Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (April 4–5)

RIA Valuations Hit New Record, But Not All Sellers Hit The Jackpot

(Alex Ortolani | Wealth Management)

Recent years have seen numerous headlines about the brisk pace of RIA Mergers and Acquisition (M&A) activity, driven in part by an influx of Private Equity (PE) interest in the space. Notably, increased appetite for deals amongst buyers (including PE-backed RIA "aggregators") has both added liquidity to the market for sellers and raised valuations, though a recent report suggests that certain sellers are better-positioned to take advantage of these trends.

According to M&A advisory and consulting firm Advisor Growth Strategies' 2026 RIA Deal Room Report (drawing on data from a subset of 60 transactions in 2025), RIA deals had a median valuation of 11.6x EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization), up 5% from 2024 and more than 40% since 2020 (on the liquidity side, 100 firms made an acquisition in 2025, offering a variety of potential buyers).

However, while it remains a "seller's market" for RIAs, not all sellers will achieve premium valuations, according to the report, with those demonstrating strong organic growth (i.e., asset growth from new client assets and additional assets brought in by current clients, exclusive of market appreciation), a client niche or specialty, simple investment operations, and an engaged next-generation team (with less desirable firm traits including flat or declining sales growth, key-person/client-exit risk, no next-generation pathways, and layered investment products). The report highlights having shared equity amongst advisors and staff as an increasingly important component of receiving a high valuation, as it can demonstrate increased staff buy-in to the firm (and, perhaps from the buyer's perspective, a higher likelihood of post-deal retention).

Ultimately, the key point is that firm owners considering a sale continue to remain in a strong position to do so into 2026 (though sellers might continue to look carefully at deal terms required to receive maximum compensation). Though, while some who plan to engage in an external sale might assume this might mean they can put off offering equity to employees, this report suggests that investing in talent (and allowing them to invest in the firm itself!) could be a key driver of receiving premium valuations available to certain selling firms.

DoL Unveils Proposal To Boost Inclusion Of Private Assets In 401(k)s

(Tania Mitra | Citywire RIA)

Workplace retirement plans (e.g., 401(k)s) typically offer employees a limited slate of investments from which to choose, typically including a variety of stock and bond funds (in part due to reluctance by plan administrators to offer more complex products that are harder for investors to assess and could lead to unexpected losses that threaten workers' retirement savings [as well as lawsuits]). However, an Executive Order issued last year indicated that the Trump administration was interested in easing access to private equity, real estate, cryptocurrencies, and other alternative assets in retirement plans subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

Following up on the Executive Order, the Department of Labor (DoL) this week issued a proposal meant to clarify and provide a 'safe harbor' for plan fiduciaries to give them discretion and flexibility to include alternative investments (including those mentioned in the Executive Order) in retirement plans. The proposal says that if plan fiduciaries conduct a thorough analysis of a fund's performance, fees, liquidity, valuation, benchmarking, and complexity, they "should be able to confidently rely on that determination without fear of litigation". The proposal will now be subject to a comment period before its potential adoption.

Altogether, while this proposal (if adopted) would seemingly reduce the litigation risk to retirement plan fiduciaries, its ultimate impact might be revealed after potential lawsuits that would test whether the proposal provides sufficient protections for those including alternative investments in retirement plans (which could mean that some advisors who support small business owner clients and others with retirement plan fiduciary services might take a wait-and-see approach before recommending the addition of alternative investment options to these plans?).

Number Of New Women Advisors At A Plateau, Though Change Could Be On The Horizon

(Elijah Nicholson-Messmer | Financial Planning)

The financial advisory business has long been a male-dominated field. Nonetheless, industry and individual firm initiatives over the years have sought to broaden the pool of talent by boosting interest amongst women in a career in financial advice. A key question, though, is whether these programs have paid off, not only in attracting women to the industry, but also in retaining those who do enter the field (or whether the industry's diversity efforts are more akin to pouring extra water into a leaky sieve where it just leaks out faster).

