Clients don't demand that advisors have all the answers. Rather, they are looking for something that may be even more difficult: personalized advice that is relevant to their life, genuine in its promise and authentic in its execution.

Differentiation within the wealth management space has become more nuanced than ever. As recently as five years ago, the potential existed for a very different client experience, depending on which channel an advisor occupied-from affiliated to fully independent and everything in between.

These channels were generally defined by strong operating differences: Advisor compensation was either fee or commission based; a practice either took an open-architecture approach or sold items off a prescreened menu that, to varying degrees, included house products; and advisors varied in the extent to which they acted as fiduciaries to their clients. But the client experience was determined by whether a client's advisor was part of a large financial services brand or had a certain degree of independence as an independent broker-dealer or RIA.

This is no longer the case. The yardstick that traditionally measured client experience on these terms has shrunk in size and significance.

Advisors today still operate within a channel, but for the end client the traditional differences among those channels no longer materially exist. For instance, large broker-dealers often have robust open-architecture platforms, and affiliated advisors are increasingly compensated on a fee-based model. On the independent side, RIAs have ushered in new hybrid models of joint fee- and commission-based business to accommodate those "breakaway brokers" looking to earn a greater share of the firm's revenue or even an ownership stake.

So where does differentiation for the end client lie today? In the softer side of client experience.

It's old news to point out that clients expect something different from their financial advisor in the wake of the financial crisis. But the ways in which advisory practices and wealth management firms are responding to this new reality is still in flux. The general trend on the client side is more engagement. Clients are more active participants in personal financial matters, they demand independent research, and they triangulate among sources of information. That makes the advisors' job harder. They are pressed for greater transparency, and their advice is more closely scrutinized. But it is also an opportunity for greater client intimacy.

Generalized marketing communications will not fly with clients today. The key to client intimacy is relevance. And relevance is best achieved by advisors empowered to make personalized responses that are both appropriate and genuine. We see three keys to creating a positive, differentiated client experience:

1. Client Segmentation

It is not possible to be all things to all people, especially given present client demands. In fact, practices that don't spend the time to define their ideal client-one they're equipped to service effectively and profitably-will find themselves distracted and unable to execute according to their core competency.

While incremental revenue may be appealing (especially for smaller advisors), the discipline in sticking to a target is key to scale in this market. This step is an essential precursor to proactively affecting client experience.

2. A Touch-Point Strategy Based on Relevance

For some time now, leading firms have instituted client touch-point programs designed to capitalize on the loyalty elicited by an appropriate number and type of client communications. Traditional programs have recommended anywhere from 20 to 26 touch points per year, with the following guidelines: four quarterly performance reviews; 12 standardized e-communications such as those provided by an e-newsletter program; and the remainder in a combination of events, seminars for loyalty and cross-sell, and timely communications in response to life or financial events.

In principle a touch-point strategy is a sound way to stay front and center with clients. A likely evolution in these programs will include a far greater degree of advisor empowerment in terms of content selection, authorship and distribution-including via social media channels, which are areas that naturally require more spontaneity and authenticity.

Of course, these are also areas traditionally avoided by those who see them as a potential minefield for compliance. Affiliated advisors will often feel more encumbered in this regard, but conversely will benefit from marketing programs-including centrally produced intellectual capital and resources-more formalized than those available to independent advisors.

3. A Service Model Based on Genuine Value

One large change in the way clients expect to be treated has manifested in the shift from aspirational goal-setting to talking realistically to clients about risk and reward. Clients today demand to understand the trade-offs and risks inherent in their financial strategy.

This means greater reliance on financial planning, but also requires a change in an advisor's bedside manner. Clients want to understand the relevance of the product being sold and how it matches their circumstances. Advisors who adopt a clear, transparent way of positioning products and services in light of a client's individual financial picture (and detail the potential risks) will have the greatest success in establishing trust.

Certain firms have gone so far as to let clients see the same performance reporting platform that the advisor uses to monitor the client's portfolio. Complete transparency into holdings, of course, adds the problem of clients overreacting to their holdings' daily value fluctuations. While this may necessitate more client hand-holding on the part of advisors, such joint involvement is also key to trust and client intimacy.

Of course, there is no simple off-the-shelf marketing tool that will instantly adapt advisor communications to the new client expectations. Advisors looking to succeed in this new paradigm shift are the ones who can learn to let go of the old way of doing things and reorient their practices to bring clients what they want: a more engaged, genuine and relevant conversation about the things that matter most to them.

Dan Slivjanovski is executive vice president of HNW Inc., an integrated marketing services firm, catering to premier financial services institutions seeking to acquire, retain and grow share of affluent clients.