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This is the Transition To RIA Vendor Profile Series where we take a look at the solution providers powering the RIA model. On this episode:
Vendor name:
Wealthtender
Vendor category:
Marketing
Episode host:
Brad Wales
Episode guest:
Brian Thorp
Vendor contact info:
Full Transcript:
Brad Wales – Hi, I’m Brad Wales with Transition To RIA, and this is the Transition To RIA Vendor Profile Series where we look at the solution providers powering the RIA model. On today’s episode, we’re answering the question, “What is Wealthtender?” No better person to answer that question than the founder of Wealthtender, Brian Thorp. Brian, thanks for joining.
Brian Thorp – My pleasure, Brad. Thanks for having me today.
Brad – Sure thing, sure thing. Before we hit record, we were reminiscing on the tenure of our respective businesses and good places in the industry and where the trends are going. So I look forward to sharing everything you’re doing as part of that. But for those that don’t know, or haven’t heard of Wealthtender, at that high level, what exactly is Wealthtender?
Brian – Sure. Wealthtender is a digital marketing platform where we’re helping financial advisors improve their appearance online through traditional SEO, search engine optimization, as well as today’s AI optimization. So we’re helping advisors with visibility in traditional search engines like Google as well as tools like ChatGPT. We were the industry’s first SEC compliant online review platform to launch following the SEC marketing rule that took effect in 2021.
Brad – We were talking about this prior to going on the air here, but I’d say Brian has kind of nailed two pretty meaningful trends here.
One was the rollout of testimonials. For those that don’t know, Brian, you can clarify exactly when it was, but just a few years ago, testimonials weren’t allowed basically under any capacity. Now they are, but with very strict or defined ways that you can or can’t do it and Wealthtender is a way to accommodate that. Then there’s the rollout of AI tools and now these search tools are being done by AI relying in part on third-party review sites.
So maybe we could start with the first one on the third-party testimonials. So before we get into exactly how someone could utilize Wealthtender in that sense, what do you see as the important testimonials out there for advisors?
Brian – Even before AI tools like ChatGPT came around, when we launched Wealthtender in 2019, there was speculation the SEC was going to come off its prohibition of testimonials. So I really started to look at other trust-based professions like doctors and lawyers where online review platforms like what Wealthtender is today have existed for probably a decade or longer.
Those platforms do a great job of not only helping physicians and attorneys with their digital marketing, but of course also helping consumers that are doing a query on Google, looking for help with medical symptoms or doing a search for help with legal matters. They oftentimes land on one of those websites that then displays profiles for doctors, profiles for lawyers and the reviews.
So naturally we’ve seen as consumers, we all rely on reviews. That’s in fact why the SEC finally came off its prohibition in 2021. So naturally it wasn’t a question of whether or not an online review platform would succeed in this space, it’s just simply been a matter of time for advisors, compliance departments to get comfortable.
Today, it’s really a once-in-a-generation opportunity for independent advisors to level the playing field, to finally be able to invite their clients to share their voices and let people know what they have to say about their experience. This is true especially for independent RIAs that are typically a little bit more nimble than many of the wirehouses that even though from a regulatory perspective could permit testimonials, continue to not allow their advisors to be able to utilize them.
That can be a real differentiator for an independent firm, especially if they have a prospect and they’re up against a wirehouse firm that’s not permitted to share that very thing, which calls into question in the prospect’s mind as to why that, in fact, may be the case.
Brad – You make a great point. I want to come back to the difference between how this can be utilized with independent advisors versus wirehouse advisors-type thing.
I think it is an interesting evolution of the industry. For those that don’t know, the Investment Advisors Act came out in 1940. Clearly there were no online reviews in 1940. No one was shopping on Amazon and would only buy something that has multiple reviews to look at, let alone in a professional services category.
It was arguably a much-needed refresh of rules along the way that now provides it, but again, you got to be able to you know and follow that specifically. So what does happen if someone is researching an advisor, would that end user be going to Wealthtender to find them and they see these reviews? Or is it that an advisor will gather reviews on the Wealthtender system, then perhaps steer their current clients or more likely their prospects to that to see it or how does it come together?
