An advice practice can be sold through a company sale or a client bank sale. A company sale transfers the shares; a client bank sale transfers client relationships and income while leaving the company with you. Comparing the routes means comparing payment terms, retained liabilities, client transfers and your continuing role.
There are two ways to sell an advice firm. You can sell the company, shares and all, or you can sell the client bank and keep the company. Everything else follows from that choice: how the price is worked out, when the money arrives, what your clients go through, and what stays with you afterwards.
This guide sets the two side by side. It is the long version of what sits behind the two figures in your report, and it is the place to start in how firms are sold if you have not yet decided which way you lean.
The two routes in one line each
A company sale is a share sale. The buyer takes the whole firm, your clients stay exactly where they are, and the company changes hands around them.
A client bank sale is an asset sale. You sell the clients and their income to another firm and keep the company, along with its history.
Working alone or employing a team does not decide which route fits. Your circumstances and the terms on offer do. A sole trader has no company to sell, so for a sole trader the client bank is the thing being sold either way.
What a company sale involves
In a company sale the buyer purchases the shares in your limited company. The company does not change; only its owner does. Its contracts, its permissions if it is directly authorised, its staff and its past all stay inside it, and they now belong to the buyer.
For your clients, not much changes on the day. Their agreement is with the company, and the company still exists, so there is usually no need to move anyone. The team can stay together, and many buyers ask the owner to stay on for a while to help with the handover.
The buyer is typically a local firm, a regional consolidator or, for larger practices, a private-equity-backed group. They price the ongoing income you actually charge.
Gunner & Co reports that recurring income is the basis for over 80% of the offers it analyses, and Chapters Capital describes around 4 times recurring income as the norm, with stronger firms priced above it. Once recurring income passes about £400,000, buyers usually price on maintainable profit instead.
What a client bank sale involves
In a client bank sale your company sells specific assets: the client relationships and the income attached to them. The company itself stays with you. So does its history, including any liability for advice given before the sale.
The clients have to come along one by one.
Each client receives a fresh recommendation and moves to the buyer, usually after a visit to see where they will be looked after. Some owners find that harder to watch than they expected, even when the new home is a good one. Others are glad to know exactly where every client has landed.
There are two kinds of buyer for a client bank. A local or regional firm may buy it conventionally, priced and paid much like a company sale.
A national acquirer may buy it on a structured basis, which is the client bank figure in your report. We cover that route in more depth in a structured asset sale to a national acquirer, and the mechanics of selling a book in selling your client bank.
On the structured route the buyer does not price what you charge. It counts income at 0.5% a year of the funds that can realistically move, whatever your current charge. Funds held by clients aged 73 and over are left out, because a sale can take up to two years to complete and clients aged 75 or over by then carry little value to a buyer, and holdings that cannot move as they are count for less.
How each is paid
When the money arrives is often what owners weigh most, and here the two routes differ sharply.
A company sale is typically paid half on completion, with the rest over the following two years: a quarter at twelve months and a quarter at twenty-four months. The later payments are tied to your clients staying. If clients leave in those two years, you may receive less than the headline figure.
How that deferred money is protected is a subject in its own right; see deferred consideration and how to protect it.
A client bank sale to a national acquirer is paid as each client's funds transfer, typically over about ten months. What you receive depends on which clients transfer, rather than on an earn-out target.
Separately, you keep receiving income on transferring clients for up to two years, counted at 0.5% of the eligible funds. Terms vary by acquirer and are set out in writing before any sale.
That difference explains why the two figures in your report can look far apart. A multiple of income counted at 0.5% is not the same thing as a multiple of what you actually charge. For a firm charging well above 0.5%, the gap in pounds is usually smaller than the gap in multiples, and it can close altogether.
What you keep and what you hand over
In a company sale you hand over something whole: the name, the team, the clients and the firm's past. From completion you no longer own the business or the clients. What you keep is your price, subject to the deferred payments, and whatever personal obligations the sale agreement gives you.
In a client bank sale you keep ownership, your clients and their income until each client's funds transfer. After that, those clients belong to the buyer. What you are left with is the company itself, which by then may hold little but its history.
