Pre-sales and account opening video guides
Online applications and account opening
Open new GIA, ISA and 7IM SIPP accounts easily online, including automatic cash splits and investments, by following the instructions in this video.
In this video, we’re going to look at our online application process.
This is how you open the core 7IM accounts - individual and joint GIAs, ISAs, and 7IM SIPP accounts. This can be used to open these accounts for new clients or add new accounts for existing clients.
To open other account types, such as trusts, accounts linked to third-party SIPP and bond providers, junior ISAs and junior SIPPs, or where the individual has a power of attorney or deputy in place, please use the relevant application forms, which can be downloaded from the Literature Centre on our website.
This online tool is a complete and joined-up application process that makes it quick and easy for you to open accounts on our platform and to make the paperwork simple for your clients.
Therefore, in one application pack, you can include:
- Two applicants at the same time
- GIA ISA and 7IM SIPP accounts together
- All transfers and other funding
- Instructions to automatically deal with cash when it arrives (i.e. moving it to the right place and then investing it, so you don’t have to worry about it)
All this in a process that can be done electronically without the need for post.
Let’s take a closer look.
Account applications
Firstly, from the homepage, click on Create or edit an account application.
From here, you can view, edit or upload any in progress applications or start a new one.
For a new application, you can choose 1 or 2 applicants. This doesn’t have to be a joint account, as you can do two individual applications simultaneously. Just enter both names to continue.
If you are using this tool to open a new account for an existing client on our platform, just type in the name of the existing client, click Start to search the list of clients, and then click Select on the relevant client.
Client details
Once you have started the application, you can see the various sections of the application on the left-hand side, which will display a green tick as you complete all the information in each section. The sections will all get checked again once you get to the final Summary section, so you will know whether anything is missing. You can also click on these to access each part directly.
Once you have entered the client’s details, you can now choose the wrappers for each client.
Wrapper type
As mentioned earlier, you can use this tool to open individual and joint GIAs, ISAs, and 7IM SIPP accounts.
Please note that where you choose an ISA wrapper, we will automatically add a General Investment Account if you haven’t already added one yourself. To avoid accidentally opening two GIAs, please add the GIA first, before the ISA, if you intend to use the GIA.
You can also add any additional sub-accounts to each wrapper, such as an extra dealing portfolio. These will appear later in the application process so you can allocate money and investment instructions to them.
Additional details
The additional details section captures any extra information that we need about the client for the wrappers that you have chosen. This includes the expression of wish beneficiary details for our pension.
Funding
The Funding section enables you to tell us how each wrapper and sub-account will be funded. This includes lump sum and regular contributions as well as any transfers.
Please add a separate transfer for each plan or sub-plan you wish to transfer to us.
If you are including a pension transfer, please remember to add the amount of uncrystallised or crystallised in the relevant boxes, including a zero if the transfer doesn’t include that part, rather than leave the box empty.
This section will also enable you to split any cash from lump sum or regular contributions or transfers into the various sub-accounts that you chose earlier. This will happen automatically on receipt of the cash and, along with the investments in the next section, is what we call a Standing Investment Instruction, or SII for short.
Investing
In the Investing section, you can choose the investments that should apply to the cash received into all the wrappers and sub-accounts that you have added. Remember that all in-specie transfers will always go into the main D portfolio, and any trades that need to be done on these will need to be done by you online once the assets have been transferred.
As mentioned earlier, this automatic investment is known as a Standing Investment Instruction. It will remain attached to the account indefinitely until either you cancel it or the end date is reached. It will, therefore, apply to any new money the client adds at any point in the future, not just the amounts you have listed in the funding section.
After this account is open, you will be able to see, edit, or cancel the Standing Investment Instruction in the Manage Investments tab of the client account area on our platform. Please watch our SII video for more on this.
If you have added multiple dealing portfolios to a wrapper, you can choose the investments for each one.
This can be individual funds with or without an allocation of cash or a model portfolio with or without an allocation of cash.
