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RIA and wealth management

Your revenue is a percentage of someone else's asset values

An advisory firm has one input it cannot control and one cost base that cannot flex. That asymmetry decides what the practice is worth in a bad year.

−45%
Fall in AUM
−108%
Fall in EBITDA
2.4×
Earnings fall per unit of AUM fall
54%
Already in decumulation
What the tool shows

A 45% fall in assets takes 108% off earnings. The firm goes to a loss while the market is only down a third.

Opening AUM$285.0M
Market return, year one−37%
Net flows, 4% new less 12% attrition−8%
Fee revenue at 85 bps plus fixed$1.66M
Cost base, 15% of it flexed$1.73M
EBITDA−$72K

Read from the calculator on its shipped example. Lines marked (derived) are the difference between two of its figures rather than one it displays directly.

Every figure above is computed from inputs you control. Change one and the whole model moves.

Coming Soon →

What it looks like

Share of assets by client age
12%
34%
31%
23%
distributions begin
Under 5050 to 6465 to 7475 plus

54% is already distributing, which happens whatever the market does.

These charts are the calculator’s own, drawn from the example it ships with. Put your figures in and they redraw.

Coming Soon →
The mistake it prevents

Two figures a spreadsheet gets wrong in the same direction. The revenue multiple applied to total revenue prices planning and commission income as if recurring — $471,250 of overstatement. And a principal who still serves clients is normalized at a management salary only, when a buyer keeping that book pays an adviser on the firm's grid too: $315,000 a year, which is $1.26M of price at four times.

What it models
  • Effective fee across five years, so compression reads as a trend
  • Six market scenarios including a lost decade and a 2008-shaped crash
  • Age cohorts and the structural outflow they produce before any selling
  • Flows and market return kept apart, because only one is management
  • The owner's own production charged at the firm's payout grid
Conventions, not research
  • Cohort outflow rates are assumptions, stated as such on the tab.
  • Revenue and earnings multiples default to bands that circulate in advisory M&A.

Rules of thumb that circulate because they are roughly right. The calculator labels them as such and asks you to record your own source.

The tool applies all of this to your numbers, and tells you where it disagrees with itself.

Coming Soon →

Questions people ask

How is an RIA practice valued?

On revenue and earnings, with the effective fee tracked across five years because it falls almost everywhere. Revenue can rise while the rate the book charges falls, and a buyer projects the rate forward.

What happens to my firm in a market drawdown?

Earnings fall faster than assets. On the worked example a 45% fall in AUM takes 108% off EBITDA — the firm goes to a loss while the market is down a third — because the fee comes off the top and the salaries stay.

Does my own book count against the valuation?

Yes. A principal who runs the firm and serves clients is doing two jobs. A buyer keeping that book pays an adviser on the firm's own grid: $315,000 a year on a $900,000 book, which is $1.26M of price at four times.

What does an ageing client base do to the value?

It creates outflow nobody controls. On the worked example 54% of assets sit with clients over 65, and structural outflow of 4.1% a year exceeds net new of 4.0% before markets are considered.

The answers above use the worked example. Your practice will give different ones.

Coming Soon →

How a purchase funds

A lender will advance against an advisory book, but not the way they advance against equipment. There is nothing to recover, so they underwrite the transition.

  1. 1
    SBA 7(a) →Start here

    The usual route for a succession or partner buy-in. Ten years against recurring fee revenue, which is the most lendable cash flow in professional services.

  2. 2
    Acquisition structure →Before you offer

    Bank debt, seller note and equity against coverage. The tool on this page shows coverage in each of six market scenarios, which is what a lender asks about.

  3. 3
    Seller financing →Usually essential

    Standby paper carries the gap between the valuation and what the earnings service. On the worked example that gap is $1.22M.

  4. 4
    Personal financial statement →Required either way

    Every 20% owner files one, and with a client list as the only collateral the guarantor is most of the decision.

Coverage is the binding constraint, not the valuation. The calculator on this page funds to $6.02M against a $7.24M blended valuation, and the difference has to come from equity or seller paper.
Before release · Q4 2026

Up to 50% off for owners who register now

Revenue can rise while the fee rate falls, and a drawdown takes earnings down faster than assets. Register now and have the scenarios modelled before the market makes the point for you.

No credit card required now. As long as your details are in the system, we send the discount access details when the software opens.

And the financing calculators are free and working today. SBA 7(a), 504, CAPLines, Form 413, equipment and seller paper — your account opens all of them the moment you register, months before the valuation software ships.

  • No payment now. Nothing is taken until you choose to buy.
  • Pricing is published at release; your price is up to 50% below it.
  • The discount applies to the first calculator you buy at launch.
What you hand over

The whole analysis exports as one PDF, generated server-side — every tab, the five-year history, the normalization and the working behind each figure. Not a screenshot of the tab you happen to be on.

It carries the business name, the period, who prepared it and for whom, so a lender or a buyer can act on it without asking who produced the figures.

An illustration of the export layout, not a real page. The PDF is generated from your figures.
Register for early access

One email when the software opens, and nothing else. Your details are not sold or passed on.

Open RIA practice →11 tabs · save your work if you want to · current as of August 2026