Value my practice

How your figures are built

How the calculator works

The calculator gives a figure for each way of selling you choose, built from published market data and the answers you give. This page sets out what lifts each figure, what holds it back, and where the market data comes from.

Two ways to sell, two figures

A firm can be sold in two ways, and they are priced differently, so the calculator gives a separate figure for each. A company sale prices the ongoing advice income you actually charge. A client bank sale to a national acquirer prices the part of your client bank that could realistically move, with income counted at 0.5% of those funds whatever you charge today. Both figures are shown as ranges, both round down, and both come from the same answers.

Your report names each factor that moved your figure, says whether it lifted the figure or held it back, and says whether the effect was small, moderate or large. Factors that made no difference are left out. We'll walk you through exactly how your figure was built on your call.

Company sale

A company sale prices your ongoing advice income: your funds under advice multiplied by your average ongoing advice charge, or your real income figure if you enter it. It is the measure buyers use most. 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.

As a sole trader there is no company to sell, so this figure is for a conventional sale of the client bank itself, priced on the same basis.

What lifts the figure:

  • One published fee scale across the client bank.
  • Strong client retention over three years.
  • Revenue growing over three years.
  • More than one adviser, so the book does not rest on one person.
  • Larger average holdings per client household.

What holds it back:

  • The size of your recurring income: buyers pay less for smaller books.
  • You advise most of the clients yourself, so more rests on the handover.
  • A large share of the money sits with clients aged 73 or over.
  • A large share of the funds sits with your ten largest clients.
  • Client retention below what buyers look for.
  • Revenue falling over three years.
  • Defined benefit transfer advice in the last five years.

The reasons are the ones buyers give in diligence. A buyer paying a multiple of recurring income is buying the years of income still to come, so anything that makes those years more certain lifts the figure, and anything that puts them at risk holds it back.

Client bank sale

A client bank sale to a national acquirer starts from your eligible funds: the part of your book that could realistically move. Funds held by clients aged 73 and over sit outside it, 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. Funds held by clients aged 60 to 72 count in full, though they lift the figure less than funds held by clients under 60. Holdings that are unlikely to move as they are count for less. Income is then counted at 0.5% of the eligible funds, whatever you actually charge.

What lifts the figure:

  • Most of the money that counts sits with clients under 60.
  • The money is held in a form that moves easily.
  • Room in what clients pay for a move to make sense.

What holds it back:

  • Much of the money that counts sits with clients aged 60 to 72.
  • Some of the money would need work before it could move.
  • Little room in what clients pay for a move to pay for itself.
  • Funds held by clients aged 73 and over, which a client bank sale leaves out because a sale can take up to two years.
  • Holdings unlikely to move as they are.

The price is paid as client funds transfer, typically over about ten months. Separately, you keep receiving income on transferring clients for up to two years, counted on the same 0.5% basis. Terms vary by acquirer and are set out in writing before any sale.

How some answers are read

The calculator no longer asks whether material holdings carry guarantees, such as a with-profits guarantee or a guaranteed annuity rate. It treats the answer as “no”. If your clients hold guaranteed products, say so on your call, because a buyer will want to know.

What a typical client pays in total each year, and the share of your funds with your ten largest clients, are answered in bands. Each band is read at a representative value inside it. One consequence: a firm whose clients pay 1.81% to 2.00% a year now falls in the 1.5% to 2% band and is read as a typical cost level, where an exact figure in that range was previously read as leaving room for a move.

Any optional question left on “Not sure” is read at a typical answer, the same one the reference firm in your report uses.

Client age is asked in two answers: roughly how much of your funds belongs to clients aged 73 or over, and roughly how much belongs to clients under 60. Each answer is read at a representative share inside it, and 60 to 72 is whatever is left.

“Not sure” on either is read as the reference firm’s book: about 35% of funds with clients aged 73 or over and 20% with clients under 60. If the two answers overlap, the under-60 share is read as the rest once the 73-and-over share is counted.

For a limited company, the calculator also asks how many people work in the business, whether it could run for three months without you and roughly what share of revenue goes on staff pay. These shape what your report says about your team. They don’t change the figures: we haven’t found published evidence of how much they move a price, so we don’t guess.

If you’re thinking of a part sale, the calculator asks which part and roughly how much. The figures stay those for the whole practice, and the report explains how a part sale is priced differently, without scaling the figures down.

Where the factors come from

The direction of every factor above is supported by the market commentary cited at the foot of this page, and by what buyers consistently ask for in diligence. The exact size of each effect, on both routes, is a market-derived assumption. None of them has been calibrated against completed transactions, because transaction-level data in this market is not published: broker commentary is commercially interested and reports averages, not deal files.

That is why the output on both routes is a range rather than a single number, and why every figure rounds down.

Rounding and ranges

Each price range is rounded to the nearest pound, then down to the nearest £10,000. The payment parts and each year's income are then worked out exactly from those figures, so they are not rounded again and always add back up to the totals shown. The working estimate opens wide and narrows as the questions that matter are answered. It updates each time you press Continue, never while you are still answering. Changing one of your core figures, funds under advice, charge, households or the income you entered, starts a fresh practice and the estimate opens wide again. This is an illustrative allowance, not a statistical confidence interval. The final report uses the ranges for each route described above.

Validation

Impossible combinations are refused rather than quietly corrected. An ongoing charge outside 0.1% to 2.0%, more than 10,000 client households, a part sale of a share of the company for a sole trader, a sole trader choosing to sell a company that does not exist: each one stops the calculation and says which figure to check. Nothing you type is silently rewritten into something the model finds easier.

Where complaints or regulatory history change the answer

If you tell the calculator about client complaints, a past business review or regulatory engagement in the last five years, the client bank sale to a national acquirer is not shown at all, and the company sale is still priced in full but marked provisional. Anything still open is normally settled or priced into a deal before any sale completes, and it can change both the figure and whether a route is open at all. The report points you to Liability and run-off. The FCA has said it will act where client banks are sold with redress liabilities left behind, and that firms must hold adequate resources for potential redress.

Other flags the model applies

A handful of other answers change what is shown, never by refusing you a figure. Members of a partnership with its own buy-back scheme are not shown the client bank sale to a national acquirer, because their practices usually change hands inside that scheme, and the figures here are for independent and whole-of-market practices. A part sale of the business excludes the client bank sale to a national acquirer, which only prices a whole client bank. So does a book under £10,000,000 of funds under advice, because specialist acquirers of client banks normally look for books of that size or more; below it the report prices a conventional sale instead. Where your recurring income is above £400,000, a note flags that buyers at that scale usually price on maintainable profit rather than a multiple of income, so the figures may understate what a profitable business is worth. And where you have told us the business owns its premises or holds significant surplus assets, those are excluded from every figure and valued separately.

Sources

Market references reviewed Mon 14th Sep 2026. Each one below has its own link target, which is where the benchmarks in your report point. These are dated sources and stated model assumptions, not a feed of live buyer prices.

Your on-page answers are included when you print or download the report. No emailed copy is promised.

Back to the calculator.