It’s a familiar adage in professional working circles, so with Surecase, we wanted to develop a mortgage adviser CRM document management system that sweats all the fiddly stuff so you can spend more time seeing new clients, building a profitable pipeline of work – and getting to spend more quality time with your family.

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Simon Horsfall explains how Surecase came about, and how the development team worked on creating features designed to save you time and improve workflow efficiency.

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“Talk to anyone in financial services, or the more specific mortgage adviser industry, and they’ll tell you that one of the many challenges they face is keeping on top of all the admin and paperwork while balancing the need to remain in contact with their clients throughout their journey, from initial fact find to final product selection.

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The challenges are made even harder during the current financial climate when there’s been a successive series of interest rate changes which, in turn, have led to lenders offering an ever-changing array of mortgage offers. When you’re managing a succession of mortgage applications, coupled with the demands of ensuring FCA compliance, it’s all too easy to become submerged in chasing a paper trail of documentation and messages.”

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Time – there’s never enough of it

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“As mortgage advisers with first hand experience of these problems, the biggest issue we wanted to tackle was how time seemed to just evaporate throughout the day – no matter how early the start.

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And so we took a much closer look at what was causing the problem, and the obvious answer was that, for too many of us, we had the same 3 core issues:

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1. Not being able to identify (and therefore prioritise) the key mortgage applications that needed the most urgent attention
2. Not being able to effectively farm out every admin-related task to our non mortgage-advising colleagues
3. Being caught up in an endless spiral of client communications from a variety of sources – emails, texts, WhatsApp messages, phone calls.

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So when we developed Surecase, the key driver behind the features that we wanted to develop was our obsession with saving valuable time, wherever we could throughout the working day. We wanted to work efficiently, prioritising those clients who are eager to proceed, maximising your working day without hours spent after the official close of business playing catch up.”

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Here’s a summary of Surecase’s key time saving features:

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• Firstly – easy access. Surecase is designed to be accessed at any time and anywhere with a simple login. We really want Surecase to become a natural part of your working day.

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• Secondly – workflow management.  We wanted to tackle workflow efficiency head on. So, Surecase does this by highlighting the mortgage applications that have the most up to date progress with an intuitively simple system that makes it easy to see which cases need the most attention.

• Collated communications – with the ‘Chat’ feature we’ve amalgamated all your client conversations so that you’re not rummaging around numerous different sources for the most up to date communication with your client.

• Smart email communications – we wanted to take the hassle out of all those standard ‘request for document’ emails that you need to send to your clients. We’ve automated them so that these quick transactional emails can be managed swiftly, without taking up thinking time for other tasks. They’re also great for GDPR compliance.

• Lender communication. Surecase enables you to have easy access to case/lender-specific information for easy access anywhere, assisting you with passing security.

• Compliance documentation download.  We know that financial services compliance is another time-consuming process, so we’ve created a feature where all your documentation and client communications can be downloaded into a simple doc file for when you need to have your paperwork ready. There’s no limit to the number of cases you can upload, or the volume of documents.

• Organisation management hierarchy . With Surecase we wanted mortgage advisers to be able to focus on their core job, providing compliant advice to their clients, without the distractions of continually having to own every part of every caseload. So, by allocating admin rights to key people supporting your work, they can focus on driving forward all the background aspects of each application so that each case gathers its own momentum.

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Coming soon – links to Intelligent Office

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The next big feature for Surecase will be its seamless integration with the Intelligent Office platform which will enable users to link their Surecase workflow and document management tasks with the wider IO interface.

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“Essentially, we want Surecase to become the benchmark for effortlessly simple client relationship management within the mortgage adviser industry. It’s no small understatement to say that our key motive has, and always will be, to save every valuable second of the day so that everyone has time to spend on the things that matter.”

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Why not put Surecase through its paces and see if it changes your work/life balance. Sign up for ​​

a FREE 30 day trial today.

Surecase Director, Simon Horsfall, a qualified mortgage adviser, explains how the Surecase Mortgage Adviser CRM portal came about – with one of the key drivers being the need to find an easier way of managing workflows.

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“When you work in the financial services industry, one of the many attractions to whatever job you have is the people connection. Whether you’re advising on mortgages, investments, pensions or a whole raft of other products, what you’re doing is helping people achieve their life goals and build and protect their wealth.

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But, as we know too well, our industry is (quite rightly) driven by compliance, which, in turn, means lots of paperwork, audit trails and documentation. As a mortgage adviser, you’ll also be fully aware that  things have ramped up even further in the last year with 14 successive interest rate changes which, in turn, has led to additional layers of work in keeping track of the constantly changing offering from mortgage lenders. This has made the need for more agile case management even more important.

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Managing a constant trail of conversations from a growing list of clients can cause major headaches, and eat into both work time and family time. This is why we believe that Surecase is the ultimate mortgage adviser document management system. This may seem a biased claim but we’re confident with our assertion because this is a mortgage CRM tool designed for mortgage advisers, by mortgage advisers.

