Management consultancy for financial services

Steve SalmondDirector · CeMAP

  • 25+ yearsUK financial services
  • Ran my ownbrokerage, and streamlined how it ran

Management consultancyICO registered£2m PI and public liability cover

Open for new enquiries

The problem

What it's really costing you

Tap a cog to see what's jamming it

The admin bill

Paying for wasted time

  • Weak, repeated processes: the same details keyed two or three times
  • Too much manual work: chasing documents, solicitors, lenders and updates
  • Advisers doing admin instead of advising, and every new adviser adds more of it

Compliance risk

Gaps you can't see until someone else finds them

  • No consistent check that a case is complete before it goes: it varies from person to person
  • Files fail checks, your network's or your compliance partner's, and come back for rework
  • Operational, network and regulatory risk building up quietly, file by file, with the evidence missing when it's asked for

Lost business

Your next deal is walking out of the door

When nobody calls with an update, clients stop feeling like your clients. At rate expiry they take the lender's product transfer, or a broker who did keep in touch. The remortgage, the next purchase, the buy-to-let: income you'd already earned the right to, gone without a word. Repeat business is the cheapest you'll ever win, and the easiest to lose.

Advice gaps

Advice that stops at the mortgage

In some firms the mortgage gets done and the rest doesn't get talked about, or isn't recorded. The self-employed client with no income protection. The young family with no life cover. If something goes wrong, the client isn't protected, and advice that stopped short can turn out to be detrimental, for the client and for your firm.

Wasted hours, files that come back, lost clients, incomplete advice: the risk and the lost earnings grow with every client you take on.

How I work

Find what's slowing you down. Fix it with your team. Make it last.

This is consultancy, not a software sale. Every firm gets its own plan, built from what I find and what you want. What could change isn't the same as what will change, so each step is priced at the end of the one before, and you can stop after any step and keep what's done.

1Start here

First conversation

2Look · 2–4 weeks

Discovery

3Agree, then change · ~3–4 months

Build

4Make it stick · 2 years

Quarterly review

  1. 1
    First conversation

    We talk through how your firm runs today and what you want from it, before anything is agreed.

  2. 2
    Discovery

    I shadow your team and walk real cases through with them, first call to completion, then map what could change: people, process, controls and tools. No client files leave your office. A report and recommended plan you own.

  3. 3
    Build

    First we agree the plan, and you sign it off with your network or compliance lead. Then it's put in place with your team, step by step: people trained, tools set up where they fit, before-and-after numbers.

  4. 4
    Quarterly review

    Controls checked, results tracked, new rules and tools filtered for you.

Every step is agreed up front and shaped to your firm. Questions about your network or your staff? Fair questions, answered.

Your firm

Directly authorised or with a network? Here's how it works for you

Every plan is built around your firm, whether you're directly authorised or with a network. Either way, most of what slows an office down is in how work moves around it, and that's yours to change. What differs is who signs off, and what goes to your network first.

Your process

Your own systems and your own compliance, so the whole process is open to change: how cases move through the office, the tools you use and the checks behind them. I've worked as an adviser inside a DA firm, so I know how much of it is still done by hand.

Who signs off

You, and your compliance lead. You decide what changes and when, and nothing goes live until you approve it.

Already have compliance support?

Keep it. Your compliance partner checks the file once it's built. I fix the office that builds it, so their checks come back clean. I'm happy to work alongside your compliance consultant.

Technology

Most CRMs already do more than firms use: portals, ID checks, case tracking. We start there, before anything new.

Your network

Your network owns the platform and the compliance oversight. Most of what slows your office down is still yours to change.

Yours to change: no network approval needed

  • How work flows through the office
  • Transparent tracking of all cases
  • Roles, structure and cover for absence
  • Checklists that sit under the network's own

Goes to your network first

  • New tools that touch client data
  • Changes to how advice is captured and kept
  • Changes to suitability letters
  • New messages sent to clients
  • New referral partners
  • How your team is rewarded

Your network checks the file. I work on what happens before it gets there, so fewer come back.

An example

How a case could run

One example of how a case might run once the changes are in. Your version is built with you, around the systems you already use.

CASE FILEPurchase · First-time buyer

  1. DONE

    The meeting

    With the client's consent, the fact find may be recorded and flow into your system without being keyed again. The adviser stays focused on the client.

  2. DONE

    ID and KYC

    Know your customer done up front: ID, sanctions and anti-money-laundering checks completed and recorded, through a portal or a tighter manual process.

