From our conversation on March 20, 2026
You've been doing this for 10 years, you've got 250+ families, eight figures under management, and about half your new business already comes from referrals. The business is working. The marketing side just hasn't caught up yet.
Right now you don't have a Google Business listing, your referrals are happening on their own with no system behind them, and your website could be doing more for you. None of that is urgent — but all of it is leaving money on the table.
I did some research after our call. Here's what the data looks like for financial advisors and referrals:
Sources: Schwab RIA Benchmarking Study 2024, eMoney Advisor, Docupace, industry aggregate data.
You're already getting referrals without trying. The whole idea here is just putting a system around that so it happens more consistently.
You said you couldn't picture what a referral system actually looks like. Here's what I'd build. It's simple — a page on your site where clients can send someone your way in about 10 seconds.
A dedicated page on your site with a clean, simple form
Their friend's name, email, and what's on their mind
Instant email with all the details — no delay
Thank-you to the referrer, you reach out personally within 24 hrs
Most of our clients find us through people like you. If someone you care about needs guidance, we'd love the introduction.
I'd also set up automated email reminders to your client base a couple times a year (January and post-tax season), add the referral link to your email signature, and include it in any newsletters. The whole thing runs in the background once it's built.
You might be wondering whether to offer a referral bonus — $50 gift card, cash reward, something like that. Short answer: don't. In high-trust industries like financial advising, upfront cash incentives can actually backfire. They introduce an ulterior motive that makes the referral feel transactional instead of genuine. Research consistently shows that after-the-fact appreciation — a handwritten thank-you note, a small unexpected gift, a charitable donation in the client's name — works better and doesn't raise compliance flags.
On the compliance side, CIRO and NI 31-103 have specific rules around referral arrangements in Canadian financial services. Gift cards get flagged as cash-equivalent compensation. Unexpected after-the-fact appreciation gifts are generally fine.
What the big players do: Wealthsimple offers $25 cash bonuses, but that's a mass-market robo-advisor — different model entirely. Edward Jones, with 19,500+ advisors, uses no incentive program at all. Purely relationship-driven. The most successful independent advisors use appreciation: handwritten notes, client events, charitable donations. My recommendation for you: keep it appreciation-based. Handwritten thank-you after every referral. For larger referrals, consider a charitable donation in the client's name. Genuine, not transactional.
Right now if someone Googles "financial advisor Winnipeg," you don't show up at all. No listing, no reviews, no map presence. For reference, Rob Tetrault has 216 five-star reviews and dominates that space.
You said you could get 50 reviews pretty easily. If you do that, you're instantly the #2 most-reviewed financial advisor in Winnipeg. Here's what I'd do:
Claim your Google Business Profile, fill out every field, pick the right categories, add your photos and services. All the stuff that makes you actually show up when people search.
I'll write you a simple text/email template you can send to your clients. We batch them out over a few weeks so it looks natural. Goal is 25+ reviews in the first month.
Ongoing posts on your Google profile with financial tips and updates. Google rewards active profiles with better visibility in search results — businesses that post regularly rank higher in the map pack. I write and schedule them, you don't have to think about it.
88% of local mobile searches result in a call or visit within 24 hours (Google/Nectafy). This is free visibility that you're just not taking advantage of right now.
When you search "financial advisor Winnipeg," Google shows two different sets of results, and they work differently.
The Map Pack is the box at the top with a map and 3 business listings. It gets 40-50% of all clicks on that page. You get into that box through your Google Business Profile, reviews, and having consistent business info across the internet — not just your website. This is the fastest win and where the Google Business work pays off first.
Organic results are the regular website listings below the map. Getting your site to rank here takes longer but is where the ongoing SEO work compounds over time. This is what separates advisors who get a trickle of leads from those who get a steady stream.
Top 3 map box
4–8 months
with strong profile, reviews & citations
First page of search results
8–14 months
with consistent SEO effort
Where the real traffic lives
14–20 months
sustained work compounds
These timelines are why starting now matters. Every month you wait is another month further from being visible when someone searches for what you do.
