Russell Unveils A 30-Second Tool For Diagnosing An Advisory Practice's Health Hot

You can take the seven-question quiz yourself here and get your score.

The benchmarking is simple and surprisingly transparent. First, the tool needs to know what kind of firm to compare you to.

You're obviously considered a solo practitioner if you're the only advisor in your firm, but the category is further divided into "early" -- for firms established after 1999 -- and "mature" for everyone else.

"Ensemble" firms are differentiated by revenue, with the key breakpoints at $2 million and $5 million. Any multi-advisor firm generating more than $5 million a year is counted as a "market dominator."

After that, the tool figures out your average revenue and AUM per client, ROA, recurring revenue, and client/advisor ratio. Each component gets a weighted numerical score to give you a single two-digit "health index" number.

While Russell says higher numbers are not necessarily better, the fact is that the leading firms in each category are assigned a score of 100 and the scores scale down from there. The more like the leaders you are, the higher your score will be.

It's a fun little toy, only takes 30 seconds, and can even be filled out anonymously. But because the benchmarking universe is populated by real firms, the comparisons can produce real insight into how a practice can improve.

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