  3. DONE

    Documents

    The client uploads documents to a secure portal, for example. Reading and checking may be automated or the manual process tightened, and the likelihood of lending gauged early.

  4. DONE

    The whole picture

    Any gaps in holistic advice, such as life cover, income protection or home insurance, are presented back to the adviser to cover, or to record why not.

  5. READY

    Completeness check

    Before anything goes, your team runs a red, amber, green check built on your network's or compliance partner's criteria: holistic advice covered, suitability, all documents received, KYC complete.

  6. DONE

    Submit

    A clean, complete file, ready to submit through your network or direct.

  7. DONE

    Keep in touch

    Personal or automated updates at every stage, with the process honed for a better client experience. Review dates set before completion.

  1. 01

    The meeting

    With the client's consent, the fact find may be recorded and flow into your system without being keyed again. The adviser stays focused on the client.

  2. 02

    ID and KYC

    Know your customer done up front: ID, sanctions and anti-money-laundering checks completed and recorded, through a portal or a tighter manual process.

  3. 03

    Documents

    The client uploads documents to a secure portal, for example. Reading and checking may be automated or the manual process tightened, and the likelihood of lending gauged early.

  4. 04

    The whole picture

    Any gaps in holistic advice, such as life cover, income protection or home insurance, are presented back to the adviser to cover, or to record why not.

  5. 05

    Completeness check

    Before anything goes, your team runs a red, amber, green check built on your network's or compliance partner's criteria: holistic advice covered, suitability, all documents received, KYC complete.

  6. 06

    Submit

    A clean, complete file, ready to submit through your network or direct.

  7. 07

    Keep in touch

    Personal or automated updates at every stage, with the process honed for a better client experience. Review dates set before completion.

Tools that might help

I start with your people and process, not with software. Where a tool genuinely helps, there are two routes:

Ready-built

Solutions from partner providers, all GDPR compliant, set up for the way your firm works.

Built for your firm

Any automation I set up, such as case tracking or client updates, is fully signed off by you, and your network or compliance lead, before it goes live.

For example (many CRMs and network platforms already include some of these; if yours does, the job is getting your team using them):

  1. Client portal

    Clients check their ID and upload documents securely, in one place.

  2. Client contact

    Automated updates at each stage, so clients know where their case is up to.

  3. Case tracking

    Every case followed through each stage, so you can see where it is.

  4. Broker fees

    Fees paid securely online, with receipts sent and payments recorded.

  5. Conveyancing

    Conveyancing quotes for your clients, with every referral easy to follow.

Ground rules

Your firm stays in control

Four rules that apply at every step, from the first conversation onwards.

Keep your CRM

Your systems stay unless you choose to change them. What changes most is how work moves around them: who owns each case, what gets checked, and when clients hear from you.

You sign off

I prepare the sign-off pack. Nothing goes live until you approve it, along with your network or compliance lead.

Your data stays yours

I don't need access to client files to review how your office runs, and I don't take any away.

Clear limits

I review, design and train. I don't give regulated advice or compliance sign-off.

About

Steve Salmond CeMAP

Director, Salworth

Over 25 years in UK financial services, in every seat

I've set up and run my own brokerage, advised clients as self-employed and employed, handled the complaints when files went wrong and done the back office myself.

“I'm not guessing at your problems. I've had all of them.”
3 yearsAR firm principal: set up and ran my own brokerage, took it through FCA and network onboarding, and streamlined how it ran
5+ yearsSelf-employed adviser, including inside a directly authorised firm: I know how a DA office runs, and how manual it can be. Every hour on admin is an hour not earning
5+ yearsEmployed adviser: the fact find, the admin, the chasing
4 yearsSenior complaints handler: I saw exactly how files fail, and what it costs the firm when they do: redress, rework, network scrutiny and lost clients
Back officeProcessed mortgage completions and reconciliations: I've done the admin myself, not just managed it
Network mentorTrained as a mentor to other appointed representative firms in a national network (a past role)
CeMAPQualified in mortgage advice (Certificate in Mortgage Advice and Practice). Not practising: Salworth advises firms on how they run, never clients on mortgages

Get in touch

Let's talk

Open for new business. Get in touch to arrange a first conversation. Based in the West Midlands, working with firms across the UK.

Email me Read the fair questions first

Please note: Salworth is a management consultancy, not a mortgage broker, and is not authorised by the FCA.