Why does every advice firm seem to have a different annual review process?
One of the things I enjoy most about my role is seeing how different advice firms operate behind the scenes.
Over the years, we’ve worked with firms of all shapes and sizes. Some have dedicated paraplanning teams. Some have one adviser doing almost everything. Others sit somewhere in the middle.
Recently, I came across a discussion between advisers that asked what sounded like a simple question:
“How do you collect client information before an annual review?”
The replies were fascinating.
Some firms send digital fact finds. Others rely on client portals. Some still post paper forms. Quite a few said they’d stopped asking clients to complete anything beforehand and simply update everything during the meeting instead.
There wasn’t a right answer.
There wasn’t even a common answer.
Everyone had developed a process that worked for their business, their clients and their team.
It made me realise something.
Perhaps the challenge isn’t finding the perfect annual review process.
Perhaps it’s recognising that every advice business is trying to solve a slightly different problem.
Annual reviews aren’t the difficult part
When people talk about annual reviews, they often picture the meeting itself or the suitability report that follows.
In reality, they’re only a small part of the overall process.
Long before an adviser sits down with a client, somebody has contacted them, arranged the meeting, gathered information, updated records, requested valuations and made sure everything is ready.
After the meeting, the work continues.
Recommendations need implementing.
Providers need chasing.
Platforms need updating.
Suitability reports need preparing.
Actions need recording.
Then, while all of that is happening, the day-to-day servicing doesn’t stop.
Client emails still arrive.
Withdrawal requests still need processing.
Addresses change.
Direct debits need amending.
New clients need onboarding.
It isn’t one task that consumes time.
It’s the accumulation of hundreds of smaller ones.
Why every firm looks different
Reading through that discussion, one thing became obvious.
The technology wasn’t really the issue.
Some firms had excellent systems.
Others preferred simpler processes.
Some had embraced automation.
Others deliberately hadn’t.
The common challenge wasn’t software.
It was people.
Clients don’t always complete forms.
Sometimes they don’t understand what’s being asked.
Sometimes they forget.
Sometimes they only remember something important once they’re sitting in front of their adviser.
That’s why there probably isn’t a single “best” annual review process.
Good firms build one that works for their clients, not somebody else’s.
What we’ve learnt
One of the biggest lessons we’ve learnt from working alongside advice firms is that structure matters far more than standardisation.
No two firms operate in exactly the same way.
Some want support preparing annual reviews.
Others want help managing implementation.
Some need somebody to own provider chasing and back-office updates.
Others are looking for support with onboarding, workflow design or simply making better use of their CRM.
Trying to force every business into the same process rarely works.
The best servicing models are built around the business, not the other way round.
Behind Better Advice
Over the coming months, I’ll be sharing a series called Behind Better Advice.
Each edition will look at a real project we’ve worked on (anonymised where appropriate), the operational challenge behind it and the practical lessons we learnt along the way.
Next week we’ll be publishing the first downloadable case study.
It follows a Paradigm member firm that wanted to strengthen the structure behind its annual reviews and ongoing client servicing. Rather than creating a completely new process, we worked together to build a servicing model around the way the business already operated.
I hope it’ll be useful for firms reviewing their own servicing models, whether they’re looking to make small improvements or thinking more broadly about how work flows through the business.
In the meantime, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
If you were designing your annual review process from scratch today, what would you do differently?
Further Reading
If this has got you thinking about how your own annual review process is structured, you can find out more about how we support firms with suitability consulting, annual reviews and ongoing client servicing here:
🔗 Suitability Consulting Support
Next week, we’ll also be publishing the first Behind Better Advice case study, Building a Bespoke Client Servicing Model.
It takes a closer look at how we worked with a Paradigm member firm to design a servicing model around the way they already operated, covering everything from annual reviews and implementation through to workflow design and ongoing client servicing.
I hope you’ll find it useful.
