In this guide 6 sections
Households split because records are created one policy at a time, by whoever took the call, under whichever name was spoken first. Spouse, child and parent each become a separate file. A household link joins them, so the adviser sees the whole family’s cover together.
How one family becomes five records
It starts innocently. A man buys a term plan in March. His wife buys a motor policy two years later and gives a different mobile number, and his father needs health cover, with an old home address on the form.
Each time, staff search by name, find no exact match and create a new client. Spelling matters here. Rajesh Kumar, R Kumar and Rajesh K are three different people to a search box.
Add a child’s education plan taken in the mother’s name, and one family now sits in five files.
- Different phone numbers on each proposal form
- Name spelled with initials one time, in full the next
- Married names and maiden names
- A parent’s policy paid by the son but listed under the parent
- Staff who skip the search when the queue is long
What you cannot see when files are separate
The cost stays invisible, which is why it lasts. You never see the gap because the gap lives between the files, where no screen shows it.
The wife has a term plan, yet the husband’s record says nothing about her. The children carry no health cover. The parents’ policy lapsed and nobody connected it to the son who pays the premium.
One call should prompt questions about everyone else. Without a link, the adviser has no reason to ask.
Why a household link is not a merge
Merging files destroys information. The wife’s policies belong to her, with her nominee and her contact details, and the father’s health cover keeps its own renewal date and claim history.
A household link keeps each person as a separate client and adds a group above them. You mark one member as the head, tag how the others relate, and the system shows the family together on a single screen.
Permissions stay clean too. A claim note on a parent’s policy need not appear on the daughter’s screen unless the adviser opens the household view.
- One household record with a named head
- Each person still keeps an individual file
- Relationship tags: spouse, child, parent, dependant
- A combined list of every policy in the family
- Shared address and a preferred contact person
Cleaning up the files you already have
Export your client list to a sheet. Sort by surname, then phone number, then address, and the duplicates and relatives will cluster together within minutes.
Work through the top fifty clients by premium first. Mark likely households in a new column, check each with the adviser who knows the family, and only then link the files.
Delete nothing on the first pass. Link now, review later. Duplicates can be merged once an adviser confirms two files are truly the same person, and the audit log shows who agreed.
Making the link part of daily habit
Fix the front door first. Before creating any record, staff search by mobile number and surname, and ask which relatives already deal with the agency.
Then use the household view in renewal calls. Open the family, scan what each member holds and mention the gap in cover. Start next week with ten renewal calls and count the openings you find.
Household mapping worksheet
A printed sheet that lists every person in the family on its own row. Columns hold full name, relationship to the head, mobile number, address, date of birth, policies held, policies missing and the adviser’s next question. Fill it for your top fifty clients, then use it as the source when linking records in the system.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Should every relative be in the same household?
Only those who share financial decisions or dependants. A married daughter living elsewhere may form her own household, linked to her parents as a related family.
What if two members share one mobile number?
That is common and even useful. Search by number, then confirm the person by date of birth, and mark one member as the preferred contact for calls.
Does a household view affect privacy?
It can. Decide which staff may open the family view and which see only individual files. Role-based access handles this cleanly.
How long does the clean-up take?
Sorting the sheet takes an hour or two. Verifying the links takes longer, because someone who knows the clients has to confirm every pair.