BLOG

TOP Challenges Facing Financial Advisors

The next five years won’t be “more of the same.” They’ll be sharper. Faster. Less

forgiving.

Over the next five years, clients will arrive more informed, more skeptical, and more

overloaded. Regulators will request greater clarity and detail. Technology will accelerate what’s possible and valuable, and expose what’s not. Talent will continue to move to firms that feel organized, modern, and human.

And quietly, in the background, one question will follow every advisor into every

meeting:

“Is this practice built to withstand the great practice I’m trying to build?”

Below are the five challenges that matter most. Each challenge affects revenue,

reputation, and capacity.

1) The Value-Pressure Squeeze

When everything looks comparable, your value must become unmistakable.

There was a time when expertise was assumed. Today it’s tested. Anyone can find a

graph, a comparison, a headline, a low-cost alternative, and an opinionated stranger on the internet in under five minutes. The portfolio is no longer the whole story—it’s just an entry point to the value you offer. We need to do better.

In this new era, top advisors don’t “explain their value.” They demonstrate it with a

client experience so visible, structured, and repeatable that the fee feels like the most rational part of the relationship:

 They deliver planning as part of the service.

 They operationalize proactive, excellent client service.

 They systemize and document coordination.

What top advisors are doing now:

 Building an annual “value calendar” clients can recognize: reviews, tax

touch-points, planning updates, and family conversations.

 Creating a signature deliverable that clients keep (and refer to when life gets

loud): a one-page plan, a decision dashboard, a retirement paycheque map

 Making outcomes clear: fewer surprises, better decisions, cleaner execution,

calmer money behavior

Two questions to think about:

1. If a client challenged your fee tomorrow, what would you show—in 60

seconds—that proves you earn it?

2. What do your best clients believe you prevent (mistakes, stress, family conflict)

that they don’t fully appreciate until later?

If you worked with APM, we might also ask:

“Let’s write your ‘proof of value' list—twelve moments a client experiences in a year. Which three must happen no matter what, even when you’re busy?”

2) Capacity and Efficiency

The bottleneck is internal friction within the practice and is unrelated to market volatility. Most practices don’t collapse from a lack of opportunity. They collapse from “undocumented process accumulation”: too many exceptions, too many meeting types, too many “we’ll remember,” too many things that only work when the advisor must be personally involved. Not scalable!

The practices that win in the next five years will look and feel different. Not louder. Not busier. Just cleaner and well-oiled. The machine will run with less heroism.

Top advisors are becoming engineers of flow: decisions move, work moves, follow-up moves. Nothing lives in one team member’s head. The calendar stops being an anchor and becomes a strategic weapon.

What top advisors are doing now:

 Reducing complexity: fewer meeting formats, each with a purpose, agenda, and

template

 Building “handoff clarity”: who owns what, when, and what “done” looks like

 Creating a weekly operating rhythm: a short team meeting that prevents fires

instead of chasing them

 Turning onboarding into a premium process—because first impressions are

capacity decisions

Two questions to think about:

1. Where does your week get stolen: by admin, by indecision, or by work that

should have a system?

2. If you had to add 25% more clients with the same team, what would break first?

If you worked with APM, we might also ask:

Name the top ten recurring tasks that consume the practice. We’re going to eliminate, automate, or delegate three—this quarter—and measure the hours reclaimed.”

3) Technology and AI

The advantage won’t go to advisory teams that buy tools. It will go to teams that build systems. Technology is a multiplier. Which means it’s merciless. It amplifies discipline but can also expose disorder.

Firms that adopt AI without redesigning their workflows will introduce noise and

confusion. Firms that redesign workflow first will create capacity that feels like magic. Clients won’t care what software you use. They’ll care that everything feels faster, more precise, and more connected and consistent.

The most practical way to think about tech now is not “What should we implement?” but “What should we stop doing manually?”

What top advisors are doing now:

 Rebuilding one core workflow end-to-end: onboarding, annual reviews, money

movement, or service requests

 Standardizing meeting preparation and follow-through so every client gets the

“best version” of the firm

 Using automation to reduce error and delay: reminders, task sequences,

document collection, routing rules

 Tightening CRM hygiene by embedding it into the process, not relying on

memory

Two questions to think about:

1. What are the three tasks in your practice that should never be done manually

again?

