Every firm’s clientele is different. As a result, their behavior may be different, too. They may respond to different marketing strategies, read different publications or online resources, attend different conferences or be more or less inclined to search for new service providers using Google and AI than other firms in your industry.

Business owners approaching retirement or thinking about their next chapter – including financial advisors — tend to ask the same question: If I decide to sell, what will buyers actually want? For financial planners, wealth managers and registered investment advisors (RIAs), this is a conversation worth leading because a business sale is one of the largest financial events in an owner’s life and deserves the same planning as any retirement portfolio.

With advisor shortages looming and free AI advice a click away, the next competitive edge in wealth management is not just automation, but transparency and awareness around outcomes.

For smaller RIAs, many of which are solo entrepreneurs, operating with limited time, budget, and staff, the pressure to be everywhere at once can feel overwhelming. This Whack-a-Mole approach assumes that success comes from mastering every marketing channel and pursuing every growth opportunity.

Conventional wisdom holds that Gen Z — Americans born roughly between 1997 and 2012 — prefers social media algorithms and AI chatbots over human financial advisors. The data tells a more nuanced story. A March 2026 CFA Institute study of more than 2,400 investors found that over 90% of Gen Z and millennial respondents reported engaging with some form of financial advice, including through traditional advisors. At the same time, Bank of America's 2026 Study of Wealthy Americans found that 86% of Gen Z and millennial investors now regularly use artificial intelligence — yet 71% worry it can provide incorrect information. That combination of digital fluency and residual skepticism is exactly the opening advisors say they are finding.

The title of this Blarticle® poses a great question, and I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for Aetna Insurance Company for teaching me the answer… quite by accident. Aetna had signed up for Xerox sales training and I flew off to pilot the training in their Hartford, Connecticut facility. I had studied the company, their customers, and the features they had to offer. With my own insurance background, I felt I was well prepared to knock them dead with the sales training I was ready to deliver.