This is shaping up to be the most challenging year for financial planning practices in a generation. The credit crisis of 2008 and the resulting bear market have caused assets under management, and hence fees, to contract. At the same time, demands on the typical advisory firm have never been greater. During times of financial stress, advisors must devote additional time to communicating with clients. New economic realities mean that existing retirement plans, estate plans and tax strategies must also be reevaluated. In short, unless your firm adapts rapidly to the new environment, you will find yourself working much harder and earning much less.

There is a silver lining to this cloudy forecast, however. Those firms that rise to the challenge and improve operationally will be rewarded with new business. Of course, bringing on new clients now will stretch advisors' capacity and operational infrastructure even further—but those who manage to adapt to the new environment and do more with less will prosper for years to come.

So how will you stretch to meet these new demands without significantly increasing overhead? Traditionally, when advisory firms need additional capacity, they hire additional staff. But during lean times, before looking to add staff, it makes sense to examine existing processes and technologies in order to make sure you're getting as much as you can from your current infrastructure. My experience as a practice management and technology consultant suggests that most firms are not taking advantage of tools that are already at their disposal. Discussions I've had with other consultants confirm that they, too, see many overlooked opportunities for advisors to create operational efficiencies at little if any additional cost.

While advisors can mine numerous areas for overlooked opportunities, there is one asset that almost every advisor has at their disposal, but that way too few take full advantage of: the free and/or discounted tools that custodians and independent broker-dealers make available to their advisors. Since no one knows more about the tools and their benefits than the firms themselves, I recently asked representatives of some industry leaders to highlight tools their firms offer that can help advisors practice more efficiently in 2009. Where applicable, I also asked them to highlight tools they offered that were underutilized by advisors. Here's what they said.

Custodians

Fidelity: Fidelity offers a wide range of practice management tools to advisors, says company spokesperson Stephen Austin. PracticeMark, an online turnkey program, provides a low-cost solution for all the advisor's marketing needs. Through PracticeMark, advisors can order customized collateral, newsletters and online ads. They also have access to a dedicated support team. In addition, the site offers online worksheets that guide the advisor through the creation of a marketing plan. Online tutorials and referral programs round out the offering.

Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services (FIWS) Marketing Consulting provides industry and marketing best practices. Consultants can supply expertise and coordinate projects with their party suppliers. The Third Party Vendor Referral Program helps advisors connect with vendors who have experience serving the advisor community. These vendors offer substantial, exclusive discounts to Fidelity advisors.

PracticePerks, an exclusive website for Fidelity advisors offers discounts on a wide range of products and services. Here, advisors can find discounts on business services, hardware, software, travel and much more. One online software tool offered through Fidelity is the Retirement Income Evaluator. The year-old tool helps you project a client's likelihood of reaching his or her retirement income goals, with Monte Carlo simulations and the ability to print results. Advisors can use it to capture a more complete picture of their clients' portfolios, including assets that are held away.

In addition, advisors can build a more comprehensive plan for the client and potentially grow their businesses through asset consolidation. According to Fidelity research, 77% of investors who built a retirement income plan with an advisor indicated they would be willing to move all of their assets to one advisor—and 95% said they would refer someone to the advisor. Additionally, among those same clients, advisors have realized a 50% increase in "very satisfied" clients.

Schwab: "We certainly hope the markets will bounce back soon," says Dan Skiles, vice president of client technology consulting at Schwab Institutional, "but we don't think advisors should be planning on it. Based upon the conversations we are having with advisors, I think most advisory firms understand this." Before the credit crunch, advisors contemplated as many as six or seven technology initiatives at a time, Skiles says. Now firms are looking to his group to help them identify the one or two tech investments that will give them the most bang for their buck.