Submitted, then forgotten
The client has signed, the application has gone to the provider and the adviser has moved on to the next case. The provider reviews it and needs something: a signed declaration, bank details confirmed, a missing investment instruction. The request arrives in the provider's portal message area, or as an email to an adviser who is out, or as a letter.
Nobody sees it for a week. Then the client asks why their ISA has not been opened, or the tax year end deadline gets close, and the office starts searching for what went wrong.
Why pending business slips
Submitting business is a clear task with an owner. What comes after is not. Provider requirements arrive in whichever channel suits the provider, and many firms have no single place where they land. Portals have to be checked individually. Emails go to whoever submitted the case, who may be busy or away.
The back office usually shows a case as submitted until someone marks it complete, so a case with an outstanding requirement looks identical to one progressing normally.
- Requirements arrive in portals, inboxes and the post.
- Portal messages need someone to log in and look.
- Emails go to individuals rather than the team.
- Cases show as submitted with no sign of what they need.
- Nobody reviews the age of pending cases regularly.
What stuck cases cost
| Consequence | Who feels it |
|---|---|
| Money not invested when the client expected | The client |
| Deadline missed for a time-limited action | The client and the adviser |
| Repeated calls asking for an update | Administrators |
| Adviser pulled back to old cases | Advisers |
| Income delayed until the case completes | The firm |
There is a knock-on effect inside the firm as well. Advisers who are regularly dragged back to chase old cases start doing the chasing themselves, from their own inboxes, which spreads the knowledge of each case even more thinly across the office.
Clients do not see the provider's requirement. They see a firm that took their instruction and did not follow through, which is the part that stays with them.
How we track pending business
- Every submitted application is logged against the client, provider, product and adviser, taken from your back office where possible.
- Provider emails are read from a shared new business inbox and matched to the right case.
- Where provider portals offer notifications or data access your firm can use, we collect requirements from them automatically. Where they do not, the tracker prompts a person to check them on a schedule.
- Each requirement becomes a task with an owner, the item needed and whether the client must act.
- Clients who need to sign or send something receive a message with a secure upload link.
- A pending business board shows cases by age, status and requirement, with anything close to a deadline highlighted.
- When the provider confirms the case is on risk or invested, the back office is updated and the case closes.
After the tracker goes live
The new business team starts each day with a list of requirements to clear, not a hunt through portals. Advisers are pulled in only when something needs them. Anyone can answer a client's "any news?" call. And the owner can see how many cases are pending, for how long, and why.
Near busy periods such as tax year end, the board shows which cases are at risk of missing a deadline while there is still time to act.
Is new business slipping at your firm?
- Provider requirements are found late.
- Portal messages are checked only when someone remembers.
- Requirement emails go to individual advisers.
- Clients ask for updates on cases you thought were done.
- You cannot quickly list all pending business by age.