A CRM for UK financial advisers: a sector guide

You are with a client when your phone lights up with a review request, and the only record is a spreadsheet you emailed to yourself in March. Two files now disagree about the mobile number. You can't say, without opening both, who is waiting.

You'll leave with one live list for the everyday chase, and a clear line between that list and the advice file.

A CRM for a UK financial advice firm is that everyday list, and the same shape works for any business. It holds who asked, what you promised, and whose name is on the next call. The suitability pack stays in the compliance file. Your compliance support, and the current Handbook, still decide what your firm must keep.

Try the test before you open a second workbook. Can you name who needs a reply today, what you last promised them, and which document is the current one? If the answer is a search through email, the sheet has stopped being a client list.

Somewhere on the shared drive there is usually a workbook called "ALL CLIENTS FINAL v7". It is not final.

The financial advisers use case is the page for that sector. The same enquiry list serves trades, cleaning companies, agencies, accountants, coaches and financial advisers.

Why the spreadsheet starts to fail

A sheet is a fair place to begin. One adviser, a short list, and a habit of updating the row after every call can work for a while. It gets shaky for ordinary reasons, long before the firm is large.

Two versions of the same client

You email the file to a paraplanner, or you save a copy for a meeting. Both copies get edited. One has the new mobile.

The other still has the old number, plus a note about a protection enquiry that never made it back. You starred the email so you'd remember which copy was live. It now sits among forty other stars.

The ICO's accuracy principle says personal data has to be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date. Change the live number once. If you still need the old address, label it as history, so the file doesn't claim they currently live there. The clause wording, including what "inaccurate" means, is in the FAQ.

No signal for who needs you

A row can hold a name, a policy number and a last-contact date, and still hide the person who asked for a call on Thursday. Sorting by date shows who you spoke to. It doesn't show who is waiting.

That's how reviews slip, and how a new enquiry goes quiet. If slow replies are already costing you introductions, the piece on missed enquiries is the wider problem. The list is the part you can fix this week.

A file that leaves the office

Client details in a sheet are easy to forward, easy to download, and easy to leave in a sent folder. SYSC 9.1 is the Handbook section on orderly records, including guidance on access and security. A file that several people can email around is a weak answer, even when the contents are careful. The clause split, including which rule applies to which type of firm, is in the FAQ. Read the live section before you rely on it.

Ten minutes: open the two newest copies and write down every row where the phone number differs.

What orderly records mean on a Tuesday

SYSC 9.1 expects orderly records of the firm's business, sufficient for the FCA to see that obligations to clients were met. A colleague who missed the meeting should still be able to follow what you did. A login on its own isn't the record if you can't produce it.

The Handbook also says those records should be reproducible in English on paper. An export can support that. The section numbers are in the FAQ.

Suitability records sit in a tighter section. COBS 9.5 sets minimum periods for how long you keep them. The advice file has a keep-for time, and your everyday call list is a different record. The periods are in the checklist below.

The wording of each clause, including when a suitability record need not be kept, is in the FAQ. Ask your compliance support which fact belongs where.

The enquiry, the chase and the booking can live on the everyday list. The suitability record lives for the period COBS 9.5 sets, in a file you can still produce years later.

Ten minutes: pick one client from last week and see if a colleague could tell what you promised without asking you.

Consumer Duty when you're the only adviser

The FCA's page About the Consumer Duty says a firm must act to deliver good outcomes for retail customers. A review date that lives only in your head is a weak way to be timely, and an enquiry that sits in a personal inbox for a fortnight is a barrier you can see. The three cross-cutting rules, the four outcomes, and what the page says about small firms are in the FAQ. The page doesn't tell you to buy a particular tool.

A one-adviser firm doesn't need a monitoring pack the size of a phone directory to know who asked for a call. You do need a way to show that the call happened, or that it's booked. That's evidence of a size that matches the firm.

Ten minutes: write the name of everyone waiting on a reply that isn't already on a list.

What to look for in a CRM for financial advisers in the UK

Look for a list that answers four questions on one screen.

1. Who is this person, and how do they prefer to be contacted?
2. What did they ask for, in their words?
3. What did you promise, and by when?
4. What is the next step, and whose name is on it?

That's enquiry follow-up in its smallest useful form, for a financial advice firm and for any other business. The same habit is in how to follow up a lead, for new enquiries and for clients you already know.

Then check the edges.

• You can export a record you'll still be able to read later. That's the Handbook point about producing it on paper.
• Only the people who need it can open it. That's the access point in the SYSC FAQ.
• A new phone number updates the current record once. That's the ICO point.
• The suitability report stays in your compliance file. The keep-for time is on the checklist below.

A tool built for a sales floor, with a long setup, is a different purchase. The comparison of HubSpot, Pipedrive and a simpler CRM is there when you want that decision on paper. For many firms, including a financial advice firm, the first move is smaller.

One current list for people and promises. The regulated file stays where your compliance process already puts it.

AdviserAlly answers your website visitors and tells you who needs a reply. An AI chatbot on the website can answer visitors at any hour, in the firm's own words. The built-in assistant keeps track of conversations.

Saving leads into the CRM comes with the Solo plan. Plans from £25 a month at the time of writing (October 2026), and the Chatbot Edition can be tried free. That description covers enquiries and follow-up.

It doesn't describe a suitability archive.

Ten minutes: write the four questions on a note and see whether your current file answers them.

Checklist for moving the list

Use this once, then keep it with your compliance notes. The status column is words, so a quick glance shows what is finished.

Work down the rows. Write "In use" or "Still in the spreadsheet" in the status column. Colour alone won't tell a colleague what's finished.

When you close the old sheet, archive one copy, note the date, and stop editing it. A second live file brings the argument back. If people still paste updates into a side document, one place for every lead walks through shutting those copies.

Ten minutes: fill the status column for the eight rows, even if most of them still say "Not started".

A weekly half hour

Once a week, open the live list and do only this.

Read every row whose next step is dated today or earlier. Book the call, send the information, or record that the client asked you to wait. The morning version of that habit is in who to call next.

Then scan for blanks. A blank phone number, an empty source, or a next step with nobody's name on it will go stale. The ICO says you take reasonable steps to keep personal data accurate, to make the source and status clear, and to consider a periodic update. A weekly pass is a reasonable step for a small firm, and it's evidence, of a matching size, that support isn't left to memory.

Finally, check that a suitability note isn't the only copy of something that belongs in the compliance file. The note can point at the file. The file remains the record COBS 9.5 is talking about. A scribble that says "ring them", and not which them, doesn't pass that check.

The half hour will try to become a reorganisation of the whole archive. Stop at the overdue rows.

Ten minutes: clear every next step dated today or earlier, or move it to a date the client actually agreed.

The Tuesday after you switch

A new introduction arrives while you're with someone. You add it before the next meeting: source, question, next step, your name. You don't hunt a workbook that might be the old one.

A client texts a new email address. You change the current field. If the old address still matters for a letter you've already sent, you keep it and mark it historical. You do that once.

A pension transfer recommendation is on file. You don't rebuild that pack inside the everyday list. You keep it for the indefinite period in the table, in the compliance file. The list only shows that a follow-up call is due.

That's the calmer day. Orderly records, from the Handbook. Accurate personal data, from the ICO.

The same good outcomes for a small firm, from the Consumer Duty page, applied at a size that fits. One live list for people and promises. One compliance file for the advice record.

Ten minutes: add today's newest enquiry with a source, a promise, and a name on the next step.