Forum Discussion
Streamlining the production of SOAs
I really enjoyed reading this piece on "Is the SOA worth the piece of paper it is written on" - and would love to know what tools & tactics other advisers use to help streamline the production of SOAs?
- deborah.kentAdvisely Index Top 10
We have a great outsourced Paraplanner that we work with this process does streamline our production of advice documents and I agree Anne let them do their job to make ours easier
- anne.grahamAdvisely Index Top 10
One tip to streamline the production of SoAs would be for the adviser to get out of the way and let the paraplanners and support team do what they do best. Sounds tough but if the communication between the adviser and paraplanner is clear and complete at the outset, that should take away a lot of revision and editing down the track. :)
- TangeloAdvisely Partner
To further add to jessica.lamb avoiding duplication is not only key to streamlining the SOA but also a means to mitigate compliance issues. All too often we see information being replicated (e.g. disclosure of fees), this not only adds unnecessary length to the document, but there's also a risk (especially if manually included) that information is inconsistent.
Businesses should also be mindlful of stripping out any "educational content" from the SOA and providing these as information sheets/flyers. Sometimes less is more so it's important to distinguish between what "must" be in the SOA vs what is "nice to have".
- jessica.lambAdvisely Partner
I resonate with so much in this article. I agree 100% with this comment “If you go to a doctor, you don’t expect them to go through every single health issue, they aren’t giving you a document on every virus and why they ruled them out. None of us want that and it’s the exact same for clients that come to advisers,”
I am looking forward to hearing some tips from our Advisely community.
When it comes to producing SOAs via XPLAN, my number 1 tip is to ensure all the work you complete through XPLAN, feeds through automatically into your SOA document.
For example, if you have completed a recommendation in Risk Researcher, all relevant information relating to that recommendation should come through into the SOA. You should get the recommended level of cover, the premium amounts payable and the commission payable to the adviser.
The power of a well-coded template, run via a well-crafted XPLAN wizard is key to streamlining your SOA production.
- primrose.fosterAdvisely Team
Thanks jessica.lamb for sharing your thoughts! Your tips to help automate the process further are super useful.