The Client Perspective
Understanding what your clients see and experience helps you set expectations, answer their questions, and present the advisor relationship clearly. This article walks through the client experience from their side.
When a Client Receives Your Invite
Your client receives an invite link — via email, text, or however you share it. When they click it:
- Existing Policy Stack user: They are prompted to sign in. After signing in, they see a confirmation screen showing your name and practice name, with a simple "Accept" or "Decline" choice.
- New to Policy Stack: They are guided through a short account creation flow, then presented with the same confirmation screen.
The client always sees who they are connecting to before confirming. The connection is never automatic.
What the Client Sees After Connecting
Once connected, the client's account dashboard shows a subtle advisor indicator — typically in the account settings or a dedicated "My Advisor" section. This indicator shows:
- Your name and practice name
- Their connection status (Connected)
- Whether their Builder Pro access is advisor-paid (Seated) or self-managed
- An option to disconnect
Clients can disconnect from you at any time from their account settings. If they disconnect, you immediately lose advisor access to their data. Their data and account are unaffected.
What the Client Does NOT See
This is important to communicate to privacy-conscious clients:
- They cannot see any other clients in your account
- They cannot see your billing details or your advisor subscription
- They cannot see your advisor dashboard or any aggregated view of your practice
- They cannot see any notes or observations you have made about their account (if you use internal notes)
The connection is strictly one-directional for data visibility: you see their data, they do not see yours.
The Seated Client Experience
A client who has been given a seat sees:
- Their account shows "Builder Pro" status
- A notice indicating their access is provided by their advisor
- Full access to all Builder Pro features — identical to self-subscribed Builder Pro
There is no visual difference in feature access between an advisor-seated Builder Pro and a self-subscribed Builder Pro. The only visible difference is the advisor attribution notice.
When a Seat Ends
When their seat ends — manual revoke, advisor downgrade-driven boot, advisor cancellation, or payment-failure freeze — the client sees:
- An email at that moment explaining the access change and seven-day transition. The message confirms that their data is safe and includes a 20% off coupon (
ADVISOR_TRANSITION) for self-pay annual Builder Pro. - A blocking modal on next login walking through the change.
- Builder Pro remains active for seven days. Afterward, the plan continues on Starter unless self-pay or another seat takes over. Their data stays intact; one policy remains editable on Starter, while additional policies and all asset and goal records become view-only or locked.
The messaging is matter-of-fact. Clients are given clear information and a clear path forward, with no surprise charges or feature changes outside this flow.
Letting your client know in advance when you are making a seat change prevents surprise. A quick message before the email lands is always appreciated — particularly for downgrade-driven boots, where the Change Plan modal told you exactly how many clients would be affected.
Client Data Ownership
The client owns their data entirely. If they disconnect from you, leave the platform, or you cancel your subscription, their data belongs to them. No advisor action can delete or modify their records. This is a core design principle of Policy Stack and worth communicating to clients who ask about it.