I spend a lot of time thinking about how AI is changing the way people discover and choose financial advisors. So I decided to stop theorizing and just ask. What follows is a real conversation with Claude, Anthropic’s AI assistant. The answers may surprise you.
Susan: If someone asked you to help them find a financial advisor near them, walk me through exactly what you would do.
Claude: The first thing I want to be honest about is what I can’t do. I don’t have a database of financial advisors. I can’t browse LinkedIn, FINRA BrokerCheck or any directory in real time. What I can do is run a web search, and that is exactly where I start. So if someone says, “Help me find a fee-only financial advisor in Boston who works with physicians,” I run that search, or something close to it. Google and Bing return results. LinkedIn profiles show up. Advisor websites show up. Directory listings from NAPFA, XYPN or SmartAsset show up. And then I read the text on those pages to figure out who actually matches what you asked for.
Susan: So LinkedIn does matter, just not the way most advisors think?
Claude: Exactly. Most advisors assume LinkedIn is a social platform where humans browse. For AI, it is a text document that gets indexed and surfaced in search results. I am not looking at your headshot. I am not counting your followers or your endorsements. I am reading your headline and your About section, usually just the first few sentences, and asking: does this person serve who the user described, in the place the user described? If your headline says “Financial Advisor at XYZ Wealth Management,” I have almost nothing to work with. If it says “Fee-Only CFP in Boston Specializing in Financial Planning for Physicians,” I can match you to the query almost instantly.
Susan: What else are you reading besides LinkedIn?
Claude: Your website is actually more important than LinkedIn, because it gives me more text to work with and more signals to evaluate. I am looking for a few things specifically. Do you clearly state where you are located and what regions you serve? “Serving clients in the Greater Boston area, including the South Shore and MetroWest” is infinitely more useful to me than a street address. Do you describe who you work with in specific, plain language? Not “individuals and families at all stages of life,” which tells me nothing. “Pre-retirees navigating the transition from corporate careers” or “tech professionals managing RSUs and stock options” tells me exactly who to recommend you to. And do you publish content? Blog posts, articles, newsletters. Every piece of content you publish is another indexed page I can read. An advisor who has written three articles on Social Security timing strategies for federal employees will surface when someone asks me about that topic, creating a recommendation opportunity.
Susan: What about reviews and testimonials? Do those factor in?
Claude: They factor in more than most advisors realize, and this is an area where I think a lot of advisors are leaving real opportunity on the table. When I am evaluating whether to recommend someone, third-party validation is one of the strongest trust signals I can find. A Google Business profile with dozens of detailed, specific client reviews tells me something an advisor’s own website copy never can: that real people have worked with this person and found it worth their time to say so publicly. I read that text. Phrases like “helped me navigate my divorce settlement” or “finally made sense of my equity compensation” are extraordinarily useful because they describe real problems this advisor has solved, in the words of real clients. The challenge I know advisors have faced is compliance. The SEC’s marketing rule changes opened the door to testimonials a few years ago, but many advisors remain hesitant, either because they are unsure what is permissible or because collecting and publishing reviews in a compliant way feels operationally complicated. That hesitation is understandable but costly. Tools like FMG’s Testimonial IQ exist specifically to solve this: they make it straightforward to request, collect and publish compliant testimonials, and to get them onto the platforms where AI and search engines can actually find them. The advisors who have embraced testimonials are building a compounding advantage. Every new review is more indexed text, more social proof and more signal to an AI system that this person is trusted and credible.
Susan: What about credentials? Does being a CFP or a fiduciary matter to you?
Claude: It matters enormously, but only if it is visible and legible. Fiduciary is one of the most frequently used terms when people search for an advisor, because it has become a consumer trust signal. If you are a fiduciary and that word does not appear in your LinkedIn headline, your website homepage and your About section, you are invisible for one of the most common searches I receive. Same with CFP. Spell it out somewhere: Certified Financial Planner. People search both the abbreviation and the full credential. You want to be findable either way.
Susan: If you had to give advisors three things to do this week based on this conversation, what would they be?
Claude: First, rewrite your LinkedIn headline. Right now. It should contain your credential, your location and your niche. All three. That is the sentence I am most likely to read. Second, audit the first paragraph of your About section on both LinkedIn and your website. Pretend you are a person who knows nothing about you typing a search query. Does that paragraph answer who you are, where you are, and who you help? If it takes more than three sentences to get there, it is too slow. Third, start building your review presence and publishing content in parallel. Even one article a month on a topic specific to your niche creates indexed content that expands your AI footprint. And if you have not started collecting client testimonials yet, start this week. FMG’s content tools and Testimonial IQ make both of these genuinely manageable, and together they are among the most durable investments you can make in your long-term discoverability.
Susan: Last question. Is any of this going to change as AI evolves?
Claude: The tactics will evolve. The underlying principle will not. AI systems, whether they are search-based like me or running on richer data models, are always trying to match a specific human need to the most credible, specific, relevant answer available. Advisors who are specific about who they serve, where they serve them, and what problems they solve will always have an advantage over advisors who speak in generalities. Reviews accelerate that advantage because they introduce voices other than your own into the equation. An AI system reading ten detailed client testimonials about your work with retiring teachers in suburban Chicago is going to have a lot of confidence recommending you the next time someone in that situation asks for help. The advisors who win in an AI-powered discovery environment are the same advisors who always win: the ones who are clearest about their value and can prove it.
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