Simple but effective

TOWER’s Compliance Roadshow made it clear that advisers must start integrating compliance into their everyday business practices if they are to survive and succeed in New Zealand’s increasingly regulated and competitive market.

Monday, December 16th 2002, 12:00PM

Tip: Paper Trail

Make notes as soon as it happens
Thorough compliance notes increase the value of your book. If a purchaser can come into your business pick up a file and know where you have been, and where you are going with a client it makes it far easier to take over. Keep file notes of telephone conversations, conferences, meetings, emails etc.
Develop an effective diarising system to remind you to follow up with clients
Develop checklist and appropriate documentation, eg fact finders, client letters

If an outsider could pick up one of your files and know where file has been, what stage you are at now with the client and what next step is then you can consider your notes complete.

Source: Holley Nethercote

But something else that attendees went away with was the concept that although putting best practice into action can seem an onerous task, there are many simple but effective ways to start achieving it.

A good place to start is with a client record sheet, a useful tool that was introduced at the roadshow. The idea is for an adviser to use the client record sheet to jot down notes from meetings, appointments or phone conversations with a client.

The notes don’t have to be elaborate or detailed, nor do they need to be typed up afterwards. But by taking simple measures such as dating the sheet, noting the time of the transaction, the type of transaction that took place and any objectives or actions agreed upon can give advisers a meaningful and helpful record that can easily be referred to at a later date.

Getting into the habit of recording all transactions with clients is useful on many levels – but it’s particularly effective for providing a reference tool for both the adviser and the client. It’s a practice that almost sounds too simple to be of any real use, yet attendees at the roadshow will have heard some real life examples of just how useful a dated client record sheet can turn out to be – especially when it comes down to a case of just who said what and when.

TOWER has created notepads of client record sheets, which are available for advisers to use, and also offers a template sheet for advisers to copy and add their own company logo. Call your TOWER Business Development Manager on 0800 4 TOWER (0800 486 937) for more information.