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Blog · Coverage and territory · Wealth managers

Referral source by adviser: where new clients come from, and what each source is worth

How a wealth management firm measures its new client sources from the client master and the assets and fee records: clients won per source per adviser, assets and first-year fees by source, retention at three years by source from the firm's own history, the advisers whose books grow from client referrals against those dependent on one introducer, and the concentration risk in an introducer that sends a third of a firm's new assets.

The short answerEvery new client has a source on the master: existing client referral, professional introducer, seminar, inbound, or adviser's own network. Per source and per adviser, the count, the assets at onboarding and the first-year fees say what each source brings, and the firm's own three-year retention by source says what it keeps. An adviser whose new assets come mostly from client referrals has a book that grows itself; one dependent on a single introducer has a concentration the firm should see, because that introducer's relationship is with the adviser, not the firm.

A wealth firm knows how many new clients it won this year and how many assets they brought. It rarely knows which sources they came through, per adviser, what those sources' clients look like three years later, or that a third of the year's new assets came through one accountant who talks only to one adviser. The client master and the fee records say all of it. This guide sets out source by adviser, value by source, retention by source, and introducer concentration.

The measures

Per source, per adviser, per year:

New clients, assets at onboarding, first-year fees Three-year retention = clients still here three years after onboarding ÷ clients onboarded, from history Assets retained at three years

Per introducer:

Share of new assets, per adviser and firm-wide

The rows you need

  • Client master: client, adviser, onboarding date, source, introducer identifier where applicable, status.
  • Assets and fees: client, assets at onboarding, fees by year.

Client, adviser and introducer identifiers only.

The assertion

new clients in the year = Σ sources, with unknown source as its own bucket, counted

The unknown share per adviser is on the report; it is the data quality figure for the measure.

A worked view, firm-wide

Source New clients Assets at onboarding First-year fees 3-year retention Assets retained at 3 years
Client referral 84 $61m $520,000 91% $58m
Professional introducer 62 $88m $710,000 82% $71m
Seminar 41 $19m $160,000 64% $11m
Inbound 28 $14m $120,000 71% $9m
Unknown 19 $12m

Introducers bring the largest assets; client referrals keep the most. Seminars bring assets that a third of the time leave within three years.

Per adviser

Adviser New assets Client referral share Introducer share Top introducer share Reading
A-07 $41m 62% 20% 8% Self-growing book
A-12 $38m 12% 71% 58% Dependent on one introducer
A-03 $14m 40% 10% 5% Mixed; small

Adviser A-12's book grows through one accountancy firm that sends $22m a year and knows nobody else at the firm. That is concentration the firm does not own, and the fix is a second relationship with the introducer.

Where it goes wrong

Source not recorded. The measure cannot exist. Populate it at onboarding.

Onboarding assets as the value. Seminars look good until year three.

Introducer concentration unseen. The adviser leaves and the introducer goes too.

Firm-wide only. The dependent adviser is inside a healthy mix.

Every year, source by adviser with retention

Mapped once, the client master and the fee records produce sources by adviser, value and retention by source, and introducer concentration every year. Covirage builds this from the exports as they are. The wealth managers page describes the setup, and the adviser concentration guide covers the other concentration the same firm should see.

Questions people ask

Where does the source come from?

The client master's source field, recorded at onboarding. Where it is missing, the first contact in the log is a proxy, labelled. A firm with the field empty for half its clients has a data finding before it has a source finding, and the report shows the share populated per adviser.

Why retention by source?

Because sources differ in what they keep. Clients referred by other clients typically stay longer than seminar clients at most firms, and the firm's own history says by how much. A source that brings assets that leave in two years is worth less than its onboarding figure suggests.

What is introducer concentration?

The share of a firm's, or an adviser's, new assets in a period that came through one professional introducer, an accountant or a solicitor. A third from one introducer is a relationship the firm depends on and usually does not own, and the report names it.