Remember to keep sufficient cash to cover any initial fees due or income requirements, as well as any immediate pension tax-free cash. Allocating an amount to cash in these instructions avoids all the cash getting invested when it arrives and then sales needing to be done afterwards, which could delay any payments.
If you don’t want us to invest the cash and would prefer to do this yourself online when the money arrives, you can leave the investment selection blank, and we will leave the money in cash.
If you have chosen an in-specie transfer only in the Funding section, then you won’t be able to choose any investments here and any trades will need to be done by you online once the assets have been transferred.
Fees and adviser details
In this section, you can select the adviser to link this client to, choose your MIFID relationship with your client (which will be Advised unless your firm has discretionary permissions) and set your initial and ongoing fee structure for each wrapper or if required, each sub-account. Please remember to choose None if the fee should be zero.
If you wish to charge the client an initial fee to set up a regular contribution, enter the total monetary fee amount in the box and choose how many monthly instalments you wish the fee to be paid over. The total monetary fee will often be a percentage of the total contribution over a certain number of years. Please note that the maximum number of instalments we can pay the fee over is twelve.
You can also use the Family Fee Group section to let us know whether this client should be linked to any existing clients on our platform for aggregated platform fee-charging purposes.
Nominated bank details
This next section enables you to input the client’s nominated bank details, which we will use for any income or withdrawals the client wants or to complete a direct debit mandate for any regular contributions.
This section can be left blank if no withdrawals or regular contributions are required, although it is good practice to get this sorted at the outset. However, it is mandatory if either withdrawals or regular contributions are being made.
You can return to add these bank details later after the client has signed the application before uploading it.
If you choose to leave this section blank and open the account without any bank details, you can add these at a later date. Please watch our other video to see how to do this.
Income and withdrawals
This section allows you to instruct the use of any cash dividends that arise in the account to provide a natural income sweep to the client.
To set up fixed regular withdrawal amounts, including any automatic disinvestment, you can do this online once the account is open and the cash is being invested. Please watch our other video to see how to do this.
If you have selected a 7IM SIPP wrapper, then you can also use this part of the application to include any crystallisation instructions, such as using our tailored drawdown process. Doing this will include our Taking Benefits form in the application pack.
If you are adding existing crystallised funds and wish to take an income from these, then please complete our separate Pension Income form, which is available to download from the Literature Centre section of our website.
Summary
Finally, you get to the Summary section which displays all the information that you have input so far.
As you can see, all the sections on the left have a green tick, which means that all the information is complete. If any information were missing, there would be no green tick in the left-hand section, and the missing field would be highlighted in red on the Summary screen. From here, you can click on the relevant section on the left to fill in the missing details.
You can also return to this application at a future point to complete any missing information, and everything you have completed so far will be saved automatically.
Once everything is complete, clicking on the Submit Application button will run a pre-emptive ID and address check on the clients so that you know whether you will need to supply us with any additional documentation for them. Please note that clicking on this button will not open the account – it will simply take you to the next screen, where you’ll be able to download the application pack.
If you do not have the option to click Submit Application, it will be because mandatory information is missing from the application. In this situation, you can click on the Download Summary button to download a PDF summary of the application so far that you can then use with the client to obtain the missing information and also get the client to sign. You can then use this information to complete the application online. Please note, however, that this approach won’t do the pre-emptive ID and address check on the client until after you have input the missing information and can click Submit Application.
Generating the application pack
Having input all the information, you can now generate the application pack ready for your client to sign (if they haven’t already signed the summary document). This pack will also contain any additional forms that are required for the application, such as GIA or ISA transfer forms, a direct debit mandate, or a Taking Benefit form. Please note that there are no separate pension transfer forms, as the necessary authorisation for these transfers is built into the wording of the application pack.
Application pack
This is what the application pack looks like. It will contain everything the client must sign to progress with this application. The pack will contain all the client details and the wrappers that you have selected. It will also contain the funding methods and investment instructions that you have input, along with all your fees.
