Before a CPA or estate attorney refers a client to you, they’re lending you their reputation, and most of the centers-of-influence referrals advisors get come from these two professions. In Kitces’ 2026 marketing study, 89% of advisors who use centers of influence got referrals from CPAs and 79% from estate planning attorneys. No published survey yet shows how these professionals vet an advisor. What’s public is the checks they can run in a few minutes, the rules their own professions set, and the reasons a referral goes wrong. This guide covers all three, and what to have ready.
Why this channel is worth getting right
Centers of influence are the second-largest source of new clients after personal referrals. Cerulli’s research, reported in February 2026, put them at 13.9% of new clients. In Kitces’ data, center-of-influence referrals cost $0.72 of marketing for each $1 of new yearly revenue. That’s more than client referrals ($0.34) and much less than seminars ($1.76) or social media ($4.88).
One finding matters for how you approach them. The COI type that most clearly set high-growth firms apart wasn’t the generalist CPA. It was a target-market COI, such as an influential doctor at a hospital the firm serves: 37% of high-growth practices used one, against 21% of others. A CPA whose clients look like yours is worth more than three who serve everyone.
What a CPA or attorney is protecting
A professional who refers a client is asking three questions, whether or not they say them out loud:
- Will this person hurt my client? A bad recommendation reflects on them for as long as the client remembers it.
- Will this person take my work? A CPA worries about an advisor who starts preparing returns. An attorney worries about one who pushes clients toward cheap online documents.
- Will this person make my work harder or easier? An estate plan is only as good as the follow-through: retitled accounts, updated beneficiaries, funded trusts. A tax plan depends on the numbers arriving on time.
Every check below answers one of those.
The checks they can run in ten minutes
Your SEC or state registration
The SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site (IAPD) lets anyone search a firm or an advisor and view the firm’s current Form ADV, including its relationship summary, check registration status, and see the representative’s professional background and conduct. It links to BrokerCheck for anyone with broker registrations, which tells a careful referrer whether a “fee-only” advisor can also sell on commission.
Have your IAPD link ready and send it before they ask. It shows you expect to be checked.
Your Form CRS and Form ADV Part 2A
An SEC-registered adviser that serves retail investors must post its current relationship summary (Form CRS) prominently on its public website if it has one. The relationship summary is short, two pages for an adviser, and covers fees, costs, conflicts and disciplinary history. A CPA reading it is checking whether how you describe your fees in person matches what you file.
Your credentials
The CFP Board’s verification search shows whether someone currently holds the CFP, whether they held it in the past, and any public discipline by the Board. If you list a credential, a referrer can confirm it.
Your website and anything else that describes you
This is where most referrals are won or quietly lost. A CPA wants to know whether you fit their client before making the call: who you serve, what you charge, whether there’s a minimum. On fee-only firm websites, that’s often missing. In our website study, only 52% stated a price we could verify, and about 4 in 10 named no specialty beyond retirement, tax or estate planning.
Increasingly the check also includes an AI assistant. In our study of 600 AI answers, 40% of answers told the reader to look the advisor up on the SEC’s adviser search before hiring. A referrer who asks an assistant about advisors in your city sees the same thing a client would.
The rules on their side
Both professions have rules about referrals, and a referrer who’s unsure of them will often just not refer.
CPAs. Whether a CPA can accept a referral fee depends on their state board and on the client. Where it’s allowed, disclosure is the rule. California, for example, requires a commission disclosure to be in writing, clear and conspicuous, signed by the client, and to state the amount or how it’s calculated, the source of the payment and the relationship between them. Many fee-only advisors avoid the question entirely by not paying for referrals.
Estate attorneys. ABA Model Rule 7.2 lets a lawyer refer clients to a nonlawyer professional under a reciprocal referral agreement, provided the agreement isn’t exclusive and the client is told about it. States adopt their own versions, and bar ethics opinions such as Illinois’ 2010 opinion apply the same two conditions. An attorney won’t sign up to send you every client, and shouldn’t.
You. If you pay a CPA or anyone else for referrals, it’s a paid endorsement under the SEC marketing rule. The prospect must be told clearly and prominently whether the person is a client and whether they’re paid, along with the compensation and conflicts involved, and you need a written agreement unless the pay is $1,000 or less over twelve months. See what the SEC’s Zoe order means for advisors who pay for referrals.
How to make the vetting easy
- Send one page before the first meeting. Who you serve, what you charge, your minimum, your credentials, your IAPD link. A referrer shouldn’t have to search.
- Say what you don’t do. “We don’t prepare tax returns or draft documents” answers the turf question before it’s asked.
- Publish fees and minimums. Kitces’ advice for client referrals applies here too: state them so referred prospects can screen themselves, and so the CPA doesn’t send someone who can’t afford you.
- Show how you’ll work together. Describe how you share tax projections, flag beneficiary changes or confirm a trust is funded, with the client’s permission.
- Pick referrers who share your niche. Target-market COIs were the clearest marker of high-growth firms. A physician-focused CPA beats a general one if you serve doctors.
- Refer back when it’s right. Cerulli’s Andrew Blake says partnering this way “creates a mutually beneficial relationship.” Refer because your client needs a good CPA, not to keep score.
- Keep your facts identical everywhere. Your website, Form ADV, Form CRS and every outside page should describe your fees and services the same way. A referrer who finds two versions will wonder which is true.
For the wider picture on why client referrals stall and what fills the gap, see Referrals for fee-only advisors. For what prospects themselves check, see What prospects check before they book a call.
Where Wellspent fits
A Wellspent record is the one link that answers a referrer’s questions: your fees in plain numbers, the clients you serve, your specialties and credentials, 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 also 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.