What should a financial advisor put on an About page?
A financial adviser's About page should answer five questions plainly: who works at the firm, whom the firm helps, what those people actually do, how the firm is paid, and what a prospective client can expect next. Names, real photographs, relevant credentials, locations, and a link to registration records make the claims easier to check. A visitor should leave knowing whether a conversation makes sense, not just feeling that the firm sounds impressive.
Many adviser sites say the team is "passionate" and offers "personalized solutions." Those words could describe any firm. A useful About page is specific about the work. If you help owners plan before a sale, explain where your advice starts and ends. If your team has an unusual background, tell the reader why it matters to a decision they face. Do not turn a biography into a list of every award someone has ever received.
Key takeaways
- Put real people, roles, services, and boundaries before generic brand claims.
- Give readers enough detail to check credentials, registration, fees, and location.
- Explain fit and the first conversation without promising outcomes.
- Review all biographies and links when staff, services, or registrations change.
On this page
- Who is the page for?
- What belongs above the fold?
- How should team biographies work?
- What should the firm say about fit?
- What proof can a reader check?
- How should fees and process appear?
- What should you leave out?
- How can you test the page?
- What must compliance review?
- How does Spaces fit?
- The bottom line
- Frequently asked questions
Who is an advisory firm's About page for?
The page is for someone deciding whether the people behind the site are credible and relevant to their problem. A prospective client might have heard your name from a friend, searched for your specialty, or found an article. They do not yet know what the firm means by "financial planning" or who would work with them. Answer those questions before asking for a call.
It is also for someone checking what a recommendation said about you. An adviser who receives referrals cannot assume the personal introduction has done all the explaining. The person may compare the site with registration records or review the team's biographies before responding. Make the public story consistent wherever a reader checks it.
Kitces' website trust discussion treats credibility as a design and content problem, not a slogan. That is the right test here: does the reader see people and facts they can understand and check?
What belongs at the top of the page?
Start with a short, factual sentence about whom the firm serves and the work it does. Follow it with the lead adviser or team's real names, roles, and a clear route to read more. A group photograph can help if it is current and shows the people a client would actually meet. A generic image of a city skyline is not a substitute for the team.
A sample structure is: "We help employees with stock compensation plan around vesting, concentrated holdings, and major career changes. Our advisers coordinate financial planning and investment advice; tax returns and legal documents remain with your tax and legal professionals." This is only an example of how to name scope, not a claim any particular firm should copy. Change it to the work you actually do.
Do not put a wall of awards before the basic facts. A visitor should not need to scroll past slogans to learn where the firm is, whether it serves them remotely, and how to contact it. Clear headings and text labels matter as much as a polished layout, especially on a phone.
How should team biographies work?
Give each person a real name, role, current photograph, relevant experience, and the part of the client relationship they handle. Explain credentials in ordinary language and link to the relevant issuer or regulatory record when useful. If a paraplanner prepares analyses but does not give regulated advice, do not imply that they do. A firm with several advisers should help readers understand whom they will actually meet.
Personal details can humanize a person when they are true and freely shared, but they should not replace the professional answer. "I like hiking" tells a reader little about whether you can handle a business sale. A few sentences about why you do this work and what a client can ask you make a stronger introduction than a long chronology of prior jobs.
If somebody has left the firm, remove or update their biography promptly. If a title or credential has changed, confirm the current status before updating the page. A stale team page can make an otherwise sound firm look careless. Assign one person to check it whenever staffing changes, and review it periodically even when no changes are expected.
What should the firm say about client fit?
State the kinds of decisions you help clients make, not only the job titles or wealth bands you hope to attract. A firm that serves business owners could explain whether its work begins before a sale, after a liquidity event, or in ongoing investment management. Those are different needs. If it has a minimum fee or asset requirement, give the reader enough information to decide whether an inquiry is worth both parties' time.
Also name a boundary. If you do not provide tax filing, estate legal work, or insurance sales, say so if readers might reasonably assume you do. Explain how you coordinate with other professionals without implying that a referral makes you responsible for their work. A clear non-fit statement can spare the visitor an awkward meeting and help the right person recognize the firm.
Be careful with the word "specialist." If the page claims special expertise, a reasonable reader should find evidence of relevant training, service experience, or a clearly defined scope. Do not use the same template for every niche page and swap only the occupation. A specific sentence about a real decision is better than a broad claim about serving "high-net-worth families."
Want to compare your public description with what AI answers show? Request the free AI-search readiness check. A completed review can show examples at the time of the check, not promise placement.
What proof can a reader check?
Link to the firm's and advisers' public registration records where appropriate. Investor.gov explains how to use IAPD to look up investment advisers and their filings. Make the business name, location, and roles consistent with the current records. A visitor should not have to guess whether two similarly named firms are the same one.
Explain credentials accurately, including which person holds them. Do not present a firm-level badge as if every team member has the same qualification. If you publish an award, state who granted it, when, and any relevant selection or payment details after compliance review. A testimonial, endorsement, or impressive-sounding performance claim needs its own review, not a quick paste into a biography.
