Financial advice businesses can use data to prove their market value ahead of a sale, to better understand client trends and ultimately seize a competitive edge, but the wrong approach to data can see practices become unstuck.
I recently caught up with Paul Benson, principal of Guidance Financial Services, and Mitch Ramsbotham, head of growth and strategy at Coastal Advice, as part of a special four-part series on data for the ensombl podcast. Our conversation unpacked what it means to be “data ready” and the growing link between data maturity and practice value, particularly for businesses preparing for sale or trying to scale up.
Today’s practices now able to instantly produce insights for their clients and potential buyers, but there’s a difference between having data sets available and being “data ready”.
The goal isn’t simply to collect data, but to enable confidence in the adviser decision-making by having the data in the best shape it can be in. It means being able to pull up a dashboard and speak clearly about your business, its profitability drivers and your client base, not just to your own staff, but also to potential clients, acquirers or investors.
Why segmentation matters
In the fast-paced mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market, there’s a growing emphasis on segmentation analytics, particularly in practices looking to sell.
Practices that can segment their client base effectively are able to create much more compelling stories around value. At intelliflo, we are seeing more requests for segmentation analytics around age cohorts, client family structures, client geography and fees, including once-off, ongoing and initial fees.
For a potential buyer, the data granularity can succinctly showcase who the clients are, the services they’re paying for and the breakdown across the broader book. Increasingly, buyers are demanding quick clarity about these details to ensure their purchase matches expectations and aspirations.
In a busy M&A market, a transaction without this clarity simply takes a lot longer. The practice needs to dig around for detail, involve the licensee or another third party and piece together insights that should already be front and centre when they are first having these conversations.
For founders looking to sell or scale, this delay can be costly in both time and perception. The more work a buyer needs to do to understand your business, the more it can produce the perception you may not be the professional practice they’re seeking. Even for practices not planning to sell now, being prepared for the future will be essential.
The illusion of being ‘data ready’
In my experience with financial advice practices, it’s easy to develop a false sense of security by simply having data in a central platform. However, just because it’s there doesn’t mean it’s accessible or useful. Some firms have end-to-end platforms, but can’t easily access their data or pull insights with data visualisation tools. It means the data is there, but essentially useless for the practice’s key purposes.
This is where business intelligence dashboards come into their own. The goal for businesses should be to move away from manual, error-prone processes and toward systems that automatically surface insights and allow action to follow.
Proactively preparing for a changing market
The shift toward automation and visualisation is about more than saving time, it’s about empowering adviser and practice decision-making.
With the right tools, practices can move from reactive to proactive: identifying trends, optimising client segments and confidently navigating pricing models and platform relationships.
When you can say, for instance, that 70% of your AUM sits on two core platforms, or that your average client age is 52 with a concentration of ongoing fee revenue, you can show the market you truly know your business and where it adds value.
Why clients and buyers expect data fluency
Ultimately, being fluent in your business data is no longer optional, it’s the new normal.
Firms that are truly data ready are faster to act, more confident in negotiations and better equipped to manage transitions, whether that means scaling up, preparing for an exit or improving their client outcomes.
If you want to show up as a premium business, you need to be able to tell the story of your business with data, not just opinions.
At intelliflo, we believe quality data is the foundation of practice growth and client trust.
Our dashboards help advice practices bring their data to life —turning raw figures into clear, visual insights that help you understand performance, uncover opportunities, and deliver advice with confidence. Book a demo to see how intelliflo can help you harness the full potential of your data.
