Fee-Only Lead Swap.
An app idea for financial advisors.

What the search found

Who pays

Independent fee-only financial advisors and planners

The problem

Advisors say the paid lead services send them people who are not looking for a fiduciary. One advisor wrote that SmartAsset leads work for product salesmen, not fee-only fiduciaries, and called the whole exercise a waste of time. Meanwhile good inquiries go unanswered when an advisor is full or has a conflict.

The gap

AdvisorFinder is a public directory with subscription or per-lead pricing, not a peer swap between fee-only advisors. NAPFA membership gives access to lead services but not a place to hand off leads you cannot take. Nobody runs a private, fee-only only exchange where the lead is passed advisor to advisor.

Already out there

• AdvisorFinder advisorfinder.com

  Public marketplace and directory. Charges subscription or per-lead fees. Not a peer-to-peer swap and not restricted to fee-only advisors.

• SmartAsset lead generation advisorperspectives.com

  Paid lead service. An advisor quoted in the article says the leads are not people looking for a fee-only fiduciary.

People asking for it

• Advisor Perspectives on lead services advisorperspectives.com

  Advisor says SmartAsset leads suit product salesmen, not fee-only fiduciaries, and calls the lead services a waste of time.

• Advisors struggle with lead generation copilotai.com

  Many advisors struggle with lead generation because they rely on cold calling and random referrals.

The big assumption

Fee-only advisors will hand a real lead to a competitor instead of just letting it go, and will trust the board enough to post.

Test it this week

Post in two fee-only advisor communities asking whether they have turned away a qualified prospect in the last month and whether they would pass it to another fee-only advisor. Count replies and ask three of them to swap one lead manually over email.