What is the Fiduciary Flywheel? The Best Way to Grow Your Advisory Firm

According to a 2021 Harris Poll on behalf of Northwestern Mutual, about 26% of Americans believe their most trusted source for financial advice was a financial advisor. Despite this number trending upward post-pandemic (it was only 22% in 2020, with 30% of survey respondents saying they trusted themselves the most), it raises the question: what about the other 74%? 20% still consider themselves their most trusted source, and 16% cite a spouse or partner. Considering findings on younger investors having a more positive outlook on the economy and their own financial futures—especially when working with an advisor—that 74% becomes even more important.

For advisors, this represents an opportunity for growth.

At Orion, the key to that growth is the advisor-client relationship. Building a great rapport with clients to further their financial goals is important, but it’s more than that—it’s a proven process; a blueprint to help any advisor optimize their business.

This process is called the Fiduciary Flywheel.

What is the Fiduciary Flywheel?

The Fiduciary Flywheel is a tech-enabled process that empowers fiduciary advisors to seamlessly attract new clients, connect planning goals to investment strategies, and ultimately help achieve each investor’s goals.

The advisor-client relationship is the basis for this process. It’s a clear pattern that can be iterated on and improved:

1. 1.Look for prospects who need your help (that 74% potential).
2. 2.Help them create financial plans designed to help them reach their financial goals.
3. 3.Execute investment strategies in alignment with that financial plan.
4. 4.Share the results, check to see if their needs have changed, and search for any new opportunities.

The process, or flywheel, is distilled into four distinct but broad stages: Prospect, Plan, Invest, and Achieve.

Why the Flywheel?

Fully embracing each of these stages acts as a catalyst for creating deeper advisor-client relationships, increased growth potential, and the ability to realize your unique vision for success.

The concept is based on mechanical flywheels—once you get going, it takes less effort to keep it moving and spur greater momentum. The flywheel effect happens when small wins for your business build on each other over time and eventually gain so much momentum that growth almost seems to happen by itself.

The Fiduciary Flywheel Stages: Prospect, Plan, Invest, Achieve

The Fiduciary Flywheel is a method of growing your advisory business by building meaningful, lasting relationships with current and future clients. It’s about valuing and empowering them to reach their financial goals at any stage in their journey with you.

• ​Prospect: Attract the right clients for your firm—people who need and want your help, and who may help you grow. Utilize tactics to meet them where they are in their financial journey while sharing your expertise.
• ​Plan: Work with your clients to build financial plans tailored to their goals. Aim to have a plan for everyone you work with and help your clients strive for financial independence.
• ​Invest: Employ investment strategies that align with the financial plan you created for your client. Maintain a rapport that lets you connect their investments to their specific goals and planning needs.
• ​Achieve: Bring the entire process together and demonstrate your results. Tie your reporting back to achieving a client’s planning goals. Use business intelligence and analytics to follow through on promises made during prospecting.

Fiduciary Flywheel Strategies

Here are specific strategy examples for each stage to keep your flywheel spinning and help your business grow at scale.

Prospect Strategies

Consistently promote unique messaging through marketing content that provides value.

Prospect strategies that attract ideal clients revolve around content and customized materials that provide value. Examples include educational content on financial planning and investment topics, quick guides on how you’ll partner with them, and testimonials from satisfied clients. Share this content via social media, digital advertising, blogs, and more. The goal is to connect with prospects and current clients consistently by driving engagement through content and conversations on timely, relevant topics.

Plan Strategies

Identify and define client goals with financial planning.

Planning strategies should aim for an enjoyable experience for your clients over an exhaustive one. Deliver a tailored approach and plan for everyone you work with. Incorporate behavioral finance psychology and risk analysis to paint a complete picture. For example, a goals-based investing tool like “Protect, Live, Dream” can help improve the investment experience and reduce concerns about short-term market volatility. Engage clients through a modern, collaborative, goals-led financial planning experience, ideally using a tool that provides connected planning and performance data.

Invest Strategies

Establish custom-tailored investment management.

Investment management requires more than just risk tolerance assessment. Connect investment strategies and products directly to investors’ unique needs, values, and goals. For example, use direct indexing for tax savings or portfolio customization, balanced risk models for conservative investors, or advanced wealth planning services for high-net-worth clients. The key is having enough resources to deliver for their needs, whether through open model marketplaces, third-party strategists, SMAs, UMAs, or boutique investment management services.

Achieve Strategies

Easily share your client’s wins by connecting the dots.

Achieve strategies should leverage technology that enables streamlined billing and reporting for all services provided. This creates a consistent billing experience, more accurate projections of cash-flow and revenue, and offers clients a straightforward process to view and pay fees. Maintaining compliance and portfolio accounting data in one system consolidates your tech stack, reduces outsourcing costs, and increases efficiency. Providing clients with dynamic reporting empowers them to dive deeper into their financial health and future goals, ideally through an intuitive interface. Deliver a connected, customizable experience that allows investors to view and update financial plans and goals, review investment performance, open and fund accounts, and connect to every aspect of their financial lives.

With the right platform—one that brings together financial planning, proposal generation, digital account opening, trading, account management, reporting, compliance tools, risk profiles, and portfolio stress testing—you can grow and scale your business.

How We Use the Fiduciary Flywheel at Orion

As a financial advisor, your goal is to attract new prospects, work with them to build plans and investment strategies, and report on outcomes to keep them engaged. The Fiduciary Flywheel and Orion’s support can help you achieve this.

Prospect Tools

• ​CRM
• ​Redtail Campaigns
• ​Risk Intelligence

Plan Tools

• ​Client Portal
• ​Planning

Invest Tools

• ​Model Marketplace
• ​Custom Indexing
• ​Trading

Achieve Tools

• ​Portfolio Accounting (including Billing and Reporting)
• ​Compliance
• ​Business Intelligence

Use the Fiduciary Flywheel to Scale & Grow Your Firm

The Fiduciary Flywheel is more than just a methodology—it’s how Orion builds its technology. Orion’s wealthtech platform includes all the tools needed to keep clients engaged and invested. These tools are powerful alone, but even better when used together.

As with any flywheel, friction can slow it down. With the right technology, you can reduce friction, become a more efficient advisor, keep your clients happy, and ultimately, grow and scale your firm.