Kat Church: Reviews aren’t compliance; they’re where the real value lies!

Good Returns' new columnist, Katrina Church, explains why client reviews are so important.

Monday, June 29th 2026, 10:58AM

When the Financial Markets Authority’s new advice regime came into force, many advisers viewed the increased review obligations as another compliance burden - more paperwork, more processes, more time.

I see it differently.

Regular client reviews are not a box-ticking exercise; they’re where we prove our value. They force advisers away from a ‘set and forget’ mentality back to what great advisers have always done - stay connected to their clients.

Purpose driving good advice

Every cover recommendation should begin with a simple question: what is the purpose of this cover? Is it to clear the mortgage, support family members, protect against life’s mishaps? When advice is anchored in purpose, conversations become meaningful, not transactional. But life doesn’t stand still: income changes; families grow; health shifts; businesses evolve. Without regular check-ins, the advice we proudly gave at the start can quietly become outdated.

That’s why reviews matter. They allow us to reconnect with our clients and ensure their cover reflects the life they’re living now – not the one they lived when we first met them.

In our office, policy anniversaries provide natural touchpoints. But we’ve found formal review notices rarely spark the response needed. So we follow-up with a more personal email, text or call. This led to an immediate 35% increase in conversations, because clients felt they were talking to a real person. This is when the extraordinary can happen.

Real stories, real results

For example, one of our long-standing clients fell into arrears. We reached out to check if they were okay and if there was anything we could do to help. We were working through some alterations when the client casually mentioned having diabetes. He had no idea his trauma policy covered this. Turns out, he’d been diagnosed eight years earlier. After a post-claim assessment, he received $65,000, along with eight years of refunded premiums. For a family under financial pressure, that made a real difference at a crucial time.

Another client, responding to a routine review message, informed us he’d had prostate cancer. As he’d recovered and returned to work quickly, he’d assumed he wasn’t eligible to claim. But his trauma policy paid on diagnosis, not time off work. The result? A $133,000 payout, plus an additional $48,000 from another clause in his income protection/mortgage cover he didn’t even know existed.

We’ve seen similar outcomes with smaller but still meaningful claims: a young professional who’d had knee surgery netted $16,000; while another client’s shoulder surgery led to a $11,000 pay out. Both assumed they wouldn’t be covered because ACC had covered everything.

These aren’t rare or exceptional cases, they’re typical of what happens when we stay connected.

Clients don’t know what they don’t know

Many clients don’t fully understand their policies. They forget what they have, misunderstand what’s covered or assume they’re not covered for a variety of reasons, while others may simply wish to avoid awkward conversations about health issues.

That’s why regular, thoughtful conversations are essential. If we don’t ask, those claims, those changes in circumstances remain hidden and opportunities to help go unrealised. This has broader consequences too - unclaimed benefits distort the real cost of insurance which, over time, impact pricing across the industry.

Thus reviews are great opportunities to stay connected, stay accountable and ensure our advice actually works in the real world. When we do this well, everyone benefits. Clients receive the support they’re entitled to, cover remains relevant, relationships deepen and referrals follow naturally, because nothing builds trust like delivering on our promises.

The advisers who will thrive over the next decade won’t be the best marketers, they’ll be the ones who stay closest to their clients, who know when the babies arrive, when jobs change, when redundancies strike, when health challenges emerge and when support is needed.

Because ultimately, that’s what our profession is about: helping people navigate uncertainty and survive the tough times.

So what’s your review story? What claim was uncovered because you took the time to check in? Because all these stories are powerful reminders that client reviews aren’t just about compliance; they’re some of the most valuable work we do.

Tags: Opinion