Understanding Client Response Summary Approval

Response Summary Approval:

Once the Living Trust or Will questions are answered, you will notice a response summary page. This is for the client to review all the information gathered from the online interview.

Note: You can click on any of the response items to edit that particular response.

At the bottom of the response summary page, you will see the following:

There are two ways for clients to approve their responses:

1. 'Get Electronic Approval From The Client' - If selected, you are prompted to enter the client's email address, after which the platform sends the client a copy of the response summary. The client then must open the email and approve the responses in order to finish the online interview.

2. 'Client Cannot Access Email' - If selected, download and print the response summary and have the client sign it.

The attorney has determined that POAs and Healthcare Directives do not require the additional approval from the client that the living trust requires.

Additional information:

The easiest way to complete the response summary (RS) approval is right from the tool.  If you use the 'email the Response Summary' option found at the bottom of the Response Summary, the client simply clicks the link that the data is correct and the tool will automatically record that the client confirmed data.  Be advised - to avoid unnecessary delays and keep the process moving forward, the link in the email times out after 24 hours so it is imperative that the client understands they need to get into their email right away and confirm the accuracy of the information in their file. This feature was intended to be utilized in real-time.*


Best Practice with the Response Summary:
The Guru platform tracks who is logged in. Whenever someone, other than the client themselves, enters data into the online questionnaire, Guru requires that the client sign off on the accuracy of the data as represented in the Response Summary. This is to protect you (and your white label) from someone attempting to claim that the data used to create their plan was in some way inaccurate or was not what the client had intended.  

 

Response Summary Options, Reiterated:
The online system allows two (2) different ways for you to document or verify the accuracy of the data in the online tool: (1) sending the client an email that he can immediately approve the data by clicking a link;  or, (2) if the email is problematic (client is not use or have access to email) you print out the Response Summary and get client to initial it as accurate. If you opt for the second option, you keep the hard copy Response Summary in your files.  These two options are found at the bottom of the Response Summary, and the tool will not permit you complete an estate plan without securing client's approval of the data in the Response Summary. 

FYI:

Some advisor's review the data in the online tool by reading with the client line-by-line through the Response Summary at the end of the fact-finding appointment.  Then they click the option, 'I have a signed copy of the RS in my possession'  and they secure the client's signature when they deliver the documents.

 

*It is best to make sure you have secured the client's approval immediately upon completing the online questionnaire.  (I was at the bank the other day arranging for wire transfers, the banker completed an application online via his computer and the process required that I acknowledge receipt of a disclosure form.   The banker asked if I had my cell phone with me and if I could get my email on my phone, I said yes, he sent me an email, which I immediately received on my phone, opened the email and clicked the 'I accept' link in the email and the process continued.  The email my RS works the same way - it is intended to be used in real time whenever possible.)