Everything the firm knows about a client that is not on a statement lives in the meeting record. In most firms that record is inconsistent.
It is the entire institutional memory of the relationship. What they care about, what they were worried about, what was decided and why, what changed.
None of it exists anywhere else.
Because it is done after the meeting, when the next thing is already starting, and nothing immediate breaks if it is skipped.
The cost arrives eighteen months later, when nobody can remember what was agreed.
What changed in their circumstances. What they raised. What was decided and the reason. What each side committed to. And anything about how they reacted.
The last one is the behavioural record, and it is more useful than any questionnaire.
Write down how they reacted, not just what was decided. That is the part you cannot reconstruct later.
Notes are part of the record and they are the primary evidence of the reasoning behind a recommendation.
They are also discoverable. Write them as though someone else will read them, because someone might.
A firm where client knowledge lives in one person's memory is a firm with a valuation problem and a continuity problem.
Notes are how that knowledge becomes the firm's rather than an individual's.
Same template every time. Written same day, without exception. Automated capture where it is appropriate and disclosed.
The consistency matters more than the depth. A brief note every time beats a thorough one sometimes.
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