Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for wealth managers and financial advisers.
A checklist built from how wealth managers and financial advisers work, to print or save as a PDF and bring to any supplier meeting.
What the software should cover
Tick each one that matters to your business.
- Family client record
- Folio and investment plan register
- Review calendar
- Action tracker
- Identity checks and document vault
- Fee and commission ledger
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For partners and principals
- For relationship managers and advisers
- For client service and operations
- For compliance officers
- For clients
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Reviews due and overdue, by manager and household
- Agreed actions open, past due and closed, with the attached proof
- Identity papers, agreements and mandates expiring in the next period
- Risk profiles older than the refresh interval
- Assets under advice by household, product type and custodian
- Advisory fees invoiced, commission received and unmatched income
- Households without an assigned manager or a booked review
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- Custodian and platform statement files
- SMS
- Messaging apps
- Calendar
- Accounting export
- Electronic signature service
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Does the system place trades or hold client money?
- How do holdings get in without retyping?
- Can we record a joint account that belongs to two households?
- Can a junior manager open every family?
- Will this make our firm compliant with our regulator?
- Can a client see their own statement and notes?
- What happens to our existing spreadsheet of clients?
- How are advisory fees and commission income kept apart?
- If we part ways, can we keep our records?
- Is there a way to look at it first?
- What would relationship managers rely on before the portal is built?
- What should partners and compliance gather before the household structure is entered?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- One family is not visible on one screen
- Review dates slip when the season gets busy
- Agreed actions are lost after the meeting
- Client documents are everywhere
Prefer to talk it through? See the wealth managers and financial advisers page.