Your best clients came from referrals.
The next prospect may ask ChatGPT first.
Referrals still matter, but the client base that sent them is getting older, and the next generation of prospects does its homework first. They ask an AI assistant for a fee-only fiduciary who handles equity comp or business exits in their city, get a few names, and check those firms before they ever book an intro call. If your firm is not in that answer, or the answer gets your fee model wrong, you never hear from them.
Google AI Overviews and AI Mode: up to 6 priority questions on paid scans. Results may be reused for up to 7 days; availability varies by question.
Who is a good fee-only fiduciary advisor in Raleigh for someone with RSUs and stock options?
Ashgrove Fiduciary Partners
fee-only, lists equity compensation planning
Ledgerstone Planning Group
flat-fee planning, works with tech employees
Northvane Digital Advisors
national robo-advisor with optional access to a planner
Your result is not known yet
Run your own scan to see whether your fee-only financial advisor is named in the completed answers.
See what AI tells your future clients
Sound familiar?
What RIA and independent advisory firm owners and marketing leads are seeing
Referrals are slowing as your clients age
Your longtime clients still refer, but fewer of their friends are in accumulation mode. The younger prospects you want are not coming through that door as often.
Prospects show up having compared you to a robo-advisor
Intro calls open with "why would I pay you instead of an automated service?" Someone framed that comparison before they reached you.
Intro calls start with a correction
A prospect thinks you sell commissioned products, or that your minimum is far above what it is, or that you're still at a custodian you left. Nobody on your team told them that.
Your niche is not showing up
You built a real specialty (equity comp, physicians, business owners near an exit, retirement income), but prospects searching for exactly that end up with national brands.
The common thread: the shortlist now forms inside an AI answer, before anyone visits your site, calls, or fills in a form. Your name is either in that answer or it is not.
What you're already paying for, and where it stops
None of this is wasted. Each one does its job. None of them was built to put your name in an AI answer.
Paid advisor-matching and lead services
They can produce introductions. The prospect still meets several firms at once, and nothing about those leads changes what AI assistants say about your firm when the next prospect asks on their own.
An SEO agency and a blog
Articles and search rankings help. But a prospect asking ChatGPT "fee-only advisor for business owners in my city" gets a written answer assembled from many sources, and a keyword ranking report will not show whether your firm is in it.
Directory and fiduciary network profiles
Worth keeping current. They are one input among many, and a stale profile (old minimum, old custodian, former advisor) can feed the wrong facts into the answer.
Client events and centers of influence
Still the best source for many firms. They reach people who already know someone who knows you. They don't reach the prospect who asks an AI assistant before asking anyone else.
A polished website with a team page
Often the facts AI needs are missing in plain text: fee structure, minimums, who you serve, custodian, and where you meet clients. A downloadable brochure or a headshot grid doesn't answer those questions.
What a missed decision is worth
A client who never hears your name does not show up in any report. Put your own numbers in to size what that costs over the years they would have stayed.
Example numbers. Replace them with yours.
Lifetime revenue from one year of missed clients
$240,000
per client per year × years they stay × missed per year
Divide last year's advisory fee revenue by your number of client households, and use your own retention history for years.
What prospects ask AI before they call an advisor
Examples written for Raleigh. We track the questions your future clients ask in each market you serve. Daily priority checks on ChatGPT and Gemini, plus a weekly sweep across all four assistant families.
See the full methodology →- →Who is a good fee-only fiduciary financial advisor in Raleigh?
- →Which financial advisors in Raleigh specialize in RSUs, stock options, and tech equity compensation?
- →Should I use a robo-advisor or a local financial advisor in Raleigh for my 401(k) rollover before retirement?
- →What's the difference between fee-only and fee-based advisors, and how do I tell which one a firm is?
- →Who helps business owners in Raleigh plan for selling their company and retiring?
- →How much does a financial advisor in Raleigh usually charge, and what's a typical account minimum?
- →Best retirement income planner in Raleigh for someone retiring in the next five years?
- →How do I check whether a financial advisor in Raleigh has any disciplinary history?
What to check whether AI says about your firm
Things to check in the answers about you. The evidence explorer keeps the full text of every answer, so your team can read exactly what was said.
