Free toolsThe Referral Walk
Walk the rowyour referral walks.
When a client passes your name along, the friend looks you up that night. Enter your firm and watch their first seven minutes, station by station: a free financial advisor website audit, told from their side.
Fig. 1The walk. Saturday, 9:13 p.m., a referral reads your homepage.
Walking
The walk
Referral Walk score
The two breaks worth fixing first
This is a plain-language check, not legal or compliance advice. Your compliance reviewer has the final word.
How it works
A website audit from the other side of the referral.
The Referral Walk is a financial advisor website audit that reads your site the way a referred prospect does, in the order they do it. A client mentions you at the end of a long week. Their friend writes your name down. That night, the friend types it into a search bar, and in about seven minutes they decide whether to reach out. Nobody tells you what happened in those seven minutes. This tool replays them.
It matters because almost nobody takes a referral on faith anymore. In a February 2026 study by Kitces Research and Wealthtender, 96% of prospects said they look an advisor up online after a referral. The referral gets them to your name. The website, the bios, the fees and the first reply decide whether the line stays straight or goes quiet.
The seven stations
- 9:12 p.m. The search. Does the result name your firm and say who you are? Did your client have more than your name to pass along? (10 points)
- 9:13 p.m. The homepage. Does it load securely, fit a phone and look looked-after, with a current footer year? (15 points)
- 9:14 p.m. Who you serve. Does the homepage name a kind of client, with a headline only you could write and no sailboats? This is the heaviest station. (20 points)
- 9:15 p.m. Fees. Is there a number, a range, or at least a plain line on how you are paid? (15 points)
- 9:16 p.m. The bios. Is there a team page with a real bio for each advisor, and any client voice? (15 points)
- 9:17 p.m. The SEC record. Is your registration active on adviserinfo.sec.gov, and does your site link to your Form ADV and Form CRS? (10 points)
- 9:18 p.m. Reaching out. Can they book a call, tap your number, find a contact page, and hear back the same day? (15 points)
Each station holds, wobbles or breaks. The score is the share of points earned out of the points we could check, so a site that will not scan is not punished for what we could not see. The full method, with every check and its weight, is in the full report.
What we check and why
We use two public sources and no guesswork. The SEC's adviser search gives your registration status, whether disclosures are reported, and your latest filing dates: what a careful prospect sees when they check you. Your public website gives the rest. We read the homepage and up to four linked pages (fees, team, about, services, contact) and look for plain signals: a named kind of client, a posted fee, a bio with a name and a role, a booking link, a tap-to-call number, links to Form ADV and Form CRS, stock-photo file names, the footer year. No AI reads your site. The same rules run on every firm, which is why we can compare you with the RIAs in our scan.
A worked example
Summit Wealth Partners is a composite firm, not a client. Their homepage title is "Home," with no description written for the search result, and clients have nothing to pass along but the name. The headline says "Plans tailored to your goals," over a sailboat. The site says fee-only but shows no fees, and the team page lists names with no bios. Their SEC record is clean and active, and the site links Form CRS but not Form ADV. They reply the same day, but there is no way to book a call. The walk breaks at the search, wobbles at the homepage (the footer still says 2023), breaks at who they serve, fees and the bios, and wobbles at the SEC record and at reaching out. Score: 36. The two fixes worth doing first are one sentence on the homepage that names who they serve, and a fee range with a line on how it is charged. Neither needs a new website.
Want a second opinion on the bios themselves? Roast My Advisor Bio scores them for the phrases every firm uses. Or see all the free tools.
Questions
The walk, the data and the fine print.
What does the Referral Walk check?
Twenty-one things across seven stations a referred prospect passes in their first few minutes: how your firm shows up in search, whether the homepage loads well on a phone, whether it names who you serve, whether fees are posted, whether there are real bios, what the SEC's adviser search shows and whether your site links to it, and how easy it is to reach you. Two of the checks are questions only you can answer: how fast you reply and whether clients have something to pass along.
Where does the data come from?
Two public places. The SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site (adviserinfo.sec.gov) for registration status, the disclosures flag and filing dates, and your own public website, which we read the way a search engine would: the homepage and up to four linked pages. Your website address comes from your Form ADV filing if we can match your firm, and you can change it.
Is this a compliance review?
No. It is a plain-language check of what a prospect sees. Where it touches regulated items like Form CRS or testimonials it says what a reviewer may ask about. Your compliance reviewer has the final word.
Why does posting fees matter so much in the score?
Because it is the question every prospect has and few sites answer. In Furlong's scan of 985 RIA websites, about 8 percent posted fees. A prospect who cannot find a number has to call to ask, and many do not. Posting a range and how it is charged is usually enough.
My site did not scan. Why?
Some sites build the page in the browser with JavaScript, and some block automated readers. When that happens the tool asks four quick yes or no questions instead, and scores only what it could check.
Do you store my results?
Only if you ask for the full report. Then we keep the result so your report link works, and send you a copy. We never ask for client information, and nothing about your clients is read or stored.