What is my advice business worth?

The short version

An advice business is priced off its recurring income, adjusted for how safely that income will still be there once you are not. Two firms with identical turnover can be worth materially different amounts, and the gap is almost always about risk rather than size.

Recurring income is the starting point

Ongoing adviser charges are the base. Initial fees and one-off work are counted, but far more cautiously, because they do not repeat. A firm with 85% of its income recurring is a different asset from one at 40%, whatever the totals say.

What moves the number up

Client age profile that is not all in drawdown at once. Assets on platforms a buyer already uses. Suitability files that are complete and consistent. A team that stays. Reviews genuinely happening on the cycle you claim. Low concentration, so no single client can take a chunk of the value with them.

What moves it down

Everything walking out with you. If clients bought you rather than the firm, a buyer is pricing the risk that they leave within a year. Defined-benefit transfer history, past-business review exposure and unresolved complaints all reduce it, sometimes sharply.

Why we show you the workings

A number with no explanation is a negotiating position, not a valuation. At the indicative-terms stage we set out the range and the drivers behind it, so you can see which of them you could still change.