According to an analysis of registration data by AdvizorPro, women now represent approximately 26% of practicing financial advisors with known gender. In terms of new entrants to the industry, the share of women has risen significantly from approximately 8% in the 1970s to 23% in the 1990s to about 28% in the 2010s, though this percentage has largely leveled off in recent years. Women advisors are most common in the independent broker-dealer and wirehouse channels (with approximately 31% representation), with hybrid firms (25%) and RIAs (18%-20%) falling somewhat behind (though RIAs did outpace other channels in terms of leadership composition, with 23.5% of firms having at least one owner or executive who is a woman).

While some of the overall population figures are an artifact of historical dynamics (i.e., given that advisors frequently work well into their 60s and beyond, the population of older advisors is likely to skew male given previous industry representation figures), it is notable how "stubborn" the gender ratios have been; for instance, despite more than a decade of proactive Women's Initiatives from the CFP Board, the percentage of women who are CFP professionals today (23.8%) unfortunately remains substantively the same as it was ("about 23%") when they began their efforts.

To that end, some industry observers point out that the problem is not merely one of awareness (to attract women to the profession), but gaps that must be resolved to make financial advice a career that retains more women as well. For instance, firms that establish well-defined training and career progression programs could attract candidates that want to see a clear path to success (without necessarily having to break away to start their own firm). Prior Kitces Research has also shown that there is often a gender gap in financial advisor compensation between men and women, driven not necessarily by overt gender bias but in differences in stable-vs-variable compensation preferences and the impact of family obligations on women, suggesting that firms may improve gender diversity with more support for those starting families (e.g., parental leave policies and better cross-training coverage to support clients when family needs arise). Perhaps less tangibly, though, firms might take a step back to assess whether both men and women can feel comfortable in their cultures, and whether legacy practices might reflect a time when the firm's advisor population skewed more heavily towards men.

In the end, while there are numerous factors driving the balance between men and women in the financial advice industry, taking steps to attract, and just an important to retain, more women isn't necessarily a zero-sum game, as many of the features many of them might seek (e.g., defined career paths) could be attractive to men as well, ultimately leading to greater overall interest in careers and financial advice and the ability for firms to serve more clients!

5 Beneficiary Designations For Clients To Review Now

(Daniel Michaelsen | Wealth Management)

By and large, clients are usually reluctant to update their estate plan, in part because people generally don't like thinking about their mortality. However, after all of the work to create an estate plan in the first place, as a client's life circumstances change, so too do their estate planning needs, creating a need for ongoing, proactive estate planning.

While elements of estate plans constantly evolve, some elements are likely to be become outdated over time than others, including beneficiary designations. These designations impact everything from real estate to bank accounts and life insurance, and often reflect the reality of not just the client's life changing, but also those around them: children grow up, relatives' lives change, and it can be challenging to track all of these moving elements consciously. And updating a will or an "estate plan" is not always the same as logging into a bank account and changing the beneficiary – which unfortunately must be done in order to avoid accidentally intestate assets.

Advisors can help clients manage these issues with a beneficiary designation review meeting. At the onset, the advisor and client will need to walk through each account, comparing that to their current legacy goals. As circumstances change, advisors (and clients) may also find opportunities for tax strategies that weren't feasible a few years ago, such as putting an asset in a trust.

In sum, doing estate planning can often require deeper and more complex conversations than it may appear on the onset. While some life changes (e.g., a divorce) may automatically signal an opportunity to update estate plans, advisors may want to engage these deeper estate planning conversations regularly to ensure that everything remains accurate, aligned, and on track. And while estate planning may not be 'fun' for the client, these deeper conversations can create a deeper assurance and peace of mind (and can be an effective way to close new clients)!

4 Expert-Backed Tips For Choosing The Best Healthcare Proxy

(Diana Cabrices | Advisor Perspectives)

Many aspects of estate planning focus on what happens after a client dies, including how their assets will pass to the next generation and favorite charities. What clients might consider less are the estate planning documents that ensure their wishes are met during their lifetimes, including the potential to spend at least some amount of time as a dependent near the end of their lives.

