How a case runs
Michael and Anita Patel are 62 and 60. They hold three pensions with three providers and an investment account in joint names, and they want advice on bringing the pensions together before Michael retires. This is their case in Advisin, from the first meeting to the first annual review.
Opening the case
After the first meeting the administrator creates one household for the two of them and opens a pensions and investments case from the firm's template. The case arrives with seven stages: opening the case, the fact-find, research and report, compliance sign-off, the recommendation, submission to the provider, and follow-up.
Each task goes to the person whose role fits it. The administrator raises the letters of authority and requests the identity checks, the adviser runs the fact-find meeting, the paraplanner researches and drafts, and the compliance user reviews. Every task has a due date and every stage has a clock from the day it opened, so a case that has stopped moving is plain to see.
The same set-up sends the Patels one invitation to their client portal, with a request to book the fact-find meeting and a questionnaire to fill in before it.
Letters of authority and the fact-find
Each of the three pensions gets its own letter of authority, signed in the portal by the plan's owner, so Michael signs for the Aviva and Scottish Widows plans and Anita signs for Royal London. The letters run alongside the fact-find, and research only has to wait until they are all back.
The questions on a letter follow the type of plan. A personal pension is asked for its value and transfer value, its charges and fund charges, the funds held and those available, any guarantees, safeguarded benefits or protected tax-free cash, any exit penalty, and the death benefits and nomination. A defined benefit scheme is asked for its deferred pension, revaluation, transfer value and its guarantee date.
Every letter has an owner and a next chase date. On that date Advisin drafts the chase, to the client while the letter is unsigned and to the provider once it is signed, and the owner sends it and logs the outcome. The case counts which letters are back, which are partly back and which are still with the provider.
The fact-find records income, spending, assets, liabilities, dependants and objectives for the household, with soft facts and ethical preferences for each person. On the Complete plan the adviser can paste the meeting notes or a transcript and have the fact-find filled in for checking, with anything the notes do not cover listed as still needed.
Risk, capacity for loss and vulnerability
Michael and Anita each have their own risk profile. The adviser records the result from the firm's risk tool, Dynamic Planner or Oxford Risk, with the score, the band and the report reference, and records each person's knowledge and experience of investing.
Capacity for loss is scored in Advisin from the fact-find: how much of their liquid wealth the investment represents, how many months of essential spending they hold in cash, how far secure income covers essential spending, whether they need the money for income and when, and what a 20% fall would cost in months of spending. Each part of the score is written out with its reason, and the adviser records the band agreed with the client and why.
Vulnerability is recorded against the four drivers the FCA uses, health, life events, resilience and capability, with the adjustments the firm is making. Every assessment is kept, so the file holds what was known at each meeting.
Research
When the providers reply, the administrator uploads each reply to its letter of authority. On the Complete plan Advisin reads the reply and sets out the plan details it found, the value, charges, funds, guarantees and death benefits, for the administrator to check and apply to the plan record.
The paraplanner then starts research from a complete picture of all three pensions. Fund and platform research in Defaqto or FE fundinfo, the provider illustration and any cashflow model in Voyant or CashCalc are filed on the case, with the results recorded on the file.
The suitability report
On the Complete plan the paraplanner writes the recommendation in a few lines and Advisin drafts the suitability report from the fact-find, both risk profiles, the plans, the letter of authority replies and those notes. Where the file does not support a statement, the draft says so in square brackets for the adviser to confirm.
In the Okonjos' draft below it noticed that the provider's reply and the plan record gave different valuation dates, and asked the adviser which was right.
The adviser edits the draft and approves it. Saving an edit after approval sends it back for approval again. Firms on Core write the report in their own template and file it on the case, and firms that would rather not write it at all can use the paraplanning service.
Compliance sign-off
Before the case goes to compliance, the paraplanner runs the file check. It confirms that the fact-find is complete, that each person has an attitude to risk result, a capacity for loss score, knowledge and experience, a vulnerability assessment and a passed identity check, that every letter of authority is back, and that the report, research and fee agreement are on file. On the Complete plan it also reads the report against the fact-find.
The compliance user then approves the case or returns it with notes. Until it is approved, the database will not let anyone send the report, the fee agreement or the applications to the Patels.
The clients sign
Once compliance approves, the suitability report, the fee agreement and the applications go to the Patels in their portal. Each of them opens it from the link their adviser sent and enters a six-digit code sent to the email address the firm holds for them; the code lasts ten minutes. Clients have no password to remember.
Michael and Anita each sign their own copy by typing their name and confirming they have read the document. Advisin records who signed, when, and a fingerprint of the exact text they signed, so any later change to the document would show.
Submission to the provider
With everything signed, the administrator submits the transfers and the new application and records the provider's reference. Chasing the provider through to completion is a task with its own owner and due date, and the case log keeps each step with the person and the time.
Fees
The fee agreement the Patels signed is recorded against the household and the new plan: the initial fee, and the ongoing fee as a percentage of the plan's value. When the provider's statement arrives, the administrator enters the receipts one by one or pastes the statement in, and each receipt is matched to its agreement.
Where an introducer passed the client on, their share is set on the agreement, and the adviser and introducer splits are worked out by month. A fee that has not arrived, or has arrived at the wrong amount, becomes an exception, as does a fee still being taken from a client who has left or whose review is overdue.
The annual review
Closing the case schedules the Patels' first review a year on. Before the meeting they answer a review questionnaire in the portal. The review record covers whether their circumstances or objectives have changed, whether their attitude to risk still holds, whether either of them has become vulnerable, whether the plans still suit them, and the charges discussed and the value they get for them.
On the Complete plan the review letter is drafted from that record, and after the adviser approves it the letter is shared in the portal. Completing the review schedules the next one.
