If you're comparing a CRM for solo insurance adviser use against the same shortlist a twelve-person FAP would draw up, stop right there — you're solving a different problem. You've got no IT team to call when a sync breaks, no ops manager chasing renewals while you're in a client meeting, and maybe two spare hours a week for admin that isn't billable. Enterprise CRM features cost you time you don't have twice over: once to configure them, and again every time you have to explain to yourself why you built them.
The trap is that most CRM demos are written for a compliance manager and a rollout committee, even when you're the only person who will ever log in. You nod along to the role hierarchies and territory rules, sign up because the sales rep was likeable, and six months later you're still manually copying renewal dates into a spreadsheet because nobody showed you — because there was nobody to show you — how the reminder system actually worked. Sound familiar?
What does a solo adviser actually need from a CRM?
Strip away the enterprise dressing and the list gets short fast. You need one place where every client and policy lives, instead of your memory, a spreadsheet, and a folder of scanned PDFs arguing with each other. You need renewal dates that surface themselves in front of you at the right moment, without you building the tracking system by hand. You need less time spent typing up what was said in a meeting and more time back with clients. And you need to be working inside it within a day or two of signing up, not stuck in an onboarding queue while your trial clock runs down.
- A setup that takes an afternoon, not a project plan
- Renewal reminders that fire on their own, tied to a proper 90-day window rather than a calendar you maintain
- Less time transcribing meetings, more time running them
- Migration handled for you, not added to your to-do list
Which CRM features are just enterprise bloat for a one-person book?
A lot of what CRM vendors sell as depth only matters once there's more than one person to coordinate. Role-based permission tiers exist to stop one adviser seeing another's clients — irrelevant when you're the only adviser. Multi-branch reporting exists to roll up numbers across offices you don't have. Approval workflows exist to route a task from a junior adviser to a supervisor, a relationship you don't have either. None of it is bad software. It's just software solving someone else's problem, and you're the one who'd be stuck configuring it.
- Team permission tiers and role hierarchies
- Multi-branch or multi-office reporting
- Approval and sign-off workflows
- Seat management for staff you don't employ
Can AI actually cut down a solo adviser's admin load?
This is the one enterprise CRMs got right for the wrong reason first — AI meeting notes were built to save a big team collective hours, but for a solo adviser they save something more valuable: your evening. AdviserDesk's AI meeting notes take a recorded or transcribed client meeting and turn it into a drafted Statement of Advice and a follow-up email in your own tone, so you're editing rather than writing from a blank page. For a one-person practice, that's not a nice-to-have — it's the difference between reviewing four clients a day, and reviewing four clients a day and still getting your evening back.
What should renewal tracking actually look for, beyond the date?
A renewal date on its own is just a diary entry. What you actually want is a system that flags the 90-day window automatically and also notices the things a busy solo book quietly misses — a client who's taken on a new mortgage, had a baby, changed income, or hasn't had their cover looked at in years. Those are the moments cover quietly falls behind, and when you're running the whole book yourself, they're the easiest things to lose track of.
Is migration and setup help worth paying for when you're on your own?
Probably the single biggest point of friction for a solo adviser switching CRMs is the migration itself — nobody else is going to do it for you at 9pm on a Tuesday. AdviserDesk migrates clients, policies and renewal dates over from other CRMs, including TAP and Adviser Plus, within 48 hours, and it's included free rather than billed as a separate project. For a practice where your time is the entire cost base, that's worth more than most of the feature comparisons on a shortlist.
Does compliance still apply if you're a sole trader?
Being a sole trader doesn't mean compliance disappears — if anything, you're your own file-review process, with nobody double-checking your notes on the way past. A timestamped, chronological record of what was discussed and agreed at each client meeting is generally good practice for evidencing suitability and disclosure, though the specific obligations attached to your licence or FAP are worth confirming with the FMA or a compliance adviser rather than assuming from a blog post.
How much should a solo adviser expect to pay, and is a free trial worth it?
Budget matters more when there's only one income stream funding the software, so look for pricing charged per active adviser seat rather than bundled around a firm size that assumes a team behind you. A 30-day free trial, cancel any time, is worth taking seriously too — long enough to run a normal month of renewals and meetings through it and see whether the reminders and AI notes actually save you time, rather than just moving the admin around.
That's the whole game, really. A CRM built for a solo adviser should get out of your way faster than one built for a twelve-person FAP, not slower. Get the basics right — everything in one client record, renewals that surface themselves, less time typing up meetings — and the rest of the features you were being sold can stay on the shelf where they belong.