Financial Planning Club · 16 July 2026 · LIBF-accredited CPD
Webinar
Beyond the mortgage: vulnerability, protection and the visual client journey
The visual approach that's changing mortgage and protection advice for good.
With Dave Scholes, Director of Wealth Sales, FE fundinfo
Agenda
Where we are going in the next hour
Five short stops. Click any one to see what it covers.
01
What is cashflow planning, and why does it matter?
The foundation for everything that follows
02
Consumer Duty
Why outcomes, not just process, are now the standard
03
Vulnerability
What vulnerability assessment really means, and why it matters
04
AI note taking
Using AI applications to save time and stay compliant
05
Cashflow for mortgage and protection
How we are adapting our tools for the M&P adviser
Section 1
What is cashflow planning, and why does it matter?
Three views of the same client, one at a time. Use Prev / Next to flip between them.
cashcalc.co.uk/savings-over-time
Savings Over Time
Shows the value of client assets and the different investment pots available over the years
1 of 3
Discussion points — the history and value of cashflow planning
1
Born out of RDR
When annual fees replaced commission, advisers needed a tool to justify being paid every year, not only at the point of sale.
2
Shows both sides of the decision
The impact of the plan going ahead, and the cost of leaving things as they are.
3
Built for a repeatable service
A reason to review the plan, and the relationship, every single year.
Section 2
Consumer Duty
The FCA's outcomes-based standard for every client relationship — not a policy on a shelf, but the standard your advice is measured against, indefinitely.
+What it actually asks of you
Deliver good outcomes, not just a good process
Four outcomes, one cross-cutting rule.
The Duty rests on four outcomes — consumer understanding, consumer support, price and value, and products and services — underpinned by one cross-cutting rule: avoid foreseeable harm. The FCA now audits evidence of outcomes, not just the existence of a policy.
+Foreseeable harm
The client who drifts onto the SVR
Or lapses cover with no one checking in.
If a client's fixed rate expires with no contact from you, or their protection needs move on with life and nobody revisits it, the FCA can treat that as harm you were well placed to prevent, whether or not you were still being paid.
+Commission does not excuse it
One-off pay does not mean one-off duty
But it does mean you can scope the service.
The FCA does not expect free ongoing advice for a one-off fee. What it expects is a documented, proportionate way of checking clients have not fallen through the cracks: a segmented service level, an automated maturity reminder, an annual check-in, and a client agreement that is clear about what the fee did and did not cover.
+Evidence, not assumption
If it is not documented, it did not happen
Complaint volumes alone are not enough.
The FCA wants proactive management information, not just complaint data: evidence that you monitor outcomes and can show, file by file, what you did differently for a client who needed it.
Where cashflow fits: a visual forecast is not just an engagement tool, it is documentary evidence — a record of the information you gave a client to support consumer understanding, and a natural trigger for the annual review that keeps the relationship, and the compliance file, alive.
Section 3
Vulnerability: a spectrum, not a checkbox
Under Consumer Duty, vulnerability is not a category of person, it is a set of circumstances that can affect any client, at any time.
🩺
Health
Conditions or illness affecting day-to-day capability.
Low capacity to withstand a financial or emotional shock.
🧮
Capability
Low financial knowledge, confidence, or digital literacy.
+Identification is not enough
Spotting it is step one, not the finish line
The FCA wants action, not a flag on a file.
Firms are expected to adapt advice, pace and communication once vulnerability is identified, and prove the client ended up with an outcome as good as anyone else's, not just record that a vulnerability existed.
+Tell us once
No client should have to repeat themselves
Consent-based, shared, remembered.
Once a vulnerability is disclosed, the FCA expects it to be recorded and carried through the relationship, including, with consent, to lenders, rather than the client having to re-disclose at every touchpoint.
+Never assume, always listen
One characteristic is not a diagnosis
Stay alert, avoid stereotypes.
The FCA is explicit: do not assume vulnerability from a single characteristic. Create a safe space for disclosure, and actively listen to the context behind the numbers.
