Firms measure the portfolio to the basis point and the relationship barely at all. A health score gives the relationship its own number.
Performance has a benchmark, a report and a quarterly review. Whether a client is drifting away has nothing: it surfaces when the transfer request arrives, which is the moment it stops being a relationship question and becomes an AUM figure. A client health score is built to catch the drift earlier, while it is still a conversation. This guide covers what one is, what it should and should not measure, how to read it, and how to introduce one without turning it into a league table for relationship managers.
What is a client health score in wealth management?
A client health score is a single number, usually 0 to 100, that summarises how a client relationship is going right now. It combines how often the firm and the client are in touch, the tone of what the client writes and says, the issues still open on the relationship, and how the portfolio is doing against its mandate. It measures the relationship: not investment returns, not suitability, and not the relationship manager.
The idea comes from B2B software, where customer success teams have scored account health for years. Wealth management needs its own version, because the signals are different. A private banking client rarely logs into anything. The evidence of how the relationship is going sits in mail, call notes and meeting summaries, not in product usage data.
Why do wealth managers need a client health score?
Because the reasons clients leave are mostly visible before they leave, and mostly not in the portfolio. In Morningstar's 2023 study of why investors fire their financial advisors, unhappiness with returns accounted for 11% of the reasons given. The quality of advice and service (32%), the quality of the relationship with the advisor (21%) and missing communication (9%) together accounted for 62%.
Those reasons leave traces. A client who used to reply within the day now takes a week. A request for documents goes unanswered twice. The tone of a meeting summary turns guarded after a fee discussion. Each trace is small and sits in one relationship manager's mailbox, so nobody sees the pattern across a full book until assets move. Around 80% of relevant relationship data in wealth management is unstructured (emails, meeting notes, messages), which is why CRM fields and portfolio reports, on their own, rarely see it coming.
A health score does not predict who will leave. It tells a relationship manager, and a desk head, where to look first.
What should a client health score measure?
Four inputs, each read against what is normal for that client and segment.
Input | What it reads | What it catches |
|---|---|---|
Contact | How often the firm and the client are in touch, against the rhythm expected for the client's segment | Silence: a family office that met monthly and has not been seen in a quarter |
Tone | The sentiment of the client's messages and meetings | A change in register after a fee discussion; a complaint phrased politely |
Open issues | Unresolved requests, complaints and compliance items on the relationship | Documents requested and not sent; a question answered late twice |
Portfolio | How the portfolio is doing against its mandate, not against the market | A drawdown beyond the stated risk tolerance; a mandate that no longer fits |
Two design rules matter more than the weights. First, compare each client with their own baseline and segment: weekly contact is normal for an active trader and intrusive for a multigenerational family office. Second, every movement of the score must be explainable down to the exchanges that caused it. A number a relationship manager cannot take apart is a number a relationship manager will ignore.
What should a client health score never measure?
The relationship manager. One score per client relationship, the same whoever opens the file, and no score, rate or ranking for the people who manage the relationships. Scoring people changes behaviour: they start managing the number instead of the client.
Investment performance. A client can be up on the year and at risk.
Suitability or creditworthiness. Suitability is assessed under Article 25(2) of MiFID II, with its own process and its own record. A relationship score is neither an input to it nor evidence of it.
Anything the client sees. The score is an internal instrument for deciding where to spend attention. It decides nothing about the client.
How do you read a client health score?
Most implementations use bands, because a band is a decision and an exact number is not. These are the bands Luscent uses.
Score | Band | What it means |
|---|---|---|
80 to 100 | Healthy | The relationship is in good shape. |
60 to 79 | Neutral | No major concern. Watch for drift. |
40 to 59 | At risk | Engagement is falling, or there are open issues. |
0 to 39 | Critical | The relationship needs attention now. |
Read it in three steps.
Read the band, not the exact number. The difference between 61 and 64 is noise; the difference between Neutral and At risk is not.
Read the direction. A client at 72 who was at 86 a month ago needs more attention than a client who has held steady at 58.
Read the reason. Open the period where the score moved and look at what happened: a complaint in an email, a gap in contact, a weaker portfolio.
Here is what that looks like on three relationships from a synthetic book.
Client | Today | Four weeks ago | What moved it | Next step |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Klein Family Office | 87, Healthy | 85 | The next generation now attends reviews | None; note the change before the next review |
Wagner Trust | 72, Neutral | 86 | Documents requested twice and not sent; replies slowing | Call this week, before it crosses into At risk |
Moreau Holding | 58, At risk | 57 | A long-standing open complaint; contact stable | Already known; track the complaint to closure |
Wagner Trust is the call to make first, although its number is higher than Moreau Holding's. That is the whole point of reading direction.
