Client Relationship Management
A purpose-built financial adviser CRM for managing client households, portfolios, compliance, reviews, and a self-service client portal.
Overview
The CRM module is designed for financial advisers who need more than a contact list. It organises every client relationship around a Household — the central record that groups family members, trusts, or business entities together. From a single household view you can see the complete financial picture: all accounts, goals, compliance records, past advice, upcoming reviews, and a live net worth calculation.
360° client view
One household record brings together every individual, account, goal, activity, task, and compliance document. No switching between systems.
Built-in compliance
Record FAIS advice documents, risk profiles, KYC/FICA checks, and AML screening directly in the CRM. Expiry alerts keep you ahead of renewal deadlines.
Client portal
Give clients secure access to their own dashboard where they can view their household summary, accounts, goals, and outstanding action items.
Core concepts
Understanding how the CRM structures your client data
Before you start adding clients, it helps to understand the three-level hierarchy the CRM uses.
Household
The top-level record. A household represents a family, a trust, or a business. It holds the aggregated net worth figure and drives the CRM pipeline stage. Every other record belongs to a household.
Individuals
Each person within a household — the primary client, a spouse, dependants, or trustees. Individuals carry their own ID number, date of birth, risk profile, advice records, and KYC/FICA status. Relationships between individuals (spouse, dependent, beneficiary) are recorded explicitly.
Accounts & goals
Financial accounts (investments, RAs, TFSAs, insurance, loans) and financial goals (retirement, education, emergency fund) both sit under the household. The system auto-calculates total assets, liabilities, net worth, and goal progress percentages.
Onboarding a new client
A step-by-step walkthrough for bringing a new client onto the platform
Client onboarding follows a structured sequence. Complete each step in order to build a complete compliance-ready client record.
Step 1: Create the household
Navigate to Clients and click New Household. Choose the household type (family, trust, or business), give it a name (e.g. "The Smith Family"), assign yourself as the primary adviser, and set the referral source. The household starts in the prospect pipeline stage — you can advance this as onboarding progresses.
Step 2: Add individuals
Open the household and click Add Individual. Capture the person's full name, ID number, date of birth, email, and phone number. Repeat for each person in the household — primary client, spouse, and adult dependants. The platform records employment status, annual income, and marital status for needs-analysis purposes.
Step 3: Define relationships
Under Relationships, link individuals to each other using the appropriate role. Common relationship roles include:
Family roles
Trust roles
Business roles
Step 4: Complete the risk profile
Under each individual, open Risk Profile and capture the questionnaire responses. The system calculates a risk score and assigns one of the five standard risk categories:
Capital preservation. Low-risk instruments.
Mainly income with some growth exposure.
Balanced income and growth portfolio.
Growth-focused with some defensive assets.
Maximum growth. High volatility tolerance.
Step 5: Record a FAIS advice document
Before making any product recommendation, create an Advice Record for the individual. Capture the needs analysis, product recommendation, fees disclosure, and client consent. If replacing an existing policy, the replacement policy and Section 14 notice fields are mandatory.
Step 6: Complete KYC and FICA
Open Compliance Records and add a KYC record and a FICA record for each individual. Upload copies of the required identification documents and set the expiry date. The system will alert you before these documents expire.
Step 7: Add existing financial accounts
Under the household, add all existing financial accounts — retirement annuities, tax-free savings accounts, investment portfolios, bank accounts, insurance policies, and any loans. The system immediately calculates the household's total assets, total liabilities, net worth, and assets under management (AUM).
Step 8: Set financial goals
Create Financial Goals to capture what the client is working toward. Set the goal type, target amount, target date, and link to a current savings amount. The system calculates progress as a percentage and flags whether each goal is on track.
Managing financial accounts
Track every financial product the client holds, from investments to loans
Financial accounts are the core of the portfolio view. Every account is linked to the household, which allows the system to aggregate values and calculate net worth automatically. When you add, update, or remove an account, the household's net worth recalculates instantly.
