Why Most Advisor Marketing Content Was Built for Compliance, Not for the Advisor

Charlie Van Derven of Social Advisors on why canned, compliance-first content keeps advisors forgettable in one of America's least trusted industries, and the four-step process that still works.

Your firm approves the content. Compliance signs off. And hundreds of thousands of other advisors are posting something that looks almost exactly like yours. According to Charlie Van Derven, that isn't an accident. It's what the system was designed to produce.

Charlie is President of Social Advisors, the content marketing firm he started in 2013 and host of the RIA Collective podcast. His path there runs from snowboard sales rep in Duluth, Minnesota, to building websites for Morgan Stanley and Smith Barney branches, to a stint at FMG Suite, to starting Social Advisors from his master bedroom. He joins host Mike Langford on this episode of The Modern Financial Advisor Podcast to explain why so much of the marketing content built for advisors was designed to keep overhead down in the compliance department, why authenticity matters more as AI makes content easier to produce, and why business development still comes down to four steps. He closes with a story from his days pitching websites to those branches: the corner office guy.

Connect with Charlie Van Derven on LinkedIn and learn more about Social Advisors

What You'll Learn in This Episode

• Why Charlie says much of the content built for advisors was designed for compliance departments, and why that is "terrible for the advisor"

• Why canned content keeps advisors forgettable in an industry that, by Charlie's account of a 2023 Gallup poll, ranks among the least trusted in the U.S.

• Why authenticity matters more as AI makes content easier to create, plus Charlie's Descript avatar mishap

• The four steps of business development that haven't changed: know your audience, get in front of lots of people, nurture, and convert

• Why your email list is an asset you own while your LinkedIn followers are "rented people"

• How guest-driven webinars and small in-person events turn a large list into real conversations

• What the corner office guys in Morgan Stanley and Smith Barney branches were doing while everyone else was "so busy" at their desks

Why This Matters for Financial Advisors Right Now

Why is so much advisor marketing content built for compliance instead of the advisor?

Because the path of least friction at a broker-dealer runs through the compliance department. Charlie spent time in national sales at FMG Suite approaching broker-dealers, and says the conversation started with compliance, not sales and marketing. Ask a firm with 2,000 advisors what happens when 30% of them want to post their own content, and the review overhead becomes the problem. A pre-approved content library solves it. Charlie is quick to say that model works for some advisors, but with roughly 400,000 practicing advisors in the country (his estimate) all sharing the same voice, the result is great for compliance, FINRA, and the SEC, and terrible for the advisor.

Why does canned content hurt trust in an industry that already struggles with it?

Because it looks like everyone else's. Charlie cites a 2023 Gallup poll that, as he recalls it, ranks the industry as the fourth least trusted in the U.S., with advertisers one spot ahead of it at number three. His point is that posting a bunch of canned material without your actual voice isn't the way to change that perception. Mike adds the product-side reality: every advisor and firm has access to the same stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and insurance products at about the same price, so clients are buying the advisor. Charlie also notes that syndicated content doesn't live on your own website, which means it isn't really your content.

How should advisors use AI for content without losing authenticity?

Use it mostly for ideation, and keep your own voice on the final product. Charlie says his team uses AI for content creation because content is becoming commoditized and AI only accelerates that. Five years ago humans wrote every article and social post. That is no longer the world. But he argues authenticity becomes more important, not less, in an industry where trust is already low. His own experiment with a custom Descript avatar made the point: it read his script, and his wife said it gave her nightmares. Mike's warning is that if every advisor hands the work to AI, we end up with AI promoting to AI.

What are the four steps of business development?

Charlie says the tools and methodology have changed, but the process hasn't:

1. Audience. Know who you serve. His advice is to be a big fish in a small pond, because a defined audience tells you the pain points, the messaging, and where to show up.

2. Reach. Get in front of as many people as possible with a lead magnet, a small ad budget, associations, and local networking events. He uses the acronym OPN, other people's networks, which he credits to Tom Poland.

3. Nurture. Stay present with a methodology and tell your own story. With a CRM, he says, you can nurture 10,000 people as easily as 10.

4. Convert. Use events, and especially webinars with a guest who serves the same audience, to find who is finally ready for a conversation.

Why should advisors own their email list instead of relying on LinkedIn?