Fee-only, fee-based, or commission, mixed up
Check whether AI calls your firm fee-based or says you earn commissions when you are fee-only, or the reverse. For many prospects this is the first filter, and a wrong label ends the conversation before it starts.
A wrong or outdated minimum
Check whether AI states an account minimum you dropped years ago, or invents one. Prospects who think they don't qualify never call.
Old Form ADV facts
Form ADV is public through the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site, and AI can pick up an older filing or a third-party copy of it. Check whether AI repeats superseded details such as services, fee schedule, or assets under management.
The wrong custodian or affiliation
Check whether AI still names a custodian or broker-dealer you left, or links you to a network you no longer belong to. Prospects read that as a signal about how you are paid.
Advisors who left, or who never worked there
Check whether AI lists a departed advisor as a contact, or attributes another firm's advisor to you. Both create compliance questions and confused prospects.
Your first 30 days
Steps your own team can take, in this order. Monitoring shows which of them moved the answer.
Ask the prospect's questions yourself
Run the eight questions above in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity for your city and your niche. Record who is named, whether you are, and every factual error about fees, minimums, custodian, or people.
Put your firm facts in plain text on one page
One page that states, in sentences: fee-only or otherwise, how fees are calculated, any minimum, who you serve, your custodian, office locations, and whether you meet virtually. Link to your Form ADV Part 2 and Form CRS. Keep it consistent with what you've filed, and have your CCO review it.
Make your public profiles agree
Confirm your Form ADV is current, then update your Google Business Profile, LinkedIn firm page, and any directory or network profiles so names, fee model, and advisors match. AI blends these, and disagreement produces confident wrong answers.
Write for the niche you actually serve
Publish a few plain, educational pieces that answer the questions your ideal client asks: equity comp decisions, selling a business, the first five years of retirement income. Name your city. No performance claims, no testimonials, and everything through compliance review.
Re-check and keep a record
Re-run the same questions after your changes and save the answers. The record of what AI said, and when, is useful both for marketing and for your compliance file.
The plan that fits most financial advisors
Growth
$399/mo
Up to 5 locations or brands, 120 tracked questions each.
Many firms serve more than one market or run distinct practices (a business-owner practice, a retirement practice) that prospects ask about differently. Growth tracks up to 5 locations or brands with up to 120 questions. A single-office firm with one niche can start on Local.
A mention is not a signed client. We measure whether and how you are named in sampled AI answers, show who is named instead, and rank the fixes. We do not promise placements.
Questions RIA and independent advisory firm owners and marketing leads ask us
Our growth comes from referrals. Why would AI matter to us?+
It may matter less to you than to a firm without a referral engine. But even a referred prospect can check your name with an AI assistant before the intro call, and what it says about your fees and minimums shapes that call. A free scan shows you what they're reading.
Compliance won't approve anything new. Is this a problem?+
Monitoring itself publishes nothing. It records what public AI assistants say. Anything you decide to publish as a result, including drafts from us, goes through your CCO like any other advertisement. We never generate or solicit testimonials or reviews.
Can you get us recommended when people ask for a fiduciary?+
No one can honestly promise that. We measure whether and how your firm is named in sampled answers, show who is named instead, and give you a ranked list of fixes. A mention is not a client, and we don't claim it is.
What if AI is saying something wrong about our fees?+
You'll see the full answer text in the evidence explorer, so you and your CCO can read exactly what was said. The usual fix is on your side: plain-text fee disclosures on your site that match your Form ADV, and current directory profiles.
Will prospects really ask a chatbot about something this personal?+
Some will and some won't. A prospect who asks a general question (robo vs advisor, fee-only vs fee-based) can get firm names in the answer along the way. We don't claim a share of prospects; run a scan for your city and read the answers yourself.
Do you need access to our CRM or custodian data?+
No. There is no connection to client records, portfolios, or custodial accounts. Monitoring uses general questions about your city and specialty.
See which advisors AI names for your city and your niche
Run a free scan and read what ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity tell a prospect looking for a fee-only advisor near you, including how they describe your fees.
Check what AI says about us →