What is a financial administrator (bewindvoerder)? Explained in plain language
What is a financial administrator (bewindvoerder)? Plain explanation of duties,…
Half past eight. A holiday cottage in the Ardennes.
Everyone else is still asleep. The laptop is already open.
Three messages from clients. Two about money. One about the rent.
A quick look first. Then coffee.
Everyone wants to be heard.
Do you work alone as a self-employed financial administrator (bewindvoerder), without an office and without staff? Then you have freedom. You work where and when you like. Or you run a financial administration office with several financial administrators. And one or more of them are on holiday.
The same applies in both cases. If a financial administrator is away for two weeks, nobody takes over automatically. You arrange a backup for illness or absence. That is what the Quality Requirements Decree asks. What do you arrange for the holiday?
Without an agreement, you are left with two choices. The financial administrator keeps working from their holiday address. Or it goes quiet for two weeks and the client does not know why. In an office a colleague can take over. Then they do need to be able to see what has already been said.
For a financial administrator, email is the workhorse. Letters, appointments and requests run through it. So does the file. The quality requirements ask that your file contains the correspondence and a record of your contacts with your client (article 7).
Your client prefers to send a WhatsApp message. On their own phone.
If WhatsApp is linked to your email, the two come together. Your client’s message arrives in your email. You or your colleague reply from that email, on the laptop or on the phone. Your client receives the reply as a WhatsApp message. That way you handle everything the way you are used to. On holiday too.
A colleague in the office works in the same email and sees the full history. Do you work alone? Then you forward a conversation with the full history to your backup.
Do you have three or more clients? Then you are a professional financial administrator. That applies to the self-employed administrator and just as much to every office. That means the Dutch Quality Requirements Decree for curators, financial administrators and mentors applies to you (Besluit kwaliteitseisen curatoren, beschermingsbewindvoerders en mentoren). It contains four agreements about being reachable. The first three are in article 5, the fourth in article 8.
Reachable by phone on at least four working days a week. At times your client knows.
A response within two working days. For everything that does not go by phone.
Your reachability is set out in the plan of approach. It also states who your client’s regular contact person is and who their replacement is.
A backup in case of illness or absence. The decree calls it safeguards for the continuity of your work.
Two things are not in it. A financial administrator does not have to be reachable for emergencies outside working days. That requirement applies to curators and mentors, not to financial administrators. And holidays are not mentioned anywhere. So there is no exception for holidays either.
Who checks this? The accountant examines your files and how you run your practice for each reporting year. They look at articles 7 to 10. The agreements on reachability are in article 5 and are not part of that check. The sub-district court judge (kantonrechter) looks at them when complaints come in. If the judge repeatedly receives complaints, they may have an expert examine whether you meet the requirements. You pay for that report yourself. That is what the explanatory notes to the decree say.
People under financial administration get help because managing money is hard for them. When a question goes unanswered, it feels like a door closing. So they message again.
It concerns a lot of people. According to a letter to parliament of 16 April 2025 there were 266,000 financial administrations in the Netherlands. And right from the start of the quality requirements, the explanatory notes said that many complaints are about communication.
With the financial administrators we work with, a large share of messages are about money. Can I have some extra money? Has my living allowance come in? Is the dentist being paid?
That is good news. A question about money almost always has the same shape: how much, what for and when. A question with a fixed shape is one you can prepare for.
Peace of mind on holiday does not mean nobody needs you. It means your client knows what will happen with their question. You arrange that in four steps.
1. Say it in advance.
Let your clients know a week or two beforehand when you will be away and when you will be back. People who know ask their questions earlier.
2. Reply automatically, with a date.
Just “I am away” raises new questions. Say when you will be back. What carries on as normal, such as the living allowance and money requests. And what your client should do if it is urgent.
3. Let money requests come in a fixed format.
A money request in a loose sentence takes time to work out. A request with an amount, a reason and a date can be read at a glance. It is in the email, so you or a colleague deal with it as always. That way money requests carry on as normal during your holiday too.
4. Agree what counts as urgent.
Urgent is not the same as in a hurry. Think of a threatened energy disconnection or a threatened eviction. Agree with your colleagues or your backup who does what in that case. Write it down. Then you no longer need to think about it on holiday.
An automatic message is a good start. Whether it counts as a response within two working days, the decree does not say. Make sure a real question also gets a real answer. From you, from a colleague or from someone you have do the work on your behalf.
RippleCom puts calls, WhatsApp and SMS on one business number and links WhatsApp to your email. Whether you work alone or in an office with colleagues, that means the following.
WhatsApp and email in one. Every message arrives in your email, including photos of letters. You reply from your email, on your laptop or your phone. Your client receives it in WhatsApp. That way you record every contact in your file. The quality requirements ask for that too.
Colleagues pick it up. Do you work in an office with several financial administrators? Then messages arrive in the office email, not on the phone of one administrator. If someone is on holiday, a colleague takes over. The full history is there.
Urgent cases to your backup. Do you work alone? Because every conversation is also in your email, you forward it with the full history. Within the agreements you already have with your backup.
Away with one message. From your own phone you send: away until 19 October 09:00. Clients who message you then automatically see when you will be back and where to go if it is urgent.
Money requests in a fixed format. Your client answers three short questions in WhatsApp: how much, what for and confirm. They get a confirmation straight away. You get a clear request.
Missed call? The caller gets a message. Has your client said they want to receive WhatsApp messages from you? If they call from their mobile and you cannot pick up, they get a message. That is where they can still ask their question. That way their question does not get lost.
This is how it works at a financial administration office: WhatsApp and email in debt guardianship.
Half past eight. The same three messages.
Your clients already know you are back on 19 October.
The money request is in the email. A colleague or your backup has already answered it, from the email.
Your client received it as a WhatsApp message.
Coffee first.
So it arrives. Even when you are away for a while.
How reachable are you? Take the free Communication Scan. You see where you can gain in reachability, appointments and follow-up. Your result arrives straight in WhatsApp.
Want to see how this works in your practice? Book a demo.
A professional financial administrator is reachable by phone on at least four working days a week, at times the client knows. For everything else, the client receives a response within two working days. The administrator sets out their reachability in the plan of approach.
The Quality Requirements Decree makes no exception for holidays. According to the explanatory notes, contact may also go through someone you have do the work on your behalf.
No. The requirement to be reachable for emergencies outside working days applies to curators and mentors, not to financial administrators. According to the explanatory notes, managing assets does not usually lead to emergencies outside working days.
The replacement is named in the plan of approach, alongside your client’s regular contact person. The backup makes sure your work carries on in case of illness or absence. In a small practice this can be the same person.
In an office it makes sense for a colleague to take over. Set out in the plan of approach who the regular contact person is and who the replacement is. Then your client knows in advance who to turn to.
The decree does not say. An automatic reply with a date makes sure your client knows where they stand. On top of that, make sure a real question also gets a real answer.
Yes. Just make sure the request is recorded in the file, as the quality requirements ask. If the message arrives in your email, you record it like any other message.
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