “I help Ohio teachers figure out what to do with their pension.” Around a dozen words, said the same way every time, so clients and partners hear it often enough to repeat it.
Before and after
The firms below are invented for illustration. The “before” sentences are the kind most firm sites open with.
A retirement planner
Before: Harrow Lane Planning provides comprehensive, fiduciary financial planning to help you pursue your retirement goals with confidence.
After: Harrow Lane Planning helps public school teachers in Ohio within ten years of retirement decide when to retire and how to take their pension, for a flat fee of $3,000 a year, by video anywhere in the state.
A firm for tech employees
Before: Tallow Creek Wealth delivers holistic, personalized wealth management for successful professionals and their families.
After: Tallow Creek Wealth helps engineers and product managers at public tech companies decide what to do with RSUs and stock options as they vest, for $6,000 a year including tax planning, in Seattle and virtually across Washington and Oregon.
An advice-only planner
Before: Clear Fern Planning offers objective, fee-only advice for every stage of life.
After: Clear Fern Planning helps people going through a divorce work out what they can afford to keep and what a settlement offer is worth, with a one-time plan from $2,500, in person in Denver or by video in Colorado.
In each “after”, someone outside the niche can tell right away the firm isn’t for them. That’s the point. For context on the prices: US fee-only firms that publish prices charge a median $4,500 a year for ongoing planning and $2,000 for a one-time plan (fee report).
Four tests before you use it
- Does it rule someone out? If no prospect could read it and think “that’s not for me”, it’s too broad.
- Can a friend repeat it after hearing it once? Say it to someone outside the business and ask them to say it back. What they drop wasn’t memorable. What they change tells you how clients will describe you.
- Does it match a question a client would type? Write the question your ideal client would ask an assistant, in their words. The decision in your sentence should appear in it.
- Is it true on paper? Form ADV Part 2A asks you to describe your advisory business, to explain any service you hold yourself out as specializing in (Item 4), and to describe the types of clients you generally advise (Item 7). Your sentence, your brochure and your site should describe the same firm.
Then test it where it will be read. Ask an assistant, with web search on, “What does [your firm] do, and who is it for?” If the answer is vaguer than your sentence, your pages are too. How to check what AI says about your firm has the full method.
Where to put it
- Your homepage, as the first thing a visitor reads, in text, not inside an image.
- Your page title and meta description, so search results and assistants see it before anything else.
- The first line of each advisor’s bio. The bio expands the sentence for one person: their credentials, their clients, their background. Financial advisor bio examples has fill-in templates.
- Your LinkedIn headline and about section, word for word.
- Every listing and profile, including your Wellspent record, which has a field for your ideal client in your own words.
- How you answer “what do you do?”, in the spoken version.
The same sentence in every place matters more than a perfect sentence in one. Assistants compare sources, and a firm that describes itself the same way on its site, its listings and its SEC filing is easy to describe.
If you serve more than one kind of client
Lead with one group. A sentence that lists three audiences reads as none. Put the others in a second sentence (“We also work with…”) or give each its own page with its own sentence, which also gives an assistant a page to match for each kind of question. If you haven’t chosen a lead group yet, how to choose a niche has five tests for picking one.
Where Wellspent fits
A Wellspent record holds the facts your sentence names: the clients you serve, your ideal client in your own words, your fees as numbers, where you work, and your SEC registration checked against your CRD. It sits in the public graph at find.wellspent.co, which AI assistants and search read. Membership is $89 a month and includes a monthly report on whether assistants name you for your clients’ questions, introductions with no lead fees, and quarterly press placement with media partners. See how it works.