YOUR BUSINESS
Accountants have an advantage in that they have maintained ongoing contact with many clients for a long time, building strong relationships.
• Finally, they are the primary source that the wealthy rely on for referring other high-quality professionals.
But when it comes to which is better, how do you decide?
Accountants have an advantage in that they have maintained ongoing contact with many clients for a long time, building strong relationships. They often have a deep understanding of their clients’ incomes and related details. On the downside, they might not be aware of the clients’ total wealth.
Attorneys, meanwhile, are very influential when helping clients with their wealth planning. Trust and estate attorneys in particular have a thorough understanding of their clients’ balance sheets. However, they may lack familiarity with the details of all the clients’ business interests and the goals for those businesses.
Although there is substantial data on how accountants and attorneys decide to
refer clients to wealth managers, and while these insights help advisors create broad business development strategies, the question remains: Who is the better referrer?
Wrong Question It turns out, this is the wrong question. For most wealth managers, it is not about who is the better referrer, since both can be valuable and it comes down to individuals.
The more important question is: Who can you best build a strategic partnership with? Who is positively inclined to refer clients to you? How do they choose wealth managers in the first place?
Discovery is the key. You have to develop a deep understanding of the individual professional, and that involves asking them interconnected open-ended questions and being empathetic to learn about them. What are their own business models, goals and headaches?
Here are some questions you might ask them in pursuit of that discovery:
• Can you tell me about your firm?
• How many partners are there?
• What is the revenue, and how has it changed from last year?
• Do you have any solid practice areas or areas you’ re focused on growing?
• How many clients do you have?
• How many of your clients are business owners, and what kind of businesses do they have?
• How do you usually get new clients?
By drilling down, you can avoid wasting time and effort on people who will never serve as good referral sources.
Without the feeling for what these professionals actually need, most wealth managers instead behave as if they are doing someone a major favor by sending business their way( it only works sometimes).
But with proper discovery a wealth manager can demonstrate how they help their strategic partners excel, too. It’ s not just about improving your own lot as a wealth manager but helping those other professionals, the accountants and attorneys, also succeed.
JERRY D. PRINCE is a leading coach for professionals building high-net-worth practices and coauthor of Ultimate Rainmaker: Creating a Pipeline of Wealthy Client Referrals from Accountants and
Attorneys. BRETT VAN BORTEL is the managing partner and
founder of the Organic Growth Institute, a leading
consulting and coaching firm for wealth managers. RUSS ALAN PRINCE is one of the foremost
authorities in the private wealth industry and the coauthor of Making Smart Decisions: How Ultra-Wealthy Families Get Superior Wealth Planning Results.
26 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2025 WWW. FA-MAG. COM