For instance, a good healthcare proxy can dramatically alter end of life comfort and planning (and the interpersonal stress that can come with it) by being there to make key healthcare decisions. As a starting point, it is important to ensure that a proxy can navigate the difficult decisions that come with end-of-life healthcare decisions, including a willingness to follow the client's stated wishes (even if they don't match what the proxy might choose themselves), as well as the emotional weight that comes with making these decisions (e.g., choosing where a loved one receives care, determine how much help to give them, and even when to let a loved one pass). Further, it is crucial for the client to consider and clearly state their wishes when their mental and physical health declines, as this can create a roadmap that the proxy can follow, which can be a relief when facing these nuanced decisions.

Ultimately, the key point is that financial advisors can play a crucial role in helping clients plan for when their "healthspan" (i.e., the years they are in relatively good health and can effectively make healthcare decisions) dwindles, particularly by ensuring that they have put considerable time and thought into their proxy selection and documenting their wishes to reduce stress for all parties involved and increase a client's dignity and security at the end of their lives.

6 Myths That Stop Heirless Clients From Estate Planning

(Lisa A. K. Kirchenbauer | Journal of Financial Planning)

Many estate plans are complex in the fact that there are many moving pieces, especially ever-evolving dynamics with potential heirs…while other estate plans are complex because there are no apparent heirs. Clients who are childfree, unmarried, or from a small family may be more likely to find themselves in such a situation. Clients without heirs may procrastinate on asset planning due to misconceptions or worries about their increased financial vulnerability if they give away assets early, while others might put off creating power of attorney or healthcare proxy documents or naming an executor – especially if they don't have a younger person in their life to rely upon.

Advisors can support clients in this situation in part by helping them see the options available to them. For instance, the client may elect to select a law firm as a trustee, advocate, or successor, or even the advisor themselves (though that can raise some complications). Also, when holding a care conversation, given that there is additional risk if a client runs out of assets (with perhaps less family support available), it is particularly crucial to clarify a client's wishes for long-term medical care, and to calculate their retirement planning with a significant buffer in mind. Once this is set and agreed upon, the advisor can use tools like Monte Carlo analysis to ensure that the client is still enjoying their retirement. And for clients who are charitably inclined, there can be many opportunities for personal and estate tax savings with the use of a charitable remainder trust (CRT) or donor advised fund (DAF).

Ultimately, estate planning for heirless clients can be complex, but setting up a plan that fully reflects the client's wishes by using the resources that are available to the clients is especially powerful. And given that the number of childfree people continues to rise, it may be a conversation advisors will be having more often!

How Better AI Prompts Get You Found

(Eric Rasmussen | Financial Advisor)

Being visible to prospects is an evergreen challenge for advisors, especially since the 'rules' of search optimization continue to shift. This is particularly true in the advent of Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) to tap into the increasing consumer use of AI-powered tools such as ChatGPT to seek answers to their questions, which has shifted some of the traditional rules of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

However, with these shifts come new opportunities for advisors. Notably, while AEO tends to return general results for general searches (e.g., results for "best advisors" tends to pull from big, consumer-centered sites), the more specific of a query that a prospect uses, the more that AEO rewards hyper-focused sites. This narrowed focus signals an area of opportunity for advisors. Whether advisors focus on local regional area, a profession, or even asset of shared values, creating a website (or some other type of content) that clearly articulates the advisor's ideal client is arguably more effective now than it ever has been because AEO  tends to 'democratize' results as it looks to summarize results for clients, rather than creating a hierarchy in results.

In sum, the more focused an advisor can be in their content creation and marketing copy, the better their results will be when it comes to attracting prospects through AI search. Which suggests that as a starting point, advisors might take recurring questions and issues raised during client conversations to create content that reflects the questions its ideal target prospects might be asking (AI tools) as well!

