The questions principals ask, answered straight

Good, keep it. Your compliance partner checks the file once it's built. I look at the office that builds it: who keys what, who chases whom, and why the protection conversation doesn't always happen. The aim is that their checks come back clean, and I'm happy to work alongside your compliance consultant.

It does, and more networks now check every case rather than a sample. That's good news. A network checks the file; it doesn't look at how your office runs. I work on what happens before the file reaches them, so fewer come back.

Many do. In most firms they aren't set up or used that way. Often the quickest win is getting your team using what you already pay for, before buying anything new.

They'll set up their product, and that's worth doing. They won't redesign who owns each case, the handoffs, the protection follow-up, or the gaps between your CRM, the lender portals, the solicitor and the phone.

Much of the work doesn't need network approval: how work flows through the office, who owns each case, roles and cover for absence, and checklists that sit under the network's own. Anything that does need approval, such as new tools on client data, client messages, suitability wording, referral partners or how people are rewarded, goes to your network first, and I prepare the approval pack. See how it works for AR firms.

No. I don't give compliance sign-off or regulated advice. The check I help set up is a completeness checklist your own team runs, built on your network's or compliance partner's criteria. Their check stays the one that counts.

Yes. I worked as a self-employed adviser inside a directly authorised firm, so I've seen how a DA office runs from the inside, and the last one I sat in was still very manual. I've also run an appointed representative firm, so I know both sides. As a DA firm there's more room to change, and you and your compliance lead sign off. See how it works for DA firms.

It's about getting your people off re-keying and chasing, and onto work that matters to clients: keeping them informed, following up protection, booking reviews. Sometimes that frees up hours, and you decide what to do with them: more time with each client, room to grow without adding staff, or a leaner office. Nothing about anyone's role changes until the new way is working, and I'll help you explain it to your team.

Here it means someone in your own team who takes the place of traditional back-office admin. Instead of processing paperwork out of sight, your RM owns each case day to day, under the adviser, and keeps the client informed at every stage. The adviser always owns the advice. Every client gets two people who know them.

Discovery is me watching and asking, not extra work for them. Changes happen step by step, with your team, not on top of their day job.

Every firm is different, so every price is too. Discovery is a fixed fee agreed up front, shaped to your firm. Build is quoted as a fixed price at the end of Discovery, once I know what's involved. You can stop after any step and keep what's done.

Software on a muddled process gives you a faster muddle. I start with people and process, then bring in tools only where they pay for themselves.

I'm registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO registration no. ZC262194). A data processing agreement is signed before any work starts, and Salworth holds professional indemnity and public liability insurance, each with cover up to £2 million.

I don't. I shadow your team and walk cases through with them. No client files leave your office, and a data processing agreement and NDA are signed before any work starts.

Before Salworth I ran my own brokerage, worked as an adviser inside a DA firm and spent over 25 years in UK financial services. Every step is priced up front and you can stop at any point.

You stop. Each step has its own fixed price and you keep what's done. Two years of quarterly reviews come with Build, so results are checked against the numbers from Discovery.