A household groups a client's related accounts and family members so advisors can view, bill, and report on total relationship wealth.
Household
A household groups a client's related accounts and family members so advisors can view, bill, and report on total relationship wealth.
A household is the wealth-industry practice of grouping a client's related accounts and family members into a single relationship unit for viewing, billing, and reporting. Instead of treating a spouse's IRA, a joint brokerage account, and a trust as separate clients, the advisor rolls them into one household that reflects the family's total picture.
RIAs and advisors care about households because most planning, fee, and service decisions happen at the relationship level, not the account level. Family offices lean on the concept even more heavily to organize multi-generational wealth across entities.
Household structure drives several software workflows:
- CRM records that link people, entities, and roles in one relationship
- Aggregated performance and net-worth reporting
- Tiered fee schedules applied to combined household assets
The household is a core object in nearly every CRM for financial advisors, and it flows through to the reporting and billing layers of a firm's wealth management software.