The annual review has a familiar shape. Performance, contributions, a look at the allocation, any changes in circumstances, see you next year.
It is a competent meeting and it is also the same meeting your client’s neighbour is having with a different firm. Nothing in it is hard to replicate.
The readiness section is different, because it goes where the client’s actual anxiety lives and because it requires a relationship rather than a system.
Why it belongs in the review
Three reasons, and the third is the one that matters commercially.
It is where the client’s unspoken worry sits. People do not lie awake about a fifty basis point difference in performance. They lie awake wondering whether their spouse could cope.
It surfaces work. Readiness conversations reliably uncover pensions nobody had accounted for, protection gaps, out-of-date nominations and estate planning that has never been addressed.
And it introduces you to the family. Advisers lose a large share of assets at the point of transfer because the beneficiaries have never met them. The readiness conversation is the natural, non-awkward route to being in the room with an adult child.
A structure that works
Fifteen to twenty minutes, run as a conversation rather than a form. Six areas.
Documents. Is there a will? When was it last reviewed? Does it still reflect the family as it is now, after any marriage, separation, birth or death? Does the executor know where the original is?
Capacity. Is there a lasting power of attorney, for property and finance and for health and welfare? Is it registered? This is the one where clients most often say yes and mean “we signed something a few years ago,” which is not the same thing.
Nominations. Every pension, every death-in-service policy. Expression of wish forms are the most consistently out-of-date documents in British households and you are one of very few people positioned to catch it.
Protection. Does cover still match the liability? Is it written in trust? Has employment changed in a way that alters death-in-service cover?
Access. If the client were in hospital for a month, could the household keep running? Who knows where things are? This question generates more silence than any other on the list, which tells you it is the right one.
The next generation. Do the children know the plan? Would they know who to call? Is there a conversation the client has been meaning to have?
How to raise it without it feeling grim
Language does most of the work. “Getting your affairs in order” sounds terminal. “Making sure your family could find things” sounds like competence, and clients respond to it entirely differently.
Normalise it as procedure. “We cover this with everyone once a year” removes any implication that you have noticed something about them specifically.
And be comfortable with the pause after the access question. The silence is the client realising something, and filling it is the mistake.
Know your boundaries
Raising these topics is not regulated advice. Drafting a will or a power of attorney is legal work and belongs with a solicitor, ideally one who is STEP-qualified for anything complex.
Build the referral relationships in advance so that when the conversation lands you have a name to offer rather than a vague suggestion. Being the person who connects the client to the right professional is valuable in itself and carries none of the regulatory risk.
Follow it through
The review is worthless if nothing happens afterwards. Agree one or two actions, write them down and check them at the next meeting.
Two actions is the right number. Six produces none.
Where FamilySafe fits
Client Readiness makes this reviewable rather than anecdotal. The client keeps their own picture organised, decides what to share and grants you the relevant view. You arrive at each review able to see what has changed, what is missing and what has drifted out of date, instead of asking the same six questions from memory and hoping the answers are accurate.
