A new partnership giving XY Planning Network members access to Wealthtender's marketing platform highlights a sea change for advisor marketing: As SEO strategies fade, advisors must build the authority to ensure that AI knows who they are and is willing to recommend them to prospects.
The partnership will give XYPN members access to Wealthtender resources for gathering client testimonials, improving visibility in AI search and developing targeted content and other marketing efforts aimed at building trust with prospective clients.
The collaboration comes as advisors are being forced to rethink years of search-engine optimization strategy. Filling a website with the right keywords may have helped a firm climb Google results, but AI-powered search works differently. Advisors that once counted on a steady stream of warm leads from search may discover that they're not even on the radars of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and other AI tools.
"Increasingly, Americans looking for a financial advisor don't type straightforward queries into Google. Instead, they're opening ChatGPT, Claude and other large language model chatbots and having conversations loaded with context," Samantha Russell, chief evangelist at FMG,
Financial Planning has been tracking that shift and what it means for advisor marketing. Below are some of our recent stories on how advisors can establish authority, improve their visibility and make themselves more likely to surface when prospective clients turn to AI for answers.
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Adapt or disappear: AI search is rapidly changing the referral game
Prospective clients are already beginning to use AI tools to find financial advisors, and the trend is particularly pronounced among wealthy investors. That means firms accustomed to generating leads through Google searches and traditional referrals have a new question to answer: Will AI recommend them?
See how AI is changing advisor discovery:
Conduct this diagnostic to see if AI recommends your firm
There is a simple way for advisors to find out how they fare in the new search environment: Ask an AI tool to recommend firms that fit their own ideal client profile. The results can reveal not only whether the firm appears, but which competitors have built stronger digital signals for prospective clients.
Test your firm's visibility in AI search:
Want ChatGPT to find your RIA? You may be overlooking your best tool
Advisors worried about disappearing from AI search may already control one of their most important tools: their own websites. ChatGPT used firm websites for nearly half the sources it cited when recommending firms, underscoring the need to publish useful, authoritative content.
See what makes an advisor website visible to AI:
Why your tax services are invisible to AI — and 5 ways to fix it
Offering tax planning isn't enough if an advisor's digital presence gives AI little evidence that the expertise exists. Advisors can improve their chances of being recognized for a specialty by reinforcing it consistently across their websites, regulatory filings, LinkedIn profiles and other authoritative sources.
Learn how to make your expertise easier for AI to find:
AI slop is everywhere. How can advisors cut through?
AI has made it easier than ever to produce blogs, emails and social posts — and easier than ever to sound like everyone else. Advisors who want to stand out may gain more from sharing distinctive expertise, firsthand experience and original perspectives than from simply publishing more content.
Find out how advisors can rise above generic AI content:
