How To Prepare Your Book Before a Transition

Moving to a new company is a stressful process, even if you have enough time to plan and prepare for the move. Depending on the type of company you’re leaving, there may not be much you can do to prepare. “Non-consensual disruptions” or transitions of firms that do not allow consultants to take over client data require that you first publicly obtain client information before speaking up to let clients know that you have left the firm.

When you leave an independent company where you own your customers and data, you have a lot more flexibility in how to prepare for your break. If possible, I recommend giving yourself six months to prepare for the transition. During this time frame, you have two goals: review and organize all of your customer data, and solidify a game plan for moving accounts once customers have agreed to come with you.

In this blog, I will provide you with some best practices and pre-termination steps you can take to ensure you can hit the ground running after registering with your new company.

Check your employment contracts

The first step you should take prior to termination is to review your current employment contracts and any company labor manuals or documents with your attorneys. Although many years may have passed since you joined your current company, the original contract you signed determines what you can and cannot do before and after termination. Here are a few things to look out for when reviewing your documents.

• Provisions for Garden Holidays. Garden sheets typically last 30 days, beginning on the day you cancel. While on a garden vacation, you can’t reach customers or tell them you’re leaving. Your contact with customers therefore begins the day after your garden holiday.
• non-solicitation clauses. A non-solicit prevents you from bringing clients to your new business, even if you’re the one who found the relationship. Non-advertisements sometimes include company employees. However, if a customer contacts you and you can be shown to have done so, this does not constitute a solicitation. Keep in mind that all notices can be subpoenaed if you get into litigation with your former employer.
• Whether your business adheres to broker protocol. Broker Protocol firms allow advisors to take five pieces of client information (and only that information) when they leave and join another Protocol firm. This information includes the customer’s name, address, telephone number, email address and account designation. Other information such as account statements or financial plans cannot be found.
• Information about who owns your data. Believe it or not, you may not be allowed to take all the data you’ve collected about your customers with you to your new company. Some companies list exactly what you’re allowed to take with you, while others require consultants to ask for permission for data after termination. Before you cancel, you should determine whether you can take over the following data: your CRM data, email history, historical performance reports, client statements, and copies of financial plans.

Check and organize all your customer data

To minimize not-in-good orders (NIGOs) upon account opening and ensure a smooth transition, be sure to review all of your CRM data in its current state.

Remember that anything you export from your CRM is imported into your new CRM and then entered into the referral documents you send to clients. As the saying goes: garbage in, garbage out.

When reviewing all of your CRM contacts, keep the following in mind:

• Is information such as year of birth or telephone number missing?
• Is information listed in an incorrect field? For example, is a customer’s new address listed in the notes field instead of the address field?
• Are email addresses displayed correctly (e.g. “.com” instead of “.con”)?
• Have you received new information about a customer that you have not yet updated in the CRM?

I recommend using two data tables to manage your transition. One should include all of the data found in your CRM, including your customer demographics, meeting notes, key dates, and any tags that have helped you with niche marketing efforts. This spreadsheet will be imported into your new CRM and should be used to seamlessly help you fill out new account documentation.

The other table should contain a complete list of customer accounts and/or products they own. This list can be obtained from your custody portal or investment management platform. You should ensure that this list also includes information such as account registration type and beneficiary names. (Make sure the spelling of your customer’s name in your CRM matches how their account is listed.) This is the chart you should use to track accounts as they go to your new custodian come.

Regardless, you should make sure you have copies of all information required to open an account, such as opening any type of account in your book.

Complete and prioritize data

Once you have your complete list of households, customers, and accounts, you should make sure you’ve reviewed each household and noted any changes you will be communicating to customers (e.g. a change in fee) and anything else you might need to be considered during the transition (e.g. preference for signing physical documents). I recommend creating three additional columns in your main table: Changes to Communicate, New Fee, and Considerations. That way, you and your team are all on the same page during the transition.

Next, you want to prioritize your households into three categories. Level one households represent top relationships and the customers who will call you within the first day or two of termination. Tier two households are customers you are confident will stop by and/or customers who do not need to be contacted within the first 24 hours. Priority three customers are typically customers who are either family members or smaller relationships, or customers who are guided by email and don’t need to speak to you in person. This list will dictate how you communicate the news of your transition once you’re live with your new company.

Transfer data to your new Tech Stack

In addition to demographic and account data, there’s likely a lot of information you’ve gathered about your customers over the years: bank statements, budgets, performance reports, financial plans, planning assumptions, etc.

Before you quit, familiarize yourself with your new tech stack. Even if you are using the same technology, you may be using a different version of the software that is preventing you from migrating seamlessly. Here are some things to ask:

• Can my new CRM import my data for me? By when do you need my spreadsheet?
• How can I ensure that all fields in my current CRM are mapped to my new CRM?
• Will my planning assumptions carry over to my new software or do I have to rebuild them?
• Will my customers receive new logins for the portal?
• Do my customers need to relink their accounts?
• Will my previous performance be overwritten?
• What happens to the documents in my customer’s vault?

Create a working document with answers to all of your questions for you and your team to refer to as your retirement date approaches.

Finally, it should be noted that transitions are rarely without problems. Give yourself plenty of time to prepare, and don’t be afraid to double and triple-check with your new company and technology providers about how they will support you. Ultimately, the close relationships you have with your customers will determine the success of the transition. But it’s in your best interest to prepare well and make your customers’ lives (and yours) as easy as possible while money is on the move.

Penny Phillips is Co-Founder and President of Journey Strategic Wealth.