Once the client has signed the declaration and any additional forms, which can be via e-signature from the likes of DocuSign or AdobeSign, you need to scan these to create a single PDF file, including any extra ID, address, or bank account documents that you need to send us. This is because you can only upload a single file during the application process, and all documents need to be included in that one file.
Please don’t include any password protection on this PDF document. Logging into our platform is secure. Therefore, password protection isn’t necessary, and it may delay things.
To complete the application, return to the Account applications section, scroll down to the Applications in Progress section, click on the upload icon, confirm the declarations, and then find the saved PDF file that you have created. Finally, click Submit to upload the documents and open the accounts.
The status of this application will initially change to Processing, and the accounts will be opened immediately. At this point, you will be able to see the client’s accounts in the usual place on our platform, and any transfers will also be visible in the Assets in Transfer section.
You can now give your client their new 7IM account reference along with our bank details to make any new payments into their 7IM account. Please don’t send any money to us until the client’s 7IM account is open.
Once any new cash is received, we will automatically move it into the right account or sub-account and then place any investments as per the application.
You will be able to see, edit, or cancel any Standing Investment Instructions in the Manage Investments tab of the client account area. Please watch our SII video for more on this.
Creating an illustration
This video will show you how to create an illustration for a 7IM SIPP, ISA, or GIA. You might also like to read our illustrations guide. Remember that illustrations for third-party provided wrappers (such as bonds or SIPPs) should be obtained from that company.
Illustrations are clearly a crucial part of the regulation around giving advice to a client, so here we’re going to look at how you can create an illustration for a 7IM account. For more detail about our illustration tool, please read our guide which is available from our Literature Centre.
To access the illustration tool on our platform, go to Tools > Illustrations > Client illustrations. This will open a new window to the Imago illustration tool which is powered by specialist provider Dunstan Thomas.
This is a separate list of clients than those on our platform and will just show any clients that you have previously done an illustration for.
For a new client illustration, click on the New Client button and add the client’s personal details.
Please note, you only need to add the spouse details if you are doing a 7IM SIPP illustration (as this will give you additional annuity assumptions). If you want to illustrate for a joint GIA just add both names to the client details boxes and enter one of the client’s dates of birth (as this isn’t used for GIA or ISA illustrations). Please also avoid using special characters like an ampersand in the name boxes, and please write the word ‘and’ instead.
If you want to include the value of assets already on 7IM for charging purposes or that will be included on a separate illustration, you can enter the value for them in the Wrap Valuation box.
Once you have entered all the details, click Save at the top. Now click New Illustration to begin the illustration process.
The first choice you’ll have is whether you want to create a Pensions or Savings illustration. Pensions relates to the 7IM SIPP only and Savings is a 7IM GIA or ISA. If you are doing a third party pension or bond with assets held on the 7IM Platform, then you should use that provider’s illustration tool for the wrapper, although you may wish to also create a 7IM GIA illustration to show the underlying fund costs.
As the creation of the illustration contents is very similar for both Pensions and Savings, for the purposes of this video, we will only be creating a Pensions illustration.
Choose the Status which will usually be Pre-Sales and the Drawdown basis which will usually be Flexi-Access, although you can select Capped if relevant.
Next, select the illustration type. These options are specific to Pensions and relate to the type of pension business you’re looking to do.
- Pre-retirement is for pensions that will remain uncrystallised in accrual and hence there will be no income requirements.
- Review can be used where you are transferring both crystallised and uncrystallised pensions at the same time or where you are crystallising an existing 7IM SIPP.
- Drawdown transfer is where you are transferring an existing crystallised pension to us.
- Full Drawdown is where you want us to fully crystallise a pension once the uncrystallised money is in.
- Phased Drawdown is the forerunner to our Tailored Drawdown option (which we will cover in a second) and therefore probably unlikely to be used.
- UFPLS withdrawal is an ad-hoc lump sum crystallisation.
- Part Drawdown is where you want us to partially crystallise a pension once the uncrystallised money is in.
- Tailored Drawdown is what we call our monthly phased crystallisation and is the most popular method of taking a regular income from an uncrystallised pension pot, so this is the illustration that we’re going to use here.
