A personal needs record organises goals and questions before a discussion with a qualified professional. It should record your own information and uncertainty, rather than calculate a suitable product or tell you how much cover or investment to buy.

What to record

List each goal, its approximate timeframe, information you still need and any commitments you want to discuss. Record the source and date of figures, use broad descriptions and avoid sensitive identifiers. Keep professional conclusions in their original approved records.

A practical example

An entry might say: 'Goal: understand how a career change affects household commitments. Information needed: current expenses and existing benefit documents. Question: which assumptions should be checked?' A missing figure should remain marked unknown rather than being replaced with a confident guess.

Build and check your own record

  1. Gather the relevant original records and note their dates. Decide what this summary is for and who, if anyone, needs to receive it.
  2. Open the tool and use minimal, non-sensitive descriptions. Enter only figures you can explain, mark estimates clearly and leave missing information as unknown.
  3. Compare the preview with the sources. Check units, dates and totals, and correct any misleading label before exporting. A generated layout does not verify the inputs.

Keep the original documents

Store the summary securely and review it when its source information changes. Keep important decisions, official notices and professional recommendations in their original records. Ask a qualified professional about suitability, tax treatment or legal effect where needed.