Industries

Same relationship. Different decision.

Seven financial decisions, seven sets of rules, and one thing they all have in common: the person needs to understand it, and the firm needs to be able to show how it was handled.

Seven decisions

Pick the one you are in.

A mortgage, a vehicle, a policy, a portfolio, an account, a loan, a home. Different products, different regulators, different rulebooks. The same person, trying to understand what they are agreeing to, and the same firm, trying to show how they handled it.

MortgageWhether to borrow several hundred thousand dollars, from whom, on what terms, and what happens at renewal.→AutoWhat the vehicle costs, what is being financed, over how long, at what rate, and which of the things on the sheet were chosen rather than added.→Real estateWho represents you, on what terms, for how long, and what changes if the brokerage also represents the other party.→InsuranceWhat is covered, what is excluded, what it costs, and whether replacing a policy you already hold is better for you or better for the person recommending it.→InvestingWhether to hand investment decisions to someone else, to whom, under which registration, and on what basis this recommendation rather than another.→BankingWho holds your money, and what you agree to while it is being held.→LendingWhat this will cost in total, over what period, and whether the lender is licensed to offer it at all.→
What repeats

The decision changes. The relationship does not.

01

The person has to understand what they are deciding

Before anyone has anything to sell them, and in language they already use.

02

The person has to check who they are dealing with

Every one of these seven has a public register. Almost nobody knows they exist.

03

The firm has to explain why this and not that

Regulators in three of these sectors have now said, in writing, that recording the conclusion is not the same as recording the reason.

04

The firm has to be able to show it later

Usually years later, usually to a person who was not there, and usually from systems that were never joined up.

One architecture, seven decisions.

That is the argument. If it only worked for mortgages it would be a feature. It works the same way in all seven because what it protects is the relationship, not the product.

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