What happens to your IT when an advice firm changes licensee?

Systems, access and records all change hands or stop, often faster than firms expect. The work that determines how well it goes is done before the notice period rather than during it: knowing what data exists, where it sits, and how you would extract it if access ended tomorrow.

The specific risk is licensee-provided systems. Many firms use platforms, email or document storage supplied under the licensee arrangement, and it can feel like the firm's own infrastructure right up until access is switched off. What lives there is frequently client records you are obliged to retain, so the question of what you can extract, in what format and by when, is a retention question rather than a commercial one.

Email deserves specific attention because it is where the most correspondence lives and where ownership is least clear. If your addresses sit on a licensee-owned domain, changing licensee means changing address and potentially losing history, which is disruptive for clients and awkward for records. Owning your own domain removes the problem entirely and costs almost nothing, which makes it worth doing well before any transition is contemplated.

The preparation is useful whether or not you ever move. Establish which systems are yours and which are the licensee's. Confirm you own your domain and your Microsoft tenant. Know what records sit in licensee systems and how they would be exported. Keep the authoritative copy of client files somewhere you control. A firm that can answer those four questions has removed most of the risk from a transition it may never make. If you want that groundwork done, call 1800 456 567.