Helena Wardle, Partner & Chartered Financial Planner at Smith & Wardle, looks at some key ways we can reduce complexity for clients in Suitability letters.
How can we simplify our Suitability letters and make them easier to understand for clients? Below are some ways I believe can help us all communicate better with our clients, and while applied here to Suitability letters, I think they can improve any client communication.
Get the clients agenda and focus on it. Address their concerns and priorities in a way that reflects the discussions you had in the meeting. You may pick up on other important areas but to engage the client you need to focus and listen to what they wanted rather than your own agenda and process.
Reduce the level of actions and barriers to help clients achieve their goals. Make it as simple as possible. I know it is not always the case, but we are also guilty of overthinking things and we need to challenge if this is always beneficial?
Make it personal and use their words.
Use plain English. We love terminology and jargon in this industry and it’s so rubbish for clients. I recently spoke to a good paraplanner who has started using the term ‘money’ in suitability letters rather than investments, savings or wealth (hate the term!). It makes so much more sense to clients. We should do the same when we discuss or write about risk. Document the discussions in their words.
Split complex advice and create single steps for each area of advice that you are addressing, to make it simpler to take on. We want to create a flow, but does that sometimes mean that clients don’t follow the advice? I think a lot of advisers are splitting the financial planning from the product recommendations and I think this is a great idea. It separates the two areas clearly and helps clients take this information in.
Don’t be afraid to document it. The tricky bit is that we are busy and often we will finish a meeting and then move on to the next job. I recently discovered Otter AI (an app that allows you to make and transcribe voice notes or to transcribe meetings) and it has made such a difference to the level of information I record on fact finds. It is one real time saver that has come from online meetings, it is easy to record meetings and transcribe these to help us with how we document what happened. If a client contradicts themselves in the risk discussion, we typically challenge it, does this discussion make it into the Suitability letter? It should.
Use visual aids. There are so many, and it is a huge help to clients to help bring concepts to life. I ask clients how they take information in and it has made such a difference to the engagement I get in the meeting and with the Suitability letters. It becomes a presentation tool that is personalised to them. It has also helped me open up discussions with clients who may struggle to understand the written elements of the reports and allowed us to address this and offer support.
Be objective. I know it sounds obvious, but we need to improve the way we handle our own biases and we need to present the information in a balanced manner. Just because you don’t like something at the moment it is not fair to force that opinion onto a client without giving a balanced argument to help them make an informed decision (I am looking at you “annuities are rubbish!”).
Keep it short and simple. Minimise the level of clutter and waffle that we set in Suitability letter templates. No one prescribes a 50-page suitability document so stop repeating everything. We do not need to regurgitate information from the fact find into the Suitability letter. I am fairly confident the client knows their age and the name of their spouse and if they don’t you are probably presenting to the wrong client!
Take ownership of your advice. Don’t try and palm the responsibility onto the client they are seeking your expertise. I have seen too many “you said you don’t want an annuity” to not raise this. We are the advisers, whether the client said it or not we need to evidence why the advice is suitable. What was their reason for not wanting the annuity? Why did you agree? Evidence why it makes sense or not and stop order taking.
See Helena’s article on Suitability letters in the September issue of Professional Paraplanner