Because you own the list, and you rent everything else. Charlie has a LinkedIn network of 11,000 to 12,000 people and says only about 5% of a network typically sees a post, maybe 10% if the content is good. A qualified email list reaches nearly everyone with the subject line, and well-run campaigns can see open rates of 30% to 50%. His target is adding 50 to 100 emails a month. Followers on LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube are rented space, and the platforms control the network. Mike points to the exodus from X as proof that audiences move.

How do webinars and small events help advisors convert prospects?

They show you who is ready to talk. Charlie's example: an advisor with an email list of 3,000 who invites it to a webinar and gets 50 registrations and 18 attendees now has 18 real prospects to follow up with. He prefers bringing in a guest who serves the same audience, because the guest markets the webinar to their list and you return the favor. Mike's version for in-person events is to host something simple at a restaurant or bar during a slow afternoon, line up speakers, and let the room come to you. Charlie says his clients are running go-kart events, golf simulator nights, and wine tastings, and that showing up beside you at an event works as an endorsement.

What did the corner office guys know that everyone else missed?

That the business is trust and relationships, not time spent at a desk. In the early 2000s Charlie drove a route of Morgan Stanley and Smith Barney branches pitching websites. Each branch had four prized corner offices: the branch manager and the top three producers. Everyone else was "so busy" and always the last one out, and said the corner office guys were never around. Charlie's takeaway was that they were never there because they were golfing with their best client, having coffee with an association's executive director, meeting a center of influence, or at a lunch meeting. He tells the story today to advisors who are busy at their desks and on LinkedIn, and points to a 70-year-old advisor who went fully digital on a consultant's advice, bought leads, and added no new clients for two years.

"That's great for compliance. That's great for FINRA. It's great for the SEC. It's terrible for the advisor."

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Social Advisors — Charlie's content marketing firm for financial advisors

• RIA Collective — Charlie's podcast, featuring advisors who made the move to independence

• Charlie Van Derven on LinkedIn — where Charlie is active and coaches advisors on content

Related Episodes

• Unlocking Growth for Financial Advisors: The Power of Seminars, with Greg Bogich of AcquireUp — Charlie's fourth step is converting through events and webinars. Greg goes deeper on seminar marketing and what makes an event pay off.

• Why Writing a Short Book Can Help Financial Advisors Win New Clients, with Paul McManus of More Clients More Fun — Charlie says advisors need to tell their own story instead of the one generalized across the industry. Paul shows how a short book can be one way to do it.

• Getting Your Financial Business Featured in the Media, with Allie Zendrian of AtoZ Communications — Charlie's OPN idea is getting in front of other people's networks. Earned media is another way to borrow an audience and credibility.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does so much financial advisor marketing content look the same?

According to Charlie Van Derven, much of it was built to keep overhead down in the compliance department. Pre-approved libraries make review easier for broker-dealers, but they give every advisor the same voice, which Charlie says is terrible for the advisor.

What does OPN mean in advisor marketing?

OPN stands for other people's networks. Charlie, who credits the acronym to Tom Poland, recommends getting in front of the associations, publications, conferences, and communities that already serve your target audience.

How many people see a financial advisor's LinkedIn post?

Charlie says about 5% of a network typically sees a post, and perhaps 10% if the content is good, unless a post goes viral. He recommends building an email list because you own it and can reach nearly everyone on it.

What are the four steps of business development for financial advisors?

Charlie's four steps are to identify your audience, get in front of as many of them as possible, nurture them over time, and convert them, often through webinars or events.

Should financial advisors buy leads?

Charlie advised one quiet, relationship-driven advisor against it. The stat he hears is that about 4% of purchased leads close, and each lead is sold to three or four advisors, so the strongest closer takes most of them.

Do financial advisors still need in-person meetings?

Yes, according to Charlie. Digital tools are table stakes, but he says the business is still trust and relationship, which means being present in your community, meeting clients outside the office, and hosting small events.

Stop Being a Source. Start Being a Resource: Featuring Ben Lewis from The Financial Planning Association

How Financial Advisors Can Build a Media Profile That Drives Real Business in the Age of AI

Financial advisors are facing a paradox. AI is flooding every journalist's inbox with generated press releases, mass-blasted pitches, and "thought leadership" content that reads like it was assembled by a committee of robots. And yet, the advisors who understand what's actually happening right now have a bigger media opportunity than at any point in the last two decades.

That's the core argument Ben Lewis makes in Episode 150 of the Modern Financial Advisor Podcast — and he's one of the few people in the financial services industry uniquely qualified to make it.

