Wealth Management Business Information Model

The Household Is the Relationship. The Account Is the Record.

Wealth Management Business Information Model is a structured inventory of the business data entities an advisory firm runs on — client, household, relationship, account, registration, position, plan, goal — organized into foundational, transactional and informational layers, in an editable Word document with a guide to business data modeling.

Advisory firms serve households and are paid on accounts. That single mismatch generates most of the firm's data confusion. A married couple with two IRAs, a joint taxable account, two 401(k)s held away and a trust is one relationship, five registrations, an unknown number of accounts depending on who is counting, and one financial plan.

Firms usually resolve this in whichever system asked first. The custodian knows registrations, the CRM knows contacts, the planning tool knows a household, and the billing system knows whatever it needs to invoice. Assets under management then depends on which system produced the number.

This model separates those entities and states how they relate. It is a business information model rather than a database design — it names what the firm means, which is the layer where the mismatch originates.

The Distinctions This Is Meant to Make

Three definitional problems that show up in every advisory firm's reporting.

Household, client, or contact? A household is a service and billing unit; a client is a party; a contact is a person you can reach. Firms that model only one of the three cannot produce a defensible client count.

Account or registration? The registration carries the legal ownership and the tax treatment; the account is where the custodian holds it. Reporting that ignores the distinction misstates both tax lots and beneficiary exposure.

What counts toward assets under management? Advised, discretionary, held-away and reported-on are four different relationships to an asset. The firm needs to state which it means before the number means anything.

Why This Matters Now

Firm growth and consolidation both press on definitions advisory firms have historically left implicit.

Acquisition Means Merging Two Definitions of Client

Buying a practice means reconciling its household and account structures with yours. Where neither wrote them down, the reconciliation happens client by client.

Fee Calculation Depends on the Billing Unit

Tiered and blended fee schedules apply at household or account level depending on the agreement. Ambiguity here is a billing error, which is the expensive kind.

Held-Away and Aggregated Assets Need Their Own Entity

Advising on assets the firm does not custody is now routine. Modeling those positions as first-class rather than as an attachment is what makes planning and reporting consistent.

What Is Included

Two files:

Who This Is Built For

This model pairs with the Wealth Management Capability Model, which states what the firm does; the information model states what it does it to. Neither substitutes for the other.

How to Put It to Work

• State which unit — household, account, or registration — each report and fee schedule applies to.
• Write down the firm's definition of assets under management, and which assets qualify.
• Model held-away positions as first-class rather than as an appendix to the plan.
• Use it as the reconciliation target when merging an acquired practice's records.

Where Firms Typically Start

What You Are Actually Buying Is Time

Building this internally means pulling advisors and operations staff into definitional sessions, in a firm where neither group has spare hours and both already believe the question is settled.

• The first draft is the expensive part. Reviewing a proposed set of entities is a different task from inventing one, and a much shorter one.
• Disagreement becomes visible immediately. A written definition surfaces the conflict between the CRM's view and the custodian's in the first meeting rather than the fifth.
• It outlives the project that prompted it. The same model serves an integration, a billing review, and a reporting rebuild.

Those first two columns describe what comparable efforts tend to involve, not a quoted benchmark — your figures depend on scope and who does the work.

Built From Real Engagements

We are software entrepreneurs and business consultants who have delivered business architecture and transformation work across financial services firms. This model is the distilled, reusable output of that work rather than a theoretical exercise — which is also why it carries the limits described below.

An Honest Note on Fit

This is a generic model designed as a starting point. Customization is expected, not a sign that something went wrong.

Specifically:

Terms You Should Know Before Purchasing

Read the description above in full before you buy. Delivery is immediate and the files are yours to keep, which is also why we cannot take returns, issue refunds, or swap a purchase for a different product once it has been downloaded. What you receive is what is listed — no warranty beyond that, and no bundled customization, implementation help, or support. A Enterprise License covers everyone inside one organization; if you intend to reuse the material across several clients, the Consultancy License is the one you need. The full digital product terms govern the sale.