For more information about these types, please read our illustrations guide.
Firstly, enter your initial and ongoing fees. These can be input either as monetary or percentage amounts. You can specify your initial fees on transfers and lump sums which can be different from regulars. The regulars should be zero though as we don’t pay initial fees on regular contributions collected by direct debit.
You don’t need to input any platform charges as these all are built into the illustration tool and hence are calculated for you. These are included in the product charges section.
The next step is to create an Investment Strategy by clicking Add New Strategy.
You should give this strategy a name, and bear in mind that the name you enter will appear on the illustration. Although most illustrations will have a common set of investments for all money, and hence only need one investment strategy, you can create multiple investment strategies which will enable you to allocate different contributions or transfers to different investments. This could be useful for example with a pre-retirement illustration where regular contributions are going into different funds than the lump sums or transfers.
It’s now time to add your investment choice to this strategy, by clicking the New Investment button.
In the search box, you can type in a fund name, SEDOL code, or model name.
In order for funds or models to appear here, not only do they need to be set up on our platform, which you can check in the Security Search section, but we also need data on the individual fund charges and asset allocations (as our illustrations tool uses asset class specific growth rates).
If any investment or model portfolio doesn’t appear here but it is in the Security Search on our platform, please let us know.
If you want to include an allocation to individual shares or cash, which of course don’t have an investment charge, you can use one of these generic categories.
Now add the proportions to your chosen investments, which of course need to add up to 100%.
The next step is to add any transfers.
As you can see, this is where you can choose your investment strategy if you have more than one. To add multiple transfers, just click the New button again, and you can also add in any pension protection that the client has in place.
You can also add new contributions into this illustration. For pensions, these can be employee or employer and they can be lump sums or regular. Again, you can choose the relevant investment strategy here.
Finally, you can choose any income withdrawals or crystallisation that is required, either as a one-off or on a regular basis.
For a tailored drawdown illustration like this, where we will be crystallising every month to provide your client with an income, you will need to specify how much (in annual terms) we should be crystallising each year, along with how much tax-free cash and how much income you require (if any).
The pension illustration will run to age 75 unless you choose a different end date. GIA and ISA illustrations will have a 10-year time frame as standard, but again, you can change this.
You are now ready to produce the illustration so click Calculate.
A summary of the figures will appear on screen and to view the illustration, click on the View PDF button.
Please note, that all the figures shown in the pension illustration are adjusted for inflation, but GIA & ISA illustrations are not.
For more information about the figures and calculations in the illustration, including growth rates, inflation assumptions, and scenario examples, please download our guide from our Literature Centre.
Retirement Income Solution (RIS)
This video will show you how to create, implement, and review client plans using the 7IM Retirement Income Solution on the 7IM Platform.
For more about the 7IM Retirement Income Solution please visit our information page or download our technical adviser guide.
Introduction
The 7IM Retirement Income Solution (RIS) provides a robust and repeatable approach to building and managing a bespoke and sustainable income strategy for your clients in retirement.
This video will show you how to use our online Retirement Income Solution modelling tool to create and implement your client income scenarios, and how to manage your clients’ plans at each review via our platform.
Creating a new plan
Once you have logged into our platform, go to the Retirement Services menu and then to Retirement Income Solution.
To begin, click Create New and then add in the client’s name.
If this client is already on our platform, their name will appear, and you can select them which will pull through their existing details. You will also be able to select which of their existing 7IM accounts you wish to include in the RIS plan.
If they are not on our platform, click New client which will allow you to enter all the details yourself.
Once you have added all the details and selected an adviser, click on Start new scenario. This will take you into our Retirement Income Solution portal.
From here, you can either create a Quick Plan or a Full Plan.
A Quick Plan enables you to enter basic levels of information (including the client’s risk profile, total investment amount, time horizon and income required) to start looking at income scenarios. This can be useful in the early stages of planning and can be converted into a full plan later.
A Full Plan goes into more detail by including the investment and income split between each wrapper, as well as the chosen model portfolio for each risk pot, and will lead to a more detailed report which you can then implement. Please note, you will always need to have a full plan in order go live.
