Client review meetings that justify ongoing fees

Aug 29
3 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Introduction

A client pays an ongoing charge every year. Once a year they receive a valuation and have a pleasant conversation about markets, their holiday and how the portfolio has done. Nothing is changed and nothing specific is decided.

The client eventually asks what they are paying for, or a family member asks on their behalf, and the answer is difficult to articulate. Ongoing charges require an ongoing service that can be described and evidenced, and a review meeting that produces no output does not meet that requirement in the eyes of either the client or a regulator. Both are asking the same question and only one of them asks it politely.

1. Client review meetings that justify ongoing fees must produce something

Define the output.

A decision, a change, a confirmation that a plan remains suitable, or a documented reason for doing nothing. A meeting whose only product is a conversation is difficult to defend when it is questioned.

2. Prepare properly before the meeting

Where most of the value is created.

Read the file, note what has changed, model the current position against the objectives, and prepare specific points. A review conducted from a valuation printed that morning is exactly the meeting clients query. Preparation is visible within the first two minutes and so is its absence.

3. Start from their objectives, not the portfolio

Reframes the entire conversation.

Whether they are on track for what they wanted, and what has changed in their life. Performance is relevant to that question and it is not the question, and clients who understand this value the review far more.

4. Cover what has changed in their circumstances

The core professional purpose.

Income, health, family, employment, property, intentions. These change constantly and are what determine whether a plan remains suitable, and clients rarely volunteer them unprompted.

5. Address the things clients avoid raising

Real work, visibly done.

Later life planning, what happens on death, powers of attorney, whether a partner could manage alone. These conversations are uncomfortable and they are among the most valuable services an adviser provides.

6. Report on what you have done during the year

Invisible work is unvalued work.

Rebalancing, tax allowances used, product reviews, administrative work handled, and questions answered. Clients experience nothing during the year and conclude nothing happened, which is the foundation of the fee objection. Work nobody sees is work nobody believes happened.

7. Record the meeting properly

Both a requirement and a protection.

What was discussed, what changed, what was recommended, what the client decided and why. Suitability must be maintained and evidenced over time, and the record is what demonstrates the ongoing service was actually delivered.

8. Match the service to what is being charged

The point regulators press hardest on.

If clients are paying for an annual review, every one of them should receive one. Books where a proportion of clients pay ongoing charges and have not been seen for years are a well-known and serious problem.

9. Segment the service level

Practical necessity.

Different clients need different frequency and depth, and the charge should reflect that. A single service standard applied to a whole book means either overservicing small clients or failing larger ones.

Ask clients what they most value about the ongoing relationship. The answers are frequently about availability, reassurance and having somebody who knows their situation rather than about investment performance, and knowing that tells you what the review meeting should actually contain.

Conclusion

Make the review produce a documented output rather than a pleasant conversation.

Prepare thoroughly beforehand, start from the client's objectives rather than the portfolio, cover changes in their circumstances properly, raise the uncomfortable subjects they avoid, report the work you did during the year that they never saw, record the meeting and the reasoning fully, make sure every client paying for a review actually receives one, segment service levels to match what is charged, and ask clients what they genuinely value.