For financial planning firms, RIAs and advisors with a broker-dealer
AI visibility for financial planning firms
When a household asks AI "who should we talk to about money?", does it say your firm's name?
AEOptim shows you what ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Google's AI tell people about your firm, word for word, including who they name instead. The Free AI Check puts one real client question to one AI tool in your city. About two minutes. No card, no call, and nothing is published under your name.
- Free AI Check$0
- Search & Ask Workup$450one time
- Answer Kit$350one time
- AEOptim Visibilityfrom $350a month
Before they call anyone, they ask AI
Many planning searches never start with "financial planner." They start with a sentence typed into ChatGPT or Gemini: we just had a baby, I'm changing jobs, we inherited money.
AI answers in sentences and names a firm or two inside them, with no page of ten links to scroll. So a firm on Google's first page can still go unnamed.
What decides it is mostly what AI can read about you: what your planning covers, who you serve, what it costs, how a household starts. When a firm's site doesn't say those things, AI leans on directories and national brands whose pages do.
The firms being named right now aren't always the strongest planners. They're the clearest ones.
The client's questions
Which life event sends a household to AI?
Pick one. These are example questions, not real clients.
Just marriedNewly married, two of everything
We just got married. How do we combine money without fighting about it, and do we need a planner?
the getting-started question
New babyA new baby and a bigger paycheck
New baby, bigger paycheck, zero plan. How do we start a real financial plan?
the what-do-you-do question
First houseThe offer that almost happened
How much house can we afford without wrecking the rest of the plan?
the strategy question
The raise with equityA promotion, and RSUs nobody explained
My new offer includes RSUs. What do we actually do with them, and what about the taxes?
the tax question
An inheritanceA windfall, and a fear of wasting it
We inherited money and don't want to blow it. Who helps with that, a planner or an advisor?
the comparison question
Job changeNew badge, old accounts
I'm changing jobs. What happens to the 401(k), the HSA, the insurance?
the process question
Each of these ends at the same question: "Who near us should we actually call?"
Check your own site
What AI needs to read before it names a planning firm
Hold your site up to this list. If your site doesn't say it, AI skips you or repeats someone else's version.
- Who you serve. Young physicians, business owners, retirees in your town. "Clients of all kinds" gives AI nothing to match.
- What your planning covers. Cash flow, investments, insurance, taxes, college, retirement. List the parts.
- How you're paid. Flat fee, hourly, a percentage of assets, commissions, or a mix, in the words your compliance approves.
- What it costs. Say a household asks AI, "Is a flat fee cheaper for us than paying a percentage of our assets?" If your fee page says what you charge and how it compares, fairly, with the other model, AI has a real answer. If it says "fees vary," AI repeats someone else's page.
- Your minimums. Say whether you have one. "Do I have enough to see a financial planner?" is a common quiet question most firm sites never answer.
- How a household starts. The first call, whether it's free, what happens next.
- Where you work. Your office, and the states you serve by video.
- Your custodian or broker-dealer, named.
- Your disclosures, linked. Your Form ADV brochure, or your BrokerCheck page.
- Credentials and fiduciary status, as your firm states them. CFP, fee-only, fiduciary: these are your firm's own claims. We use them only in wording your compliance has approved.
- The same facts everywhere. Your site, your Google Business Profile and any directory you're in should agree. When they don't, AI guesses.
Near me
A planner in Boston isn't the answer in St. Louis
Example markets
- Vienna, VA
- St. Louis, MO
- Boston, MA
- your market, measured
Ask the same question in two cities and different firms come back. Ask it twice in one city and the answer can shift, which is why AEOptim Visibility asks each question several times before calling a change real.
Client vocabulary
Words households ask AI to explain
Explain each one plainly and AI can answer from your page.
- Fee-only
- Paid by clients, never by commissions.
- Flat-fee planning
- A price a household can predict.
- Percentage-of-assets fee (AUM)
- A fee based on what you manage. If you offer both, explain them side by side.
- RSU
- Restricted stock units: a raise that comes with a tax question.
- Backdoor Roth
- A way high earners put money into a Roth IRA. They ask AI to explain it.
- 529 plan
- Saving for college. A common first question after a baby arrives.