Quick plan
Let’s look at a Quick Plan first.
The Retirement Income Solution can be used with a number of different investment providers, including 7IM, and this first section will show you which of the available investment providers you can choose from. If you want to use one of the other investment providers that are part of the Retirement Income Solution, please get in touch with us so that we can arrange access.
Having chosen your investment provider, you can then select:
- the client’s overall risk rating,
- the total amount of money that you want to allocate to the Retirement Income Solution,
- how many years you want the income to last; and
- the annual gross income amount required. This can either be entered as a monetary amount or a percentage amount. Please note that any monetary figure will automatically be converted into a percentage and rounded up to the nearest 0.1%.
You can also choose to build in some escalation to the income, either at a fixed rate or using long-term inflation rates. If you don’t want any escalation, please select zero.
As clients sometimes want varying levels of income during their retirement, you can use the Add variable income section to include these in the scenario planning. For example, you might want to have a higher level of income for the first few years before reducing to a lower level of income for the rest of the term. In which case, you can enter the long-term income requirement in the main income box above and then add the additional amount required for the first few years and how long for, in this variable income section.
Please note that if you have selected for income to be escalated, then this escalation will also be automatically applied to any variable income that is added in this section.
Finally, you can add in any other sources of income that the client has, or will have coming in, such as state pension or other pension income. You could also include any income that would be generated by a Secure Lifetime Income product within our SIPP.
Any amounts included here will reduce the overall amount needed to be withdrawn from the investments within the Retirement Income Solution and therefore increase the overall sustainability calculation of the plan.
Once you have completed this section, click Next.
In this screen, you can input your ongoing adviser fees, and it will also show the 7IM platform charges as a reminder. Finally, click Show results.
Plan results
This results page will replay the information you entered previously and the results of the modelling calculations that have taken place. It is worth renaming this scenario to something more client-friendly and to enable you to easily identify different scenarios if you choose to save multiple versions.
The results will include a sustainability calculation about the probability of there being money left at the end of the term. This is displayed as both a percentage figure and a more visual client-friendly dial graph.
We also display a range of potential outcomes based on various market conditions to help you with your planning and client conversations.
On the Portfolio tab, we display a high-level portfolio split between the various risk pots as well as the client’s overall risk rating.
There will always be two years of income allocated to cash and a further three years of income in a lower-risk, short-term pot. This is offset by an allocation to a higher-risk long-term pot. It is important to highlight that the combined allocation across all the pots will match the client’s risk profile.
From here, you can either choose to Save and close, which will enable you to then create different quick plan scenarios for this client, or click on Generate proposal report, which will allow you to edit this scenario and convert it into a Full Plan as we mentioned earlier. This is what we will look at next.
Full plan
The first section of the Full Plan is the same as the previous Quick Plan, so you scroll to the bottom and click Next. This screen is the first additional section where you can input the various tax wrappers or accounts that the client has that you want to include in the Retirement Income Solution.
Once you have clicked on Add Account, you can choose the wrappers you want to include.
Once all the accounts have been added, click Next to go to the second additional section about investments.
This screen allows you to select how much of the total income amount you want to take from each wrapper by entering the amount in this box and also which investments should be used for each risk pot - short, medium and long term.
The drop-down menus for each risk pot will contain the names of the model portfolios or funds of your chosen investment provider that have been allocated to that particular risk strategy.
Once you have entered the income amounts and selected the investments for each wrapper, click Next.
This fee page is the same as in the Quick Plan and will therefore display whatever you input previously, if you had started with a Quick Plan. Finally, click Show results.
The results page for the Full Plan is similar to the Quick Plan in that it includes the sustainability calculation and the high-level portfolio split. However, it also includes an additional Investments tab that shows a detailed breakdown of the amounts allocated to each investment within each wrapper as well as an overall strategic asset allocation of the portfolio.
You can always amend the investment splits used in each wrapper by clicking on the edit button in the Portfolio section and then entering the amounts you wish.
