Working two days a week inside the programme
A principal who wants to keep advising part time needs the work arranged around the days they are in. Under Securo the back office runs on the other days.
A principal who wants to keep advising part time needs the work arranged around the days they are in. Under Securo the back office runs on the other days.
Some principals want to stop on a set date. Others want to keep seeing the clients they have known longest, two or three days a week, for a few more years. Securo is designed for both.
On the days you are in, you see clients and you make recommendations. You read the reports that have been drafted since your last day, add your judgement, and sign them. You spend time with the adviser who is taking over some of your clients. You answer questions from the paraplanning and administration teams.
The research, the report drafting, the provider chasing, the valuations, the compliance file checks and the regulatory returns are done by Equity & General's teams, on the days you are in and the days you are not.
Clients who ring are dealt with by the administration team, or passed to the adviser who is working with you on their account. Urgent matters that need advice go to that adviser. Everything else waits for your next day in, with a note of what has happened.
Set the rules for this with your clients. Tell them which days you work, who will answer if they call on another day, and how quickly you will come back to them.
Fix the days you work and keep them the same each week. Clients and colleagues plan around a pattern they can rely on. Leave part of each working day without meetings for reading and signing reports, so that clients do not wait a week for a report because your days were full.
Set out how you can be reached on other days, and for what. A short call about an urgent decision on a client you advise may be reasonable. Routine questions should wait for your next day in.
Decide which clients you will continue to advise yourself, and which will move to another adviser now. Base that on the relationship, the complexity of the advice they need, and how often they need it. A client in the middle of a complex piece of planning may be better served by an adviser who is in every day.
Review the list every six months. As the handover meetings progress, clients move from your list to your successor's.
A principal working part time may also want longer breaks than before. Plan them with the adviser working alongside you, so that each of your clients knows who to contact while you are away. Tell clients with reviews due in that period before you go, and offer them a meeting with the other adviser or a date after you return. Put the arrangement in writing on each file.
Advice given on two days a week is supervised in the same way as any other. Your recommendations go through the same checks, and your files are reviewed under Equity & General's compliance cycle. Where a recommendation needs sign-off before it is issued, the sign-off has to fit around the days you work. Agree the turnaround with the compliance team at the start so clients know when to expect their report.
Working part time does not reduce the requirements on you as an adviser. You still need to keep up your continuing professional development and your statement of professional standing, and keep up to date with rules and products. Plan your learning hours across the year, and use the days you are in for it where you need to.
Your staff need to know what they can decide without you. Write down which decisions they can make on your clients' behalf, which need the other adviser, and which must wait for you. Review the list after the first three months, once you have seen which questions come up.
There is no fixed term. You might work two days a week for a year, or for several. Under Securo the exit happens when you choose. The floor on the price is agreed before you join, so working part time for longer does not put the basis of the exit at risk. Agree a review point with yourself, and decide at each one whether to carry on.
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Read itSteven Bates, Director of Advisory at Equity & General, takes the first call with every adviser. Ring him on 020 8396 0486 or send a short note about your firm.