What happens before a client call matters more than ever. Here’s how RIAs are simplifying prep without sacrificing oversight.
By Bill Lane, Ethos Financial Group
It used to be simple: Open the CRM. Pull performance. Scan notes. Maybe check in with a teammate.
Now, things are more complicated. Asks are bigger. Expectations are higher.
And the 10 minutes before a client call? They carry more weight than most firms realize.
10:00 You open the client record.
8:30 You toggle between performance reports, meeting notes, emails, and a planning tool, trying to piece together the full picture.
6:00 A question comes up. Maybe it’s about tax exposure, concentration risk, or a recent transfer, but there isn’t time to fully chase down the answer.
4:00 You start drafting talking points, pulling from what you have in front of you.
2:00 You double-check names, numbers, and recent activity.
0:00 The call starts. You’re mostly ready—but not as ready as you’d like to be.
At most firms, this is still how preparation happens: fragmented, time-constrained, and heavily reliant on the advisor to connect the dots in real time.
That’s where things are starting to shift.
Instead of pulling from five different systems, advisors are beginning to ask a single question and get a synthesized answer—complete with relevant context, recent activity, and even suggested talking points.
Tools like Praktikant are built around that moment. Not as another system to manage, but as a way to bring everything an advisor needs into one place, grounded in the firm’s actual data.
It connects to platforms like Addepar, Orion, SharePoint, and Redtail CRM, pulling the right information for the right client without the back-and-forth. Instead of toggling between systems or manually filling in gaps, advisors can focus on preparing for the conversation itself.
It also changes what happens behind the scenes. The inputs, the context, and the outputs are captured automatically, creating a clear record of how information was gathered and used—without adding extra steps to the advisor’s workflow.
That matters. As preparation becomes faster and more dynamic, it becomes harder to see. And for firms, visibility is what turns a useful tool into something that can actually be supervised, reviewed, and trusted.
The way advisors prepare for client conversations is already evolving.
The firms that keep up won’t be the ones that slow down that process. They’ll be the ones that make it easier to do well—and easier to stand behind later.
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