The Basics
Who will support me? You’ll be supported by one single dedicated financial services administrator, who will build a relationship with you directly in order to provide the support you need, and learn about your business. Despite working remotely, your administrator can integrate as part of your team, representing you and your firm. Your administrator will be the only person with access to your data.
Some of our administrators have now been working with the same firms since we launched in 2014 and, in our view, that relationship is the most important factor.
Will you talk to my clients? Yes, absolutely. We represent you and your firm. Your clients won’t know that your administrator is employed by Intuitive.
What about email? Most firms give us an email account to use so that we can liaise with clients and providers on your behalf, but that’s entirely your preference.
What about telephones? Your administrator will have a direct line with voicemail. We cover the cost of outgoing calls, and you can give out the phone number to your clients and providers as required.
Are calls recorded? Not automatically, but we can arrange if required.
Can I divert my calls to you? Yes. However, worth mentioning, you’ll be transferring your calls to your administrator’s direct line, not a call centre. Unanswered calls will go to your administrator’s voicemail.
What about written correspondence? We’ll issue correspondence on your letter heading, using your preferred font style and layout.
Can you help with a project? Yes, quite possibly. Whilst our core business is providing ongoing support, if we have the capacity we’ll be happy to help with projects too. Please ask for details.
My Administrator
How quickly can my administrator be available? We might have someone available immediately, but this isn’t always the case. The more notice you can give, the better. If you do need someone quickly, please get in touch so that we can let you know the likely timescale.
What’s my administrator’s background? We’ll send you a profile with the details of their industry experience. Getting to know each other is an important part of your working relationship and we encourage you to ask about their past experience. You never know – they might have some additional skills you can tap into! You are also welcome to speak to the relevant administrator before proceeding.
Can I meet my administrator? We work with financial advice firms all over the UK, so sometimes it isn’t practical due to location, but we encourage meeting if possible.
Will my administrator work with other firms? Yes, most likely. Most will be working with a small number of advice firms, on an ongoing basis.
What hours will my administrator work? Some members of our team are full time; some part time. We will let you know their working pattern and ensure it’s suitable for your needs.
What training will my administrator have? Every member of staff undertakes the following training annually:
• Anti-Money Laundering & Financial Crime
• Data Protection
• Vulnerable Clients
• Cyber Security
• SM&CR Conduct Rules
• Health & Safety
Please also see further information under Technology (below).
What happens when my administrator takes holiday? Few firms ask us for holiday cover, because we rarely provide full time support to any single firm. We would need to consider IT access requirements and look at what training is required. (Keep in mind our team work remotely, and all work very differently for different firms, they are not all doing the same role). The cost of training a second administrator, and the time spent handing over work, is chargeable, and offering cover is dependent upon whether someone else within the team (with the right skillset) is able to increase their hours during that time. We therefore only provide holiday cover on a best endeavours basis.
We do not offer holiday cover to firms using the service under 7 hours per week.
What happens if my administrator should leave? Many of our administrators have been with us for years, and we’re proud of our team. However, it’s inevitable that good people will move on from time to time. If your designated administrator should leave, we’ll notify you immediately and offer alternative support from within the team, if available. If there isn’t alternative resource available at that time, we’ll work hard to recruit a suitable replacement as soon as possible. It’s important to mention that recruitment can’t be rushed, and therefore this could potentially result in a gap of service in the interim period. If that should happen, the administration fee will be suspended and we’ll keep you fully informed of progress until you are offered alternative support.
In meantime, you have peace of mind that the burden of the recruitment process (and costs) sit with us, so that’s one less thing to worry about. We’ll also work hard to minimise the impact to you.
Customers
Who are your customers? We work with regulated financial advice firms of all sizes. Some are small firms who don’t wish to employ an administrator, whilst others are larger firms who need help with specific tasks. Working remotely means we can work with firms based anywhere in the UK. Most of our customers need ongoing support, but we often help with projects too.
Lastly, and importantly, we choose to only work with advice firms who treat our staff with the professional courtesy and respect that they deserve. If an advice firm should continually cause an unreasonable amount of stress to a member of our team, we will politely part company with you.
Technology
Which back-office systems can you use? Many of our administrators have experience with intelliflo office, XPLAN, Plannr CRM and various other back-office systems. However, if an administrator needs to learn a system in order to support you, this will be done in our own time. We don’t charge for time spent training on mainstream industry back-office systems or platforms.
We also work closely with Eileen Murphy of Informed Training, who supports us with training for intelliflo office. MORE INFO
What technology do you use? We work within secure hosted desktops, which host our email accounts and software, and provides our storage and back-up facility. Our IT infrastructure is provided by Key Computers and access requires Multi Factor Authentication. Full details are available within our due diligence document. In addition to this, we’ll use (and learn) any systems you require us to use in order to support you.
How will my administrator access provider sites? They’ll need to register in exactly the same way as an employee of your firm. Alternatively, you can supply them with the access details that you would like them to use on your behalf.
Can you use Unipass Identity? Yes we can. We apply to download the certificate for Unipass Identity in the normal way, and you (as the Unipass Identity Controller) will need to approve the application. You retain the control, and can revoke our access at any time.
How will you access my client files? You need to decide how you would like us to access your data, but we are happy to provide suggestions. Some firms use SharePoint, OneDrive or Google Drive, whilst others give us access to a virtual desktop. We also work with firms who simply store their documents within their back-office system. We recommend approaching it in the same way that you would for any remote working employee within your firm.
Office 365: If you would like your administrator to access your clients files within Office 365 (SharePoint or OneDrive), it is really important that you do not do this by simply sharing a link to files or folders. You must give the administrator their own login ID and password. Please feel free to get in touch for further information in respect of this.
