A Policy Stack consumer can be actively connected to only one advisor at a time. If a client tries to connect to a second advisor — through a seat invitation, a connection invite, or any other path — they're shown a conflict screen naming their current advisor and asked to make an explicit choice before anything changes.
This article explains the rule from both sides: what a client sees when the conflict screen appears, and what it means for your practice when a client switches to or from you.
Why the Rule Exists
Data-sharing consent is per-advisor. If a client could quietly accumulate multiple active advisor connections, they might not realize a previous advisor still had read access — and the connections that don't fit in their settings UI would be invisible and hard to revoke. The one-advisor-at-a-time rule keeps the client's current relationship explicit and easy to manage.
What the Client Sees
When a client clicks an invitation (or hits any accept path) while already connected to another advisor, a Connection Conflict modal appears before anything is created:
- "You're already connected to {current advisor's name}."
- Two clear actions: Cancel or Switch advisors.
Nothing changes if they cancel — their current advisor connection stays intact. If they choose Switch advisors, the modal confirms the change explicitly, then:
- The previous advisor's connection is moved to disconnected.
- The new advisor's connection becomes the active one.
- The previous advisor's seat (if any) returns to that advisor's pool.