A Marketing Blueprint For An AI World

(Susan Theder | Financial Advisor Magazine)

Search and advice engine optimization (SEO and AEO, respectively) are often central to how advisors are discovered. However, marketing success is about more than just search results: it's about fostering trust. While discovery is a one-time occurrence, building this trust can take weeks, months, or even years. Given that advisors typically handle their clients' life savings and investments, particularly in preparation for and through retirement, prospective clients often move carefully as they try to determine if they can trust this advisor with their problem.

Often, answer engines (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini) are at the 'top' of an advisor's marketing funnel by giving their firm initial visibility. From there, advisors can guide clients into the 'middle' of the funnel, where they learn more about the advisor and establish trust (e.g., through social media posts or by subscribing to the advisor's newsletter). At this stage, clients are watching for targeted, high-quality content that affirms an advisor's expertise (notably, while AI tools can be helpful in creating, editing, or distributing this content to some extent, wholesale substitution of their marketing efforts with AI could lead to errors or decreases in quality that could reduce a prospect's trust in the advisor). From there, prospects eventually reach the bottom of the funnel, which is typically created by an inciting incident (such as a painful tax bill, an approaching retirement date, or a shift in familial circumstances). This is what often finally prompts a prospect to reach out. Because it is impossible to be certain of exactly when a prospect will each out, it is important to ensure that it is as easy as possible for a prospect to schedule an initial consultation.

The key takeaway is that while initial visibility is crucial to marketing, AEO is just one part of a prospect's journey to hire their advisor. Carrying a prospect from discovery to trust-building to finally scheduling a consulting call takes continual, conscious effort – but in the long term, they can yield prospects who already 'know' the advisor and are ready to act!

How Advisors Can Optimize For AI Search With A Marketing Strategy Refresh

(Brent Carnduff | Nerd's Eye View)

Content marketing has long been a popular way for financial advisors to attract clients, given its ability to enhance Search Engine Optimization (SEO), increase traffic to the advisor's website, and ultimately lead to more inbound leads (without necessarily incurring a significant hard-dollar outlay). However, with consumers increasingly turning to Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered tools to find answers to their questions (potentially reducing the number of 'clicks' to advisors' websites themselves), some advisors might wonder whether content creation remains a viable marketing tool.

To gain the attention of AI search tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Bing Copilot), a first step for advisors is to establish their "Who-What-Where" (i.e., their name and firm, their niche or specialty, and their location or service area) and use it consistently across platforms as AI models and search engines rely on recognizable, repeated patterns to connect content back to the advisor or their firm.

Next, while traditional SEO often focuses on single keywords, AI models instead look for connected ideas, depth of understanding, and topical consistency. With this in mind, a "pillar-cluster" content model, in which content is organized around a central, comprehensive topic (the pillar) and is supported by a series of more focused articles (the clusters) that dive deeper into related subtopics. By having each cluster article link back to the pillar (and ideally to other cluster articles), an advisor can reinforce their authority and help both search engines and AI tools understand the full scope of their expertise.

Nonetheless, even when structured well, not all blog content performs equally in an AI-driven world (e.g., many broad questions are already answered by AI without a source citation). With this in mind, creating content with three key attributes – local relevance, a defined niche, and topical depth – can generate higher visibility and lead quality. Also, while traditional SEO rewarded the length of content, AI models prioritize content that gets to the point, answers questions clearly, and signals expertise fast. Which means that a relatively short piece could stand out if it answers a high-intent question directly or dives deep into a specific subtopic.

Given that AI models are trained on public data from a wide range of sources, having content appear across multiple platforms (and not just on the advisor's website) can increase the chances that it will surface in AI results. For instance, adapting blog posts that appear on a firm's website for LinkedIn and Substack (with a fresh headline, a short summary, and a link to the original blog post) can increase the content's (and advisor's) visibility with AI models.

Ultimately, the key point is that content marketing remains a potentially valuable marketing strategy in a world of AI search. By clearly demonstrating what types of clients they work with (and where they're located) and their ability to solve their unique financial planning pain points, advisors can demonstrate their expertise to AI models, find themselves cited more often in AI searches, and ultimately attract more ideal-fit clients!

