Firms find success in service line growth
The average advice firm is offering 3.3 service lines, according to Macquarie, but this figure straddles two differing options by firms of diverse offerings or a distinct specialisation.
Firms with less than $10 million in revenue had an average of 2.8 service lines and those with more than $10 million had 3.9 lines, the Macquarie Accounting and Financial Advice Benchmarking Study 2026 found.
Service lines may include accounting, financial advice, finance broking, self-managed superannuation fund administration, and personal insurance.
Firms with less than $5 million in revenue have an average of 2.6 service lines, while those with $10-20 million in revenue have an average of 3.5 service lines, the report states.
The average number of 3.3 service lines represents a large group of firms that specialise in just one area and another group that have scaled up to multiple different service offerings.
Macquarie notes that high-performing firms are embedding multi-service conversations into their regular client engagement cadence, treating diversification as a deliberate growth strategy, such as acquiring new service offerings to meet clients’ complex needs.
Accounting was the most-profitable choice with an average of $7.2 million of revenue generated by these divisions, followed by $5.4 million generated by financial advice.
Rather than waiting for clients to prompt, firms are proactively meeting a diversified number of their clients’ complex needs.
The average revenue generated by different service lines varies: $7.22 million for accounting/tax and business services, $5.14 million for financial advice/wealth management and superannuation advice, and $1.03 million for personal insurance.
The challenge for a sustainable firm comes from capacity and key person risk, but growth at scale firms face their own set of problems around compressed profits and possible controlling management.
Making the choice of which model to pursue will be the foundation decision for a practice’s future growth.
“Moving from a ‘sustainable’ model to a ‘scalable’ one is a transformation. It requires a fundamental shift in mindset – from working in the business to working on the business.
This decision will inform every other strategic choice a firm makes, such as investing in superannuation to generate substantial absolute profits.
Macquarie says the ‘sweet spot’ sits when a firm reaches the $10-20 million bracket where they are able to successfully balance their growth momentum with operational effectiveness.
Larger firms are leveraging their scale to generate substantial absolute profits while reinvesting in the talent, technology, and service lines needed for continued growth and market leadership.
Firms demonstrate a strong balance of growth momentum and healthy profit margins in the $10M-$20M bracket.
They have achieved scale while maintaining a high degree of operational effectiveness.
