Before a prospect books a first call, they usually check four things: your record on the SEC’s adviser search, your website, your reviews, and more and more often what an AI assistant says about advisors like you. No public survey yet measures how many prospects run each check or in what order. But the assistants themselves send people to verify: in our study of 600 AI answers, 40% told the reader to look the advisor up on the SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site before hiring, and 25% mentioned NAPFA. Here’s what each check shows a prospect, and what to fix before they look.
Source: Wellspent AI recommendations study, October 31, 2026 (600 answers)
1. The SEC’s adviser search
The SEC tells investors to “always check the background of any financial professional to make sure the person is licensed.” Its Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site (IAPD) covers SEC-registered firms and most state-registered ones. A prospect can:
- View your firm’s current Form ADV, including its relationship summary.
- Check the firm’s and each advisor’s registration status.
- Read an advisor’s professional background and conduct, including any disciplinary history.
- Follow a link to FINRA’s BrokerCheck if you hold broker registrations.
Many prospects also run the CFP Board’s verification search, which shows whether someone currently holds the CFP, held it in the past, or has been publicly disciplined by the Board.
What to fix. Make sure the firm name a prospect knows, the one on your website and business card, finds you on IAPD. Read your Form ADV Part 2A and your relationship summary as a stranger would. If the fees and services there are described differently from your website, a careful prospect notices. An SEC-registered adviser must also post its current relationship summary prominently on its website, so a prospect may read it before they ever reach IAPD.
2. Your website
The website is where a prospect decides whether you’re for them. They’re looking for three answers: do you work with people like me, what will it cost, and how do I start.
Most fee-only firm websites answer one of those well. From our website study of 1,792 firm sites:
Of the sites we read, about 4 in 10 named no specialty beyond retirement, tax or estate planning, so a prospect with a specific situation has to guess whether they fit.
What to fix. State who you serve in one or two plain sentences near the top of the page. Publish your fees and your minimum in text, not a PDF. Say what the first call is, how long it lasts, and whether it costs anything. Kitces made the same point about referred prospects in September 2026: state your ideal client, fees and minimums so people can screen themselves before they call.
3. Reviews
Prospects read reviews for advisors the way they do for any local service, on Google, Yelp and similar sites. AI assistants read them too. In our study, ChatGPT cited yelp.com in 32% of its answers, and Perplexity cited thumbtack.com in 55% and bbb.org in 39%.
Advisors can now use client reviews in their marketing. Under the SEC marketing rule, which advisers have had to comply with since November 4, 2022, testimonials are allowed if the advertisement clearly and prominently says whether the person is a client and whether they were paid, with further disclosures about compensation and conflicts. Kitces’ 2026 study found firms that show client reviews on their website spent $0.13 of marketing per $1 of new revenue, against $0.86 for firms doing the bare minimum.
What to fix. Claim your Google Business Profile and any review pages that already exist, and make sure the facts on them match your website. If you show reviews, work through the disclosures with your compliance team first. For how reviews fit with other proof, see Trust signals that win prospects.
4. AI answers
A prospect may ask an assistant for “a fee-only advisor in Denver who works with teachers”, or paste in your name and ask what it knows. Either way, the answer is built from pages the assistant reads.
Keep the scale in proportion. Kitces’ research found only about 4% of consumers find an advisor through a search engine or AI. Finding and checking are different steps, though, and an assistant can be part of the check even when a friend supplied the name. What our study shows about those answers:
- They name about 7.9 firms, so your name appears next to alternatives.
- ChatGPT and Perplexity agree on only 18% of the firms they name for the same city.
- 77% of answers cite at least one fee-only firm’s own website, so your site is part of the answer.
- They read fee-only directories, consumer finance sites, review sites and the SEC’s data, and repeat the facts they find there.
What to fix. Ask two assistants your ideal client’s question, in a fresh chat with web search on, and note who’s named and which sources are cited. Then correct any outdated page that describes you. See How to check what AI says about your firm, How AI assistants choose which financial advisors to recommend and How to get your firm recommended by AI assistants.
The check that matters most is agreement
Each check on its own is simple. What costs firms calls is a mismatch between them: one fee on the website, another in the Form ADV, a former firm on an old review page, a specialty the assistant can’t find anywhere. A prospect who sees two versions of the same firm doesn’t book to find out which is true. They book the next name.
The last step: making the call easy to book
A prospect who passes all four checks still has to decide to book. Only 31% of fee-only firm websites offer a free consultation or intro call in words we could find. Whatever your first meeting is, say what it is:
- How long it takes and what it costs. “A free 30-minute call” removes a question.
- What you’ll cover. Their situation, how you work, your fee, whether you’re a fit.
- How to book. A calendar link or a short form beats a contact page with only a phone number.
- What happens next. If you’re a fit, what the engagement looks like. If not, whether you’ll point them elsewhere.
A ten-minute self-check
- Search your own name and firm on the SEC’s adviser search. Does it find you under the name prospects know?
- Read your relationship summary. Do its fees match your website?
- Open your website on a phone. Can you find who you serve, your price and how to start within one screen each?
- Search your firm on Google and open every review or listing page that comes up. Are the address, fees and services current?
- Ask ChatGPT and Perplexity your ideal client’s question. Are you named? What do they say about you?
Where Wellspent fits
Wellspent members get a monthly AI visibility report: their ideal clients’ questions, put to an AI assistant with web search, showing whether they’re named, who’s named instead and which sources the answer relied on. Membership, $89 a month, also includes a verified record in the public graph at find.wellspent.co with fees, specialties and SEC registration checked against your CRD, introductions from prospects with no lead fees, and quarterly press placement with media partners. See How it works.