Blog · Board and management reporting · Wealth managers
The ten client KPIs a wealth management firm should run on, each with its formula, the export it comes from and what it tells you: net new assets split from market movement, held-away assets, contact recency by client value, outflow watch, adviser concentration, fee margin by client after service cost, referral source value, client age and succession coverage, review completion, and household consolidation. Also the three measures most wealth firms miss, the figures to drop, the identities, and who owns what.
A wealth firm's assets move with markets, which hides what clients are doing. The measures that matter strip the market out, show what each client holds elsewhere, and flag the silences and withdrawals that come before a transfer.
| # | Measure | Formula | Export | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Net new assets | Inflows − outflows, excluding market movement and fees, per client and adviser | Cash movement file; asset file | Whether the business is growing without the market |
| 2 | Held-away assets | Assets disclosed or estimated elsewhere ÷ total client wealth, by source and date | Fact-find and review records; client master | The consolidation opportunity, client by client |
| 3 | Contact recency by value | Revenue of clients with a two-way contact within tier cadence ÷ revenue | CRM; fee ledger | Valuable clients who have heard nothing |
| 4 | Outflow watch | Clients whose withdrawals in the last 3 months exceed their own pattern, excluding planned income | Cash movement file | Transfers beginning |
| 5 | Adviser concentration | Assets and revenue per adviser ÷ firm; share of those clients with one contact only | Asset file; CRM | What leaves if one adviser does |
| 6 | Fee margin per client | Fees − cost of the service model delivered, per client | Fee ledger; service model costs; activity | Clients on a service tier they do not pay for |
| 7 | Referral source value | Clients, assets and retention by referral source, per adviser | Client master; asset file | Where good clients come from |
| 8 | Next-generation coverage | Clients over a stated age with heirs known and met ÷ such clients, by assets | Client master; CRM | Assets that will leave at inheritance |
| 9 | Review completion | Reviews completed within the period due ÷ reviews due, by value | CRM; review schedule | Service promised and not delivered; regulatory exposure |
| 10 | Household consolidation | Households with all members and accounts linked ÷ households | Client master | Whether any per-client measure is right |
Every one of these is computed per account, per adviser and office, and in total, and every one carries an identity that must hold before the table is shown.
Net new assets without the market. In a rising market every adviser looks like they are growing.
Held-away assets. Recorded in a fact-find, never totalled, never ranked.
Next-generation coverage. The largest predictable outflow a firm faces, and rarely on any report.
An adviser's book grew from $210 million to $226 million. Markets added $21 million and fees took $2 million, so clients withdrew a net $3 million. Two clients account for $7 million of outflows; both last had a logged conversation over seven months ago, and both disclosed larger holdings elsewhere at their last review. The book looks like growth of 8 percent and is a net outflow with two transfers under way.
Assets under management as a growth measure. It is mostly the market.
Number of clients. Counts a household three times until consolidated.
Meetings held. Replace with recency by value and review completion.
| Table | Must hold |
|---|---|
| Assets | Opening assets + inflows − outflows + market movement − fees = closing assets |
| Households | Accounts = linked to a household + unlinked |
| Concentration | Adviser assets sum to the firm total; each client has one lead adviser |
| Reviews | Due = completed on time + completed late + overdue |
A table whose identity fails is a table with a row missing or counted twice. It is not shown until it is fixed.
| Measure | Owner | Reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| Outflow watch; contact recency; review completion | Advisers; office heads | Weekly to monthly |
| Net new assets; referral source value | Office heads; chief executive | Monthly |
| Held-away assets; next-generation coverage | Advisers; head of advice | Quarterly |
| Adviser concentration; fee margin; household consolidation | Chief executive; operations | Quarterly |
A measure with no owner is a metric, not a KPI; see KPI versus metric versus measure.
Ten measures from the asset, cash movement and fee files and the CRM. Take the market out first; then the silences and the withdrawals are visible. Covirage computes all of them from the exports wealth firms already produce, files only, with the definitions stated and the identities checked. See Covirage for wealth managers.
Because assets can rise 9 percent in a year in which clients withdrew more than they added. Market movement is not the firm's doing. Net new assets, money in less money out, per adviser and per client, is the measure of whether the business is growing, and it is the one that survives a falling market.
From what clients disclose in fact-finds and reviews, from tax documents and statements they share, and from the norm for fully held clients of similar profile, each labelled by source and date. Stale disclosures are flagged. The estimate is imperfect and still ranks where the largest consolidation opportunities are.
The share of assets and revenue tied to each adviser, with the share of those clients who know nobody else at the firm. A firm where one adviser holds 22 percent of assets, and most of those clients have a single contact, has a risk that does not appear in any client-level report.