Where the fact find process identifies that a client has three competing financial planning needs,...

When a client has multiple competing needs, the adviser’s role is to support informed decision-making by helping the client clarify objectives and prioritise. Competing needs commonly involve trade-offs, such as paying down debt versus investing, protecting family income versus saving for retirement, or building liquidity versus growth. The adviser should explore the client’s goals, time horizons, urgency, affordability, and consequences of underfunding each need. This prioritisation should also reflect capacity for loss, existing protections, and any dependencies, so that the most critical risks are addressed first. Recommending the cheapest product is not suitable because product price does not determine whether the client’s needs are met appropriately. Seeking a second opinion is unnecessary if the adviser is competent and the issue is prioritisation rather than technical uncertainty. Conducting a fresh fact find is also not the correct default response; the fact find has already identified the needs, so the next step is to agree priorities and create a staged plan. The examinable principle is client-led prioritisation supported by adviser analysis.