Somewhere in your book is a client who told you in March that everything looked fine and sat for another firm’s second-opinion review in June.
In Cerulli’s 2024 investor tracker, 64% of affluent investors were satisfied enough with their provider that they had no interest in looking around. Another 34% described themselves as satisfied and open to other options at the same time.
That second group won’t show up in any complaint log. They answer your review invitation promptly, tell you the portfolio looks fine, and mean it.
Cerulli sorts these clients the standard way: anyone rating their firm a 9 or 10 out of 10 counts as a Promoter, anyone at 6 or below a Detractor, and the Net Promoter Score (NPS) is the first group minus the second.
Detractors hold 57% of their financial assets at their primary provider. Promoters keep 66%. Long before anyone leaves, the shopping shows up as money parked somewhere else.
Contact tracks with where clients land. Those whose main point of contact is an assigned advisor or team give their firm a score of 62; those working mostly through an online portal give theirs a 49. Read that with one eye open, because the same 2025 survey shows the score climbing with wealth, from 32 among households under $100,000 to 63 in the $2 million to $5 million range, and clients with assigned advisors skew wealthier. Contact isn’t the only thing moving that number.
Cerulli is very clear on one point, though: clients with limited personal contact carry the highest switching risk, even when they describe themselves as satisfied.
Being easy to understand is a retention strategy
Three-quarters of affluent investors told Cerulli in 2025 that it matters to them whether their provider makes their finances less complicated. Among Promoters, 79%. Among Detractors, 53%.
Fees run the same way. Eighty-seven percent of Promoters know what they are paying; among Detractors, 70%. The fee itself isn’t a variable in the decision to stay or leave; whether the client understands what they’re paying (and why) is.
Three things you can fix this quarter
Send something to your clients between review meetings. One note a quarter that answers a question the client already asked you is a good start. Ninety seconds of reading, tops. Because twelve months between conversations is a long time to leave someone alone with their own thinking.
Make it easy to ask one question. A client wondering whether to pay down the mortgage early isn’t going to book a meeting over it; they’ll probably Google the answer instead. Tell clients they can email or text you about the small things, then answer when they do.
Rewrite your fee explanation in words your clients would use. Not the ADV, and not a percentage sitting alone on a statement. One short paragraph: here’s what you paid last year and what it covered, and here’s what I did with it.
Could your clients explain what they pay you, and what it covers?
If the answer is no, let’s fix that.Paste the fee language you send clients below, and I’ll show you what I would change.
Sources
All figures from Cerulli Associates, The Cerulli Edge, U.S. Retail Investor Edition. Affluent investors are defined in the Cerulli Affluent Investor Tracker (CAIT) as households with more than $250,000 in financial assets, plus a near-affluent segment earning more than $125,000 a year and under age 45.
- Client satisfaction (64% satisfied and not seeking a new provider; 34% satisfied and open to other options): CAIT, 2024, published in The Firm Differences Issue, 2Q 2025, no. 39.
- Walletshare by Net Promoter group (Promoters 66%; Detractors 57%; all respondents 64%): CAIT, 2025, published in The Provider Satisfaction Issue, 2Q 2026, no. 43.
- Net Promoter Scores by dominant method of communication (62 assigned advisor or team; 49 online self-service) and by household financial assets (32 under $100,000; 63 at $2m–$5m): CAIT, 2025, no. 43. Respondents rated their likelihood of recommending their primary provider on a 0-to-10 scale.
- Simplicity of finances (74% of all respondents; 79% of Promoters; 53% of Detractors), fee awareness (87% of Promoters; 70% of Detractors), and reasons for wanting a human advisor (ability to ask specific questions cited by 25% of Detractors and 19% of Promoters): CAIT, 2025, no. 43.
The Cerulli Edge is a licensed subscription publication; figures are cited here individually with attribution.