There is one more reason to read the reason. When a move comes from a client saying something about their life (a business sale, an inheritance, a new liquidity need), the conversation is also a suitability moment. The ESMA guidelines on MiFID II suitability expect client information to be kept up to date, and a stated change in circumstances is exactly when the profile should be reviewed. The score does not make that judgement. It makes the moment harder to miss.
Client health score vs NPS, churn models and CRM activity metrics
Client health score | Client NPS survey | Churn prediction model | CRM activity metrics | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
What it measures | The current state of each relationship | Stated satisfaction at one point in time | The probability that a client leaves | Effort the relationship manager logged |
Source | The firm's own communications and portfolio data | The client's survey answer | Historical attrition data | Fields relationship managers fill in |
Frequency | Continuous | Once or twice a year | Each time the model is re-run | As logged |
Explains itself | Yes, down to the exchanges | Only with a verbatim comment | Rarely | Partly |
Main blind spot | Needs lawful, consented access to communications | Silent clients do not answer surveys | A boutique book has too few departures to learn from | Measures the relationship manager, not the client |
They are complementary. NPS tells you what clients say when asked. A health score tells you what their behaviour says when nobody asked.
How to introduce a client health score without it becoming a league table
Decide what it is for. Where to look first. Write that down before the first number appears.
Score relationships, never people. One score per client, no ranking of relationship managers, no comparison across desks.
Set no targets on the score. Once a number becomes a target it stops measuring. Improving the score is never the goal; looking after the relationship is, and the score follows.
Make every move traceable. If a relationship manager cannot see which exchanges moved the score, they will not trust it, and they will be right.
Review band crossings, not levels. A weekly look at clients that crossed into At risk or Critical, and at steady declines, is enough.
Keep it internal and keep the data where it is. Reading client communications needs a lawful basis under GDPR, and the data should not leave the European Union to be scored.
How Luscent's Health Score works
Luscent is the System of Intelligence for wealth management: it reads the communications your firm already has, shows every RM the next right conversation, and generates the suitability evidence as work happens.
The Health Score is Luscent's 0 to 100 reading of each Client relationship, built from the four inputs above: contact against the segment's rhythm, tone, open Signals (compliance included), and the portfolio against its mandate. It appears on every Client in the Clients list, in the strip at the top of Client Detail with its trend on the Monitor tab, and on the Dashboard as the number of Clients at risk in the book. The trend shows when the score moved; the activity and Signals of that period show why. There is one score per Client relationship, no score for Relationship Managers, and the Client never sees it.
Luscent connects read-only to Microsoft 365 and Salesforce and writes nothing back. Client data stays in the European Union. The help centre explains how to read the Health Score, how to read a change and what moves it. For how the same communications prepare a review meeting, see client book risk and meeting prep; for what a firm keeps when a relationship manager leaves, see relationship manager handover. The pilot programme runs for 90 days, free.
This guide describes what software can do, not what your firm is obliged to do. It is not legal advice.
Frequently asked questions
What is a client health score?
A single number, usually 0 to 100, that summarises how a client relationship is going right now, built from contact, tone, open issues and the portfolio against its mandate. It measures the relationship, not returns, suitability or the relationship manager.
How is a client health score calculated?
By reading four inputs against what is normal for the client and segment: how often the firm and the client are in touch, the tone of the client's messages and meetings, unresolved issues on the relationship, and portfolio performance against the mandate. Each movement should be traceable to the exchanges that caused it.
Is a client health score the same as a churn prediction?
No. A churn model estimates the probability that a client leaves. A health score reads the current state of the relationship and shows where to look first. Luscent raises churn Signals separately, from what clients write and say.
What is a good client health score?
In Luscent's bands, 80 to 100 is Healthy, 60 to 79 Neutral, 40 to 59 At risk and 0 to 39 Critical. The direction matters as much as the level: a client who fell from 86 to 72 in a month needs more attention than one steady at 58.
Should relationship managers be ranked by their clients' health scores?
No. There should be one score per client relationship, the same for every relationship manager, with no ranking or target attached. Scoring people changes behaviour: they start managing the number instead of the client.
Can a health score replace the MiFID II suitability assessment?
No. Suitability is assessed under Article 25(2) of MiFID II with its own process and record. A health score can make a stated change in circumstances harder to miss, which is the moment the client profile should be reviewed.
Does the client see their health score?
No. It is an internal instrument for deciding where to spend attention, and it decides nothing about the client.
Sources: Morningstar, "Why Do Investors Fire Their Financial Advisor?", Samantha Lamas and Danielle Labotka, 2023; MiFID II (Directive 2014/65/EU), Article 25(2); ESMA Guidelines on certain aspects of the MiFID II suitability requirements (ESMA35-43-3172); Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR). Last updated: 3 October 2026.
