A client pays an ongoing percentage. He hears from the firm once a year, receives a statement he does not read, and has no idea what happens in the other eleven months.
His portfolio has performed perfectly well. He is still going to leave, because nothing has happened that he can see.
The checklist
Publish these and the ongoing fee stops being invisible.
1. How often a review happens
Annually, twice yearly or more, and what determines it. A stated rhythm is what a client compares against.
2. What a review actually covers
Circumstances, objectives, the arrangements in place, anything that has changed and what should happen next. Described as an agenda rather than a meeting.
3. How long it takes
And whether it is in person, by video or by telephone. Clients plan around it and some prefer one format entirely.
4. Who attends
The adviser, a paraplanner or an administrator, and whether a partner should be present. Clients want to know whether they will see the person they appointed.
5. What happens between reviews
Monitoring, administration, any rebalancing and the work that is invisible. Naming it is what makes the fee legible.
6. Whether contact between reviews is included
Plainly. Whether a question costs anything, how quickly somebody responds and who they will reach. It is the most valued part of the service and the least described.
7. What prompts an out of cycle review
A life event, a legislative change, a market event or a request. Clients want to know somebody would get in touch if something mattered.
8. What the client receives after a review
A summary, a report, recommendations or nothing unless something changes. People want to know what arrives.
9. What happens if nothing needs to change
That a review concluding no action is a legitimate and common outcome. Clients otherwise suspect a review exists to generate something.
10. How the firm communicates in between
Updates, market commentary or nothing. Silence is the main cause of clients drifting, which is the ground in existing clients asking the same service questions.
11. What to do if they have not heard
A route, published, so a client can prompt a review rather than assuming they have been forgotten.
12. How the review relates to the fee
Because clients evaluate the two together, as in fee structure questions clients should ask.
12b. What a client should bring to a review
Changes in income, a new job, a house move, a birth, an inheritance or a change of plan are the things that actually alter a recommendation, and clients rarely think to mention them. A short list sent before each review turns a polite catch up into a meeting that produces something.
12c. Who to contact when the adviser is away
Holidays, illness and departures happen, and a client with a time sensitive question should not discover that the only person who knows them is unavailable for a fortnight. Naming the cover arrangement is reassuring long before anybody needs it.
13. Book reviews rather than waiting to be asked
An annual prompt, sent automatically, converts far better than an intention. The same rhythm works in any recurring service, as in boiler service and annual check questions.
14. Answer client questions at any hour
Existing clients ask administrative questions in the evening and should not wait, which is the approach in how financial advisors use chatbots to answer client questions.
Getting started
Publish the review rhythm, what it covers and whether contact between reviews is included, then prompt reviews automatically and answer at any hour. SpideyChat for financial advisers answers from your published pages, plans are on the pricing page, and the chatbot ROI calculator works through the numbers.