- Robo-advisor
- "Robo or a human planner?" is a real question. Answer it plainly.
What a clear site does
How your website helps AI help them
When your site is clear, an AI assistant can:
Find you
for the question asked, in your city or your niche.
Repeat your facts correctly.
AI tools repeat what they find. If your fee page is out of date, that's what they repeat.
Tell a household whether they're a fit.
State your minimums and who you serve, and AI can answer that before anyone calls you.
Point them to your first call.
Today, no AI assistant has a booking deal with financial advisors. AI can send a household to your scheduling page or phone number, and they take it from there. A clear "how to start" page with a request form helps schedule that call.
Google says you don't need special files or code to show up in its AI answers. Clear pages and accurate listings do the work. If your site came from your broker-dealer's approved vendor, ask what you're allowed to change.
What we won't do
The lines we don't cross, for financial firms
Advisor copy is written to the SEC Marketing Rule: testimonials carry the required disclosures, and we don't publish performance claims without your compliance review.
- We don't write "best," "top-rated" or "expert" about your firm, and we don't add "fiduciary," "fee-only" or "CFP" where your compliance hasn't approved it.
- With a broker-dealer, FINRA Rule 2210 requires principal approval. A principal approves retail communications before they're used. We publish nothing ahead of that approval. FINRA's Regulatory Notice 26-14 proposes changing that review; it's a proposal, and the current rule applies. If your broker-dealer keeps an approved-vendor list, ask about us first.
- AEOptim never connects to your CRM or client files. It works from your public website and listings.
- A dated record you can hand to your CCO. On AEOptim Visibility, every draft waits in a review queue with a dated record of what was drafted, changed and approved.
- No CCO on staff? If you run a solo RIA, you're your own CCO or you use an outside compliance consultant. The same review queue and dated record work for either.
- Nothing goes live under your name until you approve it.
- We don't guarantee rankings or AI mentions. Nobody honestly can.
The path, with prices
What the check shows, and what comes next
$0
Free AI Check
One live AI engine (Perplexity), one client question, in your city. The answer as it came back, names included. About two minutes. No card.
$450, one time
Search & Ask Workup
Five AI engines: Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude. Plus live Google search data: what your market searches for and who ranks ahead of you. A fix list, in order, and the report is yours to hand to anyone.
$350, one time
Answer Kit
Your homepage and up to six service pages. Answers to the questions households ask, drafted only from what your pages already say. Facts about your services, not advice. You approve every answer.
from $350 a month
AEOptim Visibility
Your questions re-asked monthly on all five engines, several runs each, with a plain verdict on whether a change is real. Higher plans add an AI assistant that drafts work for your approval. Change or stop any month.
If you'd rather have it done for you: Web Everything.
Owner questions
FAQ
Are households really asking AI which planner to hire?
Some are. The free check shows what AI tells them in your city today, which says more about your market than a national survey.
Will AI say we're fee-only fiduciaries?
Only if your own site says so plainly, because AI repeats what it finds. Those are your firm's claims, so we use them only in wording your compliance has approved.
Can AI set up a first meeting with us?
Not through a booking deal; no AI assistant has one with financial advisors today. It can point a household to your scheduling page or phone number, and they set up the call from there.
Will our compliance officer, or our broker-dealer, sign off on this?
It's built to stay inside your SEC, state or FINRA rules, and you approve every word. Rules vary by state, so check with your own compliance reviewer. The work is mostly facts: who you serve, how you're paid, what you cover, how to start.
We paid for SEO for two years. How is this different?
SEO aimed at a page of links. AI writes one answer and names a firm or two, so ranking well isn't enough. Your past SEO still helps; this measures what AI says about you and shows what your pages are missing.
How long before AI names us?
Nobody can promise a date, and you should doubt anyone who does. We can show you what AI says today and, month by month, whether it changed. If your compliance review takes weeks, plan for that too.
What should I do first?
Run the Free AI Check with your city. It takes about two minutes. Decide from what you see.
A quiet note on scope: this page is general information about marketing visibility for planning firms. It is not investment, tax, or legal advice, and nothing on it promises rankings, citations, clients, or any specific result.
Start here
See what AI says when a household in your city asks.
Last updated September 26, 2026. AEOptim, a Web Everything company.