Ana, 62 — retiring in eight months, with a $700K 401(k) to roll over. She wants one person to just handle it.
Regional wealth advisory firm · 200 advisors · 40,000-client book · 24,000 qualified leads/yr · average new client brings $300K in assets · 1% advisory fee ≈ $3,000/client/yr. All five chains are model assumptions — fictitious, to be validated against a real firm's funnel data.
01 · THE TRIGGER
24,000 leads/yr × 30% unanswered at 48h × 12% would have closed × $3,000 yearly fee = $2.6M/yr
MIT/InsideSales 2007 — qualifying odds drop 21× at 5 vs 30 min · XANT ResponseAudit — 44h avg phone response; only 4.7% respond within 5 min
The agent drafts a personalized first reply and proposes meeting slots the same day; the advisor approves from their phone. + $1.7M · 65% of the leak
02 · FIRST MEETING
6,720 first meetings × 25% stall with no next step × 35% would have closed × $3,000 = $1.8M/yr
Herbers & Co. 2023 — 33% avg close ratio vs 73% at top growth firms · Schwab 2024 — 50% of leads closed
The agent turns the meeting notes into a personalized proposal and a follow-up cadence; the advisor reviews and sends it inside the same week. + $0.9M · 50% of the leak
03 · ONBOARDING
2,800 new clients/yr × 12% abandon mid-transfer × $3,000 = $1.0M/yr
DTCC 2025 — full transfer 5 business days (4 accelerated, 3 partial) · FINRA 2006 — 11–13% hard rejects; 80% of soft rejects miss the 24-hour window · SEC — unresolved transfers purge at six business days
The agent tracks every in-flight transfer, catches soft rejects inside their 24-hour fix window, flags stalls to operations, and sends the client plain-language status notes. + $0.6M · 60% of the leak
04 · FIRST 90 DAYS
763 late-plan clients/yr × $300K left at the old firm × 1% fee = $2.3M/yr
Cerulli 2024 — 57% prefer one institution; only 32% do · McKinsey 2024 — 5× wallet share for primary relationships · McKinsey 2020 — ~80% wallet share with one advisor vs ~55% with two · Hearts & Wallets 2025 — 39% average share of wallet per firm
The agent assembles the plan draft from the discovery data; the advisor edits, personalizes, and delivers within two weeks. + $1.0M · 45% of the leak
05 · THE LONG HAUL
40,000-client book × 2.8% avoidable attrition × $3,000 = $3.4M/yr
McKinsey/PriceMetrix — ~5% observed annual attrition · McKinsey 2020 — weekly vs quarterly contact: +25pp satisfaction → +15pp wallet share · JFP 2017 — ~4 meetings/yr maximizes value
The agent mines contact logs and market events, and hands each advisor a short who-to-call list every Monday, with the reason for each call. + $1.4M · 40% of the leak
Why not all $11.1M?
A plan that promises the whole leak back in year one is a plan to distrust.
Step 1 → Step 3 → Step 4 → Step 2 → Step 5
Fastest payback first