A photo and a registration link do different jobs. The photo helps readers recognize the person; the filing helps them check professional information. Neither alone proves whether the relationship will be a good fit. Keep both current and let the reader ask questions before any engagement.
How should fees and process appear?
The About page need not reproduce the whole fee schedule, but it should make the model easy to find. Link to a plain fees page and explain whether the firm charges for planning, investment management, hourly advice, or some combination. If the exact cost depends on scope, say what determines it rather than hiding the question until a sales call. Keep this consistent with the firm's disclosure documents.
Show the first steps of working together: an initial inquiry, a fit call, what information the firm asks for, and when a proposal or agreement comes into play. Kitces' process-page discussion is useful here: people deciding whether to contact an adviser want to know what happens after they reach out. The full detail can live on a separate process page; the About page should lead there.
Do not imply that a short call is financial advice if it is only a fit conversation. Set expectations about who will respond and what the prospect should or should not send before a secure intake process exists. A sensible next step might be "Tell us what decision you are facing," not "Upload your statements" into a general contact form.
What should you leave out?
Leave out vague superlatives, unverified rankings, stale headshots, and a list of services the firm does not provide. "Trusted by families everywhere" cannot tell a reader whether the firm is registered where they live. "Decades of combined experience" can conceal that the person they will work with is new. Say the relevant facts directly.
Do not publish a client story merely because a name has been removed. A detailed occupation, city, and unusual life event may identify the person anyway. Avoid copied text that reads as if every adviser has the same history. And avoid a one-page biography that makes the founder sound like the only person in a team if somebody else handles the daily client work.
There is also a design limit. More motion, badges, and pop-ups can make the core facts harder to find. Test the page on a phone and with basic accessibility checks: meaningful headings, readable contrast, descriptive image text, and a contact path that does not depend on a hover interaction.
How can you test the About page?
Give the page to someone unfamiliar with the firm and ask them to answer: who would work with me, what does the firm help with, where can I check its credentials, how does it charge, and what happens if I contact it? Do not coach them. Their confusion is evidence that a sentence or link needs work. Five minutes of this test can reveal more than another round of adjectives.
Then check the public facts. Open the registration records and the pages you link. Verify names, titles, locations, fees, and the next-step form. On a small screen, look for a missing biography, a broken button, or a banner hiding the contact information. Record when you checked so an editor knows what to revisit after a staff change.
Traffic data can tell you that people visit an About page, but not whether it persuaded the right people. Distinguish visits, inquiries, qualified conversations, meetings, and signed clients. If inquiries cite the page, ask what helped. Do not claim the page caused a client to sign because they saw it before a meeting.
What must compliance review?
A financial adviser About page is advertising, not a private résumé. SEC-registered advisers should review the SEC investment adviser marketing rule guide for misleading or unsubstantiated claims and for requirements that may apply to testimonials, endorsements, and third-party ratings. State-registered firms should check their own rules. This article is not legal advice.
Keep a record of the published version and the source for credentials, awards, and specific service claims. Have the compliance reviewer check that a photo, quote, or case study has proper permission. A truthful sentence can still mislead if it omits that only one team member provides a service or that a result is not typical. Review what a reasonable prospective client would take from the whole page.
How does Spaces fit?
Spaces is the company building AI agents for financial advisers; Valora is its consumer-facing brand for AEO and GEO. Spaces is testing a more measurable client-acquisition approach across LinkedIn outreach and AI-search visibility. A completed readiness review can show examples of how your firm appears in AI answers at the time of the check. We are still validating the path from visibility and outreach to qualified introductions; ask us how the founding advisor program is structured. The review does not guarantee an inquiry or a search position.
An accurate About page gives a person, and any system summarizing public information, specific facts to check. It does not force an AI service to recommend the firm. Start with the names, work, registration, and service boundaries you control, then compare what a completed review finds with those facts.
The bottom line
Make it easy for a stranger to understand the people behind the firm and to check what they claim. Put real roles, client decisions, boundaries, fees, and a next step in plain view. If a sentence would fit every adviser in town, replace it with a fact about yours.
Frequently asked questions
1. Should every adviser have a separate bio?
Usually, yes, if each person has a client-facing role. A short, current bio helps a reader understand who would work with them and what each person does. Do not imply that every team member gives regulated advice if that is not true.
2. Should an About page list fees?
It should make the fee model and a fuller fee explanation easy to find. If cost varies by service, say what determines it and link to current disclosures. Do not imply that an initial fit call is a free planning engagement if it is not.
3. Can a firm use testimonials on its About page?
Potentially, but not as an unreviewed design element. The applicable marketing rules may require disclosures, oversight, and records, and the client's privacy matters. Have compliance review the exact quote, context, and any compensation before publishing it.
Ready to compare the public facts? Request a check of whether AI can find your firm. It is a request form, not an instant result.
