Many advisers will plan 2026 the same way they planned 2025.
Look at last year’s numbers. Add 15%. Call it growth.
That’s not planning.
That’s more of the same. Busier growth, not better growth.
Better growth for 2026 starts with answering one question:
What are you capable of?
Here’s the truth about growth: If you are working harder every year, if your team is at capacity, if you’re delivering comprehensive advice but profit margins are not improving in line with growth, you’re not underperforming, you’re underpricing.
These eight benchmarks will show you exactly where:
The Eight Benchmarks That Show What’s Missing in Your Growth
#1 – Average revenue per FTE team member: $275,000
Not $180,000. Not “getting closer to $200,000.”
$275,000 per full-time equivalent (FTE) team member means you are pricing for capacity, not building a firm that depends on more team members to make more money.
If you’re below this, you’re either underpricing or over-staffing. Either way, it will feel more like a treadmill.
If you’re a comprehensive advice firm way above this, taking good holidays will get harder due to excessive role dependency.
(Note – offshore team members in the Philippines, Vietnam, India or wherever are omitted in the FTE count due to massive variance in pay rates, roles, and engagement models)
#2 – Average revenue per senior adviser: $750,000
A senior adviser in a comprehensive advice firm managing 66 active clients at an average of $11,400 per client generates $752,400 in annual revenue.
That’s the numbers achieved when pricing comprehensive advice on the value, not hours or products.
If your senior advisers are averaging $400,000-$500,000, they’re either managing too many low-value clients or undercharging their valuable clients.
Despite the claims, I don’t believe AI will significantly change the path to “less is more” for comprehensive advice teams – i.e. fewer clients providing better returns.
#3 – Profit margin: minimum 40%
After standardising principal’s remuneration package (i.e. paying yourself what you’d pay someone else to do your role), a comprehensive advice firm should be generating at least 40% profit.
Not 25%. Not 30%.
40% minimum per client per annum.
Anything less means you’re funding growth from deserved dividends and subsidising clients who should either be paying more or working with someone else.
#4 – Minimum ongoing advice fees: $500/month
That’s $6,000 per year for comprehensive advice.
If you’re charging less than this for ongoing comprehensive advice, you’re either not delivering comprehensive advice or you don’t understand your value.
Most of the advice principals I work with have at least 20%-40% of their clients paying less than this when we start working together. It doesn’t take long for them to realise they were leaving approximately $50,000 to $100,000 in ongoing revenues, already earned but wrongly priced.
#5 – Minimum new client fee: $12,000
New comprehensive advice clients require the most: discovery, fact-finding, strategy, implementation, technical and behavioural management.
$12,000 is not high. It’s market value for 2026.
I wrote about the potential long-term damage of getting this wrong last week.
#6 – Working weeks: 44
You don’t have to be a victim of your success.
44 working weeks means 8 weeks off per year for holidays, professional development, illness, and life.
If you’re working 48 or 50 weeks, you’re not more committed. You’re just more exhausted, stuck in a dependency knot.
Productive advice firms plan their capacity around 44 working weeks, not 52. It’s the only way the business models and lifestyle rewards actually work.
#7 – Average active clients per senior adviser: 66
Not 120. Not 90. Not “as many as I can handle.”
An average of 66 active comprehensive advice clients per senior adviser.
That’s the number that enables consistent, specific, and methodical relationship management, proactive advice, thorough discoveries/re-discoveries, and a senior adviser who isn’t drowning.
More than 66 means you’re either not delivering comprehensive advice or you’re burning out.
#8 – Average referral rate: 66%
This isn’t that two-thirds of your clients are referring new business.
This is the number of referrals obtained from 30%-40% of your clients and networks.
If your referral rate is below this, it’s telling you something important: your clients are either not confident enough in the value you’re delivering or, more likely, you are already too busy, and the last thing they want to do is overload you with more ideal opportunities.
That’s not a marketing problem. It is a communication problem.
What These Numbers Mean
These aren’t aspirations. They are diagnostic tools.
The gap between where you are and these benchmarks tells you exactly what’s missing.
- Below $275k per FTE? You’re underpricing or overstaffing;
- Senior advisers less than $750k? Too many clients underpriced;
- Under 40% profit/client? You’re subsidising your clients;
- Ongoing comprehensive fees under $500/month? You don’t understand your value.
Your existing clients are already experiencing your value, but you’re not pricing it.
You don’t need to rebuild, you need to reposition what you’re already delivering.
The Real Question
You probably already knew you were underpriced before you read this.
The question isn’t whether these benchmarks are achievable.
The question is whether you’re ready to do the work to close the gap.
That work isn’t adding new services.
It’s not working longer hours.
It’s not finding more high-net-worth clients.
It’s having the conversations you’ve been avoiding:
– “Rachel and Nic, you’ve been paying $6,250 for five years. Similar clients are paying $10,500. Here’s why we need to talk about that.”
– “Your comprehensive advice fee is $12,000. Here’s what that reflects.”
– “We’re managing 66 clients per senior adviser, not 95. That’s how we deliver the value you’re experiencing.”
These conversations feel harder than they are.
But every principal I work with who actually has them says the same thing afterward:
“Why didn’t I do this years ago?”
What Happens Next
You’re going to do one of three things with these numbers:
- File them away as “interesting” and keep working the same way
- Try to close the gaps yourself (and get stuck after a couple of difficult conversations with underpriced clients)
- Get help implementing this with YOUR specific clients, YOUR team, YOUR actual pricing challenges
If you’re choosing option 3, that’s what Certainty Advice Group does.
We don’t teach theory.
We review advice conversations and coach your team through the actual implementation with your real clients—the conversations you’ve been avoiding, the uplifts you know you need, the new client fees that finally reflect comprehensive advice value.
Typical results in the first 90 days
- 20-40% revenue increase from repricing existing clients
- New client fees of $12K+ (not $6K or $8K)
- Profit margins that finally fund growth without burning you out
- Senior advisers managing 66 clients, not 90 or 120
Most principals uplift 2-3 existing clients in their first 60 days and cover 3-6 months of engagement fees.
Ready to plan 2026 based on what you’re capable of, not just what you did last year?
Reply “2026”, and I’ll send the details.
Jim
P.S. I only advise a small number of comprehensive advice teams at a time. I’m starting a new group in late January. If you’re reading this thinking, “I need to do something about my pricing in 2026, not just think about it,” reply “2026” this week.
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