A June study by Boston-based AiteGroup found that only 18% of independent advisors make financial planning the center of their practice. In its report, The Practice of Financial Planning: An Advisor Segmentation, Aite surveyed 165 independents-registered independent advisors (RIAs) and advisors affiliated with independent broker-dealers and insurance-affiliated broker-dealers, whose responses they tallied specially for Financial Planning.

Aite asked advisors which was more important to their business: financial planning or investment management. Only 26% of respondents said financial planning was more important. Twenty-two percent focused primarily on investment management and 52% gave them equal weight.

The results essentially mean that a majority of independent advisors, 74%, consider investment management more important, says Sophie Schmitt, a senior analyst for wealth management at Aite Group. "They are probably not yet comfortable with being generalists, talking about strategy and product offerings, and [instead] want to control the implementation," she says.

Aite sorted the advisors into five types. Some 18% are "planning-driven" and provide planning services for most of their clients. A plurality, 38%, are in the "planning-supported" category: They provide financial plans to more than half their clients but tend to view planning as a means to make investment product recommendations. Eight percent are "planning-selective": They create plans for less than half of their clients, but still view planning as important to their practices. "Planning-challenged" advisors, 19% of the respondents, deliver financial plans to less than half their clients and prefer to focus directly on selling products. The "investment-focused" group, 17%, uses planning the least.

Among the RIAs, 25% are investment-focused, a higher concentration than among other advisors. "A lot of RIAs address wealthier clients who want investment expertise," Schmitt says. The wealthiest clients tend to get financial plans from private bankers, family offices or trust companies. "They do not require the RIA to do one for them," Schmitt says.