How to Grow Wallet Share By Targeting Held Away Assets

If you’re looking to grow your business as a financial advisor, often the best place to start is within your own shop. While recruiting new clients is important, developing your relationship with existing clients is also crucial for your advisory business. By increasing the amount of each client’s assets that you manage, you can both improve your bottom line and provide more holistic financial services in the process. Targeting assets held away, meaning assets that are managed outside your purview, can help increase your firm’s wallet share. Here’s what you need to know. 

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Increasing Wallet Share Through Assets Held Away

Held-away assets are financial assets that your client holds in any other form, including bank accounts, self-directed investments, competing brokerage accounts and employer retirement accounts. In terms of just how much money U.S. investors hold in these accounts, defined contribution plan assets totaled $13.8 trillion as of March 2026, according to the Investment Company Institute (ICI). Government defined benefit plans held $10 trillion in assets, while private defined benefit plans held $3 trillion. ¹

Targeting assets held away increases wallet share by creating opportunities for account consolidation, which may bring assets directly under your control. For example, if you have a client who’s considering a career change, that may be a chance to discuss the pros and cons of rolling over their 401(k) into an IRA that you manage.

Bringing more of a client’s assets under your direction can reduce friction in the financial planning process. That can increase client satisfaction and, in turn, potentially improve retention rates. Those same clients may be more likely to send referrals your way, helping your business to scale. And you may be able to generate additional revenue by expanding your service offerings to meet a broader range of client needs.

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How to Find and Target Client Assets Held Away

Targeting assets held away to increase wallet share can be tricky, as you may need to do some digging to find them. And once you do, you may be met with client objections about moving assets to your management. Here are some common strategies advisors use to find and target held away assets.

1. Ask

The most straightforward way to learn about a client’s held away assets is to ask. The onboarding process is an appropriate time to do this with new clients; for established clients, you may work the topic into the conversation at your next annual review session.

Keep in mind that clients may not define assets held away the same way that you do. So, in addition to asking them about the traditional held away options, like 401(k)s or pensions, you might ask about real estate they own, including mineral or oil rights, or life insurance policies. Businesses and business assets they own may be on the list, as well as annuities, intellectual property, fine art and collectibles.

Stick to open-ended questions as much as possible and be mindful of your tone and approach. If you come across as an interrogator, rather than someone who’s genuinely interested in helping them reach their financial goals, they may be turned off by the experience and consider looking elsewhere for advice.

2. Use an Asset Aggregator

Tech tools can help you find client assets held away if you don’t feel comfortable initiating a direct conversation. For example, your financial planning software may allow clients to link their outside accounts through their secure portal or dashboard. You can send clients who have not done so yet a note encouraging them to explore this feature for a more holistic view of their financial lives in one place. With eMoney, for instance, you can connect accounts at more than 12,000 financial institutions.

3. Take a Holistic Approach

Once you know what assets a client has held away, you can formulate an approach for targeting them. For many advisors, this means leaning in to a holistic strategy that emphasizes the importance of considering your entire picture when developing a financial plan. That means moving beyond simple investment returns and developing plans that consider a client’s individual financial needs and how those needs may shift as they move through different life stages.

Here, it can be helpful to show clients possible outcomes rather than simply telling them what they might be able to expect by moving held away assets under your management. Visualizer tools can generate charts, graphs and other graphics illustrating what outcomes a client might realize if they follow one path vs. another.

As an example of how you can utilize these tools to target assets held away, you might provide a snapshot of how rolling over a 401(k) might increase the client’s annual return while reducing the management fees they pay. Results are not guaranteed, of course, but you give the client something to consider and you demonstrate additional value that you may be able to provide.

4. Suggest a Self-Directed Brokerage Account (SDBA)

Self-directed brokerage accounts allow advisors to manage assets held away in employer retirement plans without requiring clients to complete a rollover. This might be an attractive compromise for clients who would like their advisors to have a say in managing their 401(k) plan, but don’t want to jump through the hoops necessary to move it away from their current employer.

Platforms like AssetMark and Pathfinder from Advisors Capital allow advisors access to client retirement plans without violating compliance rules. The client hires you to manage assets inside their SDBA, according to the terms set out in your advisor-client agreement. You may use a custom or model portfolio strategy to manage those assets according to your client’s goals. Meanwhile, the SDBA platform provides you with compliance and monitoring tools to track performance.

If you’d like to talk to your clients about an SDBA, choose your angle carefully. Avoid jargon and explain to the client what an SDBA is and how it works, but more importantly, make it clear how it would benefit them. If the client doesn’t feel there’s any value for them in such an arrangement, they may be less inclined to listen to what you have to say.

5. Offer a Discounted Fee

Many advisors use the percentage-of-AUM fee structure, but assets held away may call for something different. Applying an assets under advisement fee at a reduced rate may entice clients to agree to allow you to oversee held away assets.

With this type of fee model, you might charge an annual percentage fee or a flat retainer for advisory services that’s below the typical 1% or 2% of AUM you ordinarily charge. This structure assumes that assets remain where they are and that you as the advisor offer advice only, and do not have any direct control over trades or other transactions.

Again, this is a form of compromise that a client may be drawn to if they’d like professional oversight of assets that, for one reason or another, they hold elsewhere. You can also offer the client options on how these fees are to be paid. For example, you may add the fee as a line item to your regular billing for assets you do manage or charge the client a flat fee directly.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Bottom Line

Wallet share refers to the percentage of a client’s financial assets or business that an advisor manages. Held-away assets refer to the money that a financial advisor’s client keeps outside of the practice. To increase wallet share with clients, you need to understand why they keep certain assets elsewhere and where your advice can add value.

Financial Management Tips

• Potential clients are increasingly relying on internet searches to connect with financial advisors. Using an online lead generation tool can give you an instant visibility boost, which may be helpful if you’re still building out your advisor website or growing your social media following. With SmartAsset Advisor Marketing Platform (AMP), you can get leads sent to you and get access to the tools you need to follow up on them quickly. Schedule a demo today to learn more.
• Automation tools can also help you make it easier to manage a marketing campaign for your advisory services. Some of the tasks you can automate include scheduling social media content, scheduling blog posts, if you have a blog component on websites, and scheduling email newsletters.

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