Brian – When we launched Wealthtender, my answer before the AI tools came into existence would be consumers visiting Wealthtender looking for advisors. Today we have about 50,000 consumers a month that come to the site. So a great opportunity for advisors to get visibility on Wealthtender.
But today, we are also providing tools for those reviews to show up in search engines. Not only do we design them with the appropriate coding in the background of Wealthtender, but effectively on the front end, the consumer that’s seeing those reviews will also see those gold stars appear in Google search results.
An individual may not come to Wealthtender first. We just did a study that showed for 63% of people, one of their first sources for beginning their search for an advisor includes offline referrals from a friend, a family member, or somebody in their professional network. The very next thing that 83% of those individuals said they’re going to do next is go online and look for online reviews about that advisor.
So in that scenario, they’re not Googling Wealthtender, they’re going to be Googling the name of that advisor. When they do, if the advisor has reviews on Wealthtender, what they’re going to see in Google are those gold stars appearing next to the advisor’s name.
Because today, fewer than 10% of advisors are using reviews. If that prospect received the name of three advisors, there’s a very good chance that that advisor that has reviews is going to get that first call. They’ve already established the credibility with those reviews and now they’re going to get found.
Now today with AI tools, it also could very well be that that same consumer goes to ChatGPT and says, well, what do people say about working with Brad as their financial advisor? They may never come to Wealthtender, but the important thing is ChatGPT did. ChatGPT went to Wealthtender and said, wow, Brad clearly has a great reputation based on what his clients are saying with these verified reviews.
So that prospect, even without leaving ChatGPT, is seeing and hearing from ChatGPT that this is a highly regarded advisor and somebody that they may want to contact.
Brad – I think it’s going to become table stakes to need to do this, right? So for the stats, you’re seeing less than 10% now. That’s in part because it’s still relatively new. I think they’re still at the state level. If you’re a registered RIA, I think there’s still some limitations there, but things are evolving. But I think it will get table stakes at some point just as you can’t not have a website nowadays, right?
It’s expected that people are going to go on and learn about an advisor. So it will become normal that they’ll want to be able to see some reviews and not just necessarily the ones on the advisor’s website themselves, but essentially a third party for that.
So interestingly enough, if it becomes table stakes, which you mentioned this and I talk a lot about this of why advisors are increasingly moving to the RIA model, the independent model, is the flexibility that comes with it.
You would know better than I do, I’m assuming, at least currently, no wirehouse advisor, as an example, can typically do something like this? Whereas if you’re independent, you have the flexibility to work with something like a Wealthtender.
Has that been your experience so far as well?
Brian – To date that is correct because both the SEC and FINRA do have rules that permit testimonials. Officially there’s nothing from a regulatory perspective that would prohibit a wirehouse advisor from being able to use reviews, but of course we know that wirehouse advisors are subject to home office restrictions and to your question we have not yet seen any wirehouse firm move even remotely in the direction of permitting their advisors or registered representatives to be able to utilize reviews.
Now I think from what we’ve seen in the industry on any number of different topics over time is there’s going to be one wirehouse firm that recognizes this as an opportunity. Of course they need to figure out how to establish their policies, procedures, and oversight with the army of advisors that they have. This understandably is something that is more of a hurdle for a larger firm with thousands of advisors than an RIA firm that’s more nimble. But at some point, for the reasons that you mentioned and for the statistics that we know to be true, and consumer behavior in general, at some point there will be a wirehouse that will start.
I’m confident that will probably be in the next five years. I don’t know if I’m confident about that because we do know wirehouses. So maybe in the next 10 years they’ll come forward and say, wow, we’re going to do this. We’re going to be the first wirehouse to permit our advisors to collect reviews, publish testimonials. That will provide them, at least with a little period of time, to have a differentiation.
So until then, independent advisors probably have years’ worth of a competitive advantage. We’re absolutely hearing from independent advisors that they’re winning business today over wirehouse advisors because of the reviews that those prospects they’re meeting with are now reading.
