Last reviewed: September 2026.
SurgeTK has four roles. Each role has a sub-permission that sets how much of the firm the person can see and change. Seats decide how many people you can invite. This article explains all three.
Admins set roles on Settings › Team Members. See Setting Up Your Firm & Team Settings for the invite steps.
The four roles
Role | Typical use | Sub-permission field |
Admin | Runs the firm in SurgeTK. Full access to every household, every setting, the team, integrations, and billing. | None. An Admin can be marked Also an Advisor? so they can be assigned to households as an advisor. |
Lead Advisor | An advisor who serves households. | Lead Advisor Permission: Admin, All, Limited, or Self Only |
Assistant | Supports one or more Lead Advisors. | Assistant to which Lead Advisor(s)? plus Assistant Permission: Admin or Inherit Advisor's Permissions |
Team Member | Staff who work across the whole firm. | Team Member Permission: Admin, View/Edit Households, or View Only: All |
Unassigned is not a role you can choose. It is the state of an account that has no role. An Unassigned person can sign in but sees no households. If a team member reports that they see nothing, an Admin can open their row on Team Members, click Edit, and set a role.
What does each sub-permission do?
"Assigned" below means the person is listed on the household as one of its advisors (lead, servicing, or writing advisor).
Role | Option | What it does |
Lead Advisor | Admin | Full admin rights, the same as the Admin role. Still uses an advisor seat. |
Lead Advisor | All | Sees and edits every household in the firm. |
Lead Advisor | Limited | Sees only the households you are assigned to. Limited and Self Only both show only the households you are assigned to. |
Lead Advisor | Self Only | Sees only the households you are assigned to. The advisor filter is locked to your own name. |
Assistant | Admin | Full admin rights. |
Assistant | Inherit Advisor's Permissions | Sees the combined households of every linked Lead Advisor. If no Lead Advisor is linked, the assistant sees no households. |
Team Member | Admin | Full admin rights. |
Team Member | View/Edit Households | Sees every household and can edit household data. |
Team Member | View Only: All | Sees every household. Cannot change anything. |
The Admin option on any role grants the same rights as the Admin role, including Team Members, Billing, integrations, and firm settings.
What can each role do?
Yes means allowed. No means blocked. Assigned means allowed only on the person's assigned households. Scoped means limited to the households the person can see.
Action | Admin | Lead Advisor: All | Lead Advisor: Limited or Self Only | Assistant: Inherit | Team Member: View/Edit | Team Member: View Only |
Households visible | All | All | Assigned only | Linked advisors' households | All | All (read only) |
Create or import clients and households | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
Edit household data and import accounts | Yes | Yes | Assigned | Yes | Yes | No |
Delete or archive households | Yes | Yes | Assigned | No | No | No |
Bulk "Assign Advisors" | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
Generate Value Adds | Yes | Yes | Assigned | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Surge: view | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Surge: edit and build packets | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Reports export | Yes | Yes | Assigned | Scoped | Yes | Yes |
Integrations: connect and sync (including Calendly) | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
Firm Info and Value Add settings | Edit | View | View | View | View | View |
Team management | Yes | View | View | View | View | View |
Billing | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
Surge packet builds also require the Pro plan.
Everyone can open the Team Members list. Only Admins can invite, edit, or remove.
Assistants
An assistant is linked to one or more Lead Advisors in Assistant to which Lead Advisor(s)?.
With Inherit Advisor's Permissions, the assistant sees the combined households of all linked advisors. If a linked advisor has All, the assistant sees every household.
An assistant with no linked advisor sees no households.
Admins can change the links at any time on Team Members with Edit.
The advisor filter in the top bar
The top bar has a Filter Advisors button. It opens a Filter by advisor menu with All advisors, each advisor's name, and Unassigned. The footer reads "Changes apply when the menu closes". SurgeTK remembers your choice in your browser, per firm and per user.
A Lead Advisor with Self Only is locked to their own name. The other choices are disabled.
An Assistant with Inherit Advisor's Permissions is locked to their linked advisors.
Everyone else can pick any advisors.
Seats
Plan | Advisor seats | Non-advisor seats |
Free | 1 | 2 |
Pro | 1 per seat purchased | 2 per seat purchased |
Enterprise | Unlimited | Unlimited |
An advisor seat is used by every Lead Advisor and by every Admin with Also an Advisor? ticked.
Everyone else uses a non-advisor seat: Admins without that box, Assistants, and Team Members.
Pending invitations count as used seats until you remove them.
Settings › Team Members shows Advisor Seats Remaining: and Non-Advisor Seats Remaining:.
When a seat type is full, the invite is refused with "You have reached the maximum number of advisor seats. Upgrade your plan to invite more advisors." or "You have reached the maximum number of non-advisor seats. Upgrade your plan to invite more members."
On Pro, the number of seats you buy can never be lower than what your team needs: at least 1, at least one seat per advisor, and at least one seat for every 2 non-advisors.
A firm in a trial period gets Pro seat limits for the length of the trial.
Prices and seat changes are covered in Plans, Billing, and Cancellation.
What happens when you remove someone?
The person is detached from your firm. Their SurgeTK sign-in still exists, but it belongs to no firm.
They are removed as an advisor from every household. The households stay in your firm.
Links between them and CRM advisor records are removed.
The firm creator cannot be removed. At least one Admin must remain in the firm.
Sign-outs are not forced. Ask the person to sign out. The same applies to a role change: ask the person to sign out and sign in again so the change takes effect.
Invitations
Invitations never expire.
There is no resend button. To send an invitation again, remove the pending row on Team Members, then invite the email again.
One email address can belong to one firm only. Inviting an address that belongs to another firm is refused: "This email has already been invited to or added to a different firm. Please try a new email."
A new user must sign up with the invited email address.
A person who already has a SurgeTK account, but no firm, joins your firm the next time they sign in. Afterwards, open their row with Edit and check the sub-permission and linked advisors. Set them again if needed.