Either way, expect restrictions on what you do next. Buyers usually ask sellers not to compete for or approach the clients they have bought for a period after completion. The detail is in restrictive covenants after a sale.
Liabilities and run-off
Liabilities follow the route. In a company sale they pass to the buyer with the company.
Buyers protect themselves with warranties and indemnities, which are promises from you about the firm's past, backed by money if they turn out wrong. The buyer's lawyers will test them closely. See warranties and indemnities.
In a client bank sale the company keeps its past advice liabilities. Complaints about advice given before the sale still come to your company, and your company still has to be able to meet them.
That usually means arranging run-off cover: professional indemnity insurance for a firm that has stopped advising. What it costs and how long you need it are covered in run-off cover.
The FCA is clear on this point in its expectations of firms selling client banks. The client bank is the firm's asset, the regulator will act where client banks are sold with redress liabilities left behind, and a firm must hold adequate financial resources for potential redress. A sale that could affect a firm's risk profile, value or resources needs a notification under SUP 15.
The shape of the tax
This is the shape only. Your own figures need your accountant.
On a company sale you sell shares, so the gain is normally a personal capital gain. Business Asset Disposal Relief taxes qualifying gains at 18% for disposals from Mon 6th Apr 2026, within a £1 million lifetime limit, per gov.uk. Rates are as at the 2026-27 tax year, and a Budget can change them.
On a client bank sale the gain arises in the company, or personally for a sole trader, and the result depends heavily on how the deal is structured.
Getting money out of a company can mean a second tax step. The comparison is worked through in how asset and share sales are taxed. Take advice before signing anything.
How long each takes
A company sale typically takes three to six months to reach completion, with any earn-out period running on after. Most of that time goes on due diligence, and for a directly authorised firm, on the buyer seeking the regulator's approval for the change in control.
A client bank sale to a national acquirer runs as a data review, then a visit, then signing.
The transfers run on from there, client by client. Neither route is quick, and the stages overlap more than they queue. Realistic timings for the whole journey are in how long a sale actually takes.
Getting ready, whichever route you choose
Buyers on both routes ask for the same things first: clean client data, a consistent fee scale, evidence of the service you provide, and a clear view of any complaints. Tidy records shorten diligence and remove reasons to pay less. Where to start is in what buyers ask for.
Three questions get to the heart of which route suits you.
How would your company's history look under close inspection? How much do you value finality, as against keeping the company and its liabilities? And what does the after-tax comparison say on your actual numbers, rather than in general?
How Practice Value helps
The process here has three steps, and none of them commits you to anything.
- Tell us what you've built. Your funds under advice, your ongoing charge and how the firm is owned are enough to start. A few more questions follow about your clients and where the money sits.
- See your range. Your report shows a figure for each way of selling you choose, what lifted it and what held it back, and the market conditions behind it.
- Choose what happens next. Read more, take time to think, or ask Martin about an introduction. Getting a figure is not a decision to sell.
If you want to see both routes priced on your own answers, the free IFA valuation calculator will give you a range for each. How the figures are built is explained on how the calculator works.
Common questions
Do I have to be ready to sell?
No. You might be planning years ahead, thinking about a change, or simply curious.
A figure gives you a starting point. It doesn't commit you to anything.
Is this a formal valuation or an offer?
No. It is an indicative figure based on the calculator's method and your answers. A formal valuation or an offer needs a closer look at your practice, its records and the proposed terms.
I work on my own. Is this for me?
Yes. The site is for owners, including individual advisers with an established client bank. Working alone does not mean there is nothing to sell: your client relationships and recurring income are the heart of it.
What do I need before I start?
Your funds under advice, your average ongoing advice charge and how the practice is owned. After that come questions about your clients, where the money sits, a few quick checks and the route you want to see. It takes about three minutes, and anything you're not sure of can be left as it is.
Who sees the information I enter?
This page collects nothing. The calculator asks for your name, email and practice details as you go, so read the privacy notice before you enter anything there.
How does Practice Value make money?
The calculator and guides are free to use. Introductions are free to you as well. If one leads somewhere, the receiving firm pays Practice Value a fee; you never do.