How 14 Advisors Found the Right Client Niche: Advisors' Advice

2. Anesthesia Pros

Starting in the financial planning business at my first firm, I was introduced to anesthesia professionals — Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists, or CRNAs. Immediately, our personalities mixed well as they are methodical, type A personalities and appreciate planning strategies unique to their profession.

The age demographics are also well positioned, as a majority of CRNAs will retire in the next eight to 10 years.

Over the last five to six years, there has been an industry dynamic that has allowed them to transition from W-2 employees to 1099 independent contractors and small-business owners.

This group has been rewarding to work with both personally and professionally. They typically have substantial net worth, the ability and willingness to save for retirement and an appreciation for a firm that can incorporate not just financial planning but what we call life planning. This concept of using the unique opportunities their profession offers to help work towards goals quicker.

3. HENRYs

I initially started my financial planning practice on the chassis of subscription-based financial planning focusing on millennials. I still focus on young professionals but am actively targeting high earners who are not rich yet (HENRYs) that have six to seven figures worth of federal student loans.

As an additional niche on top, if the client who fits this mold desires Catholic values-based investment management, I can offer that as well.

I love working with these clients because I know that I can help them prioritize building wealth today while defining an efficient strategy for addressing their massive amounts of student loans without having to delay working toward personal, professional or financial milestones.

This is somewhat of a long play, and that is OK. Being a young professional myself with a young family, I can appreciate their current struggles and we can grow together.

4. 30- and 40-somethings

We serve 30s and 40s professionals in Washington, D.C.

I chose this niche because I was passionate about helping my peers maximize their money. I've seen my friends and co-workers in that age range make plenty of personal finance mistakes. I wanted to help them. In addition, I felt we can make a bigger impact if professionals started making smarter financial decisions earlier in their careers.

It's been successful because 1) not a lot of advisors focus on this age group and 2) we've worked with so many of them that we are very familiar with their goals, situation and concerns, and are able to deliver massive value.

5. DIY Investors

I’m a career-changer, coming from 25 years in technology. My path to financial planning started as my wife and I approached financial independence in my late 40s. I started looking for a financial advisor to work with us on a fee-for-service basis (rather than assets under management). There was no way I was going to turn over my assets to someone else to manage.

When I couldn’t find anyone who would do standalone financial planning without investment management, I turned my attention to researching how to develop my own financial plan. I’ve had a lifelong passion for personal finance, so it was natural and fun to dive deeper.

Through that process, I became a Certified Financial Planner professional and launched my own advice-only planning firm targeting tech professionals and engineers … folks I could relate to analytically.

Over time, the focus has opened up a bit to include all do-it-yourself investors who are looking for financial advice (which my firm provides by the hour) without investment management. The fee model is transparent, and my clients retain complete control of their assets.

6. T-Mobile Employees

Having worked at T-Mobile for nine years, I knew the quality and character of the employees.

I kept getting basic personal finance questions from co-workers — even those in the Financial Planning & Analysis department! However, I couldn't find advisors dedicated to helping them.

T-Mobile's compensation is similar throughout the organization. For instance, all full-time employees receive restricted stock units and have access to the employee stock purchase plan. That consistency makes working with employees at all levels feel natural.

My firsthand experience with [T-Mobile's] benefits and deep understanding of compensation for entire departments come in handy. Everything I learned while studying for the Certified Financial Planner exam has T-Mobile content because I worked there at the time!

Although my website is clear about who I serve, only about half the pre-clients reaching out are T-Mobile employees. Many messages start out like "I'm not a T-Mobile employee but..."

7. Widows and Caregivers

I became a financial advisor in 2007. In 2010, my husband was diagnosed with ALS. My niche is working with caregivers and widows. I am my niche.

I meet many “young” widows and caregiving/patient couples younger than most would think. When I looked for support for myself and my family, my network changed. I serve as much as I can for and with two organizations: Inheritance of Hope and Modern Widows Club. I understand the devastating loss and how control over anything can serve as a small win to help restore confidence, decrease stress and enhance well-being.

Money touches everything, and although the pain of grief won’t be solved through planning, it is a crucial part of the process. Also, I understand losing your spouse and restructuring your life takes years. I also know when I experienced loss my own fatality is present daily.

I created a spreadsheet to help me with the financial process that I use behind the scenes; it combines financial planning and estate processing. I am compassionate, which means I can empathize and I can help. I love teaching about money and how things work; however, my role is to listen, especially with these two niches.

8. Software Engineers and Techies

I spent 20-plus years in the software world as a developer, engineer, architect, scrum master and consultant before changing careers. That is why I have chosen to work with software engineers and techies as my target niche. I can relate to the unique challenges of how their brains work and their thought processes. I can speak their language and slang and get their humor.

