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Blog · Wallet share and penetration · Wealth managers

Held-away assets on five clients: the whole arithmetic on one page

The complete held-away and share of wallet calculation on five wealth clients, small enough to check by hand: assets here from the custody record, the held-away figure from a fact-find with its date or estimated from the norm, the source grade per client, the stale fact-find that is treated as an estimate, total investable, share of wallet, the consolidation list of clients whose plan the firm writes, the norm from the two fully-held clients of similar profile, and the assertion that assets here sum to the custody ledger, so a reader can reproduce every figure and then run it on their own client master.

The short answerFive clients. Assets here come from custody. Held away comes from a dated fact-find for three, one of which is forty months old and treated as stale; for the other two it is estimated from the norm, the median total investable among the two fully-held clients of the same age and income band, less assets here. Share of wallet is assets here over assets here plus held away, with the source grade on each line. The consolidation list is clients with a large held-away figure for whom the firm writes the plan: one client with $3.1m held away, an eight-month-old fact-find and a plan by the firm is row one. Assets here sum to the custody ledger. Every number can be reproduced by hand.

Held-away assets are the denominator the firm does not hold, and on five clients the three source grades, the stale rule and the share can be worked by hand. This page works assets here, held away with source, the norm, share, the consolidation list and the assertion. Today: 17 September 2026. Stale after 24 months.

Custody, fact-finds and plans

Client Adviser Age band Income band Assets here Fact-find held-away Fact-find date Plan by the firm?
A AD-1 55 to 64 High $1.4m $3.1m Jan 2026: 8 months Yes
B AD-1 55 to 64 High $0.9m none No
C AD-2 55 to 64 High $3.0m $4.0m May 2023: 40 months Yes
D AD-2 55 to 64 High $4.6m $0.2m Mar 2026 Yes
E AD-1 55 to 64 High $5.1m $0.3m Feb 2026 Yes
Total $15.0m

Custody ledger for the five: $15.0m. Assertion holds.

The norm, from the fully-held clients

D and E hold nearly everything with the firm: total investable $4.8m and $5.4m.

Norm, total investable for the band = median(4.8, 5.4) = $5.1m

Held away, with source grade

Client Held away Source Grade
A $3.1m Fact-find, 8 months Stated
B 5.1 − 0.9 = $4.2m Norm Estimate
C $4.0m Fact-find, 40 months Stated-stale: treated as estimate
D $0.2m Fact-find, 6 months Stated
E $0.3m Fact-find, 7 months Stated

Share of wallet

Share = assets here ÷ (assets here + held away)

Client Total investable Share Grade
A $4.5m 31% Stated
B $5.1m 18% Estimate
C $7.0m 43% Estimate: stale
D $4.8m 96% Stated
E $5.4m 94% Stated

The lists

Consolidation: large held-away, stated and fresh, plan by the firm.

Rank Client Held away Plan Conversation
1 A $3.1m, stated 8 months ago Yes Consolidation: the firm already advises on it

Refresh: stated-stale.

Client Fact-find age Held away then
C 40 months $4.0m; refresh before any conversation

Fact-find needed: estimate only, no plan.

Client Estimate Plan
B $4.2m No: a fact-find first

Per adviser

Adviser Clients Fact-find under 24 months Data quality
AD-1 A, B, E 2 of 3 67%
AD-2 C, D 1 of 2 50%

Where it goes wrong, even at five

Held away never a number. A's $3.1m in the file; in no report.

C's fact-find read as current. A $4.0m consolidation call on a three-year-old balance sheet.

B's estimate shown as their figure. "You have $4.2m elsewhere" to a client who may not.

Consolidation without the plan flag. B and A ranked together; one is a conversation and one is a fact-find.

From five to five hundred

The same three grades per client, the same stale rule, the norm per band from every fully-held client, the same three lists per adviser. Covirage runs it on the client master, the custody record and the fact-find extract every quarter. The held-away assets guide covers the measure, and the stated and estimated guide covers the grades.

Questions people ask

Why treat the forty-month fact-find as stale?

Because a balance sheet from three years ago describes a different client: a sale, an inheritance, a divorce may have happened since. Past the stated age of twenty-four months, the figure is shown as stated-stale, weighted as an estimate, and the client is on the refresh list before the consolidation list.

How is the norm built from two clients?

At five it is two; on a real book it is every fully-held client in the age and income band, as a median, with the count shown. The two here, D and E, have a plan and a recent fact-find showing nearly everything with the firm, and their total investable is the norm for the band.

Why does the plan flag matter?

Because a client whose plan the firm writes has already disclosed the held-away assets and trusts the adviser with the whole picture. Consolidation there is a conversation, not a sale. A client with a large estimate and no plan is a fact-find first.