Client-friendly annual reviews: writing reviews clients actually read
How to write a client-friendly annual review: put the headline first, follow a structure built around the client's questions, replace jargon with plain English, and test whether clients understood it.
On this page
- What the Consumer Duty expects of a client-friendly annual review
- Put the headline first
- A structure built on the client's questions
- Reflect what the client told you
- Show the figures in a form that makes sense
- Be honest about a poor year
- Replace jargon with plain English
- Simple rules for every review
- Keep the adviser's judgement visible
- Test whether clients understand
- Making it consistent across every client
- Frequently asked questions
- What makes an annual review client-friendly?
- Do we still need risk warnings in a plain-English review?
- How can a small firm test that clients understand its reviews?
An annual review can be thorough, accurate and almost entirely unread. Picture a client who opens a thirty-page document, finds a table of fund codes on page two, skims for the total value and puts it in a drawer. Everything the adviser wanted them to know is in there somewhere. The client simply never reached it.
A client-friendly annual review is written the other way round: it starts with what the client most wants to know, uses words they would use themselves, and keeps the detail for those who want it. This guide covers the structure, the language and how to check that clients actually understand what you send them.
What the Consumer Duty expects of a client-friendly annual review
Consumer understanding is one of the four Consumer Duty outcomes (PS22/9). The rule behind it is direct. PRIN 2A.5.3R says: "(1) A firm must support retail customer understanding so that its communications: (a) meet the information needs of retail customers; (b) are likely to be understood by retail customers; and (c) equip retail customers to make decisions that are effective, timely and properly informed. (2) A firm must communicate information to retail customers in a way which is clear, fair and not misleading." (PRIN 2A.5).
The guidance goes further on style. PRIN 2A.5.7G refers to using "plain and intelligible language" and to the need to "avoid unnecessary disclaimers". A review that is accurate but impenetrable does not meet the information needs of the person it was written for.
The annual review is also where ongoing value becomes visible. If a client cannot follow what happened to their money and what the firm did, they cannot judge whether the service was worth paying for.
Put the headline first
Every review should open with two or three sentences that answer the client's real question: "Am I all right?" Write it last, once the figures and recommendations are settled, but put it first.
An illustrative headline might read:
Your plans remain on track. Your investments grew over the year after all charges, and you added to your ISA as planned. We recommend no change to your investments, but we suggest reviewing your pension contributions before the end of the tax year.
That paragraph tells the client the overall position, what happened, what to do and what is coming next. Everything after it is supporting detail.
A structure built on the client's questions
Organise the review around the questions a client asks, in the order they ask them. Tables of holdings and performance figures belong near the end, not the beginning.
| Section | The client's question |
|---|---|
| 1. The headline | Am I all right? |
| 2. What has changed for you | Did you listen to what I told you? |
| 3. What has gone well, and what has not | What happened to my money? |
| 4. Our recommendations | Do I need to do anything, and why? |
| 5. What we need from you | What do I have to do next? |
| 6. The figures and charges | Show me the detail. |
| 7. Appendix | Where is the small print? |
Reflect what the client told you
The "what has changed for you" section shows the client their own circumstances in their own terms: the new grandchild, the planned retirement date, the house move. It is also the bridge to the recommendation. If something important changed, the client should be able to see how it shaped the advice.
Show the figures in a form that makes sense
Break the change in value into money paid in, money taken out and investment return, and show charges in pounds as well as percentages. We set out a simple layout in explaining charges to clients.
Be honest about a poor year
A difficult year is when a clear review matters most. Say what happened in plain terms, put it in the context of the client's time horizon and objectives, and say whether it changes anything. Clients notice when a review avoids the subject.
Replace jargon with plain English
Advisers use technical terms all day, so it is easy to forget which ones clients do not know. A short substitution list helps every writer in the firm.
| Instead of | Try |
|---|---|
| Rebalancing | Bringing your investments back to the mix we agreed |
| Volatility | How much the value tends to rise and fall |
| Asset allocation | How your money is split between shares, bonds, property and cash |
| Ongoing charges figure | The yearly charge made by the funds |
| Decumulation | Taking an income from your savings |
| Net contributions | The money you paid in, less the money you took out |
Simple rules for every review
- Write to the client as "you", and refer to the firm as "we".
- Keep sentences short and put one idea in each paragraph.
- Give money in pounds, and use percentages only alongside them.
- If a technical term is unavoidable, explain it the first time it appears.
- Use the same name for the same thing throughout. Do not switch between "pension", "SIPP" and "plan".
- Keep risk warnings that are genuinely needed, close to the point they relate to, and drop boilerplate that adds nothing.
Keep the adviser's judgement visible
A plain review is not a thin one. The client should be able to see the reasoning behind each recommendation: what the adviser considered, why they recommend a change or no change, and any downsides. Plain language makes that reasoning easier to follow, not easier to skip.
A useful test is whether a colleague who was not in the meeting could read the recommendations section and explain to the client why the firm reached its view. If they could not, the reasons are probably missing or buried.
Test whether clients understand
The FCA expects firms to check, not assume. PRIN 2A.5.10R(1) says: "Where appropriate, a firm must: (a) test communications before communicating them to retail customers; and (b) ... regularly monitor the impact of the communications once they have been communicated" (PRIN 2A.5). For a small firm, testing can be simple and proportionate:
- Read it aloud. Sentences that are hard to say are usually hard to read.
- Ask someone outside advice. A colleague in operations, or a friend of the firm, reads a sample review and says what they think it means.
- Ask a few clients. After a review, ask two or three clients what they took from it, and compare that with what you meant.
- Ask in the meeting. PRIN 2A.5.9R requires firms, where appropriate, to "ask the retail customer whether they understand the information and if they have any further questions". Note the answer.
- Track the questions. If several clients ask the same thing after receiving a review, the review should answer it.
Keep a brief record of what was tested and what changed as a result. That is the kind of evidence we describe in Consumer Duty evidence for advice firms.
Making it consistent across every client
The hard part is not writing one good review. It is writing a hundred to the same standard when the diary is full. That is usually when reviews drift back into tables first and templated paragraphs.
Strata is built around this structure. It reads the platform valuation PDFs the firm already has and writes a plain-English, client-ready review that opens with what matters to the client before any numbers, then covers what has gone well, what has changed and a timeline, with year-on-year charts drawn from the extracted figures. It separates investment return from money paid in, tracks charges year on year, and traces every figure to the report and page it came from. Sections that need the adviser's judgement are clearly flagged, and the whole document is editable before export to Word or PDF. By our estimate, it brings a review from about three hours to about twenty minutes. The adviser still reads, checks and finishes every one.
Frequently asked questions
What makes an annual review client-friendly?
A headline answer at the start, a structure that follows the client's own questions, plain English, money shown in pounds, and detail kept towards the end for those who want it.
Do we still need risk warnings in a plain-English review?
Keep the warnings that are genuinely needed and place them next to the point they relate to. PRIN 2A.5.7G refers to avoiding unnecessary disclaimers, which is different from removing necessary ones.
How can a small firm test that clients understand its reviews?
Proportionately: read drafts aloud, ask someone outside advice to read a sample, ask a few clients what they took from their review, and record what you changed as a result.
See how Strata writes a review that leads with the client, or book a twenty-minute demo on Microsoft Teams with Adam Booth, run live on a demo firm with nothing to prepare.
