Client’s own words (COWs).
This is a powerful and effective way of personalising suitability reports. When you gather know your customer (KYC) information (see ‘K’ blog post) try to record some of the client requirements and objectives using their own words, so that you can repeat the quotes back to the client in the reports.
This provides the ultimate in personalisation and is a great way to cement recommendations.
If you can quote something like
“Both you and Beth want to use you maximum ISA allowance for the next 7 years (when you plan to retire Tom) for the purpose of supplementing your retirement income but also to buy that camper van you’ve always wanted and fulfil your dream of driving around Europe”.



Suitability reports – silver bullet, or not?
Paul Jay Compliance, Suitability DB Pension, FCA, MiFID, Pension, Pension Transfer, PI, transfer, Xplan
If you ask most advice firms which part of the advice process consumes the most time, most will reply: “Suitability Reports”. Based on the mammoth documents that some firms still produce, we can understand why. We do have some sympathy with firms though. On the one hand they’re told by the FCA that reports are […]