2. Where do mistakes happen because the process lives in someone’s head

instead of in a system?

If you worked with APM, we might also ask:

“Pick one workflow. We’ll map it, rebuild it, and measure three outcomes: hours saved, turnaround time, and fewer exceptions.

Which workflow gives the highest ROI?”

4) Regulation and Liability

Documentation will become part of your brand.

In the coming years, “doing the right thing” won’t be enough. You’ll need to show the right thing was done—clearly, consistently, and without improvisation.

This isn’t just a regulatory reality. It’s a trust reality. The practices that feel safe to clients will be those that are fully transparent, clearly described, and documented.

Top advisors treat compliance like quality control. Not fear. Not paperwork. A system.

What top advisors are doing now:

 Establishing a “perfect file” standard: non-negotiable artifacts that exist in every

client file

 Using a consistent meeting-note structure: Context → Decision → Rationale →

Actions → Owner → Date

 Documenting alternatives considered—not to impress, but to show care

 Auditing files to fix patterns, not to patch problems

Two questions to think about:

1. If a regulator or senior leader reviewed a random client file, what would they not

understand?

2. Where are you relying on good intentions instead of good process?

If you worked with APM, we might also ask:

“Let’s define your minimum viable documentation standard. Then we’ll make it automatic—so it happens on your busiest week, not just your best week.”

5) Talent and Succession

Your team, not prospects, will determine your capacity ceiling.

The next five years will be brutal for firms that treat hiring like a one-time event and leadership like a personality trait. Talent will migrate to the practices that feel organized, modern, and meaningful—and away from chaos, ambiguity, and burnout. Meanwhile, clients will quietly ask a question they may never say out loud:

“If something happens to you, what happens to us?”

Top advisors build continuity as a value proposition. They don’t hide succession in a

filing cabinet. They weave it into trust.

What top advisors are doing now:

 Writing role scorecards so every seat has a definition of “winning.”

 Creating training paths for associates and service teams

 Building a “two-in-the-room” habit so relationships deepen beyond one person

 Positioning continuity as client care, not an internal business issue

Two questions to think about:

1. How many of your top 25 clients have a relationship with someone besides

you—by design?

2. What’s your single point of failure: a person, a process, or your own calendar?

If you worked with APM, we might also ask:

“In 24 months, what kind of firm are you building: a practice that depends on you, or an enterprise that can outlive you? What seats must exist to make that true?”

The 90-Day Move That Changes the Next Five Years

If you want momentum without overwhelm, do this:

1. Make value visible: build one signature deliverable that clients keep.

2. Create capacity: rebuild one core workflow to reclaim 3–5 hours/week.

3. De-risk the firm: implement a perfect-file standard and a two-in-the-room habit.

Small changes don’t stay small when they compound.

The next five years will not reward the advisor who tries to do more.

They will reward the advisor who builds better—better systems, clearer value, stronger team continuity, cleaner execution, calmer leadership.



And if you want one final question worth sitting with, it’s this:

If your best clients could see your practice from the outside, would they describe

it as “busy”… or “built”?

Thank you for reading! This is what we help advisors do every day!

Written by Jeff Thorsteinson

How About Your Goals for Your Practice in 2026? 

Download our updated 2025 Comprehensive Practice Management Checklist 

While each financial advisor's practice may have a different approach, advisors need to understand where their practice needs help, and will they get the right help for the right part of their practice. What areas does your practice need help with? 

 Get a copy of our Updated 42-page Comprehensive Practice Management Strategies

Checklist by clicking here: https://practicemanagement.getresponsepages.com/

 Fee Audit Checklist for Ideal Prospects: click

here https://feeaudit.getresponsepages.com

We are here to serve your practice, 

To book a NO obligation appointment with us to discuss practice management or coaching click 

Jeff Thorsteinson https://calendly.com/jeffthorsteinson/30-minute-q-a-explore-apm 

Grant Hicks CIM https://my.timetrade.com/book/JMTNJ and let’s talk

Join our weekly Practice management Equity Builder Blog

https://www.advisorpracticemanagement.com/blog

Take our Marketing course

https://advisorpracticemanagement.thinkific.com/courses/marketing