A growing number of successful advisors use "client segmentation strategies" in which communications and services are matched to personal life stages, attitudes or objectives. For example, you can select client segments such as pre-retirees, conservative investors or income-seekers. Once you have identified characteristics that drive clients' needs and values, you then can focus messages, target services, and build stronger relationships over time.

A growing segment of today's market is being ignored by almost all financial professionals. Virtually no research has profiled these investors, and few financial marketers are targeting them. Yet, their voices can be heard on blogs and talk radio shows, around the water-cooler at work, and in daily communications between advisors and clients

The segment comprises people who have gradually lost faith in the transparency, integrity and fairness of financial markets and systems. Because nobody has yet identified them with a tag that sticks, let's call them distrustful investors.