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Blog · Board and management reporting · Wealth managers

Adviser concentration: how much of the book leaves if one adviser does

How a wealth management firm measures the share of assets and revenue attached to each adviser, the client-level dependency behind it, the succession list of advisers whose books have no second relationship, and why the figure is reported per office and per team, not just for the firm.

The short answerAdviser concentration is the share of the firm's assets and revenue attached to each adviser as primary, and the share of those clients with no second relationship at the firm. From the client master and the revenue ledger. Rolled up per team and per office, it shows where one departure takes a quarter of the office's book, and the succession list is the advisers over a stated share whose clients have no second contact, ranked by assets at risk.

A wealth firm's board sees assets under management and net flows. It does not see that one adviser in the northern office is the only person forty of the firm's top clients have ever spoken to. The client master and the contact log see it. This guide sets out adviser concentration, the second-relationship measure, and the succession list.

The measures

Per adviser:

Book share = assets where adviser is primary ÷ assets in the office Sole-relationship share = assets on clients with no second contact in twelve months ÷ adviser's assets Assets at risk = adviser's assets × sole-relationship share

Per office, per team: the same, rolled up.

The rows you need

  • Client master: client, primary adviser, second adviser, office, team, assets.
  • Revenue ledger: client, revenue, period.
  • Contact log: client, adviser, date.

Client and adviser identifiers only.

The assertion

office assets = Σ advisers' assets as primary = Σ clients

A client with two primary advisers or none fails it and is listed.

Expected share

In an office of n advisers, each would hold 1/n of the book if evenly spread. An adviser at more than a stated multiple of 1/n is concentrated. The multiple is on the report; the arithmetic is the office's own.

A worked succession list

One office, six advisers, $1.2bn.

Adviser Assets Book share Expected Sole-relationship share Assets at risk
A-07 $520m 43% 17% 71% $369m
A-12 $240m 20% 17% 22% $53m
A-03 $180m 15% 17% 48% $86m

Adviser A-07 holds two and a half times the expected share, and seventy percent of it is with clients who know nobody else at the firm. Three hundred and sixty-nine million dollars leaves the office with one resignation letter. The fix is not a smaller book; it is a second contact on those clients, and the list says which forty.

Where it goes wrong

Second adviser on the record, no contact. The measure reads relationship where there is a name. Require a logged contact.

Firm-level only. Nobody is over 5 percent and one office is one person.

Revenue ignored. Assets and revenue concentrate differently; a smaller book with the highest-fee clients is the bigger risk. Report both.

Read as a performance measure. A concentrated adviser is a successful one. The list is about the second contact, not the first.

Every quarter, per office

Mapped once, the client master, the ledger and the contact log produce the shares, the expected shares and the succession list every quarter. Covirage builds this from the exports as they are. The wealth managers page describes the setup, and the contact recency guide covers the contact signal the second relationship depends on.

Questions people ask

What is a second relationship?

A named second adviser, associate or planner on the client record who has had a logged contact with the client in the last year. A name on the record with no contact is not a relationship, and the report treats it as none.

What share is too much?

It depends on the office. An office of three advisers will have one at 40 percent and that is arithmetic. The report shows each adviser's share against their office's expected share, which is one over the number of advisers, and flags the ones well above it.

Why per office and not the firm?

Because a single adviser at 4 percent of the firm can be 45 percent of their office, and it is the office that loses the clients and the office that has to absorb the departure.