This Full Plan scenario is now ready to be created into a client-facing report by clicking the Generate Proposal Report button. Please be aware that you might need to switch off any pop-up blockers at this stage to allow the PDF report to open or be downloaded by your browser.
Proposal report
This report is designed to be client-facing and includes everything that you have just seen on screen when creating the full plan, including the all-important sustainability results summary on the first page as well as later on.
There is also a space in section 4 called Adviser Analysis where you can add your own text to be included with this report.
Activation & implementation
Once your client is happy to proceed with this Retirement Income Solution plan, you can click on the Submit scenario button to activate the plan.
You will then need to make sure that the various wrappers, sub-accounts, and investments detailed in the investment strategy section of the plan are implemented.
New client
For a new client who is not yet on our platform, you can use the information in the investment strategy section of the Retirement Income Solution plan to help you complete the client’s online application pack.
You will need to add the correct number of additional sub-accounts (normally an extra three) in the Wrappersection of the online application.
Then, in the Funding section, you can allocate the split of the transfers or the lump sum amount to each sub-accounts – D, J, K, & N.
And finally, in the Investing section, you can assign the relevant investments (e.g. model portfolio or cash) to each of the sub-accounts.
Existing client
For a client already on our platform, this will probably involve opening additional sub accounts (or dealing portfolios) for each wrapper. This is easily done online, and there is also a video in the Account Maintenance section of our Platform Help Centre that will show you how to do this.
We will then rename these dealing portfolios as “Cash”, “Short Term”, “Medium Term”, and “Long Term” so that it is clear which sub-account is being used for each risk pot and then matches the Retirement Income Solution strategy.
Once these have been opened, you will then need to ensure they have the right amount of assets in each one, in line with the plan. To do this, you can sell the existing assets and then move the subsequent cash into the new sub-accounts using our Cash Movements tool.
Once the money is in the right sub-accounts, you can invest this into the relevant investments for that particular sub-account. Typically, this will involve rebalancing each sub-account to the relevant model portfolio.
Illustrations
You can prepare an illustration for our Retirement Income Solution in the usual way by clicking on the Client Illustrations option in the Tools menu. You do all the usual steps for an illustration, except that once you have chosen the Savings or Pension option, you will be able to select a Retirement Income Solution version of the GIA, ISA, or 7IM SIPP. This will automatically include the additional annual charge associated with this product.
From there, you can complete the illustration as normal, selecting the investments listed in the plan and assigning the allocations to each one.
The review process
It is essential that every client using our Retirement Income Solution gets reviewed each year, and we have created a robust review process for these plans, which we will now go through.
In the Retirement Income Solution screen, click on the Active tab to see those clients who currently have an RIS plan.
The review date will automatically be set one year from when you first activated the plan. From this screen, you can change the review date to either bring it forward or push it back by up to six months.
You can also edit the plan to include other 7IM accounts that the client has on our platform that weren’t included in the original RIS plan.
To view the current RIS plan, click on the RIS reference number which will then open the RIS portal.
This screen will show the current portfolio value, sustainability calculation and the current value of each investment bucket.
The next step is to click on View details.
Here, you will be able to see the details of the original plan so you can see how things looked last year.
To review this plan, click on the orange Review plan button at the top.
This review screen recalculates the whole Retirement Income plan, including the Sustainability number, so you can discuss with your client whether they are comfortable with how things are progressing.
It also shows the current value of the plan along with the income that has been taken so far.
Importantly, it also compares the current value of the client’s medium-term pot (which is the one that matches their risk profile) against the value at the last review date (or start of the plan if this is the first review) to determine the course of action to take at this review.
If the value has risen, then the plan is said to be On Target, and therefore, the course of action will be to realign all the pots, restoring the two years’ worth of income in cash.
If the value has fallen since the last review, then the plan is said to be Not on Target, and therefore, there is no realignment, as the aim is to avoid selling assets at a loss. Instead, the income will continue to be withdrawn from the cash pot. This is why there is two years’ worth of income in cash, to allow a second-year buffer should it be needed.
