Fact-find and suitability paperwork
Advice waits on paperwork: a fact-find the client has half finished, a provider that has not answered a letter of authority, a report nobody has had time to start. Handing the chasing, the collating and the first drafts to an AI agent means your paraplanner starts from a complete file. It never advises and never assesses suitability.
The role in brief
Gathers the fact-find, issues and chases letters of authority, collates what providers send back and drafts the factual sections of the suitability report for review.
Your back-office system, such as Intelliflo Office, Xplan or Plannr, your client portal and your administration mailbox.
Your client administrator for the chasing, your paraplanner for the drafts. Fact-find gaps and provider queries go to the administrator; drafts and clients' questions about their money to the adviser.
Days to complete provider information, fact-finds complete before the meeting, and drafts sent back by the paraplanner.
Who does the paperwork around advice today
A client administrator does it, and the paraplanner picks up what is left. They send the fact-find and chase it, send a letter of authority to each provider by email or through Origo's Unipass service, then email and ring for weeks to get plan details, charges and valuations. The paraplanner keys it all into the report. When one provider is slow the whole case waits, and the client hears nothing.
One provider holds up the case
The recommendation waits for the slowest provider, and a new client can hold plans with several, each answering a letter of authority in its own time. A 2021 NextWealth study for Origo found providers quote one to ten days while advisers experience weeks, in some cases months.
A fact-find with gaps
FCA rules say a firm that has not obtained the necessary information to assess suitability must not make a personal recommendation. A missing income figure or an unanswered risk questionnaire stops the advice, and the adviser often finds out while preparing for the meeting.
The paraplanner becomes the typist
The CII describes the paraplanner's job as helping the adviser research, analyse and prepare compliant reports. Hours spent copying plan numbers, charges and valuations out of provider letters are hours off the research. The file also has to stand up later, since suitability records are kept for years, and indefinitely for a pension transfer.
Where the paperwork ends and the advice begins
Everything that is advice, from the research to the recommendation and the suitability assessment, is done by your paraplanner and adviser. The AI worker chases, collates and drafts the paperwork, in wording your firm approves.
Fact-find
Sends the fact-find and the risk questionnaire in wording you have approved, reminds the client at the intervals you choose and lists every unanswered question for the administrator.
Any question the client asks about their money or their options, and any phone call to the client.
Letters of authority
Prepares a letter of authority for each provider from the client record. Once the client has signed, sends it to the provider and logs the date.
Approval of each letter before it goes to the client or to a provider.
Provider chasing
Chases each provider in writing at the intervals you set, checks what comes back against your information checklist and files it to the client record.
Phone calls to providers, and any answer that is unclear or does not match the client's fact-find.
Draft for review
Fills the factual sections of your report template from the fact-find and the provider answers: circumstances, existing plans, charges, valuations. Marks each figure with the document it came from.
The recommendation, the reasons for it and the suitability assessment. The adviser approves the report and sends it.
Days to complete provider information
Counted for each case, from the day a signed letter of authority is sent to the day the last provider's answer is filed. Reviewed with you each month.
Fact-finds complete before the meeting
The share of first meetings and reviews, taken from your diary, where every required answer and document was on the client record beforehand.
Drafts sent back by the paraplanner
How many drafts the paraplanner returned because a fact was missing or did not match its source, and which fact it was.
Financial advisers and wealth managers
New clients and reviews: the fact-find, letters of authority to pension and investment providers, and the factual first draft of the suitability report.
Mortgage brokers
The fact-find, payslips and bank statements gathered and checked for gaps before the adviser recommends a mortgage. Suitability under MCOB stays with the adviser.
Questions owners ask
Does the agent write the recommendation in a suitability report?
No. It fills the factual sections from the fact-find and the provider answers, and shows where each figure came from. The recommendation, the reasons for it and the assessment of suitability are written by your paraplanner and adviser. The adviser approves the report before the client sees it.
Can it phone a provider to chase a letter of authority?
This role works in writing. It chases each provider at the intervals you set and tells your administrator which have gone quiet, with the dates and plan numbers to hand, so the call that still has to be made is a short one.
What happens when a client asks it about their pension?
It does not answer. The message goes to the adviser with the client's record. The agent asks clients only for information and documents, in wording you have approved. It gives no opinion, and no figure the adviser has not checked.
Who is accountable for a file the agent has prepared?
Your firm and the adviser, as when an administrator prepares it. FCA rules put the duty to make sure a personal recommendation is suitable on the firm. The agent's drafts name the source of each figure, so the paraplanner can check it against the provider's letter.