Ben is the Chief Communications and Development Officer at the Financial Planning Association (FPA), the architect of FPA MediaSource, and the author of Perfecting The Pitch: Creating Publicity Through Media Rapport. He's spent nearly 25 years at the crossroads of financial services and media — running his own PR firm, training CFP® professionals how to communicate with journalists, and building a platform that has now received over 10,000 journalist inquiries with a 64.5% repeat journalist rate.

If you've ever wondered how to get quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Kiplinger, CNBC, or USA Today — this episode is your roadmap.

Connect with Ben Lewis on LinkedIn

Download Ben's whitepaper: The Human Edge: Why Relationship-Driven PR Still Wins in the Age of AI

What You'll Learn in This Episode

• Why the explosion of AI-generated content is actually the best opportunity for authentic financial advisors to stand out

• The critical difference between being a source and being a resource — and how to move from one to the other

• How to use your client question notebook to build a steady pipeline of media pitches

• How to recognize when a single question becomes a trend — and why that changes everything for journalists

• How FPA MediaSource works and what advisors who use it well are actually doing differently

• Why compliance culture is training advisors to say nothing worth quoting

• The handwritten thank-you note almost no one sends anymore — and why it works

Why This Matters for Financial Advisors Right Now

Here's a question worth sitting with: if a prospective client Googled your name today — or typed it into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini — what would they find?

For most financial advisors, the honest answer is: not much. Maybe a bio page on their firm's website. A LinkedIn profile. If they're lucky, a few social posts.

Now imagine what they'd find if you'd been quoted in a New York Times personal finance story. Or featured in a Kiplinger piece on retirement planning. Or cited in a CNBC segment about market volatility.

That's the difference between being someone a prospect hears about and being someone a prospect trusts before they've ever met you.

Ben Lewis has a phrase for this: earned media vs. advertising. When a journalist quotes you, they're vouching for you. An independent professional with no financial relationship to you, no obligation to do you any favors, looked at what you had to say and decided it was worth sharing with their audience. As Ben puts it: "That stands out way more than spending a whole bunch of money on advertising."

The challenge most advisors face isn't that they lack expertise. It's that they've never been shown how the media relationship actually works. And in 2025, with AI generating a sea of sameness in every journalist's inbox, the advisors who show up as genuine, knowledgeable humans have a window of opportunity that won't stay open forever.

The Source vs. Resource Distinction That Changes Everything

This is the concept from the episode that will stick with you longest.

A source is someone a reporter calls when they're already working on a story and need a quote to fill a gap. You're useful in that moment. Then they move on. You may not hear from that journalist again for years — if ever.

A resource is someone a journalist contacts before they even know what story they're writing, because they trust that person to surface something worth exploring. A resource is proactive. A resource is hard to replace.

The path from source to resource runs entirely through relationship. And as Ben explains, building a relationship with a journalist isn't mysterious or complex — it's the same set of behaviors that makes any relationship work. You show up consistently. You deliver what you promise. You focus on what they need, not just what you want. You make their job easier. Over time, they start to think of you first.

The 64.5% repeat journalist rate on FPA MediaSource isn't magic. It's what happens when financial professionals treat media interactions as the beginning of something rather than a transaction.

The Client Notebook: Your Pitch Pipeline Is Already Full

One of the most immediately actionable ideas in this episode comes from Ben's guidance on how to start generating media pitches — and it requires nothing more than a notebook.

Keep it by your phone or your computer. Every time a client calls or emails with a question, write it down. What was the question? What was the situation they were facing?

At the end of the week, review the list. Identify one question that you don't think the media is covering well. Jot down three quick bullet points: here's my opinion on this, here's why it matters, here's what clients need to know. Find a journalist who's been writing about related topics. Send them a short note — 30 seconds to read, no longer.

That's a pitch. And here's the thing that most advisors miss:

One client question is a story. Three, four, or five of the same question in a week is a trend. And trends are what the media actually wants. If multiple clients are suddenly asking you about the same topic — whether that's sequence of return risk, Social Security timing strategy, or what happens to their portfolio if X happens — that's a data point that a journalist will find genuinely valuable. You're sitting on this material every single day.

"The moment a journalist sniffs any desire on your part to be self-promotional — that this is about you, the planner, and not the story you have — say goodbye. It's not gonna happen. Go into every media interaction genuinely wanting to inform, educate, and enlighten. Through that, you can be positioned as the expert." — Ben Lewis, Chief Communications and Development Officer, Financial Planning Association

FPA MediaSource: The Tool Most FPA Members Aren't Using Fully

If you're a CFP® professional and an FPA member, you have access to one of the most underutilized business development tools in the industry.