On The Benefits of Reading

(Ben Carlson | A Wealth Of Common Sense)

Once, people had two options for education: to hear instruction in-person or to read it themselves. Options have expanded tremendously as technology has changed – and in today's education age, the possibilities are almost endless. Where books once dominated as a method of learning, today, people can choose between videos, webinars, white papers, blogs, AI . . . and, yes, books. Given this plethora of options (and distractions!), little wonder that reading has steadily declined over the last several decades.

However, while reading is on the decline, that doesn't mean that learning is on the decline. These options can signal an opportunity. People can study subjects at immense depth, personalized to how they most prefer to learn. Those who take advantage of it can find a greater depth and breadth of knowledge than has ever been publicly available – and this can apply to not only technical knowledge, but also exploring career options and [something else].

At the same time, it's important not to discount the learning that can be done through reading itself. While nonfiction and business-oriented books can impart valuable lessons, so too can fiction books, which can alternatively pose challenges, foster empathy, and create opportunities for reflection. Being a capable professional is about emotional intelligence and critical thinking as much as it is about technical knowledge!

Ultimately, the digital age is what people make of it. It can be a constant distraction or an opportunity for deep dives for more knowledge. And the reality is, for most people, it is a blend of both. But curiosity never goes out of style, and those who can leverage the tools before them to continue to learn will yield great results in the long term!

102 Lessons From The 102 Books I Read This Year

(Scott H. Young)

Every book read, fictional or otherwise, has some sort of central lesson to impart – or challenges to think about the world differently. And when someone reads 102 books in a single year, covering topics from money to sleep to connection, there are bound to be many takeaways!

For example, in doing so Young found that happiness (not stress) leads to increased productivity – and sense of progress is crucial to workplace wellbeing. And while an immense amount of focus is put on time management, energy is the limited resource in productivity. When all of these come together, we can experience greater flow at work – thus increasing our happiness at work. In fact, since we experience more flow at work than in leisure, we can experience greater happiness at work than in most leisure.

Also, when it comes to fitness, almost nothing is better for people than regular exercise. It is a frontline treatment for depression and greatly decreases the risk of a premature death. However, humans don't have a drive to exercise (unlike our drives to eat, drink, and sleep), which we are likely to not move as much as we should to stay healthy. This can be especially challenging for those who work desk jobs (like advisors!), since comfortable chairs and mattresses can weaken people's core muscles in the long-term, leading to chronic lower back pain. However, for those who can create an exercise routine that lasts, exercise can help decrease long-term injuries, maintain bone density into old age, and even increase brain activity!

The long and short of it is, there is always more to learn. And sometimes, focusing deeply on a few areas of focus can help challenge popularly held misconceptions and inspire deeper life changes. With focus and persistence, readers can gradually find what works for them and iteratively improve their lives!

How to Read More: The Simple System I'm Using to Read 30+ Books Per Year

(James Clear | James Clear)

Many people want to read more, but implementing changes to set routines is often difficult in practice. If someone wakes up today, looks at their phone for 15 minutes, then hurriedly gets dressed to run out the door for work, then…it is likely that they will do that again tomorrow. And while people may be reading a lot, the majority of their content may be reactive to what is presented to them – like an article link in a social media feed. This can lead to interesting topics and discussions, but articles alone may not have the depth that readers are seeking.

For those who want to read more books in the coming year, it can be powerful to start small. For example, reading just 20 pages a day can turn into over 30 books a year. It can be powerful to substitute pockets of time, rather than trying to create new ones (for example, replacing scrolling time on the subway with an e-book). In addition, aiming for a set number of pages, rather than 'just' reading more, can be motivating in itself, since it is more focused and achievable.

In sum, reading more – or creating new habits in general – is often about small, concentrated steps. By simply setting a small, focused goal, it can be surprising by just how much little actions add up!

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We hope you enjoyed the reading! Please leave a comment below to share your thoughts, or send an email to [email protected] to suggest any articles you think would be a good fit for a future column!

In the meantime, if you're interested in more news and information regarding advisor technology, we'd highly recommend checking out Craig Iskowitz's "WealthTech Today" blog.