It’s time to elevate the advisor role

By Jim Lyons | July 4, 2025 | Last updated on July 2, 2025
3 min read
Business woman traveling in a private jet
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Advisor firms face a pressing dual imperative: increase advisor productivity and enhance client trust. Meanwhile, the traditional business model — anchored in compliance-heavy planning, reactive service and product-led conversations — is delivering unsatisfying client experiences. The two realities cannot coexist.

There’s reason for optimism though. Successful financial advisors are shifting the advisor-client relationship away from transactional sales planning, to one that elevates the advisor from a product intermediary or financial planner to a true guide — one who sees the full arc of a client’s life, including the uncertainty, transitions and aspirations that define it.

This evolution isn’t only about doing what’s right for clients, it’s about unlocking sustainable growth at the practice, firm and industry levels.

Today’s average advisor is overwhelmed. She balances compliance, administrative reviews, know-your-client requirements, planning software inputs and periodic product discussions. These tasks consume her time but generate little forward movement in her relationship with clients.

Instead of leading with product reviews or investment strategies, advisors should lead with insight and context — speaking to clients about life stages, life events and long-range outcomes. This front-end guidance makes downstream planning conversations more relevant and trusted.

The approach makes advisors better able to scale. They deliver deeper value in fewer meetings, spend less time chasing clients and more time engaged in meaningful work that drives revenue per relationship.

Rather than checking in for annual reviews — successful advisors are proactively guiding clients through the unpredictability of real life.

The trust dividend

Clients have grown wary of sales-first interactions and fatigued by complex planning tools that feel like barriers instead of bridges. The industry is increasingly aware of this consumer trust gap. In an era of AI-enabled self-education, clients want advisors who understand them, not just their accounts.

They want your help understanding what’s happening in the world and how it could affect them. They’re looking for advisors who initiate conversations rather than respond to questions. Those able to make this shift win clients who are more engaged, less skeptical and more willing to act.

Trust isn’t built by the products you recommend or the plans you produce. It’s earned by your presence, relevance and leadership.

As more advisors adopt this approach, they’ll begin to congregate within firms that have earned a reputation for this advanced level of service. High-performing advisors want to do meaningful work. Firms that enable proactive, client-centric guidance will become magnets for top talent.

The same applies to retention. Advisors who feel they’re making a real impact, with the tools and frameworks to guide clients through all of life’s transitions, are less likely to leave their firm. Their client relationships are more durable, and their careers more satisfying.

Firm leaders take note. This productivity-retention flywheel has the potential to deliver considerable growth.

The urgency for this transformation is real. The financial services industry is aging. Clients are more informed, more hesitant and more diverse in their goals. The environment is marked by change — demographic, technological and regulatory. None of these ideas are new, but in the current context, they’ve become more necessary.

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Jim Lyons

Jim Lyons is the founder of Lyonscraft Consulting Inc., a firm focused on evolving financial advisory models from transactional sales to proactive guidance. He has worked with over 30,000 advisors across Canada, helping firms transform client relationships for the future.