For retirement planning firms, RIAs and advisors with a broker-dealer
AI visibility for retirement planning firms
When someone five years from retirement asks AI "who near us should we trust with the 401(k) rollover?", does it say your firm's name?
AEOptim lays out what ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Google's AI tell a pre-retiree about your firm, in their own words, and which planners they name instead of you. The Free AI Check takes one question a client would ask to one AI tool, asked from your city. About two minutes. No card, no sales call, and we post nothing in your name.
- Free AI Check$0
- Search & Ask Workup$450one time
- Answer Kit$350one time
- AEOptim Visibilityfrom $350a month
The referral now gets checked
Retirement questions get rehearsed in private before anyone says them out loud. Can we afford to stop? What happens to the old 401(k)? Some of that rehearsal now happens in a chat window.
The answer is a few sentences that name a firm or two; no one scrolls ten links. A planner on page one of Google can be absent from those sentences.
Referrals still matter. But the name a friend or a CPA passes along can get typed into ChatGPT before anyone calls. If AI has nothing clear to say about you, or names a firm two towns over, that referral may never become a first meeting.
Whether you're in that answer turns mostly on what AI can read about you: who you serve, how you're paid, how an income plan gets built, and how a household starts.
The client's questions
Ten years out. Five years out. One year out.
Set the dial where your next client is standing. We wrote these questions as illustrations; they aren't from real households.
10 years outA decade to go
How much do we actually need to retire?
Are we on track, or kidding ourselves?
What does a retirement planner do, and is one worth paying for?
the service question · the comparison question
5 years outFive years to go
Should I take Social Security at 62 or wait until 70?
Is the 4 percent rule still safe?
I changed jobs at 59. What should happen to the old 401(k)?
the strategy questions · the life event question
1 year outThe final year
What will required withdrawals do to our taxes once the paychecks stop?
How do I check whether an advisor is a fiduciary?
Who's a fee-only retirement planner near us for someone retiring next spring?
fees and fiduciary · the local shortlist
Check your own site
What AI needs to read before it names a retirement firm
Open your site next to this list. When a point is missing, AI takes the answer from a national brand's retirement article, or from a planner whose site covers it.
- Who you serve, and when. Pre-retirees, people facing a buyout, a surviving spouse, business owners selling. Name the moments that bring people to you, because that's how the questions arrive.
- The planning itself. A written income plan, a withdrawal order, Social Security timing, rollovers, taxes in retirement, and someone watching it after the paychecks stop. Say it concretely.
- How you're paid. A flat fee, an asset-based fee, commissions, or some combination, described as compliance approves. If you sell annuities or insurance, say so, and say how you're paid on them.
- What it costs, and your minimum. "Do I have enough to see a retirement planner?" is a quiet question most firm sites never answer.
- What working with you is like. The first meeting, what to bring, how the plan gets built, how often you meet once it's running.
- Your office, and who you see remotely. Many retirees want a desk to sit across from; say where it is, and which states you cover by video.
- The custodian or broker-dealer holding the rollover, by name, with your ADV brochure or BrokerCheck page one click away.
- Fee-only, fiduciary, CFP: approved wording only. These are your firm's own claims, so they appear exactly as compliance has cleared them.
- Your profiles in agreement. Your site, Google Business Profile, and NAPFA or CFP Board profile should list the same services and fees. Mismatches leave AI guessing.
Near me
Ask in Scottsdale. Ask in Boston. Ask in Columbus.
Scottsdale, AZ
many retirees, many firms · Which firms does AI name when a retiree here asks?
Boston, MA
long-established firms · Does AI ever name a firm that isn't decades old?
Columbus, OH
a mid-size market · Do the firms here explain their fees where AI can read them?
Ask the same question in three cities and three different short lists come back. Even one city can give two short lists an hour apart. AEOptim Visibility asks every question several times, so a one-off shuffle isn't reported as a change.
Cards (row label "Example markets, not measurements"):
Client vocabulary
Words pre-retirees ask AI to explain
Pre-retirees type these into a chat window long before a first meeting. Define them on your site and AI can quote your definition.
- 401(k) rollover
- The job change or retirement date that puts a packet in someone's hand.
- Social Security timing
- 62, 67 or 70. The question people rehearse most.
- Safe withdrawal rate
- How much can come out each year without the money running out. People ask AI whether the 4 percent rule still holds.
- Sequence-of-returns risk
- Why a bad market in the first year of retirement hurts more than one ten years in.
