Successful advisors are putting as much thought and care into their own businesses as they are into their clients’ matters.

That’s the conclusion of “Successful Advisors: The Year Over Year Trends,” a recent special report based on Nationwide’s sweeping Advisor Authority study, an annual survey taking the pulse of more than 1,021 RIAs and other fee-based advisors of various sizes and experience levels.

The most successful advisors studied by Nationwide earned more income and managed more AUM than their peers. To be labeled “successful,” advisors had to either manage more than $250 million in total AUM, or had to earn more than $500,000 in personal yearly income from their advisor business.

More than two-fifths of successful advisors, 42%, met the yearly earnings thresholds—while the vast majority of advisors outside of Nationwide’s successful category, 97%, did not. Similarly, more than three-quarters of the successful advisors, 76%, met Nationwide’s AUM threshold of $250 million, while 100% of advisors falling outside of the successful category managed less than $250 million.

This year, Nationwide surveyed 507 RIAs, 514 broker-dealers and 824 adult investors online between February 15 and March 4.

Successful advisors, Nationwide found, generally felt they were significantly more likely to increase the profitability of their practices through 2019, held a more optimistic financial outlook for the year and trended younger than non-successful advisors. Successful advisors were more likely to come from Generation X and the millennial generation than their peers. Successful advisors also tended to have larger client bases than their peers.

But how did they achieve their success? Nationwide found seven traits that almost all successful advisors have in common:

No. 1: Successful advisors plan ahead.

Successful advisors identify trends and set new ones and remain open to change over time, while other advisors tended to “stick to the status quo,” according to Nationwide.

Successful advisors felt more confident that they would be able to increase the profitability of their practices than the Advisor Authority respondents overall, but year over year the number of advisors who feel they will increase profitability has declined in both the successful advisor cohort and among all the participants of the survey.

No. 2: Successful advisors are technology innovators.

One potential reason that successful advisors are able to serve more clients is that they’re using technology effectively within their practices. A willingness to adopt new technology allows successful advisors to stay ahead of their competition, according to Nationwide.

In this year’s Advisor Authority study, successful advisors were significantly more likely than respondents as a whole to implement risk management tools, client portals, mobile apps, artificial intelligence and robo-advisors.

No. 3: Successful advisors put their clients first.

The fiduciary standard is a starting point, according to Nationwide. The successful advisors use the trust they earn with their clients to deepen relationships, create loyalty and bring more assets under management.

Successful advisors were far more likely to support a strict, uniform fiduciary standard than the entire body of advisors in the survey. When Nationwide polled investors about factors that influenced them to work with advisors, the fee-based fiduciary model was the third most commonly cited factor, trailing only advisor experience and personalized, holistic advice.

No. 4: Successful advisors commit to the client experience.

According to Nationwide, the most successful advisors look holistically across the client relationship to find ways to enhance client experiences, from first contact, to onboarding, to daily or weekly communications, to annual reviews. Technology is essential to creating a streamlined, user-friendly client experience.

Repeatedly in the Advisor Authority study, successful advisors were more likely than the survey participants in total to recognize the benefits of implementing technology to enhance the client experience, and less likely to think of technology merely as a tool to enhance investment outcomes. Successful advisors were also more likely to embrace e-mail, social media and applications for client communications.

No. 5: Successful advisors are both targeting new clients and working to retain heirs.

Successful advisors continually prospect for new clients to drive the organic growth of their practices, according to Nationwide, and to accelerate that growth, are open to targeting next-generation clients and heirs with enhanced client experiences.

In the Advisor Authority study, all advisors, successful and otherwise, named adding new clients as the top driver of firm growth, followed by the targeting of high-net-worth clients and the addition of new technology. Successful advisors in the study differentiated themselves by being much more willing than other advisors to prioritize the addition of new hires and the consolidation of technology. They were also more likely to change strategies—or business models—to attract the next generation of investors.

No. 6: Successful advisors are bullish on mergers and acquisitions.

The most successful advisors embrace the M&A trend as they look for new ways to benefit their clients and grow their business.

Nationwide found that successful advisors were more likely to think that M&A activity will increase in the future and were more likely to think positively about the impacts of M&A and industry consolidation. Larger proportions of successful advisors thought consolidation could provide greater resources to serve clients and expand businesses, allow them to take advantage of more technology and increase opportunities to buy other practices.

No. 7: Successful advisors protect their clients.

According to Nationwide, a successful advisor will be able to recommend risk-management strategies to clients to protect them against market volatility and the possibility of outliving their savings, acting as “safe havens in an uncertain world.”

In the Advisor Authority study, successful advisors were marginally more likely to have strategies in place to protect their clients from market risk. They were also more likely to use product-driven solutions to mitigate risk, solutions such as diversification, fixed annuities, liquid alternatives, smart beta ETFs and other non-correlated assets.