At a glance
- The SEC's modernized Marketing Rule took effect in 2021 and permits testimonials from current clients and other related parties, provided the advisor gives appropriate disclosures.
- The article's prescription is procedural: ask every client for feedback, not only satisfied ones, and document how the firm chose whom to ask.
- For most firms, receiving reviews is generally not a compliance problem, per the article; soliciting them is.
Advisors who want client reviews in their marketing face a compliance burden that sits on the asking side, not the receiving side. That is the practical takeaway from a Nerd's Eye View article in which Whit Lanier, co-founder of Amplify Reviews, a review-verification and publishing platform, and Kent Keister, founder of Reliant Compliance, an RIA compliance firm, describe how firms can build reviews into their marketing in a way the article frames as sustainable and balanced.
Amplify Reviews' 2026 report, cited in the article, finds 79% of top RIAs are not actively using testimonials or online reviews in marketing, in part because of compliance complications or concerns. The SEC's modernized Marketing Rule took effect in 2021 and permits testimonials from current clients and other related parties, provided the advisor gives appropriate disclosures. Meanwhile, the article notes, prospective clients increasingly rely on online reviews and other tools to evaluate providers, and Google gives a search boost to highly rated businesses.
The article's prescription is procedural: ask every client for feedback, not only satisfied ones, and document how the firm chose whom to ask. Firms also need a reasonable basis to show that any third-party rating system they use allows favorable and unfavorable feedback equally and is not designed to produce a predetermined result. That second requirement makes platform selection a compliance decision, not just a marketing one.
Why the ask is the hard part
For most firms, receiving reviews is generally not a compliance problem, per the article; soliciting them is. That distinction matters for staffing, because it puts the work on whoever owns client communication and recordkeeping rather than on the investment team.
Public Google reviews carry the marketing advantage of that search boost. But the article points out that many clients may not be comfortable publicly admitting they have a financial advisor, or an advisor with a high minimum. Firms weighing a public-review push are therefore also weighing how much of their client base will simply opt out of being seen.
Reported by the Practice management desk from Kitces — Nerd's Eye View. Published . Corrections