Brad – Yeah, I wouldn’t attempt to predict when the first wirehouse would do it. I would predict the second one will do it shortly after the first one, right? So it could take years, but then once it becomes maybe more the norm and they get their hands around it, then because of that competitive advantage or disadvantage, depending on what side of that you’re on, the rest of them will start to fall into place.
But to your point, for now and likely for a couple of years, it’s going to remain a competitive advantage for those that can. I’m not an SEO guru or an AI guru or expert, but I suspect, and as the AI continues to evolve, part of what they will appreciate when they’re out there looking for information on the internet is how long perhaps an advisor has been receiving reviews.
So if you can get it now and get reviews and testimonials built up over the next couple of years before these other folks can even get that started, we’ll see what the AI algorithms reward or not, I presume that will certainly look good. It’s one of those, when was the best time to start this? Well, yesterday. Well, when is the next best time? Today. Any thoughts on that?
Brian – Yeah, a couple of thoughts. So one, I agree with you completely. The sooner you start, the better off you’ll be, not just with prospects and the likelihood to win more business sooner rather than later, but also with the ChatGPT and Gemini models of the world.
Now, what’s really interesting with the AI tools is if you have reviews on Wealthtender as an advisor and somebody Googles your name, they’re going to see those five gold stars that are showing up next to your Wealthtender profile right there in search results. But in ChatGPT, they’re actually seeing the context summarized based on a lot of those reviews.
That’s important for a couple of reasons. One, of course, we continue to see that clients of advisors love their advisor. So the reviews are universally positive. So whether it’s in a traditional search engine like Google or ChatGPT, you’re going to see these glowing remarks by the search engines or the ChatGPT-type tool. But with these AI tools, you’re also seeing contextually what it is that people are saying about their advisor.
If you’re an advisor that specializes in working with business owners, and a number of those reviews are mentioning how you’ve helped an individual with their finances related to owning a business, or if they’re a physician, or they’re an educator, and they’re talking about how you helped them. Or maybe they work in the oil and gas industry at Chevron or Exxon, and they’re talking about how you helped them transition to retirement as an employee at that firm. Now the AI tools have that knowledge.
So for example, say there is a prospect who works for Exxon or is a physician and says, I’m looking for a financial advisor in the Tampa area who works with physicians or in the Dallas area who works with Exxon employees. The likelihood now is that that advisor has that contextual experience and hopefully they’re also mentioning those keywords on their website, such as “we specialize in working with Exxon employees” or “working with physicians”.
But having not only you the advisor talking the talk, but clients providing those reviews that are essentially showing you walking the walk, that yes, in fact, you the advisor do work with physicians. Yes, they’ve helped me transition into retirement as an Exxon employee. If there’s somebody being more specific in their query, it’s going to be that much more likely now that you’re going to be a top advisor that shows up in the search.
Brad – For someone that that’s resonated with, so they say, okay, you got me, I agree with that, or I certainly buy into that. They say, okay, hey, I want to get started with Wealthtender, what exactly does getting started mean?
We’ll get to the website domain and all that. But if someone comes to the website, literally, what are they doing? Are they signing up for an account? Then does that account give them the ability to start posting reviews? Is this a membership thing? Is this a per-review? So maybe just a little walkthrough. If someone wants to get started, what exactly does that mean, get started?
Brian – Right, we make it very easy for advisors to get started. That’s one of the things I’m proud of is just the tremendous feedback we hear from advisors on not only the setup, but also the onboarding process. We know advisors are busy. We’d rather have them spending time with their clients. So when an advisor signs up, it takes just two minutes. We’ll create their profile page for them on Wealthtender using information from their website, from LinkedIn, and it just takes us about a day.
We’ll then follow up with the advisor and share a preview of that profile page with them where they then can also now log in, further personalize and edit their profile at any time. Then about a day later, we’ll follow up with onboarding guidance to walk them through step-by-step a number of the different benefits if they want to be featured in different consumer guides on Wealthtender for the types of clients that they’re looking to attract, whether that’s physicians, educators, technology professionals, or business owners. Then we’ll step-by-step walk them through how to get started with online reviews.
Up to today we’ve helped hundreds of advisors and wealth management firms do just that using templates and resources that we provide to really make it a very, very easy process.
