If April 13ths Wall Street Journal Report: Seven Questions to Ask When Picking a Financial Advisor didn't get your attention, it should have. Author Shelly Banjo sets the context for the story with these startling statistics from Prince & Associations,Inc. a market-research firm:

• More than 75% of individuals with at least $1 million to invest intend to move money away from their financial advisers
• More than 50% intend to leave their advisers altogether

Does this surprise you? Recent research with Financial Advisors shows that most of you believe you are in little risk of losing clients. Big picture – that's a big disconnect. If you're not thinking about losing clients, you’re not thinking strategically. If you haven’t already lost a client or two, it’s probably just a matter of time.

If you want to keep clients and get new ones, you need to differentiate yourself from a pack that investors have grown quite wary of. Establishing a successful CAB is one way to do that.

I believe in it so much that I am offering a FREE 1/2 hour CAB consultation to any of you that are interested in establishing a Client Advisory Board.

Many Financial Advisors claim to be considering the idea of launching a CAB, but few have actually done the thinking and taken the steps to create one.

Another disconnect between FA’s and reality. It remains a puzzle to me.

So, if this is so patently powerful and obvious then why doesn't every FA have a CAB?

I, of course, believe that they should. In fact, I’ve seen such great results in the CAB approach that I’d even argue it should be a new industry standard, like an ISO or Six Sigma certification requirement. In my view, requiring every FA to establish a certified CAB Program would go a long way in creating a new collaborative model for the financial services industry of the future.

How do successful CABs hold so much power? Because they provide an intimate, recurring, facilitated forum for prospects and clients to engage with you in open, on-going, and substantial conversations. This is absolutely one of the best investments you can make in your own success – actively listen to your clients. When we really listen, we tap into a continuous feedback mechanism that generates trust, understanding, and loyalty.

When I say you can learn to use your clients to strategically grow your business, I mean it.

My work is revealing attention-getting results. Our clients have experienced incredible ROI on their expressed success metrics.

We’ve discovered that CAB members provide 50% more referrals than non-board members – and a referral is the very best sign of a loyal customer. Even if a client declines your CAB invitation, the act of approaching them to serve appears to generate more sales, too.

So what I’ve witnessed personally, time and again and in so many ways is a genuine win-win situation for our clients and theirs. We believe that our CAB Program is like giving the proverbial “keys to the kingdom” to Financial Advisers, opening the door to creating more value for and with clients at the strategic level, where it matters most.

If you’re one of those “considering” the idea of establishing a Client Advisory Board, I invite you to take it to the next level. Become an emerging leader! Logon to www.cabhq.com and click our Financial Advisors ad, to register for a FREE 1/2 hour consultation on a CAB for your practice: