Gosling's Grouse: Thinking outside the box

Thinking outside the box

If you run an advisory business, do you know how much it costs you annually to administer each client account?

You probably have a decent idea of profit and loss on each individual client – as many firms are jettisoning so-called ‘unprofitable clients.’ Profit and loss on a client is made up of a number of components, of which the actual cost of administering the client’s affairs is one part – what technology companies would call ‘the box.’ In reality, ‘the box’ for most companies –be they adviser firms, asset managers, wealth managers, life companies, or banks – is made up of lots of old ‘boxes’ stuck together with bits of sticky tape. The regulator has identified this as a risk to client ...