Brad – What’s the business model? Is kind of like a monthly membership kind of thing or what’s that look like?
Brian – Correct. So we offer monthly subscriptions. We do offer a deeper discount for advisors and firms that choose to do an annual subscription upfront, but we really encourage advisors and wealth management firms to feel comfortable getting started with a monthly subscription. The most expensive plan we have on a per advisor basis is well below $100 a month today. So this is a very affordable complement to other marketing activities that advisors and firms may be doing out there in the marketplace.
In fact, as we think about the value of those reviews, if advisors are utilizing other lead-gen-type programs, this can be a real powerful differentiator. If now you’re utilizing a platform where you’re maybe competing against two other advisors for that same lead, you’re the advisor that has reviews against, statistically speaking, the other two advisors who probably don’t.
That means you’re going to be that much more likely to get that first call and have that opportunity to convert that prospect, which can multiply and amplify the value of your ROI on some of those much more expensive lead gen platforms that are out there.
Brad – Yeah, and think it just builds over time too, right? So as an example, I’m a big podcast listener and if you come across podcasts and they’ve only been around for two weeks, you might make some judgment that, okay, we’ll see how long this thing lasts. The podcast that’s been around for five years, well, wow. Okay, there must be something to this.
So the sooner you can start building that kind of catalog of reviews and testimonials, I think that just builds on itself over time and kind of goes from there. There are a lot of folks that have never done this. Maybe because they can’t. But even for the ones that can, hey, there are these new rules, hey, I don’t know what’s a best practice for how to try to get these from my clients.
I know you have some resources, because I’ve seen some of them, but for the sake of the audience, and if you could share it, I’m sure I’ll learn something as well. How do you and your team help folks essentially get up to speed on best practices and how to use this to its maximum?
Brian – The first thing that’s important to ensure that a firm has in place are policies and procedures for their testimonial program. We do provide a mad lib-style, fill-in-the-blank template that has worked really well for firms to be able to customize the policy and procedures based on their preferences.
Then the next step that’s important, the SEC doesn’t want advisors and firms cherry-picking which clients they are going to reach out to to invite to write a review. So we’ve provided a template very tactfully written that hundreds of firms now have used to invite all of their current clients to write a review.
What we typically then see is somewhere between 10 and 20% of the advisors’ clients, depending upon any number of factors, will respond to that invitation within the first 24 or 48 hours. So right out of the gate, they’re getting a lot of great reviews and then a trickle of reviews that will continue from that initial email.
But then after you have that initial email that goes out, now you can start to incorporate that invitation to your clients to write a review, perhaps into your day-to-day business activities.
So maybe you have an annual client review meeting, and a week after that client review meeting, you’re following up. Hey, just following up to make sure you feel good about everything we covered. Okay, great. Hey, by the way, if you’re so inclined, I really appreciate you being a valued client of our firm. It would be helpful for other people just like you not yet working with an advisor to learn a little bit more about what that experience could be like, would you be open to sharing a little bit about your experience on our Wealthtender profile page?
You know, completely optional, of course, but a very tactful way of inviting clients to write a review and starting to incorporate that into the day-to-day business.
Brad – I think that’s key that you mentioned not only best practices ways to go about doing it, but as you started that answer, you know, the importance of doing it right from a regulatory standpoint, compliance standpoint, and that’s where an industry-specific solution like Wealthtender comes in.
So for those folks that want to learn more, maybe even get started, as I said, if it wasn’t yesterday, today’s a good day to get started. For folks that want to learn more, how can they go to the website or what’s the best way to get connected?
Brian – Correct. Wealthtender.com. You can go to Wealthtender.com forward slash grow. Either way, you’ll easily be able to find more information about how to get started. I’m always available, happy to jump on a call if anybody wants to do a demo and you’ll see the instructions to do so out there as well.
Brad – Sounds good. So Wealthtender.com. We’ll put that in the show notes as well. This was just high level, this is an evolving landscape. If we did this six months from now, then who knows what additional angles there are with the impact that AI is having all on this. So Brian, I appreciate you coming on, helping us dig into what is Wealthtender.
Brian – My pleasure, Brad. Thank you again for having me.
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