The lessons of the last two years have many advisors focused on trying to differentiate their investment approaches and their brands to stand out from competitors. Clients are asking more questions and preferring to be more engaged with their investments. By keeping their hands on the details of their portfolios, drilling down more on recommendations and fees, and trying to comprehend risk, clients are able to maintain a feeling of more control of their battered retirement portfolios.

On the one hand, affluent clients have said they want informed advisors who are fully invested in their goals and needs and who focus on their complete financial picture. On the other hand, they want more control as they work with this trusted advisor-at least some do.

As their advisor, you are in the middle of that tug-of-war. The voice in your head may ask: If I outsource investment decisions, will my client respect the role I play and how will I demonstrate value for the fees I earn? That question of demonstrating value is worthy of discussion.

For years you were the investment source: reading research, attending meetings and conference calls and putting trades together. These activities were largely invisible to your clients until the moment of your conversation, meeting or portfolio review about their investments.

Outsourcing management does change the natural order of things. And it turns out that clients highly value the activities they can see: the planning, focus and attention on their goals and plans. Think of all the time you once spent reading research on equities you decided not to buy, or the meetings you took with fund wholesalers whose funds you never owned.

The managed era presents an opportunity to change things up. The key is to reallocate your time so you can move upstream in your relationships with them.

That means spending more time on proactive client activities that deepen your relationships with customers and takes in the full picture of their financial needs and concerns. Rebuilding the relationship with them means that you have more time to spend on client education, portfolio reviews, monitoring their managers' investment decisions and risk management.

Now you create the strategic framework for a more comprehensive relationship. You do this by having a process for assessing the needs, identifying client objectives, addressing risk and uncovering impending financial concerns. You can advocate that all your clients engage in estate planning and even coordinate the process with your best clients' other advisors.

These wealth management issues are of great consequence. By addressing them you elevate your stature with your clients.

When you spend time on the big issues and define your value by taking in a broader range of subjects, you will attract wealthier clients who have more complex concerns. They will refer similar investors who need this guidance because, frankly, most brokers are unable to or are not interested in being the kind of advisor I've just described.

When you think about the activities that clients value most, it is often the guidance around financial and retirement planning and coordinating with advisors-those critical moments in their lives where you weighed in with a process or a solution-and not a product.

Some advisors might say the advice they offer to clients pertaining to retirement readiness and estate planning amounts to the activities they give away for free, and the fees they earn on managed money are for investment oversight. It is time to rethink that notion when you consider just how much clients value this guidance and expertise.

Gerri Leder is an industry marketing consultant and can be reached at this address.