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When we set out to design it, the biggest issue we wanted to tackle was workflow management. We wanted to create a simple, intuitive mortgage document software system that could help all of us keep on top of the massive trail of conversations and documents that are generated by each mortgage application.

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With Surecase, we’ve created a secure, access anywhere portal that really does help with workflow efficiency by making it easy to see the progress of each mortgage application. It proactively helps you prioritise each case by showing you updates on the submission of the correct documents, the progress of applications, through to the eventual completion of each deal. Every time you access it, the system has reviewed your caseload and made it easy to identify the applications which need your immediate attention.”

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Surecase is already being used by a number of mortgage companies, including Vista Financial Management. Sean, a Mortgage Adviser and Director at the company explains:

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“Surecase has uniquely allowed my PA and I to focus more on client requirements and, as a result, deliver better client outcomes instead of getting tangled up in the usual administration issues. It has streamlined and simplified the whole processing of applications which, in turn, has produced quicker offers and insurance terms and therefore quicker completions – with a full audit trail which can only make our business more robust.”

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This kind of endorsement is music to our ears as it shows that Surecase is actively helping people within the industry grapple with that old chestnut of paperwork getting in the way of dealing with people.

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One of the unique features of Surecase is the secure Live Chat function which enables mortgage advisers to chat with their clients, thereby removing all the complex layers of conversations via email and WApp. Every conversation, along with every piece of supporting documentation, is securely encrypted and easily accessible in an instant.

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With our organisation management feature we’ve created different layers of access, which means that mortgage administrators can access the portal and complete essential admin work on behalf of mortgage advisers. Again, this frees up more quality time for advisers to spend with their clients.

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On the FCA compliance side of things, being able to provide an audit of your advice is essential. So we’ve created a simple facility that enables you to download all your client conversations and documents into a secure doc file, without having to collate reams of documents from the whole mortgage application journey.

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With Surecase now being adopted by more and more mortgage adviser and financial services companies we’re now looking at the next generation of features which will include:

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• Integration with Intelligent Office to provide a seamless interface with this widely used platform.
• An e-fact find; an area to store early stage fact finding conversations.
• Enhanced facilities for both adviser and client to engage with each other.

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These are just some of the additional features that we’ll be developing in the coming months, and we’ll keep you updated on further enhancements as they come online.

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In the meantime, we’re really pleased with the feedback that Surecase users are coming back to us with.

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“Surecase has centralised and made the entire mortgage process a lot more streamlined and efficient, as opposed to having to scour through emails from days and weeks ago.”

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The best way to discover Surecase’s many features is to explore it for yourself. This is why we’re currently offering a free trial. Sign up today to see how it can change your daily workflow.

In the first of our blogs to showcase the features of the Surecase mortgage adviser CRM portal, we explore the importance of documenting the advice and products you offer your mortgage clients, and why having easy access to critical documentation is an essential part of being compliant.

As a mortgage adviser or mortgage broker, the journey you take with each of your clients to find the best mortgage is never a straightforward linear path. After understanding their needs and assessing their affordability there’s a raft of documentation, conversational threads and emails from various sources that all need filing in a systematic manner.

But as we know, it’s easier said than done, and when the mortgage market is as volatile as it is at the moment, with constantly changing rates and new offers being put on the table, you need to be agile, as well as organised.

From your financial adviser training, you’ll also know that being able to evidence the advice you give, and the audit trail of documents that it generates is essential for compliance with the Financial Conduct Authority, which offers very detailed advice on the reporting that is required to remain fully compliant.

Juggling a range of mortgage applications, visiting clients and managing the flow of information to and from banks or building societies can be stressful. But without a rigorous system to track every application, your professional life as a financial adviser can significantly eat into valuable family and leisure time. Paperwork can become an all-consuming part of what should be a rewarding job helping people buy their first, or next, home.

We know what the working life of a mortgage adviser feels like. No two days are the same, and every application is different. So we’ve created a simple-to-use, access anywhere mortgage CRM portal that provides a secure place to store documents, with no limit on the number of cases you can upload and manage.

Key features of Surecase include:

• Simple request function to obtain documents from your client
• Encrypted storage means every document is safe and secure – and only accessible to the people that need them
• Live chat function means you can contact your clients in real time with your conversations kept safe and secure
• Role delegation feature offering specific user roles such as Account Holders, Advisers and Administrators – each with their own levels of access.

One of the great features of the live chat function is that it automatically stores your conversations, which is the kind of documentation that might ordinarily be lost in a live face to face conversation. So, as well as having all the formal paperwork digitally managed, live chats are simply filed alongside the case. This also avoids a mass of SMS texts, WApp messages and emails.

Why not see for yourself how Surecase can help improve your workflow, as well as your work life balance, by signing up for a free trial. Once you’re a subscriber, there’s no limit to the amount of caseloads you can manage.

Find out more about how Surecase could help to make your life easier here.