Common questions
The questions owners of advice firms ask most often, answered in a paragraph each, with the source named. Where the honest answer is that it depends, that is what it says.
What is my practice worth?
Most UK advice firms are valued on a multiple of recurring income. Gunner & Co reported an average of 4.2 times recurring income in the first half of 2025, up from a stable figure of around 3.5 times across 2023 and 2024, and the highest point since 2018. Chapters Capital, analysing more than 100 transactions, describes 4 times as essentially the norm.
This site's calculator gives you a range for each way of selling you choose, and shows what lifted your figure and what held it back. A range is the honest output. Anyone quoting you a single number before seeing your client data is guessing.
Run the calculator or read how recurring income multiples work.
Recurring income or EBITDA?
Recurring income is the dominant approach, and Gunner & Co puts it at over 80% of offers. Size is what moves a firm onto the other basis: Chapters Capital indicates that firms with more than £400,000 of recurring income will likely be valued on an EBITDA basis, where the base is 7 to 8 times, with multiples above 10 times for the strongest firms.
The practical consequence is that below that threshold your income line matters most, and above it your cost line starts to matter just as much. The difference in full.
Should I sell the shares or the client bank?
Both routes are common, and Gunner & Co reports that asset purchases comprise 62.5% of offers. An asset sale transfers the client relationships and usually leaves the company behind, along with the liability attached to advice already given. A share sale transfers the company itself, which is why a buyer will look much harder at the firm's history before agreeing to it.
It is not purely a tax question, though the tax differs. It changes who carries the risk of a complaint in five years' time. Asset sale or share sale and how each is taxed.
What tax will I pay?
For disposals from Mon 6th Apr 2026, Business Asset Disposal Relief is charged at 18% on qualifying gains, against 14% for disposals between Sun 6th Apr 2025 and Sun 5th Apr 2026 and 10% on or before Sat 5th Apr 2025. The lifetime limit is £1 million of qualifying gains per person.
Outside that relief, Capital Gains Tax is 24% for higher-rate taxpayers; basic-rate taxpayers pay 18% within the basic rate band and 24% above it. The annual exempt amount for 2026-27 is £3,000.
These are the rates as at the 2026-27 tax year and a Budget can change them, so check the position at the time you sell. Sources: gov.uk on Business Asset Disposal Relief and gov.uk on Capital Gains Tax rates. See also what the 2026 rate change means and the net proceeds estimator.
How long does it take?
Longer than most sellers expect, and the part that overruns is almost always diligence rather than the negotiation. The timetable is driven by how quickly you can produce clean client data and complete files, which is why the preparation work pays for itself twice. What the stages actually are.
What happens to liability for advice I have already given?
It does not disappear because the clients moved. The FCA's published expectations of firms selling client banks state that the client bank is the firm's asset, that firms must hold adequate financial resources for potential redress under FG20/1, and that it will act where client banks are sold with redress liabilities left behind.
Run-off cover, and who pays for it and for how long, is one of the most commonly underestimated costs of selling. Liability for past advice and run-off cover.
Does the FCA need to know?
The FCA expects a notification under SUP 15 where a sale could affect the firm's risk profile, value or resources, and it names merger and retirement among the legitimate reasons for a sale. Source: FCA expectations of firms selling client banks. See what those expectations mean in practice.
Is the market actually active?
Yes, and measurably so. EY's analysis of UK financial services M&A recorded 61 wealth and asset management deals in the first half of 2026 against 47 in the first half of 2025, with disclosed value rising from £0.2bn to £22.7bn. Across the whole of UK financial services, deals rose from 108 to 135.
Activity is not the same as a good price for your firm, and a busy market rewards prepared sellers rather than all sellers. Who is buying and what the FCA's consolidation review means for you.
Does this site sell anything?
No. Practice Value is an information resource. No buyer pays to appear here, nothing is for sale, and the calculator is free to use. Nothing on this site is advice on your own circumstances, and it is not a valuation for legal, tax or regulatory purposes. More about why the site exists.