Submitting an LOA

This page covers submitting a single LOA by email, recording a post or portal submission, and the email template your LOAs are sent with. If your signed letter lists several plans, or you have several letters to send, see Multi-policy LOAs and Batch Submit.

Before you start

• Your LOA mailbox must be set.
• Check your email template once. The defaults work out of the box, but most firms tweak the wording and signature.

Read-only users can view LOAs but don't see the Submit new LoA or Batch Submit buttons.

Submitting by email

1. On the Submissions page, click Submit new LoA. The Upload new LoA(s) modal opens.
2. Pick the client. Start typing to find an existing client or add a new one. Analyse stays disabled until a client is chosen.
3. Upload the signed LOA under Upload LoA Document(s). PDF, DOCX, PNG and JPEG are accepted.
   • If you drop more than one file, or 4admin finds more than one plan on the letter, you're taken to Batch Submit instead. See Multi-policy LOAs and Batch Submit.
4. Click Analyse. 4admin reads the letter and extracts the provider, plan number, client name, National Insurance number, date of birth, adviser and plan type.
5. On the Review details screen, check what was extracted and correct anything that's wrong, including the plan number. If the letter doesn't state the plan type, you'll be asked to select one before sending. This is also where a duplicate warning appears if the plan number is already on a live LOA.
6. Click Continue, then Write Email.
7. Choose the provider's contact. 4admin suggests the best address it knows for that provider and plan type, and shows how the provider typically replies. You can type a different address, and add anyone who should be copied. If you know a better contact, use Suggest an improvement to tell us so it can be used next time.
8. Review the subject and body. They come from the email template for the plan type you chose, with the tags filled in.
9. Click Send Email.
10. Add notification emails. Your own address is pre-filled. Add colleagues or advisers who should hear when the provider responds. Tick Remember for next time to pre-fill the same list on your next submission.
11. Set Auto-chasing (see below), then click Review & Send.
12. Check the final summary and click Confirm & Send Email.

The LOA appears in the Submitted column on the board with its own record, email thread and timeline.

Auto-chasing

When auto-chasing is on, 4admin sends follow-up emails on the same thread, up to four times, if the provider hasn't sent what you asked for.

• Toggle Auto-chasing on or off. 4admin remembers your choice for the next submission.
• Use the First chaser slider to choose how many days after sending the first chaser goes out (1 to 30 days). Where 4admin has reply-time data for the provider, it suggests a timing just before they'd usually respond. Chasers then continue weekly, or every N days if you set a shorter interval.
• With no reply-time data for a provider, the default is weekly.

You can change the cadence or switch chasing off later from LoA settings on the record. Chasers stop as soon as the provider replies with the information, or if you archive the LOA.

Duplicate warnings

If the plan number you're submitting already exists on a live LOA anywhere in your organisation, 4admin shows a warning on the Review details screen with a View LoA link to the existing record. A second record for the same plan means provider replies can't be matched automatically and land in Unassigned in the Smart Inbox. If it's the same request, resubmit from the existing LOA instead (see Handling rejected LOAs). The warning doesn't block sending if you do have a genuine second LOA.

Submitting by post or through a provider portal

Some providers only accept LOAs through their own portal, by post, or via another non-email channel. You can still track those in 4admin. The record is saved without sending an email, and you handle delivery yourself.

1. Click Submit new LoA, pick the client and upload the LOA as normal, then click Analyse.
2. On the Review details screen, click the Submitting via post or provider portal? link at the bottom left. For providers that use ULOA, the link reads Submitting via post/portal/ULOA? and the next screen gives you the ULOA login link.
3. On the Post / portal submission screen, add the notification emails for anyone who should hear when the provider responds.
4. Click Save record (won't send an email).

The LOA is saved with the status Submitted and the submission method recorded as post or portal.

What's different about a post or portal LOA

	Email submission	Post / portal submission
Email sent to the provider	Yes	No
Auto-chasing	Available	Not available (there's no email thread to chase on). Chase by phone instead
Provider replies	Matched to the record automatically via the Smart Inbox	If the provider emails anyway, it's matched as usual. Otherwise upload the documents yourself
Status updates	Automatic and manual	Manual
Notification emails	Yes	Yes
Creating an analysis	Yes	Yes

When the provider responds through their portal or by post, upload the documents to the Files card on the record and update the status. See Tracking LOAs.

Email templates

The email 4admin sends with each LOA comes from a template you control.

• Edit it in Settings → Customise → Email templates → Manage LoA Email Template.
• There's a separate template for each plan type: Pension, Investment, Investment (Bond) and Protection. The template matching the plan type chosen at submission is used. Investment (Bond) uses the Investment template until you customise it.
• Every template must keep the {RequestedInformation} tag. That's where the list of information you want from the provider is inserted, and the list adapts to the plan type.

Template tags

Tag	Replaced with
{Provider}	The provider name
{PlanNumber}	The plan or policy number
{ClientName}	The client's full name
{ClientDOB}	The client's date of birth
{NINumber}	The client's National Insurance number
{PolicyType}	The plan type (Pension, ISA, and so on)
{Adviser}	The adviser's name
{TodaysDate}	Today's date
{RequestedInformation}	The list of information being requested, based on your extraction field settings

Tags are filled in automatically when you submit. You can still edit the subject and body for an individual LOA on the Write Email step before sending.