You mentioned wanting every navigation item to go to its own page instead of scrolling to sections on one long page. Here's the full site structure I'd build out:
Site Map
kreitzfinancial.com ├── Home ├── About Eddie ├── Services │ ├── Retirement Planning │ ├── Investment Management │ ├── Insurance Planning │ ├── Estate Planning │ └── Financial Consulting ├── Who We Serve │ ├── Business Owners │ ├── Families │ └── Retirees ├── Refer a Friend (/refer) ├── FAQ ├── Blog ├── Reviews (republish Google reviews) └── Book Now / Contact
These three pages are the core of the site's content strategy. Each one speaks directly to a specific type of client with messaging and services tailored to them:
Key-person insurance, buy-sell agreements, succession planning, corporate tax strategies. Content that speaks directly to the business owners you work with.
Life insurance, education savings, mortgage protection, financial planning. Imagery and messaging that resonates with families building their future.
Retirement income strategies, estate planning, CPP/OAS optimization. Clear, reassuring content for people navigating the biggest financial transition of their lives.
This is mostly about placement. I'd add:
This is the technical stuff that makes sure when someone searches for a financial advisor in Winnipeg, your site actually shows up. It's a one-time setup on the Core plan, ongoing optimization on Growth.
Title tags, meta descriptions, headers, image alt text, internal linking — the fundamentals that tell Google what each page is about.
Schema markup that tells Google you're a financial service, where you're located, and that you're a CFP. This is what makes you eligible for rich results in search.
Setup, sitemap submission, indexing verification. I send you a monthly snapshot so you can see what's working.
Keywords I'd target: "financial advisor Winnipeg," "insurance planning Winnipeg," "financial advisor for business owners Winnipeg," "CFP Winnipeg" — plus each sub-page targets its own specific terms.
You texted me about wanting video content after our call, and I think it's a smart move. 65% of people who use social media for financial advice prefer video. It's the fastest way to build trust before someone even books a meeting.
Short clips (60-90 seconds) from real clients talking about their experience. These go on the website and are the single most effective thing you can add for credibility. This is priority #1 for the site — nothing converts like real people saying real things about working with you.
Quick explainers on the topics your clients ask about most — RRSP strategies, retirement income, insurance basics. These double as social media content and blog posts. One 3-minute video becomes a LinkedIn clip, an Instagram reel, and a blog article.
Behind-the-scenes, day-in-the-life content. This is optional, but if you're open to it, it's what separates advisors who get found from those who don't. Troy Sharpe grew his practice 9X to $750M AUM over 5 years doing exactly this.
If you're shooting selfie-style, you record on your phone and send me the footage. I handle editing, captions, thumbnails, and distribution. If you want a more produced look, we bring in a videographer for a quarterly shoot day — film everything in one session, then I edit and release clips throughout the quarter. Either way, you're not editing anything or figuring out where to post it.
A lead magnet is a free resource — a quiz, calculator, checklist, or guide — that people download in exchange for their email address. It's how you start a relationship with someone who's interested but not ready to book a meeting yet.
Someone downloads the guide or takes the quiz, enters their email, and gets dropped into an automated email sequence — 5-7 emails over 2-4 weeks that educate and build trust. After that, they get added to your monthly newsletter. They stay top-of-mind until they're ready to book a meeting or send you a referral. The whole thing runs automatically once it's set up.
This is included in the Premium tier.
The website and all its pages are built — that's done regardless of which tier you pick. What these tiers cover is the ongoing work: keeping things running, building systems that bring you business, and actively marketing you.
Your site is live and running well.
Systems that bring you business.
Active marketing that grows your practice.
The full package.
For context: I have clients paying $5,500/month for full-service engagements that include SEO, content, web development, and strategy — and that pricing reflects the ROI they see from the work. What I'm putting together here is scaled to where you're at right now, with room to grow into the bigger stuff if and when it makes sense.
The simple math: If the referral system brings in just 2 extra clients per quarter and each one is worth $3,000-5,000/year in fees, that's $24,000-40,000 in new annual revenue. Referred clients close at a 50% rate and have 16% higher lifetime value than any other lead source.
This is the Core build. Your involvement is minimal — I handle the build, you review and sign off.
Build the /refer page, set up email automation, claim and optimize your Google Business Profile
Launch review generation, start building the sub-pages
On-page optimization, structured data, Search Console setup, Book Now placement
Final review, go live, set up reporting, first check-in call
Happy to walk through any of this on our call.