CRITERION MARKETEER AND PICKLEBALL MAVEN, FIONA HUGHES, REFLECTS ON HER EVENT FOR WAVERLEY CARE AND UNEXPECTED LESSONS FOR THE FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY. 

Recently, I had the pleasure (and challenge) of hosting a pickleball event – a fun, fast-paced day filled with great people, plenty of competition, and some surprisingly relevant reflections on the world of financial services. The event itself was a success, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a bit chaotic at times. With ten courts in play, 120 players, and people rotating in and out, we relied on a trusty whiteboard, multiple volunteers, and a lot of manual coordination to keep things moving. 

Allocating players to courts, managing breaks, keeping matches fair and making sure players didn't play the same games multiple times, all took a surprising amount of effort. At one point, I caught myself thinking: surely there’s a better way to do this? And of course, there is. Technology. 

Some software and – crucially – standardisation, could have completely transformed the experience. A shared structure for how matches were scheduled and managed, underpinned by a digital system, would have cut the workload dramatically. Everyone would have known exactly where to be, and when. It would have made things smoother, faster, and a lot more enjoyable for all involved.

This realisation also brought a more familiar thought to mind: how often do we see this same inefficiency play out across financial services? We still see too many processes stuck in the equivalent of “whiteboard mode” - manual, inconsistent, and overly dependent on key individuals to keep things running. When there’s no shared standard for how data is exchanged or how processes should flow, inefficiency creeps in. It’s frustrating, time-consuming, and prone to error. 

Letter of Authority (LoA) Standards 

A great example of this is the Letter of Authority (LoA) process. Anyone who’s had to deal with it knows how messy and manual it can be. Paper forms, scanning, emailing, chasing signatures, and long wait times. Every provider does things a little differently, which only adds complexity for advisers and their clients. It’s a lot like trying to run a pickleball festival without a common set of rules or tools: more effort than it needs to be.

That’s why Criterion’s LoA Standards are so important. By creating a consistent, digital way to manage and process LoAs, we’re helping to reduce delays, cut down on admin, and bring much-needed clarity to an essential part of the advice journey. It’s exactly the kind of fix I wished I had during my event, and it’s a clear example of how standardisation can transform a painful process into a streamlined one.

Leveraging standards already available

At Criterion, we champion standardisation that supports technology-driven collaboration. We see first-hand how legacy systems, manual workarounds, and inconsistent processes can slow businesses down, just like my whiteboard did at the pickleball event. It's a reminder that no matter the industry or the activity, the absence of shared frameworks and smart tech makes even simple tasks unnecessarily difficult.

The pickleball festival gave me some logistical lessons and a renewed appreciation for the power of standardisation. Whether it's streamlining integrations or enabling faster data exchange, our work helps transform those whiteboard moments into seamless, digital experiences.

So yes, I’ll leverage technology to help manage any pickleball events I run in the future, but more importantly, we’ll keep pushing for the same kind of efficiency in the financial services industry.