Without Market Appreciation, How Much Has Your RIA Firm Grown?

October 23, 2026 —

Earlier this week, I posed this question to RIA firm leaders: Take market appreciation out of the equation. Are you happy with how much your firm grew this year?

The next question deserves just as much attention: Do you know where your next clients will come from, and what you're doing to bring them in?

You probably know how your last few clients found you. A referral from another client, someone who attended an event, or a prospect who followed your content for months before reaching out.

Knowing the source is useful, but understanding what helped that person become a client gives you something to build on.

• An introduction may have opened the door, but your website helped them decide to schedule.
• A workshop may have sparked interest, but a follow-up email brought them back.
• A podcast may have made your team feel familiar before the first conversation.

Those connections should shape where you spend your time and money.

That's why the firms I work with have different priorities. One needs to reach more local HNW prospects. Another needs its website to better communicate who it serves. Another has educational content that needs a clearer path to a conversation.

The work starts with identifying what's holding growth back and connecting the marketing around it.

Think about your marketing in 3 connected parts:

1. Getting in front of the right people

Are enough people who fit your firm discovering you beyond your existing referral circle?

If visibility is the issue, choose a specific audience and a practical way to reach them consistently. That might mean local advertising, professional partnerships, niche content, or educational events.

2. Turning interest into meetings

When someone finds you, can they quickly understand who you help, why your firm might fit, and what happens when they reach out?

If people are visiting, reading, or attending without taking another step, look at your message, the invitation, and how easy you make it to respond.

3. Following up consistently

What happens to someone who's interested but has no immediate reason to change advisors?

If the answer depends on an advisor remembering to check in, there's room to improve. Give those prospects useful reasons to stay connected, with someone responsible for the next contact.

Find the weakest point before adding more activity. More visibility has limited value if interested people keep getting lost along the way.

AI notetakers can help you capture more than meeting summaries. Tools built for financial advisors include:

• Jump: Drafts meeting notes, follow-up tasks, and recap emails, with CRM integrations to keep the details connected
• Zocks: Captures detailed notes, syncs information with your CRM, and drafts follow-up emails
• FinMate AI: Captures and organizes meeting notes, with summaries, tasks, and CRM integrations

The marketing value comes from what you ask during the conversation. Make these questions part of your discovery process:

• How did you first hear about us?
• What prompted you to reach out now?
• What would you need to feel comfortable moving forward?

Then review the notes from your last 10 prospect conversations for recurring answers, concerns, and next steps.

You may already be capturing the information that could improve your marketing. Give someone responsibility for putting it to use.

Before you start planning more marketing for 2027, choose one weak point to address over the next 30 days.

Be specific about the change, who's responsible, and what you'll watch to see whether it helps. For example, assign personal follow-up after your next event and track the qualified conversations it produces.

You'll have a clearer basis for deciding what to keep, improve, or stop funding.