Are Your Client’s Accounts Up-To-Date?
Imagine getting a call that one of your clients has passed away and during the process of going through their accounts to distribute monies, transfer accounts and setup beneficiary IRAs, it’s discovered that the beneficiary listed on the account passed some time ago. Or that the beneficiary field was left blank or worse, the beneficiary was never changed after a divorce. Can you imagine how distraught the ‘would be’ beneficiary would feel?
Another example is not updating your client’s contact information or trusted contact. You may not think it’s not that big of a deal, but it is. We run across accounts that have been locked by the custodian after failed attempts to contact the client or their trusted contact.
Unfortunately, these are just some examples of what can happen when an advisor isn’t keeping up with their client’s accounts.
There are many scenarios as to how this happens but here are four of the most common reasons:
- In a rush to get new accounts open, often the advisor will only gather the bare minimum on designations which is great for getting the initial account open but not so good for the client. Unless the advisor has made a tickler to follow-up with their client to get that information, it goes unattended. Even if there is a tickler, not getting the information from the start can create a lot of unnecessary work and time spent chasing down the client.
- Clients move, change their phone number or email address and fail to notify the advisor or the advisor updates the CRM but forgets to update the custodian.
- A current beneficiary passes and the advisors forgets to ask the client for new beneficiary information.
- Clients updated their estate documents but failed to notify the advisor. Aside from beneficiaries not getting updated, taxable accounts may not get transferred to the trust or the most recent trust documents won’t be on file.
We can employ several strategies to help you keep client accounts up-to date
At Total Office, Inc., we can employ several strategies including auditing client accounts to ensure beneficiaries are in place, reaching out to clients requesting updated information or providing a checklist to use during client meetings.
It is well worth it to invest the time to address this often overlooked task. Checking in with your clients to make sure their accounts are up-to-date, reminds your clients that you are paying attention to their well-being beyond just the numbers.
Helping to keep your client’s accounts up-to-date is just one of the many ways that we help advisors manage their office and serve their clients. If you could use this type of assistance to help keep your clients happy and off load a number of tasks from your to-do list, we would love to help you.
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