The deal is done, now the data arrives
Your firm has agreed to take on the clients of a retiring adviser. The legal work is finished. What arrives next is a data export from their back office, which is not the same system as yours, plus some spreadsheets and a large folder of scanned documents.
Fields do not line up. Service levels are described differently. Some clients are joint in one system and separate in the other. Plans need servicing rights moved to your firm with each provider. And everyone wants the clients contacted soon, so they feel looked after rather than sold on.
Why client bank migrations go wrong
Migrations are usually treated as a one-off import, done quickly by whoever has time. But they involve three different jobs: moving data between different structures, changing agency with providers, and introducing clients to a new firm. Each depends on the other, and all three are usually tracked by hand.
- Different back office systems with different data models.
- Service levels and fees described in the seller's terms.
- Clients who already exist in your back office.
- Agency changes with many providers, each with its own process.
- No per-client view of where the handover has reached.
Timing adds pressure. The seller wants to step back, the clients have received a letter saying things are changing, and the buying firm wants to show them good service quickly. Under that pressure, the import is rushed, and problems surface months later in reviews and income.
The cost of a messy migration
| Problem | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Data imported without cleaning | Your own back office gets messier |
| Duplicates with existing clients | Two records, split holdings |
| Agency not changed | Statements and income still go to the seller |
| Clients not contacted promptly | Uncertainty, and some clients leave |
| Service levels not mapped | Clients missed from review scheduling |
An acquisition is paid for on the value of the client relationships. A messy handover puts those relationships at risk just when they are most fragile.
The migration we build
- We take the seller's export and map every field to your back office structure, agreeing any judgement calls with you.
- Data is cleaned: names and addresses standardised, duplicates within the seller's data found, missing required fields listed.
- Incoming clients are matched against your existing clients, and possible overlaps go to your team to decide.
- A trial import runs into a test area, where you check a sample before anything goes live.
- Agency change requests are tracked per plan and provider, with chasing, until each is confirmed.
- Each client has a handover status: imported, agency changed, introduction sent, first contact made, service agreed.
- Documents from the seller are filed against the right clients in your document store.
Whether to keep a client's existing service level, and what advice they need, is for your firm to decide. We make sure the data and the admin support those decisions.
What the handover feels like
Clients arrive in your back office clean and matched. Advisers see which new clients they are responsible for and where each one stands. Agency changes are tracked to completion. And the owner can see, at any point, how far the handover has got, client by client.
Income starts flowing to the right place, because agency changes are tracked to the end rather than assumed. When a provider has not processed one, it shows on the board, rather than being discovered when the seller forwards a statement months later.
Are you facing this?
- You have bought, or are about to buy, a client bank.
- The seller uses a different back office system.
- Agency changes are being tracked in a spreadsheet.
- You are worried about duplicates with existing clients.
- You cannot see which acquired clients have been contacted.