There is, of course, a paucity of Ms. Kleins in the financial services industry, too many characters who might look good in a suit but are better-suited to living up to clichés about used-car salespeople.

Klein was invited to speak Monday at the National Association of Plan Advisors conference in San Diego at a workshop on innovations in advice.

Studies show that advice works, NAPA noted in its promotion of the workshop. "Whether it's one-on-one advice, online modeling, active email campaigns or other means, advised participants enjoy better outcomes," it said.

CAPTRUST, which has offices in 20 locations across the country, 1,200 clients and $160 billion in assets under management, is a big believer in advice, though not just any kind.

"What we've seen is that DIY doesn't work," Klein said. "And online advice penetration has historically been very low. Our belief is that people will only do so much on their own. They want a face, not an interface."

Take that robo-advisors!

The problem still is that people generally just don't know where to go to find a face they can trust. That's where the best plan sponsors can come in, offering as a benefit the sort of advice their workforces desperately needs.

At the moment, Klein says, it's generally the larger, more "paternalistic" sponsors who have embraced this notion, leaving plenty of room for the middle- and small-business markets to catch up.

CAPTRUST has spent the past couple of years figuring out how to better connect with more Americans hoping to save enough to retire in some degree of comfort.

It has had 14 people who are constantly in the field, holding one-on-one advice sessions with as many people each day as they can. And now CAPTRUST is moving forward with tablet-based software that allows it to hold workshops with groups of people at a time, while still delivering one-to-one advice.

Klein said CAPTRUST clocked nearly 14,000 individual appointments in 2014. Its new technology will allow it to see as many as 70,000 people a year.

"To us, this is raising the bar," she said.

It is, indeed. The goal, she said, is to have connected with up to 25 percent of the participants in the company's client base over the next three years – a far better result than the 10-percent penetration rate common in the DIY realm.

The bottom line is that CAPTRUST, rather than tackling the complex (and still-illegal) business of cloning Ms. Klein, has invested in software that any of its rivals could develop, too.

For any of it to work, however, trust will be needed.