Most advisor "About" pages read like a LinkedIn bio. Credential, then credential, then a sentence about the family, then maybe a line about giving back. They tell a prospect what you've done. They tell a prospect nothing about why you exist.

That's a problem.

The credential list and the actual brand

Here's what most advisor About pages say, give or take a comma: "John has more than 25 years of experience in wealth management. A CFP® and CFA®, he holds an MBA from Wharton. He lives in Charlotte with his wife and two children, and is active in his community."

Here's what John's best client would say if you asked them why they work with him: "When my dad died, John called me back on a Saturday. He hadn't been our advisor for two years yet. He sat in the conference room with us for four hours figuring out the estate. He didn't bill us for that meeting. I think about that meeting every time someone asks me for a referral."

One of those paragraphs is a CV. The other is a brand. The founder story is the bridge between them.

What the founder story actually has to do

A real founder story does three things on the page:

It earns the reader's attention. Specific beats generic, always. "Twenty-five years of experience" earns nothing. "I left the wirehouse the week they told me to push another structured product" earns five seconds.

It explains who you actually serve. Not in a "we work with high-net-worth families" sense — in a "we work with surgeons who are bad at saying no to their partners" sense. The founder story is your filter. Clients who don't fit self-select out, which is the entire point.

It makes the rest of the site believable. The investment philosophy reads differently after you've told the reader you watched your father's broker miss the 2008 warning signs. So does the fee page.

How to write yours

Open a document. Don't think about your website yet. Answer four questions in writing:

Why did you start this practice? Not "to help families" — that's everyone's answer. Why you specifically, in this specific way, at this specific moment. What were you doing before. What made you stop.

Who do you want sitting across from you in twenty years? Be specific. A type. A profession. A life situation. If you say "anyone with $2M+," you don't have a brand yet.

What do you refuse to do? The things you say no to define you faster than the things you say yes to. No commissions. No annuities. No clients under a certain asset level. No clients you can't be honest with.

What's the one moment in your practice you tell other advisors about? That's the moment that goes on your About page.

The page itself

It doesn't need to be long. Six paragraphs is plenty. Open with the moment. Bridge to what you do now. End with who you're built for. Let the credentials live in a sidebar, where they belong — as evidence, not as the argument.

The credential list says you're qualified. The founder story says you're specific. The first one gets you considered. The second one gets you hired.