Whatever the situation, you need to generate a review report to give to your client as part of the review process. This report will look similar to the original Retirement Income report and will include the revised sustainability calculation, the values, investment buckets, and the course of action to take as a result of the review.
Following the review with your client, there are a range of next steps you might take, depending on the situation.
You can change the plan altogether, either by adding in extra accounts or changing any of the original requirements. Clicking this button will take you back to the scenario planning stage and enable you to make the necessary changes. This effectively stops the original plan and starts a new one.
If the client’s plan is on target, then you can carry out the realignment.
By clicking on the Realign plan button at the bottom (which will be greyed out until you generate the review report), you’ll be able to see this screen, which is available to download as a document that shows the changes that you need to make to each bucket to realign this plan.
This will involve selling assets in one or more of the invested buckets and transferring the cash proceeds into the cash pot and possibly some of the other invested buckets. This can all be done online on our platform using the dealing screens and the cash movements tool.
If the client’s plan is not on target, and hence there is no realignment required, you would instead click the Use cash buffer button to confirm that this was the course of action agreed with the client. In this situation, the RIS plan moves to a quarterly review period, and the review date will reset to three months time.
At that next review, the same process that we have just run through will happen, and either a realignment will be required if the value has increased, or the review will be moved on another three months if the value is still down.
In the unlikely event that the client gets to the end of the two-year period and their medium-term pot is still below the last value, then action will need to be taken anyway, as there will be no more cash left to fund the client’s income. This is called a defensive realignment and will result in one year’s income being sold to cash from the various buckets.
For more details about the review process, please read our Technical Guide to the Retirement Income Solution, which you can download from our Literature Centre.
Secure Lifetime Income (SLI)
This video will guide you through the process of creating a SLI quote and making an online application via the 7IM platform. For more information about SLI, please visit our SLI information page or our dedicated SLI Help Centre or download our SLI adviser guide.
Intro
We have partnered with retirement specialists Just to provide you and your clients with access to their Secured Lifetime Income product (or SLI for short) within a 7IM SIPP. This video will show you how this SLI works on our platform, including how you can quote and apply online. For more about the features of this product and where, or how, it might be used, please see our dedicated web page and accompanying literature or get in touch with us to discuss further.
As the SLI is provided by Just, all quotes, applications, and underwriting are handled by them. But all this is done online through their SLI portal (called Spire) which you access via the 7IM platform as we shall now go through.
Access
There are two ways in which you can access the SLI Spire portal from our platform.
To get a quote for a client who does not yet have a 7IM SIPP, you can go to Retirement Services > Secure Lifetime Income and then click the Proceed button which will open the SLI portal in a new window.
Please note that any quotes you generate via this route will not be saved once you leave the Spire portal.
To quote or apply for a client who does already have a 7IM SIPP, go into the client account area and click on the SLI tab on the right and then click on Quote or Apply.
Taking this route to the Spire portal will pull through the client’s details (such as name and date of birth) so that the quote is personalised for that client without you having to rekey any of this information.
Quotes
Once you are in the SLI portal there are two types of quote that you can get:
- Ball Park Estimate
- Accurate Quote
Ball park estimates are a quick and easy way for you to get a rough idea of the income level for a given amount of capital or the capital required for a given level of income.
These estimates use one of three example health profiles so you can choose which one most closely represents your client without needing their medical details. While getting a ball park estimate can be a useful first step in the process to begin a discussion with a client, or to start to formulate a plan, we would recommend getting an accurate quote wherever possible.
An accurate quote, as the name suggests, requires more detail about the client’s health so that the quote is personalised just for them.
There are two ways this health information can be captured. Either you can answer the health questions online on behalf of the client by clicking on the Start button, or you can ask your client to complete this health questionnaire themselves by clicking on the Send To Client button.
Choosing this second option will send an email to your client with a link to the online portal so they can complete the questions online and you will get a notification once they have done so.
Please note the Send To Client option is only available if you access the Spire portal via an existing 7IM SIPP client as it requires the client details.