- RMD
- Required minimum distributions, and the tax bill they bring in your seventies.
- Roth conversion
- Paying tax now to skip it later. People ask AI whether it's worth it.
- Pension buyout
- A lump sum or monthly checks. High stakes, and one chance to choose.
- AUM fee vs. flat fee
- A percentage of assets, or a set price. Prospects ask AI to weigh one against the other.
- Robo-advisor
- The cheap default in every comparison. "Robo or human for retirement?" is a real query.
What a clear site does
How your website helps AI help them
With a plain site to read, a pre-retiree's assistant can:
Find you
for the question asked, in your town or your niche.
Quote you accurately.
It relays your pages. A services list that still leaves out income planning means the assistant leaves it out too.
Tell a household where it stands with you.
State your minimum, who you serve, and where on the runway you like to meet people, and AI can answer that before anyone calls.
Steer them to your first meeting.
No AI assistant has a booking deal with financial advisors today. It can offer your scheduling page or number, and the couple calls. A page that says what to bring (statements, the Social Security estimate) with a request form makes the call easier.
Google has said that no special files or code are needed for its AI answers. What works is plain pages and accurate listings. If your broker-dealer's approved vendor built your site, first ask which pages you're allowed to change.
What we won't do
The lines we don't cross, for retirement firms
Retirement copy we draft follows the SEC Marketing Rule. Any client testimonial carries the disclosures the rule requires, and a performance claim waits for compliance before it's published.
- We leave out "best," "top-rated" and "expert," and we use "fiduciary," "fee-only" or "CFP" only where compliance approved them.
- No projections or promised income. We don't write "never run out of money," a withdrawal rate presented as safe for everyone, or any hypothetical return unless your compliance has reviewed it.
- Affiliated with a broker-dealer? FINRA Rule 2210 means a principal approves each retail communication before it's used, and our pages don't move until then. FINRA's Regulatory Notice 26-14 would alter that review, but it's still a proposal and today's rule governs. If there's an approved-vendor list at your broker-dealer, check it first.
- Annuity and insurance pages go through their own review. If you sell them, those pages follow whatever review your broker-dealer or carrier requires, and we wait for it.
- Account statements stay with you. AEOptim never connects to your CRM, planning software or client files. Its only sources are your public site and listings.
- A record your CCO can file. Each draft in AEOptim Visibility waits in a review queue, with dates for drafting, changes and approval.
- A page goes live under your name only after you approve it.
- Rankings and AI mentions can't honestly be promised, so we don't promise them.
The path, with prices
What the check shows, and what comes next
A check comes back one of three ways: AI names your firm, AI describes you wrong (old services, no fee language, a generic brokerage summary), or AI names someone else. Sometimes the answer is that nothing needs fixing.
$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 pre-retirees 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
Do pre-retirees really ask AI about retirement advisors?
Some do, and they rarely mention it. A national survey won't tell you about your city; the free check shows the answer a pre-retiree there gets today.
Will AI tell prospects we're fee-only and a fiduciary?
If your site states it clearly, AI can pass it on; it won't invent it. Because those are claims your firm makes, the wording is whatever your compliance approved.
Can an AI assistant put a couple on our calendar?
Not through a booking deal. None has one with financial advisors today. It can give them your number or scheduling page, and they call you.
Will compliance, or our broker-dealer, let this through?
Everything is drafted for SEC, state and FINRA rules, and you approve every line. Since state rules vary, your compliance reviewer has the final say. The drafts are mostly facts: who you plan for, how you charge, what the income plan covers, how a first meeting goes.
We already rank on Google and have a NAPFA profile. Is this different?
It's related. Your rankings and directory profiles still feed what AI reads, so that work isn't wasted. But AI writes one answer with a firm or two in it, and plenty of firms on page one never appear there. The free check shows which side you're on.
When will pre-retirees start hearing our name from AI?
Nobody can put an honest date on it. We show today's answer, then a monthly reading of whether it changed. Factor in the weeks your compliance review may take.
How do we get started?
Give the Free AI Check your city. Two minutes, and you'll know whether there's anything to fix.
This page is informational only and is not investment, tax, or legal advice. AEOptim shows how AI engines represent your firm, and helps you improve it. It does not guarantee rankings, citations, client growth, or any specific outcome.
Start here
See what AI says when a pre-retiree in your city asks.
If you'd like to ask first, we're at 313-395-8171 and human@aeoptim.com.
Last updated September 26, 2026. AEOptim, a Web Everything company.