Overview
There may be various reasons for wanting to separate joint records in Xplan, the most common ones being the death of one of the clients or separation and divorce. As a firm you will have defined your own internal processes around these scenarios. These guides are not focused on those suggested processes but look at some of the areas in Xplan you should consider before you proceed with separating the joint records.
Considerations
Although you will have your own processes, there are some things to be considered before the separation of the records such as updating salutation and address fields. Also, you should think about the joint holdings and whether they are to be retained and held by one of the clients. Ideally, we would not recommend separating the records until the legal position is clear on how to proceed and also that the providers have processed the closure or change of ownership if applicable.
Before separating the records
We would suggest you consider the following:
- Immediate system updates, such as the entity status (change to deceased or widowed/surviving civil partner etc) and address and salutation fields. Also, whether the contact address should be changed or removed.
- If you use Xtools Cashflow, think about whether you will need to use existing data for a scenario following the death of a client (entity). If so, create a scenario as soon as possible and use the Import Wizard tool to bring all the current data held on both client and partner through to it.
- Do you know what is happening with any joint holdings, will they be encashed or continue to be held by one of the clients? Are there any datafeeds or ongoing remuneration expectations in CommPay and will any changes of ownership affect those?
Dealing with joint holdings
If there is an investment element to any of the joint plans, you will need to identify which are manually updated for valuations and which are updated via a datafeed, as you will deal with them slightly differently.
It is advisable to prepare the joint holdings accordingly if you know that one client will be taking future sole ownership of it. Separate client records cannot have a joint portfolio account (only shared portfolios) and initially the client and partner joint portfolio accounts would have been created and linked as one entity. Therefore, it is necessary to follow the procedures below to create a new single portfolio account or remap the old joint one to a single client, before separating the records. If you do not do this and carry out the separation of records, whilst you will get a copy of the joint plan on each of the newly separated records, neither of them will hold the portfolio account for the joint plan/s. Instead, the joint portfolio account/s will exist under a ghost entity record created in the partner’s name, ie, Carter, Carolyn [FormerJoint] Carter, Carl. However, you can still transfer the holdings to the respective owner via Portfolios > Admin > Transfer Holdings or remap the portfolio account to the single client via External Contracts and then delete the [Former Joint] entity from Xplan.
Joint plans updated manually and changing to sole ownership
- Create a new portfolio account in the name of whoever will take ownership of the plan going forward via Portfolios > Portfolio > Position > Add > Account or Portfolios > Admin > Cash & Accounts > Add Portfolio Account.
- Use the Transfer Holdings functionality (Portfolios > Admin > Transfer Holdings) to move the portfolio account contents from the joint to the new single owner portfolio account you have just created.
- In Cash & Accounts, change the filter to joint names and delete the empty joint portfolio account if you have the Xplan capabilities to do so. If you do not, you can still unlink this from the plan within the fund's tab and ask someone else with those capabilities to delete the joint portfolio account before you separate the records.
- In the Financial and Protection area, open the plan and update the ownership and percentage of ownership.
- If you did not have permission to delete the existing joint portfolio account in Cash & Accounts, in the fund's tab, unlink the existing joint portfolio account.
- Still in the Funds tab, click on the link icon to link the new portfolio account in the sole owner’s name.
Joint plans updated via a datafeed and changing to sole ownership
The original joint portfolio account linked to the plan will have been created on the basis that the owners were joined together as one entity and would have been mapped as such for the datafeed. If the clients (entities) are to be separated in Xplan, the existing feed will continue to update the linked portfolio account. Once the plan is held by one client, you will just need to remap the datafeed link from the joint portfolio account to one held by the new owner.
- Navigate to Portfolios > Admin > External Contracts.
- Click on the action arrow before the portfolio account name and select Remap from the menu.
- Search for the new plan owner’s name and click ok.
- As this will be a new portfolio account in a sole name, leave as Create New Account (Default) and save.
- In the Financial and Protection area, open the plan and update the ownership (the portfolio account will have remained linked to the plan so there is no need to update anything in the Funds tab as you did for any manually updated plans).
Joint plans with ongoing revenue links to CommPay
Whilst some consideration should be given to joint plans receiving ongoing remuneration, ultimately, if the plan number remains the same, revenue details received into CommPay will still match with the plan. If there is any change of ownership of the same plan made in Xplan, this will feed through to CommPay as well.
If the original plan has to be closed and a new one set up in the sole name, you would create a new revenue expectation against the new plan and lodge it to CommPay.
Now that you have carried out the initial preparation, you can go ahead and separate the joint records. See the Separating Clients guide for instructions on how to do this.
Following the separation of joint records
Once you have prepared and separated your joint client records in Xplan, there are some additional factors you may wish to consider at this point.
- Even if you changed these initially when advised of the client situation, it would be advisable to check the salutation and address fields again under Key Information > Main as well as the contact address in Key Information > Contact & Communication. These fields will not be updated in the separation process and may still reflect incorrect details.
- Communication and marketing preferences, as well as consent, should have separated with the client and partner records, but you may use this as an opportunity to check those preferences still stand after the particular event.
- If you do not wish to keep the deceased client record with all other active client records, you could remove them into a deceased client group. This will enable you to retain the record and you may allow a limited number of staff to still have access to this group should anything need to be filed or checked in future.
- If you have separated the records due to divorce, it could be that one client no longer wishes to be advised by your firm and withdraws their consent to be dealt with.
- If you have given advice to that client on their plans and recommended new plans, you will be required by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to retain those records. In this case, you could move the client record into a separate group which can only be accessed by a very limited number of staff in your firm should you ever need to retrieve their details. This will ensure they are removed from all searches and general staff access. This also ensures this personal data is protected in line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
- If you have not advised on or recommended any plans for that client and are not required by the FCA to retain their details once they have withdrawn their consent, you could use the Client Deletion Wizard to remove their records from Xplan. Use the action arrow next to their name at the top of the client record and select the delete option from the menu.
