The director of Devon-based BoulterBowen WealthCare said advisers can find innovative ways to fit their factfinds, suitability letters and other “tedious” pieces of administration into “much slimmer documentation”, which clients can understand.
Speaking at the Institute of Financial Planning conference on 2 October, Mr Boulter criticised the “great, big, meaningless” documents that get sent to clients, which do not “reflect the experience” that clients have had with the adviser.
He said: “We present all our information in meetings, and we have a specific suitability meeting where we ask what is important about money for each client. That means everything is documented so there is no way that they will misunderstand our proposition.”
Mr Boulter also said it helped to have a “vision” of an ideal client, as using the same strategies on a regular basis makes compliance more straightforward.
Adviser response:
Simon Pym Williamson, director of Worcestershire-based Broadway Financial Planning, told attendees that suitability letters provided by planners are often “complete rubbish”.
He said: “There is more than one way to deal with compliance and it does not need to be a ridiculous and lengthy process that detracts from your day-to-day job. So long as you are putting it at the heart of your process, you can say that you have ticked all the boxes.”
Mr Williamson added that the key to mastering compliance is to repeat the process every time for each new client. He said: “We go through the same procedure with all our clients. With the agenda process for our review meetings, a lot of questions are in there as reminders for us and reminders for compliance purposes.
“The reviews do show that we looked at risk and whether anything had changed. Once you have been through that process and sent minutes of that meeting to the client, you have proved your compliance.”