Account type | Typical products | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Investment | Unit trusts, discretionary portfolios | Counted as an asset |
Retirement Annuity (RA) | RA policies, pension fund | Counted as an asset; included in AUM |
Tax-Free Savings (TFSA) | TFSA account at any provider | Counted as an asset |
Bank | Current, savings, call accounts | Counted as an asset |
Insurance | Life cover, disability, income protection | Counted as an asset |
Loan | Bond, personal loan, vehicle finance | Counted as a liability |
Education savings | Endowment, education plan | Counted as an asset |
Trust | Trust-held investment or property | Counted as an asset |
When adding an account, record the provider name, account or policy number, current value, and the original purchase value. For interest-bearing accounts, capture the interest rate. For policies with a term, set the maturity date so the system can surface upcoming maturities.
You can also record the account's beneficiaries directly on the account record — useful for estate-planning conversations and for ensuring beneficiary nominations are kept up to date.
The system aggregates all accounts whenever you save a change:
Total assets
Sum of all non-loan accounts at current value.
Total liabilities
Sum of all loan account outstanding balances.
Net worth
Total assets minus total liabilities.
AUM
Assets under active management by your firm.
Financial goals
Help clients define what they are working toward and track progress automatically
Financial goals give context to the portfolio. Rather than managing accounts in isolation, goals connect each client's savings to a specific outcome they want to achieve. Progress is calculated automatically and the system flags goals that are off track.
Retirement
Set a target retirement income or lump sum with a target date. Link the client's RA and investment accounts to show how much has been saved toward retirement.
Education
Plan for a child's university or school fees. Set the target amount needed and link an education savings account to show progress.
Property
Save toward a deposit for a home purchase. Track how close the client is to the target amount.
Emergency fund
Ensure the client has three to six months of expenses available in liquid savings. Set the target and link a cash or money market account.
Debt freedom
Track the progress of paying down a bond, vehicle finance, or personal loan. The current amount field decreases as payments are made.
Custom
Create any custom goal — a holiday fund, business capital, or a charitable giving target — with your own title and target amount.
Activities & tasks
Log every client interaction and track outstanding action items
Activities and tasks are how you keep a living record of your client relationship. Activities are historical — they record what happened and when. Tasks are forward-looking — they track what still needs to be done.
Activities (interaction log)
Log every touchpoint with the client against their household. Each activity has a type, a subject, a date and time, and an outcome or notes field. Use the description field to capture what was discussed and what was agreed.
Tasks (action items)
Create tasks for things that need to happen — whether for yourself or the client. Set a due date, priority level, and assign the task to an adviser or make it visible to the client via the portal. Tasks can be marked complete when done, or linked to a review as action-plan items.
Open the household, go to Activities, and click Log activity. Select Call as the type, enter the subject of the call, and add notes on what was discussed. Record the outcome — for example, "Client agreed to increase RA contribution" — and save. The call now appears in the household's activity timeline in reverse chronological order.
After a client call, click Add task to capture any next steps. Give the task a clear title ("Send updated fund switch form"), set the due date, and choose whether the task is for the adviser or visible to the client. Tasks appear in the adviser dashboard and can be filtered by household, due date, or status.
Client reviews
Schedule, conduct, and document annual and quarterly client reviews
Regular reviews are the cornerstone of a proactive advisory practice. The CRM makes it easy to schedule reviews, capture a snapshot of the client's position at the time of the review, and track all action items arising from the review meeting.
Step 1: Schedule the review
Open the household and click New review. Select the review type and set the review date. Common review types are:
Full portfolio and goals review, conducted once a year.
Shorter check-in on goal progress and market performance.
First meeting to establish the client's full financial picture.
Triggered by a life event — retrenchment, inheritance, divorce, bereavement.
Step 2: Capture snapshots
Before or at the start of the review meeting, click Capture snapshots. This records the client's portfolio, goals, and risk profile exactly as they stand at the time of the review. Snapshots create a permanent, auditable record of the client's position on that date — essential for regulatory purposes.
