How to Write a Financial Planner FAQ Page That Pre-Qualifies Enquiries
Most financial planner FAQ pages are written to sound reassuring and end up saying nothing. "What happens at the first meeting?" "We'll get to know you and discuss your goals." Technically true, completely useless. A FAQ page has a harder job to do than that: it needs to answer the questions a genuinely good-fit client is quietly asking themselves before they fill in your contact form — and answer them honestly enough that a poor-fit enquiry self-selects out before it ever reaches your inbox. Get this right and your intake calls get shorter, your conversion rate on first meetings goes up, and your team spends less time 💖 on enquiries that were never going to go anywhere.
What most firms get wrong with their FAQ page
The instinct is to keep it vague, on the theory that specifics might scare people off. "Our fees vary depending on your situation" is the classic non-answer — and it backfires, because the people most likely to be put off by vagueness are exactly the well-qualified prospects who are used to professional services being upfront about cost. Meanwhile, the people who do enquire after reading a vague FAQ are disproportionately the ones hoping the answer is "cheaper than they think," because nothing in your FAQ told them otherwise. A sharper FAQ page does the opposite of what feels comfortable: it gives real numbers, real minimums, and a real "who we don't work with" answer, and trusts that the right people will read it and still want to talk to you.
The pre-qualifying FAQ question set
Build your FAQ page around these five categories, answered as specifically as you're comfortable with:
- How do you charge for advice? — name the fee model (fixed fee, percentage of funds under advice, hourly, retainer) and give a realistic range, even a broad one. "Our ongoing advice fees typically start from $X,XXX per year depending on complexity" tells a reader more in one line than three paragraphs of "it depends."
- Is there a minimum balance or income level you work with? — if you have one, say so. If you don't have a hard minimum but do have a realistic complexity threshold ("advice tends to add the most value once you have X happening in your situation"), say that instead.
- What areas of advice do you cover — and what don't you? — list it plainly: retirement planning, insurance, super, investment advice, and then name what's out of scope (e.g. tax return preparation, estate legal drafting, mortgage broking) and who you refer out to.
- Who do you work best with? — one or two sentences describing your actual ideal client, by life stage or situation, not by net worth jargon.
- What happens after I enquire? — set expectations: a short qualifying call first, or straight to a paid initial meeting, and roughly how long the process takes.
How to actually set this up
Start by pulling the last twenty or so enquiries that went nowhere — the ones where the first call or email revealed a mismatch on fees, complexity, or advice area. Write down, in the prospect's own words if you can, what they assumed before they found out it wasn't a fit. Those assumptions are your FAQ questions. Draft honest, specific answers (run the fee wording past your compliance or AFSL requirements before publishing, since this sits close to a financial services guide disclosure), and place the FAQ page link in your main navigation and again at the bottom of your contact form — not buried three clicks deep where only the most determined prospects find it. Revisit it twice a year as your fee structure or minimums change.
Mistakes to avoid
- Answering in vague reassurance instead of specifics: "it depends" answers every question and pre-qualifies nobody.
- Hiding the fee structure entirely: forces every enquiry to ask about cost on the first call, which wastes everyone's time if the answer was always going to be a dealbreaker.
- Writing it for compliance sign-off rather than for readers: technically accurate, legally safe, and completely unreadable isn't the goal — clear and compliant both need to be true.
- Never updating it: a FAQ page with outdated fee ranges or an advice area you no longer offer actively generates mismatched enquiries.
- Burying the page in the footer: if it's not linked from your contact or services pages, it's not doing its filtering job before the enquiry comes in.
Frequently asked questions
Won't publishing fee ranges online scare away good clients?
Generally the opposite — clients who are a genuine fit for professional advice tend to expect transparency and are reassured by it. The people most often put off by clear pricing are the ones who were hoping for a lower number, which is exactly the filtering effect you want.
Do I need to give an exact dollar figure, or is a range okay?
A realistic range is enough to do the pre-qualifying work. The goal isn't a binding quote on the FAQ page, it's giving the reader enough information to self-assess fit before they enquire.
How specific should the "who we work with" answer be?
Specific enough to be useful, but it's worth testing in practice — a description that's too narrow can also quietly discourage a genuinely good-fit client who doesn't see themselves in it exactly. Describe the situation, not a demographic label, and review it if you notice strong-fit enquiries dropping off.
Should every answer be reviewed by compliance before it goes live?
Yes, particularly the fee and advice-area answers, since these can brush up against financial services guide and AFSL disclosure requirements. Please note: this is general information, not financial advice — check current ASIC guidance and your AFSL compliance requirements before publishing anything that describes your fees or advice scope.
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