A single annual review meeting made sense when the alternative was no contact at all outside filing season. It makes progressively less sense as clients grow used to checking in on other parts of their business (banking, project tools, even personal finances) far more often than once a year.
A year is a long time to wait for a course correction
Advice given once a year is, by definition, advice that can only respond to problems that are already twelve months in the making by the time anyone discusses them. A cashflow issue flagged in month three of the year can often still be addressed. The same issue flagged at the annual review, after the year has closed, usually cannot.
Clients increasingly expect a running relationship, not a scheduled one
Clients who are used to seeing continuous updates elsewhere in their business life tend to find a single annual meeting oddly formal by comparison, almost like being asked to schedule an appointment to find out how their own company is doing. That expectation is shifting what firms feel they need to offer just to keep pace, independent of any specific competitive pressure.
A shorter, more frequent check in beats a longer annual one for most clients
Firms experimenting with quarterly or even monthly short check ins, rather than one long annual review, generally report that clients engage with the shorter, more frequent version more consistently, because it fits into a normal working week rather than requiring a client to clear an hour for a single big meeting.
Closing
The annual review is not disappearing because it stopped being useful. It is being supplemented, and in some firms gradually replaced, by a more continuous rhythm of contact that matches how clients now expect to stay informed about anything that matters to their business.