Where cashflow fits: a visual "what if" — a rate rise, a lost income, a death — turns an abstract disclosure question into a concrete, collaborative moment. Clients open up when they are looking at their own numbers, not being interrogated. That moment of disclosure, captured and dated in the plan, is exactly the evidence trail Consumer Duty asks for, and it is a natural, non-awkward reason to bring every client back next year.
Poll 1 · over to you
How do you currently assess client vulnerability in your mortgage advice?
There is no wrong answer. Which is closest to your firm today?
AStructured questionnaire at fact-find stage
BConversational assessment during meetings
CRelying on client disclosure
DWe do not have a formal vulnerability assessment process
ENot sure what is required
The next shift
AI note taking: the quiet revolution in every advice meeting
Cashflow changes how clients see their numbers. AI note taking changes how the meeting itself runs, and what happens the moment it ends.
0
less meeting admin, FE fundinfo Adviser Survey 2026
0
of the average client base is now under 40
+Time, given back
No more typing up notes at 9pm
The meeting write-up writes itself.
Every meeting is transcribed and structured automatically: actions, disclosures, decisions. What used to be an hour of admin after every appointment becomes a two-minute check and approve.
+A joined-up service
One record, every touchpoint
Nothing lost between meetings, or between colleagues.
Notes flow straight into the client record, so nothing needs re-keying and nothing gets missed if a colleague picks up the file. It is the same "tell us once" principle Consumer Duty expects, just automated.
+The client experience
Looks like 2026, not 2006
A third of your client base is under 40, and expects this.
Clients who live on apps and expect things to just work notice when an adviser is still scribbling notes by hand. A visible, modern process signals a firm that has kept up, and it frees the adviser to actually listen instead of write.
+Vulnerability, captured
Every signal, heard and dated
Not just spotted, evidenced.
A throwaway comment about a health condition, a bereavement, or losing a job can be the moment that matters most. An AI note taker captures it as it happens, in the client's own words, with a timestamp, so it is never reliant on an adviser remembering to write it down after the fact.
The same thinking as cashflow: capture it once, use it everywhere. Between cashflow and AI note taking, the advice process starts to document itself, which is exactly what Consumer Duty and vulnerability assessment are asking for.
Poll 2 · over to you
Does your firm currently use cashflow planning as part of your mortgage and protection process?
Be honest, this is anonymous. Click your answer.
AYes
BNo
Our commitment
Cashflow M&P: the same tool, built for a mortgage and protection conversation
Cashflow planning has always belonged to financial advice. We believe it belongs just as much in every mortgage and protection conversation, same visual power, applied to the decisions your clients are actually facing.
+Why it fits
Not a financial planning tool, borrowed for mortgages
The same visual logic, a different conversation.
Cashflow modelling was built to make abstract numbers concrete and help clients make better decisions over time. A mortgage and protection conversation is exactly that: a client deciding what to do about a rate, a policy, or a risk they cannot quite picture. The tool fits the job, not just the job title.
+Protection, made real
The danger of doing nothing
Show the shortfall, not just the premium.
A visual model of what happens without cover, the mortgage that does not disappear, the income that stops, the family left exposed, makes the case for protection far more effectively than a quote ever can. Clients defer an abstract risk. They act on a number they can see.
+Mortgages, made real
The true cost of a rate, and of change
Rate rises, remortgaging, overpaying, side by side.
The same modelling shows a client exactly what a rate rise costs a month and a year, what switching or overpaying saves over the life of the mortgage, and how today's decision plays out over 25 years, not just at renewal.
This is why we are investing in bringing cashflow planning to the mortgage and protection industry directly: not as an add-on to financial planning software, but as a purpose-built part of the advice process for every mortgage and protection adviser.
Thank you
Stay on for the live FE CashCalc walkthrough
An optional 15-minute walkthrough and live Q&A. Or book a one-to-one demo with the team after the session.
