The annual review is your biggest writing job. Here is how to get the hours back

Ask an adviser which job fills the diary without anyone noticing, and the annual review comes up quickly. Each one is a small piece of research and writing. Across an ongoing advice book, annual review writing becomes the biggest recurring writing job in the firm, and the one most likely to be rushed or templated.

This guide looks at where the time goes, why the quality of the review matters more than ever, how to check a faster draft, and what is left for the adviser to do.

Why the annual review carries so much weight

For many firms, ongoing advice is where most of the revenue comes from. When the FCA reviewed ongoing advice services at 22 of the largest firms, it found that "About 80% of revenue from adviser charges relates to charges for ongoing services from around 4 million clients" (FCA ongoing advice review). It also found reviews were delivered in about 83% of cases, that in 15% the client declined or did not respond, and that in fewer than 2% the firm made no attempt. We look at those findings in more detail in what the FCA's ongoing advice review found.

The rules tie the fee to the service. COBS 6.1A.22R allows ongoing adviser charges only for "an ongoing service for the provision of personal recommendations or related services", disclosed, with a right to cancel (COBS 6.1A). And COBS 9A.3.9R says "A firm providing a periodic suitability assessment must review the suitability of the recommendations given at least annually" (COBS 9A.3).

Under the Consumer Duty, the review is also where the price and value outcome becomes visible to the client. A review the client reads and understands is part of the evidence that the ongoing fee buys something real.

Where the three hours go

A good review is not difficult. It is slow. For each client you are usually:

• pulling figures out of two or more platform valuation PDFs;
• separating genuine investment growth from money the client paid in;
• checking how charges moved over the year;
• writing it all up in language the client will actually read.

None of that needs an adviser's judgement, but all of it eats into the time for the part that does. Our estimate is around three hours a review by hand. At five reviews per adviser a month, that is fifteen hours.

A worked example

Picture a client with an ISA and a pension on one platform, plus a regular contribution and a lump sum added part way through the year. To write the review by hand, the adviser or paraplanner:

1. opens this year's and last year's valuations and copies the opening and closing values into a spreadsheet;
2. finds the contributions and withdrawals so that growth is not confused with money paid in;
3. finds the charges in each report and compares them;
4. drafts the narrative, checks every number in it against the PDFs, and formats the document in the firm's style.

The second step is where reviews most often mislead. A pot that has grown because the client added money looks like strong performance unless the two are separated, and that is exactly the distinction the client needs to understand.

What Strata does

Strata starts from the statements your platform already produces. There is nothing new to integrate.

• Drop in the reports. Two or more annual portfolio valuations for the client.
• It does the mechanics. Strata reads every figure, works out what changed across the whole period, separates growth from money paid in, and tracks the charges year on year.
• It writes the review. You get a finished, branded document that opens with what matters to the client, then covers what has gone well, what has changed and a timeline, with year-on-year charts drawn from the figures.

Because Strata compares two or more periods across the whole span, not just the latest year, it suits clients whose story only makes sense over several years.

Why you can trust the figures

A tool that saves time but needs every number rechecked does not save much. Strata is built so checking is quick:

• every figure is traced back to the report and page it came from;
• it guards against mixing up clients when several report packs are staged together;
• if it cannot read a file, it says so, rather than quietly leaving it out.

You check a figure against its source in seconds, instead of rebuilding the sums yourself.

A quick checklist before the review goes out

1. Are all the client's reports in, and has Strata reported any file it could not read?
2. Spot-check the headline figures, the contributions and the charges against the page each one came from.
3. Read the growth figure alongside the money paid in. Does the narrative describe them the way you would?
4. Complete every adviser-only section, and confirm the recommendation still suits the client.
5. Read the opening as the client would. Is it clear what has happened and what, if anything, needs to change?

Writing annual reviews clients actually read

The best reviews lead with the client rather than the portfolio. Strata opens with what matters to the client, before any numbers, then works through what has gone well and what has changed. Charges are tracked year on year so they can be explained plainly rather than buried in an appendix; we cover how to present them in explaining charges to clients.

A consistent structure across every review also helps the firm. When every client receives the same quality of document, the review stops depending on how busy the adviser was that week, and the file shows a clear record of what was reviewed and what was said.

What you still do

Strata leaves the advice to you. Sections that need an adviser's judgement are clearly flagged, and the whole document is editable before you export it to Word or PDF in your firm's branding. The difference is that you start from a finished draft rather than a blank page and a pile of PDFs.

The numbers

By our estimate, a review drops from around three hours to around twenty minutes. At five reviews per adviser a month, that is roughly twelve and a half hours back every month, for every adviser. Your own figures will depend on your clients, but the shape of the saving is the same: the assembly work goes, and the judgement stays with you.

Strata costs £89 per adviser per month, excluding VAT, with no contract. At the £150 charge-out rate our homepage calculator uses, the first hour it saves each month more than covers it.

Frequently asked questions

Which documents does Strata need?

Two or more of the client's annual portfolio valuation reports, as PDFs. These are the statements your platform already produces, so there is nothing new to integrate.

Can we change what Strata writes?

Yes. The whole review is editable inline, sections that need an adviser's judgement are clearly flagged, and it exports to Word or PDF in your firm's branding.

Will the FCA's proposals on periodic reviews change this?

The FCA's CP26/10 proposes "Replacing the annual suitability review with periodic reviews based on clients' needs". It is a consultation, and the final rules have not been published. However often reviews happen, each one still needs the figures assembled and written up, which is the work Strata does.

See Strata write a review on a demo firm in twenty minutes on Microsoft Teams with Adam Booth, with nothing to prepare. Book a demo, or read more about Strata.