WH Ireland has adopted the MorganAsh Resilience System (MARS) to improve how it identifies and supports vulnerable customers across its retail client base.

The wealth management and financial planning firm will use the platform to give relationship managers a more consistent way of recording vulnerability while generating structured data for Consumer Duty monitoring and board reporting.

MARS will be integrated into WH Ireland’s adviser workflows, including client onboarding, periodic reviews and responses to trigger events such as bereavement, changes in health or other significant life events.

The system uses a standardised Resilience Rating to assess customers’ circumstances, monitor changes over time and flag deterioration that may require additional support or intervention.

CONSISTENT VULNERABILITY DATA

Consumer Duty requires regulated firms to understand customers’ individual circumstances, take appropriate action and demonstrate that they are delivering good outcomes.

WH Ireland said the introduction of MARS would support a firm-wide approach to vulnerability while producing consistent management information that could be audited and reported to its board.

Steve Hutchings, head of advice quality and competence at WH Ireland, said: “Consumer Duty is not a box-ticking exercise — it demands that firms genuinely understand which of their clients may be vulnerable and that they can evidence how they have responded.

“MARS gives our advisers the additional structure needed to have those conversations properly, and gives our compliance and senior management teams further resources needed to demonstrate we are delivering good outcomes at scale.”

Robert Race, joint deputy head of wealth management at WH Ireland, added: “A major benefit of implementing MARS will be the increased knowledge and understanding we have of our clients.

“Having this information localised in MARS will help individual advisers provide an even more personalised service to our clients.”

EVIDENCING CUSTOMER OUTCOMES

The platform will track clients’ Resilience Ratings and produce segmented information to support WH Ireland’s annual Consumer Duty reporting.

Andrew Gething (main picture, inset)), managing director of MorganAsh, said: “Firms often tell us they want to do the right thing by vulnerable clients — but without good data, they simply can’t know whether they are succeeding.

“MARS gives wealth managers a defensible, scalable way to capture vulnerability information, act on it promptly and report on it clearly.”