One question, one page.
Short, direct answers to the questions small UK firms actually ask about client documents, data protection and admin. The answer is in the first sentence.
- Three years, one year, and the whole term of the loan
MCOB Schedule 1 sets a different retention clock for each record type: three years for advice files, one year for illustrations, and the full mortgage term for the lender's affordability record.
24 Aug 2026 - The portal isn't the problem. The password is.
Clients abandon portals at the login screen, not the feature list. Two named UK firms say so on the record — and there's a ten-minute test.
18 Aug 2026 - Onboarding takes eight emails because nobody wrote the list down
The back-and-forth is a preparation failure, not a client failure. Decide the whole list once, give every item a format and a deadline, and send it in one pass.
14 Aug 2026 - Can I just BCC my client list?
No — the ICO says BCC is not enough on its own to protect personal information, and BCC mistakes have been a top-ten breach category since 2019.
10 Aug 2026