A provider telling us they’ve sent everything doesn’t necessarily mean they have. We’ll check that for ourselves.

If we asked five questions and the reply answers three, the request is still outstanding. Attaching another copy of the valuation won’t answer the other two.

Anyone who spends time gathering information from providers will recognise this. Chasing is part of the job, but knowing what you’re looking for, and checking what comes back, is where the experience comes in.

At We Complement, my operational support team and I focus on ensuring that the necessary information has been gathered, checked and organised before a case reaches our technical planners. Their time should be spent assessing the case, rather than chasing documents or searching through emails for information that should have already been pulled together. This helps make the overall process more efficient.

The preparation starts with understanding what the adviser is asking us to do.

Take a request to consolidate a client’s investments. There might be several accounts, different providers and more than one type of product involved. We need to know which plans are included, what’s being proposed and whether we have the supporting information for all of them.

We also need the context. If the client’s priorities have changed following a discussion with their adviser, that explanation needs to be on the file. The technical planner wasn’t in the meeting and shouldn’t have to piece together what was agreed from a brief instruction and a handful of emails.

Getting this clear at the start tells us what we need to gather. Otherwise, we can spend a lot of time collecting information and still be missing something essential.

 

The provider has replied. There’s still checking to do.

We read the response against the original request, checking that every question has been answered, that it relates to the correct plan and that the dates line up.

A current valuation, for example, won’t necessarily include the details we asked for about charges, benefits or restrictions. Those points still need answering.

When we go back, we set out exactly what’s missing. Asking for “the remaining information” leaves too much room for another unhelpful reply. If it’s the answer to question four we need, that’s what we ask for.

It can take persistence. We keep track of what’s outstanding and follow it through before the case goes across.

We’re also looking at how the information fits with the rest of the file. The adviser’s instructions might refer to an account that isn’t included in the provider response. A figure in the system might come from an older valuation. There may be two versions of a document with nothing to explain which one is current.

Some of the checks are small, such as making sure an income figure is clearly recorded as monthly or four-weekly, or that the correct account is linked in the system. They’re still worth sorting out while we’re preparing the case. Leaving them for someone else means another person has to spend time working out what’s happened.

 

Nobody should need a guided tour of the file

Once you’ve worked on a case for a while, you know where everything is. You remember which attachment has the latest figures and which phone call cleared up the instructions.

That knowledge needs to make it onto the file.

Clear document names help, as does a handover note that tells the next person what they need to know. Where instructions have changed, make the current position obvious. If something was clarified by phone, record the answer rather than leaving a note that simply says a call took place.

We work across different firms, so there are also their individual requirements to account for. The applicable fees, how the report is being issued and which documents need to accompany it all need to be clear.

For advisers and heads of paraplanning teams, agreeing these requirements with the operational team is worth doing upfront. The people preparing the case need to know what’s expected for that work and who is responsible for obtaining it. That becomes particularly useful as teams grow and more people are involved.

Before handing it over, put yourself in their position. If there are two valuations, can they immediately identify the current one? If the adviser has changed an instruction, is the revised version easy to find? A short note explaining what changed and pointing to the relevant document is far more useful than forwarding an email chain and leaving them to work through it.

The technical assessment may raise further questions. Our role is to ensure the technical planner has the necessary information, appropriately checked and organised, to begin their assessment.

I’d be interested to hear what’s on your handover checklist and what you wish was on it. If your team could use some support with preparing cases or the technical work that follows, get in touch with us. We’re happy to talk through where we could help.