Step 3: Record findings and recommendations
In the review record, capture your findings (observations about the client's current position) and your recommendations (what you propose to change). This free-text field becomes part of the permanent review record and can be referenced in future reviews.
Step 4: Create action plans
For each recommendation that requires follow-up, add an Action plan item to the review. Set the owner (adviser or client), due date, and priority. Action plans are tracked separately from general tasks and are always linked back to the review that created them.
Step 5: Set the next review date
Before closing the review, set the next review date on the household. This ensures the client appears in your upcoming-review dashboard at the right time and you never miss a scheduled touchpoint.
Compliance & risk
FAIS advice records, risk profiling, and KYC/FICA compliance in one place
Regulatory compliance is built into the CRM rather than bolted on. Every individual has their own compliance section where you maintain advice records, risk assessments, and identity verification documents.
FAIS Advice Records
Before placing any product, create an advice record for the individual. Each record captures:
• Needs analysis summary
• Product type recommended
• Recommendation rationale
• Fees and charges disclosure
• Signed client consent flag
• Replacement policy details (if applicable)
• Section 14 transfer notice (if applicable)
Risk Profile
Capture the client's risk tolerance questionnaire responses. The system scores the responses and assigns a risk category. Re-assess the profile at every annual review or when the client's circumstances change materially.
The risk profile date is recorded automatically, giving you a history of how the client's risk appetite has evolved over time.
KYC & FICA
Maintain compliance records for each individual. Record types include:
Set expiry dates on each document and the system will surface records expiring in the next 30 days in your compliance dashboard.
Client portal
Give clients self-service access to their own financial dashboard
The client portal lets your clients log in and see their own household summary without needing to call or email you for every update. It is a read-only view designed to keep clients engaged and informed between reviews.
Enabling portal access
Portal access is controlled per individual. Once you are satisfied that onboarding is complete, open the individual's record and toggle Portal access on. The individual can then log in using the email address on their record.
What clients can see
When a client logs in they see a summary dashboard for their household:
• Household net worth at a glance
• All financial accounts with current values
• Goal progress with on-track indicators
• Outstanding tasks assigned to the client
• Recent activity log (calls, meetings, notes)
• All household members
CRM pipeline & segmentation
Manage your prospect pipeline and segment your client base
Every household moves through a defined pipeline. The pipeline stage gives you and your practice manager an instant view of where each client relationship stands.
Stage | What it means | Typical next action |
|---|---|---|
prospect | A lead that has not yet been onboarded | Schedule discovery call, complete risk profile |
onboarding | Actively collecting client information | Complete KYC/FICA, add accounts, record advice |
active | Fully onboarded and under active management | Schedule first review, enable portal access |
review | Review is due or currently in progress | Capture snapshots, record findings, set next review date |
dormant | No engagement for an extended period | Re-engagement campaign, check contact details |
churned | Client has moved to another adviser | Archive household, retain records per regulatory requirements |
Client segments let you group clients by wealth tier or relationship type for reporting and service-level differentiation:
When you create a household, capture how the client was referred. This lets you measure which referral channels are most effective for your practice over time.
Tips & best practices
Always complete compliance before placing products
Ensure the risk profile and FAIS advice record are completed and the client has given consent before creating any financial account. This sequence matters for regulatory audit trails.
Set next review dates immediately
After every review, always set the next review date on the household before closing the review record. The upcoming reviews dashboard depends on this field.
Log every client interaction
Get into the habit of logging calls, emails, and meetings on the day they occur. A complete activity log is invaluable during dispute resolution and regulatory reviews.
Keep account values up to date
Update account current values at each review. This keeps the net worth figure accurate and ensures goal progress percentages reflect reality.
Monitor compliance expiry dates
Check the compliance dashboard regularly for records expiring in the next 30 days. Renew KYC and FICA documents before they lapse to avoid regulatory exposure.
Enable portal access only after full onboarding
Only turn on client portal access once you have added all accounts, goals, and at least one completed compliance record. An incomplete dashboard creates a poor first impression.
Did this page help you?
Your feedback helps us improve our documentation.