Plain English Guide
How It Works
Everything you need to know about the IFA Letter Generator, without the jargon.
What Does It Do?
The IFA Letter Generator helps paraplanning and ops teams produce suitability letters faster and with greater accuracy. You upload or paste an adviser's meeting note, and the system reads it, identifies the correct letter template (from 41 options), and fills in the details for you.
Think of it as a very well-trained assistant that's studied all your letter templates, but one that always needs you to check its work before anything goes out the door.
Does the AI Make Things Up?
This is the biggest risk with AI. It's called "hallucination", where the AI invents details that don't exist. We take this seriously and have built in several safeguards:
- Closed template set: The AI can only select from 41 templates we've loaded into the system. It can't invent new letter formats.
- Low creativity setting: We dial down the AI's tendency to be "creative". we want it to stick to the facts, not write a novel.
- If it doesn't know, it says so: Rather than guessing, the system flags uncertain fields for you to fill in manually.
Think of it like giving someone an exam where they can only use a specific set of templates. They can't bring in outside material or make up answers. If it's not in the meeting note, they have to leave the field blank.
That said, no AI is perfect. We always recommend checking all extracted fields before approving. The system is a starting point, not a final answer.
What Happens to My Documents?
Your meeting note files never leave your computer. When you upload a PDF or Word document, it's read and converted to text right there in your web browser. The actual file is never sent to our servers or anywhere else.
Only the text content is sent for analysis. And the meeting note text is processed transiently (it is not stored after extraction).
It's like photocopying a letter at your desk and only sending the copy. The original stays in your filing cabinet.
How can you be sure?
Any IT professional can watch your browser's network traffic while a file is being loaded. They will see zero outbound requests at that stage. The only call to our servers happens after you click "Upload", and it carries extracted text. Not the original file.
What About Client Personal Details?
Active: PII Masking Gateway
Before your meeting note text reaches the AI, a PII (Personally Identifiable Information) masking layer automatically replaces personal details. Client names, addresses, NI numbers, postcodes, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, and account references. With neutral placeholders like "[CLIENT_NAME_1]". The AI processes the masked text, and original values are reinjected into the results afterwards. The AI never sees real client identity data.
The AI needs financial details like fund names, platforms, and ATR ratings to select the right template and fill in the letter correctly. These are not masked because they are required for accurate template matching. Meeting note text is processed transiently and is not stored after extraction.
Who Reviews the Letters?
Every letter goes through a clear approval process:
The AI drafts the letter
Based on the meeting note
Staff review the draft
Check all fields are correct, add anything missing
Compliance reviews
Can approve or send back with comments
Letter is generated
Only after compliance sign-off
No letter is ever sent or generated without a human approving it first.
Is My Data Safe?
Yes. Here's the short version:
- Your files stay on your computer. We only receive the text inside them.
- Meeting note text is processed transiently and not stored after extraction.
- Everything is encrypted. Both stored data and data in transit.
- Your firm's data is completely separate from every other firm's data.
- We're hosted in the UK and fully GDPR compliant.
- We never use your data to train AI models.
- Two-factor authentication is available for all users.
This guide explains the platform in plain English. For full technical details, see:
Questions? Contact info@caseflowautomation.co.uk