FPA MediaSource is a platform that connects journalists — from CNBC and The New York Times to Kiplinger and USA Today — directly with FPA members who can serve as expert sources. Journalists submit a query describing the story they're working on and their deadline. That query goes out to participating FPA members. Members respond with their perspective. The journalist gets usable content from credentialed professionals, and the advisor gets a media credit.

Since launching, MediaSource has sent out over 10,300 queries and generated more than 69,000 CFP® professional responses. The 64.5% repeat journalist rate means reporters keep coming back — not because they have to, but because the quality of responses they're getting from FPA members is genuinely useful.

Ben shared the story of one member who had been participating in MediaSource for just four months. He had appeared in 50 different news stories in that time. His website now carries logos from every major outlet — the kind of social proof that builds instant credibility with prospective clients.

The advisors who use MediaSource most effectively follow a simple set of principles:

• Lead with your opinion, not your data

• Keep responses original and brief

• Don't use AI to write your response — journalists can tell, and they will stop calling

The Human Edge: Why Authenticity Is the Competitive Advantage

Ben's whitepaper, The Human Edge: Why Relationship-Driven PR Still Wins in the Age of AI, opens with a line from 2009: advisors were asking him how to separate themselves from the blowback of the financial crisis, of Madoff, of the assumption that anyone who touched money must be doing something wrong.

Sixteen years later, the question is different but the answer is the same.

Today's noise isn't Madoff. It's AI-generated content. It's the 26-year-old in their basement with a ring light and a strong opinion about Bitcoin. It's mass-blasted pitch emails with the reporter's name auto-inserted in the subject line. It's "thought leadership" content that sounds professional but has no voice, no perspective, and no soul behind it.

And here's the paradox Ben argues: when everyone else is generating, showing up like a human being is a competitive advantage.

Smaller newsrooms don't mean fewer opportunities for advisors — they mean journalists rely more heavily on trusted sources they've already vetted. When a reporter is on a two-hour deadline and needs an expert quote, they're not cold-searching for someone new. They're calling the person who responded promptly last month and gave them something genuinely useful.

That's the human edge. And as Ben puts it near the close of the episode: "Nobody hands you that trust. It's up to you, the individual, to earn it. And you earn it by bringing your own innate humanness to the relationship."

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• The Human Edge: Why Relationship-Driven PR Still Wins in the Age of AI — Ben Lewis's whitepaper, available at FPA MediaSource

• FPA MediaSource — The platform connecting CFP® professionals with journalists across major national publications

• Perfecting The Pitch: Creating Publicity Through Media Rapport — Ben Lewis's book on media relations for financial professionals (Larstan, 2007)

• Never Eat Alone — Keith Ferrazzi's book on relationship-building, cited by Ben as foundational to his thinking on source vs. resource

• FPA Live — Ben's interview series featuring media professionals and communications experts relevant to financial planners

Related Episodes Worth Your Time

• Getting Your Financial Business Featured in the Media with Allie Zendrian of AtoZ Communications — Allie brings the rarest possible perspective to this conversation: she spent years on the other side of the pitch email as a reporter at Forbes, Institutional Investor, and TheStreet — deciding what was worth covering and what went in the trash. Now she helps advisors and FinTech companies get their stories told. Her episode pairs directly with Ben's: if Ben gives you the mindset and the framework, Allie gives you the journalist's-eye view of exactly what lands and what doesn't.

• How AI Will Power a New Era of Hyper-Growth for Financial Advisors and Wealth Management Firms — Ian Karnell, CEO of VastAdvisor, makes the case that AI isn't just a productivity tool for advisors — it's a growth engine. This episode is the natural counterpart to Ben's argument: Ben explains why human authenticity is the competitive advantage in the age of AI, and Ian explains how to use AI strategically to amplify that advantage rather than replace it. Together, they form a complete picture of how the smartest advisors are thinking about technology right now.

• Love Your Customer or Quit — The 4 Pillars of Client Experience That Actually Matter — The through-line between this episode and Ben's is easy to miss but worth making explicit: the same qualities that make a journalist want to call you back — responsiveness, genuine helpfulness, showing up consistently, making their job easier — are the exact same qualities that make clients stay, refer, and trust. This episode builds the client-side case for the human edge Ben is describing.