The health questions are in two parts. Firstly there are some lifestyle questions. Then there is a section about any medical conditions the client might have. If the client has no medical conditions, you can click the “No medical conditions” button to answer no to everything in one go.
Once you or your client have answered all the health questions you can proceed to the quote section.
From here you can choose what basis you want the quote for.
- Quote for income will show you the capital required for a given level of income.
- Whereas Quote from Premium will show you how much income the client can get for a given amount of capital.
When you’ve made your selection and input the amount, click Request Quote.
The quote details will then be displayed on screen.
You can now download two separate documents:
- SOF is a statement of facts which replays the answers to the health questions from the previous section, if you have done an accurate quote.
- Q is the personalised SLI quote showing the income and premium level along with death benefits and encashment values and over time.
Remember that when you return to this section to view previous quotes, they will be saved under either the Quote for income or Quote from Premium tabs so make sure you choose the right tab first to see the relevant quotes.
Apply
You can apply for the SLI online on behalf of your client by accessing the SLI portal via the client account area on our platform as we described earlier.
However before you apply you should ensure that all these criteria are met:
- Your client has a 7IM SIPP
- Your client is 55 or over
- Your client has a UK address
- The 7IM SIPP has sufficient crystallised value to cover the SLI premium
- The 7IM SIPP has sufficient cash in the D portfolio to cover the SLI premium
- The SLI quote is still valid (ie within 35 days since it was run). You can always requote to get a new one, although the figures may change.
Assuming all these criteria are met, you can click on the Apply button below your chosen quote to make the application.
At this stage you will be asked to provide details of the client’s GP.
Once you have applied, you can then return to the 7IM platform.
On the 7IM Platform you will be able to see the status of the application in the SLI tab in the client account area. It will show as In Progress to begin with and then Complete, and you’ll also be able to see the Just policy reference on the left side as well as all the amounts relating to that SLI.
Income
Once live, the income from the SLI will be paid by Just into the client’s 7IM SIPP on the 1st of each month, a bit like income from an investment. It is therefore up to the client what they do with this cash from that point as it does not have to be immediately withdrawn.
For example, this SLI cash could form part of a larger income withdrawal utilising the other assets in the client’s SIPP as well. The client can decide on their total income withdrawal from their crystallised 7IM SIPP in the usual way.
Remember that if the client wishes to start or amend their income from a crystallised 7IM SIPP you will need to send us a completed Pension Income form which is available to download from our Literature Centre. And if the client wishes to crystallise some, or all, of their 7IM SIPP to take tax free cash and start an income, you will need to send us a completed Taking Benefits form which is also available to download from our Literature Centre.
Also, please note that if you intend to use SLI in conjunction with a drawdown payment date of the first of each month, you should start the SIPP income the month after the SLI income starts. This is because we receive the income from Just on first of each month, by which time our first of the month payroll income will have already been paid out to clients. So starting the SIPP income the following month allows enough time for the SLI cash to be applied to the client’s SIPP ready for next month’s payment.
Ongoing values
The SLI also has a lump sum encashment value for a period of time. This will start at 75% of the premium amount and then reduce over time until it reaches zero. For more about this, please read our SLI guide or the personalised SLI quote document you get from the Spire portal which we mentioned earlier.
This encashment value will be included in the value of your client’s 7IM account and will therefore incur both 7IM platform charges and any adviser fees during this time.
The current encashment value of the SLI will be displayed in the Positions tab of the client’s account on platform as a separate asset line. This value will also be included in the client’s quarterly 7IM statement, the ad-hoc client review reports (or CRRs) and the client online portal.
Please note, however, that it won’t be included in the holdings shown on our 7imagine app.
The SLI encashment value won’t be included in any rebalance or proportional sale calculations which means it can be held in the client’s D portfolio alongside any other assets, including a model portfolio, without impacting on the trading that happens in that account.
Finally, there is a firm level SLI report available on our platform in the Practice Administration menu that shows all the active SLIs that any of your firm’s clients have. This report will show the details of each SLI including the income level, current encashment value, the premium paid and the application date.
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