The "Who We Don't Work With" Page for Financial Planning Practices

20 September 2026·6 min read

Quick answer: A "who we don't work with" page filters out the wrong-fit enquiries before they reach your calendar, and it does something a generic "our services" page never can — it signals genuine expertise, because only a practice that really knows its niche can describe, in specific terms, who isn't a good fit for it. Done well, it increases the quality of enquiries even as it politely reduces the quantity. 🌴

Please note: general information, not financial advice — always check current regulatory guidance and your own licensing/compliance obligations before relying on it.

Every financial planning practice has had the enquiry that goes nowhere — the pre-qualification call, the fact-find, the proposal, and then silence, because the prospect was never really a fit for the practice's minimum, service model or specialty. 💖 It's expensive in adviser time and, frankly, a bit demoralising. A "who we don't work with" page fixes a surprising amount of this before it ever reaches a calendar booking, because it does the filtering work publicly, upfront, in the prospect's own browsing time rather than in your discovery call.

What most firms get wrong

Most practices are afraid to say who they don't serve, worried it'll look arrogant or turn away revenue. The result is a website that tries to be everything to everyone — which, ironically, makes it harder for the right prospects to recognise themselves. Common mistakes:

Being vague instead of specific. "We work best with established professionals" tells a reader almost nothing actionable.
Framing exclusions as insults rather than fit. The tone should be "we're not the right practice for this" not "we don't bother with people like this."
Hiding minimums instead of stating them. If your practice has a genuine minimum investable assets threshold or service fee floor, saying so plainly saves everyone time — vagueness here just delays an awkward conversation to later in the funnel.
Not pairing it with a "who we do work with" section — the page needs both halves to read as helpful rather than exclusionary.

The copy-paste page structure

Opening line (warm, not defensive): "We do our best work with a specific type of client — which means we're honestly not the right fit for everyone, and we'd rather tell you that upfront than waste your time."
Who we work best with (3–5 bullet points, specific): e.g. "Pre-retirees within 10 years of finishing full-time work," "Business owners preparing to sell or transition out of their business," "Households with more complexity than a single default super fund can handle."
Who we're probably not the right fit for (3–5 bullet points, specific and kind): e.g. "People looking for a one-off transactional product sale rather than ongoing advice," "Portfolios below [your genuine threshold, if you have one] — we're honest that our ongoing service model doesn't make sense below this level," "Anyone wanting guaranteed investment returns — we don't work that way, and you should be wary of anyone who says they can."
The redirect line: "If that's you, [directory/resource, e.g. the Financial Advice Association Australia's Find a Planner tool] is a good place to look for a practice better suited to your situation."
Soft close: "If you read the above and thought 'that's actually us' — we'd love to hear from you. Book a no-obligation initial chat below."

A financial planning practice serving pre-retirees: Adding a "who we don't work with" section that explicitly named "people in their 20s and 30s just starting out — you deserve advice too, but a different kind of practice will serve you better at this stage" cut down significantly on enquiries from younger prospects who weren't a fit, freeing up discovery call slots for the practice's actual target demographic. The trade-off: a handful of younger enquiries the practice might have converted anyway self-selected out, which the adviser accepted as a reasonable cost of a cleaner pipeline.

An SMSF-focused advice practice: They specifically named "people wanting help with a self-managed super fund purely to buy speculative or high-risk single-asset investments" as a non-fit, which did real reputational work — prospects arriving via referral already understood the practice's more conservative, advice-led approach to SMSF before the first call, which shortened early conversations considerably.

A newer practice building its client base: This one is the honest caution — a very early-stage or newer practice publishing a strict "who we don't work with" page can accidentally strangle its own pipeline before it has enough volume to be selective. One newer adviser had to soften the page considerably after realising it was screening out viable, if slightly outside-ideal, prospects the practice genuinely needed at that stage of growth.

How to actually do this

Look at your last 12 months of discovery calls that went nowhere. What did those prospects have in common? That's your first draft of exclusions — grounded in real experience, not guesswork.
Separate "genuinely not a fit" from "just needs more nurturing." Someone with lower savings today who's on a clear trajectory upward is a different case to someone wanting a one-off product sale — don't lump them together.
Write every exclusion with a kind, specific reason. "We're not the right fit for X because [genuine reason]" reads very differently to a bare list of who to avoid.
Always offer a redirect. Pointing excluded readers somewhere useful (an industry directory, a general resource) keeps the tone generous rather than gatekeeping.
Place it where it'll actually be found — linked from your homepage or "work with us" page, not buried three clicks deep, since its whole job is pre-qualifying before the enquiry form.
Revisit it every 12 months. As your practice's ideal client shifts (which it will), the page needs to shift with it — a page written for a five-person practice won't fit the same practice at fifteen people.

💡 Have your admin or intake person read the page before you publish it. They're the ones fielding enquiries day-to-day and will spot immediately whether the tone reads as helpful or as cold — that instinct is worth more than a marketer's opinion here.

Mistakes to avoid

Publishing exclusions with no explanation, which reads as dismissive rather than honest.
Setting the bar so high, so early, that a growing practice starves its own pipeline.
Forgetting the "who we do work with" half — a page of pure exclusions feels negative without it.
Making exclusions so vague they don't actually filter anything ("we work with serious clients only").
Never revisiting the page as the practice's ideal client and capacity change over time.

Frequently asked questions

Won't this page just turn away business we could have won anyway?

Some, yes — that's an honest trade-off, not a hidden win. The bet is that the time saved not chasing poor-fit enquiries, plus the trust built with well-fit ones, outweighs the enquiries you lose. For a newer or smaller practice still building volume, that trade-off may not be worth it yet.

Can we mention specific dollar thresholds, like a minimum portfolio size?

If your practice genuinely has one, stating it plainly usually saves time for everyone — vagueness just moves the same awkward conversation later in the process. Just make sure any figure quoted reflects your actual, current minimum rather than an aspirational one.

Does this page need to be reviewed for compliance before publishing?

It's sensible to have whoever handles your practice's compliance review the language, particularly the "who we work with" claims, to make sure nothing reads as a guarantee of outcomes or crosses into specific advice. Keep it general and factual about service fit, not about investment outcomes.

What if we're a new practice without enough history to know our real exclusions yet?

Start smaller and more general — a short paragraph acknowledging the practice serves a particular type of client, without an exhaustive exclusion list — and build out the fuller version once you've got 12 months or so of real discovery-call data to draw on.

Keep reading 🤝

Written by

Kate, founder of Chronically Online

I help Gold Coast and Brisbane businesses grow with branding, websites and marketing that actually works.

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