I’ve received various forms of equity comp at different companies and know what it’s like getting in early to a company they are hoping to eventually IPO, and then doesn’t.

I know the business cycles because I was part of the dot-com boom/bust and again in 2008.

When I was previously at a broker-dealer, they had a totally different business model, so my niche has changed since then, but I launched my firm two years ago knowing that software engineers were my people.

9. Christian Outdoor Enthusiasts

At Evergreen Financial Group, we believe stewardship is a lifestyle, not just an investing concept. Stewardship is not just a natural principle, it is also a biblical principle. We believe there are four main areas that this falls into — Faith, Family, Tangible and Legacy. As such, we focus on serving Christian outdoor enthusiasts to be able to accomplish their stewardship goals in all of these areas.

This niche has changed from our initial focus of simply serving Christians as we live in the Greater Rocky Mountain region, and our lives are heavily intertwined in our natural and tangible lands and resources. We believe we can add a tremendous amount of value to clients who also agree with these values and desire to please God with all that we’ve been granted stewardship over.

10. Retirement Risk Consulting

My practice is focused on retirement risks, which I provide strictly on an hourly consulting basis.

Before I went into financial planning, I had decades of experience as a retirement plan actuary. Actuaries are trained to quantify, analyze and create strategies to limit risk. Many retirement risks compete with each other. One simple example is that equity investments can prolong how long a nest egg will last, which covers longevity risk, but there is also investment risk since markets are uncertain, which could cause money to run out sooner.

In addition to investment and longevity risk, there is inflation risk, risk of not leaving a desired inheritance, risk of needing and not being able to fund long-term care, risk of ignoring tax strategies, as well as others that need to be considered.

11. Clients Without Children

My firm serves childfree and permanently childless people. "Childfree," in this case, means people who don't have kids and aren't planning on having kids. I started serving this niche because my wife and I are childfree. It was surprising to me that I never saw a mention of financial planning for people without kids in the CFP curriculum, even though 25% of the U.S. is childfree.

I have gone all in on the niche. Initially, I set out to research how being childfree impacts life and finances by interviewing 26 childfree people and surveying nearly 300. This research became the framework for much of my practice and my first book, "Portraits of Childfree Wealth."

We haven't changed our niche, but have had to change our marketing and language over time to reach the right people. While some people do not have kids by choice (childfree), others are not by choice (childless). Our take is that financial planning changes once kids are no longer in your life plan, no matter how you got there.

The challenge from a marketing standpoint is that it is hard to get the perfect wording that is inclusive of both childfree and permanently childless people.

12. University Faculty

In 2010, we had three private clients that were also faculty at the local university when that university decided to change custodians from TIAA to Fidelity. We were already on Fidelity with their private accounts, so helping them with their work-related accounts was a simple task. In 2012, we began to get calls from other faculty asking for our help, and that is when we decided to test the waters and see if other faculty were in need of assistance.

A decade later, over 50% of our client base are faculty or staff at a university, domestically or abroad. We took a sample survey recently asking why they chose to work with us and found out that the style of our updates, use of Excel spreadsheets, educational and proactive communication style, fiduciary manner of service and support we offer and use of Zoom is very attractive to faculty.

They are educated, updated and kept apprised of how they are doing each semester, and when we feel they are in danger, we are proactive in our response to making changes to keep them on track, reduce their risk and help to preserve their wealth.

We also conduct open enrollment webinars with them about their HR benefits and are constantly available to answer any questions they may have as a result of their conditions changing. We now support faculty in over 10 universities domestically and others worldwide.

13. Women and Young Adults

My client niche of serving young adults and women, regardless of whether they are living paycheck to paycheck and striving to eliminate debt or are millionaires, allowed me to create the firm I would want for myself and my young adult children.

I embrace empowering those often underserved with the advantage of getting fiduciary financial advice rather than missing out because they "do not have enough" or feel like they do not belong.

As their financial cheerleader and advisor, I am grateful to help young adults start on the right financial foot and continue with them along their journey. I am also thankful to help women further along their journey, whether the primary financial caregiver or not, but they want to ensure they have "enough" and are looking for a partner and a plan.

14. People Over 50

I have the largest impact by working with folks over 50. The pre-retiree and retiree “niche” may be cliché, but this is where I can do the most good. Transitioning from working and saving to retired and spending brings many financial, mental and behavioral challenges. I enable people to retire successfully and stay successfully retired.

Anyone can retire, but without a plan to handle these significant challenges, they may not stay successfully retired. What is the plan for the doubling or tripling of costs during a two- to three-decade retirement? How about for the three to six bear markets they are likely to endure? And how can we avoid paying the IRS any more than we must, not just in a year, but over their lifetime? Overcoming these challenges and more makes working in this niche so rewarding.