Competency assessment without the spreadsheet
Competency assessment is a regulatory expectation that many firms meet with spreadsheets and memory. Freeboard assesses against a versioned, dated standard, in minutes, using meetings you already record.
On this page
- What the rules expect of competency assessment
- Where the ninety minutes go
- A worked example
- What Freeboard does
- Why those dimensions matter
- Consistent, and it learns
- A checklist for an assessment that stands up
- The numbers
- Frequently asked questions
- What is a versioned, dated standard?
- Does Freeboard replace the assessor?
- What does Freeboard read?
Adviser competency assessment is a regulatory expectation, and many firms meet it with spreadsheets and memory. Two assessors mark the same adviser differently. The standard drifts over time. And when someone asks which standard a particular assessment was made under, nobody can say for certain.
For a structured training and competence scheme, that is a real risk, and it takes a surprising amount of time to produce. This article sets out what the rules expect, where the time goes, and how to make each assessment consistent and easy to defend.
What the rules expect of competency assessment
The Training and Competence sourcebook is direct. A firm must not assess an employee as competent until they have "demonstrated the necessary competence" (TC 2.1.1R), and it must "review on a regular and frequent basis employees' competence" (TC 2.1.12R). Advisers also need "a minimum of 35 hours of appropriate continuing professional development in each 12 month period" (TC 2.1.15R), of which "no less than 21 hours of structured continuing professional development" (TC 2.1.16G). All four are in TC 2.1.
On top of that, advisers need an annual Statement of Professional Standing from an accredited body, and verification lasts a "maximum of 12 months" (FCA professional standards). CPD and the SPS show an adviser is keeping up. A competency assessment shows what they actually do with clients. We cover the full picture in training and competence for financial advisers.
Where the ninety minutes go
Each assessment means finding a suitable meeting, gathering the client paperwork it relates to, reading both, and marking the evidence against your competency framework. Our estimate is around ninety minutes an assessment, and it is the kind of task that slips when the diary is full.
A worked example
A T&C supervisor needs to assess how an adviser handled a client's attitude to risk and capacity for loss. By hand, they:
- pick a meeting where those topics came up, and find the recording or transcript;
- pull the fact find, the valuation and the risk questionnaire responses for that client;
- read the meeting and the paperwork side by side;
- mark each competency in the spreadsheet, with a note of the evidence;
- write up the result and the development points.
The marking in step four is where consistency is lost. A second supervisor, or the same supervisor later in the year, may mark the same evidence differently, and the spreadsheet rarely records which version of the framework was in use.
What Freeboard does
Freeboard assesses a meeting against a defined standard, giving a repeatable, auditable measure instead of a subjective one.
- It runs off meetings you already record. Freeboard keeps a meeting library in step with Fireflies, so assessment becomes a by-product of normal work rather than a separate exercise to schedule.
- It reads the evidence. Fact finds, valuations and existing paperwork you have staged, plus questionnaire responses pulled straight from your risk questionnaire form.
- It scores against a dated standard. Skill profiles are marked against a scoring ruleset that is versioned and dated, so you can always point to exactly which standard applied.
Attitude to risk, capacity for loss, knowledge and understanding, and vulnerability are each assessed separately, with confidence, decision readiness and evidence completeness scored alongside them. Every conclusion is backed by the client's own words, quoted from the meeting.
Why those dimensions matter
Several of the dimensions Freeboard assesses are ones the regulator has singled out.
- Capacity for loss. FG11/05 describes it as "the customer's ability to absorb falls in the value of their investment", and found that "many fail to take appropriate account of their capacity for loss" (FG11/05).
- Vulnerability. The FCA's Consumer Duty focus areas for advice and wealth firms include "Tackling poor identification of clients with characteristics of vulnerability by wealth managers" (FCA focus areas).
- Suitability. The same focus areas include "Risks to providing unsuitable advice". Assessing each dimension separately makes it clear where an adviser's evidence is strong and where it is thin.
Consistent, and it learns
When an assessor corrects a score, the reasoning carries forward, so the standard gets sharper rather than drifting. The result is a branded report using your firm's own profile and marks, fully editable, and exported to Word or PDF.
A checklist for an assessment that stands up
- The version and date of the standard it was made under are recorded.
- Each conclusion quotes the client's own words, so the evidence can be checked.
- The client documents it relied on are the ones staged for that client.
- An assessor has reviewed the result, and any correction is recorded.
- Development points feed into the adviser's T&C plan, and the next assessment checks them.
Freeboard pairs naturally with Asclto, which reviews every recorded meeting: where Asclto describes a meeting for coaching, Freeboard assesses it against a standard.
The numbers
By our estimate, an assessment drops from around ninety minutes to a few minutes, about an hour and a quarter back each time. The bigger gain is consistency: every assessment made against the same dated standard, with the evidence quoted, ready for anyone who asks.
Freeboard costs £49 per adviser per month, excluding VAT, with no contract. At the £150 charge-out rate our homepage calculator uses, a single assessment saved more than covers it.
Freeboard helps you produce the evidence. Decisions about competence, and responsibility for the T&C scheme, stay with the firm and its supervisors.
Frequently asked questions
What is a versioned, dated standard?
The scoring ruleset Freeboard uses carries a version and a date, so for any assessment you can point to exactly which standard it was made under, even after the standard changes.
Does Freeboard replace the assessor?
No. It does the marking against your framework and quotes the evidence. An assessor reviews and corrects the result, and corrections carry forward into later assessments.
What does Freeboard read?
Meetings from Fireflies, the client documents you stage for it such as fact finds and valuations, and responses from your risk questionnaire form. The AI work runs through your firm's own Claude or ChatGPT account.
See Freeboard assess a meeting on a demo firm in twenty minutes on Microsoft Teams with Adam Booth, with nothing to prepare. Book a demo, or read more about Freeboard.
