Meet Mitch and Karl — financial advisory professionals with practices in the same geographic region, targeting similar client demographics with comparable fee structures.
Mitch has been working with clients for over 30 years and has an alphabet soup of industry certifications and designations trailing his name. Karl is a relative newcomer on the scene, having recently reached his fifth year in practice. He holds a CFP and CIMA designation and is working towards a CFA.
Even after all these years, Mitch still struggles to attract new business and watches clients leave monthly for competitors who seem to appear out of nowhere. Meanwhile, Karl has been recognized by Forbes and Barron’s as one of the top advisors in the region, has gathered significant assets, and maintains a waiting list for new clients.
The difference between them isn’t luck, location, or even superior investment performance. Karl became known throughout the region as “the retirement income specialist for high-earning tech executives,” while Mitch remained “a financial advisor with good credentials.”
This isn’t a story about one person’s success and another’s failure. It’s about the authority gap that’s quietly reshaping our entire industry, and why the length of time we’ve spent in the industry and the credentials we worked so hard to earn are no longer enough to build thriving practices.
When Credentials Became Commodities
Here’s an uncomfortable truth: your CFP/CFA/CIMA/etc. designation has become a commodity.
According to CFP Board data, over 100,000 professionals now hold the designation, a 10% increase in the past three years, with no signs of slowing. Add in the thousands of CFAs, CIMAs, ChFCs, and other credentialed professionals, and you’ve got a market where letters after your name have transformed from differentiators into minimum requirements.
Think about it from a prospective client’s perspective. When they’re researching financial professionals, the credentials suggest you can do the job, but they don’t prove you’re the right person for their specific needs.
I recently spoke with a business owner who was choosing between three advisors. “I knew they were all qualified,” she told me. “They wouldn’t be sitting across from me if they weren’t. But I’d been reading one advisor’s insights about tax strategies for business owners for months. The other two might have been experts too, but how would I know?”
This is the authority gap in action. All three advisors possessed the knowledge to help her. Only one had demonstrated that expertise in a way she could see and trust.
The New Client Journey
The way people choose financial professionals has undergone a fundamental change. The old process looked like this: get referred, meet with the advisor, verify credentials, and hire if comfortable.
Today’s process is more like this: research online, consume content, shortlist based on demonstrated expertise, then meet to confirm the connection.
Your potential clients are no longer asking, “Are you qualified?” They’re asking, “Are you the right expert for my situation?” And they’re answering that question before they ever call your office.
This shift explains why some of the most successful advisors you know aren’t necessarily the most longstanding or credentialed. They’re the ones who’ve learned to showcase their expertise.
Expertise Without Audience Equals Impact Without Influence
There’s a massive difference between being an expert and being known as one.
You might be the most knowledgeable professional in your market when it comes to retirement income planning, but if no one outside your current client base knows it, that expertise can’t attract new clients.
Investment and advisory professionals building authority understand something crucial: your expertise multiplies in value when others can access, understand, and share it. An insight shared with one client impacts one family. The same insight, published thoughtfully, can influence thousands and establish you as the go-to authority in that niche.
Think about the thought leaders who come to mind when you think of retirement planning, tax strategy, or market analysis. Are they the most credentialed, or are they the ones whose insights you’ve read, heard, or seen shared by others?
The New Success Formula
The formula for success in financial services has evolved:
Old Formula: Credentials + Time in Practice + Client Service = Success
New Formula: Credentials + Communication + Community = Authority
Future Formula: Authority + Authenticity + Amplification = Influence
Notice that credentials remain important, but they’re now the entry fee, not the winning ticket.
Professionals thriving in today’s market have learned that competence combined with effective communication equals contemporary authority. They understand that in a world where information is abundant, interpretation and insight become invaluable.
Bridging the Authority Gap to Become a Recognized Thought Leader
This isn’t about abandoning professional standards or becoming a social media influencer. It’s about ensuring your expertise reaches the people who need it most.
When you solve problems publicly through content and communication, you transition from service provider to trusted authority. You become a thought leader that potential clients seek out rather than someone they stumble upon.
The path forward involves three key shifts:
- Identify your unique expertise intersection: what you know that most others don’t, or how you approach common problems differently.
- Communicate that expertise consistently through whatever medium feels most natural to you. This might be writing, speaking, video content, or podcasting.
- Build communities around your insights. These are the people who read your content, attend your presentations, and eventually become clients and referral sources.
Karl didn’t stumble into his success. He deliberately positioned himself as the go-to retirement income expert for tech executives. He wrote about their unique challenges, spoke at industry events, and became the advisor other professionals referred to when tech execs needed specialized guidance on issues like stock-based compensation.
Mitch has roughly the same knowledge as Karl does. He hasn’t found a way to demonstrate it beyond individual client meetings.
Your Next Step
Here’s a simple exercise that will reveal your own authority gap: Google your name along with your area of expertise. Then search for your specialty plus your city.
What did you find? If the answer is “not much,” you’ve identified exactly where to focus your energy.
The question isn’t whether you have valuable expertise; the question is whether the market recognizes that expertise and seeks you out for it.
The Choice Ahead
We’re at an inflection point. With the advancement of social media and the proliferation of generic content generated by AI, those who rely solely on credentials and traditional marketing will find themselves competing in an increasingly crowded field, where price becomes the primary differentiator. As fee and margin compression have the industry on a race to zero, this trend is likely to persist.
Those professionals who adapt and can communicate their unique expertise authentically will be well-positioned to attract their ideal clients and create a lasting impact.
In a world where credentials are common, authority is rare. The authority gap exists in every market, waiting for advisors bold enough to bridge it.
The only question left is: which side of the gap will you choose?
Ready to bridge your authority gap and build a thought leadership brand? Let’s talk.