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If you’re wondering what makes a successful versus struggling financial advisor, Ben Braverman, Senior Market Consultant at SMS, breaks it down. He explains three advisor growth strategies in 2026 that will differentiate agents and advisors, including which topics attract leads, what technology advisors need, and how your partners matter now more than ever.
Hi, I'm Ben Braverman, senior consultant at SMS Financial Solutions™. Today's ask an expert question is:
Q. What will separate the offices that grow in 2026 from the ones that stall or stay flat?
A. So far as last year, annuity sales were actually relatively flat. But many of our growth-minded offices saw significant year-over-year growth. We expect the same for those offices and new offices joining us in 2026.
There's three primary reasons that you'll see, advisors and/or offices that grow in 2026 versus ones that stall or stay flat.
The first is a consistent, systematic, on-purpose-by-design marketing campaign. We see the largest ROI from seminars, specifically seminars including the topics taxes in retirement and estate planning. These also could be done via webinar and could be further promoted via social media, including YouTube, podcasts and other formats.
When it comes to seminars, SMS Financial Solutions is a premier seminar IMO. We have the collateral, the knowhow, the relationships to make those seminars a consistent, and not sporadic, success.
Q. What else are our top offices doing to grow in 2026 versus becoming stagnant or flat?
A. Our top offices and the offices we onboard will train and implement comprehensive strategies. Safe money is great. Zero is hero. Guaranteed income you can’t outlive.
But how does that differentiate you from the offices down the street?
Our top offices that are growth-minded are talking about:
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Tax planning
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Medicare — not just addressing the wealth care question in retirement, but the very vital and important health care question in retirement
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Social Security claiming strategies
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Estate planning, as I previously alluded to
Perhaps hybrid long-term care to deal with the high probability that someone who's 65 will probably need some type of health impairment insurance or help in the course of their retirement.
These things all can be communicated well to a client via technology. And SMS has the tech stack and end-to-end sales automation system to articulate, as well as validate, the need for the implementation of many of these strategies.
On the insurance side, be it hybrid long-term care or Medicare, that's another conversation that you can do in the same house — i.e. SMS Financial Solutions — that you can talk about annuities, assets under management and more.
The third thing that's going to differentiate growth offices is partnership. We work in a true consulting capacity here at SMS Financial Solutions, where somebody is always available to answer the phone.
That means that be it case design, business development or, on occasion, those pesky not-in-good-order issues at the carrier, we have the technology and the staff of more than 700 people to make sure that from submission to commission, you're working with speed of play to increase volume, talk to more of the clients you want to, and most importantly, free up your time to spend with friends and family.
Those are three ways that offices working with SMS in 2026 will grow and not stay stagnant, much like many of them did in 2025.
Again, I'm Ben Braverman, senior consultant at SMS Financial Solutions, and I look forward to helping you — and my colleagues do, as well — grow in 2026.
To learn about all the ways SMS can help you grow your business, fill out this form or call an SMS marketing consultant today at 1.877.645.4939.
Looking to Grow in 2026 and Beyond?
SMS breaks it down into three manageable steps, with three resources that help you take action.
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