Training
What happens if my administrator needs training? It is unlikely that your administrator will have experience with every system or investment platform available. However, you have peace of mind that if your administrator should need to learn a new mainstream industry back-office system or investment platform in order to support you, we won’t charge for that time. Your administrator will undertake that training in our time.
Please note that this only relates to the administrative functions within the systems that you could reasonably expect an experienced Financial Services administrator to have experience of.
This excludes:
• Research tools that paraplanners typically use
• Cashflow forecasting tools
• Back office system configuration
• Income reconciliation
• Training specific to your own firm’s processes
• Annual training for your compliance or network
• Attending your firm’s team meetings
Training time needs to be proportionate to the level of support required, and requests must be submitted to one of the Directors for approval in the first instance.
Services
What can you do for me? We can help with all the financial planning administration support tasks that an administrator sat in your own office could do. It’s no different to having your own employee, who works from home.
Can you do my suitability letters? Much of what we do supports the paraplanning role – for example, coordinating LOAs, data gathering, and research. However, we are not paraplanners, and although our team are very knowledgeable, paraplanning isn’t our strength. We’ll sometimes help with templated suitability letters, but this isn’t the service we are promoting. We can recommend some excellent outsourced paraplanning firms, should you need one.
Can I re-direct my post to you? Yes, your administrator can receive and process your post.
Can you help with a project? Yes, if we have capacity.
SM&CR
How does SM&CR impact you? In terms of certification, the FCA consider the administrator role to be “low-risk”, because we have no scope to choose, decide or reach a judgement on what should be done in a given situation. (We follow instructions, we don’t make the decisions). As a result of this administrators are excluded from being “certified”. However, the five “tier one” Conduct Rules apply to all staff, and our administrators undertake training on this annually.
Charging
How do you charge? Our pay-as-you-go contract means no tie-in or minimum commitment. You simply pay for the time used, plus a monthly administration fee (+VAT).
We’ll send you a weekly timesheet outlining the work undertaken, so you’ll always know where you are in terms of time spent. (Daily timesheets available on request). Our pay-as-you-go contract ensures that our customers remain with us because they value what we do, not because they are tied to us.
Your dedicated administrator will continue to be available to you, so long as you are regularly using the service.
No hidden costs, simple and transparent. Charges reviewed annually in August. Subject to VAT.
Can you cope with my work levels fluctuating? We’ll reserve hours for your work based on your average usage. You’ll only pay for what you use and we understand that work levels will fluctuate slightly, which is absolutely fine. However, if your requirements are likely to change significantly, please let us know as soon as possible. If you require additional hours, significantly over and above your average usage, whilst we will do our best to accommodate you, providing additional support will be dependent upon the availability of your administrator. Our service is best suited to advice firms needing a relatively consistent level of ongoing support, rather than ad-hoc or occasional.
What about postage? We’ll charge you for postage costs incurred on your monthly invoice, and send you an itemised breakdown.
What about telephone holding time? Our team wear headsets to enable them to multitask whilst holding. Despite it being outside of our control, we have always known that charging for lengthy periods of holding time would not be something that an advice firm would appreciate, and therefore we try to minimise the impact wherever possible. We try to use the holding time to work on something else whenever we can. It is important to say however, there will still be times when an element will be charged to you which is unavoidable, but it is our aim to work towards minimising the impact wherever reasonably possible.
Is the hourly rate the same for all tasks? Yes
What happens if I work with two of your administrators? The administration fee is payable for each administrator. You can request separate invoices, or combined.
Is there a minimum term or commitment period? No, it is pay-as-you-go. Your administrator will continue to be available to you, so long as you are regularly using the service.
Is there a minimum usage? No, but the service is best suited to firms needing a regular level of ongoing support. Your dedicated administrator will not be able to cope with work levels that fluctuate heavily. Furthermore, whilst we don’t specify a minimum commitment, we would be unlikely to keep an account open for anyone regularly using less than 1 hour pw.
What can’t you help with?
We cannot train your staff or contractors, that is not our role. Please do not ask us to do this.
And we cannot make your clients a coffee.
Errors and Mistakes
What happens when there is a mistake? We are not renting out machines; we’re giving you access to real people with strengths and weaknesses. Whether you employ or outsource, unfortunately no-one is immune from occasionally making a mistake. What we believe is important is how we work hard to minimise those mistakes, how we deal with them if they do occur, and how we then review what has happened in order to prevent recurrence.
When you outsource a task to us, you do not outsource the responsibility for that task. You will need to have a checking or supervision process in place, in much the same way that you would likely have with any employee of your firm, in order to ensure that all work has been carried out in accordance with your requirements. It is important that you are aware that this responsibility will sit entirely with you. You hold the ongoing responsibility for checking and overseeing all work undertaken on your behalf, and this includes ensuring that time sensitive work has been processed within required timescales. Much of that supervision might be undertaken by simply being copied into emails, checking instructions submitted and reviewing letters issued on your behalf.
Please send explicit instructions wherever possible. Please avoid asking the administrator to read a client email, letter or report in order to identify what they are required to do. This can lead to incorrect assumptions being made, or requirements being missed.
For the avoidance of all doubt, if you require us to process transactions such as fund switches, withdrawals and new business submissions, we will not carry any liability for errors, and this remains with you.
Client Confidentiality & Data Security
How secure is my client data? We take client confidentiality very seriously indeed. Please feel free to ask for our due diligence document. MORE INFO
Independence
Are you tied to any other company? We are frequently asked to recommend service providers, for example, outsourced compliance or paraplanning firms. We’re always happy to make suggestions taking into account our own positive experiences. However, we are entirely independent of any other firm, and we do not have a formal agreement in place to recommend any company. You can read more about our Trusted Partners HERE.