Your Client Said Yes. Now Don’t Let Your Onboarding Process Ruin It.
The Client Said Yes. Now the Real Onboarding Work Begins.
Getting a new client to say yes feels like the finish line. In reality, it’s where one of the highest-stakes processes in an advisory firm begins.
There’s little relationship equity yet. You’re collecting a lot of information. Accounts may need to be opened or transferred, documents need to be completed, billing needs to be set up, and the back office needs enough information to actually do its job.
And this is where things often get messy.
The advisor knows what was discussed with the client. The back office knows what it needs to move forward. Somewhere between those two is a spreadsheet, a form, an email, or a series of follow-up questions.
That gap is where onboarding breaks down.
The Problem Isn’t Collecting Information. It’s Getting It Where It Needs to Go.
Most advisory firms already know what information they need to onboard a client. The challenge is making sure all of it gets collected and captured consistently.
A single onboarding form might include the basics—contact information, dates of birth, Social Security numbers—but that’s only part of the picture.
Depending on the firm, onboarding may also involve:
Client agreement and billing information
IPS information, including objectives and constraints
Accounts being opened or transferred
Banks being linked
Beneficiary information
Information needed by custodians or planning software
Other firm-specific requirements
The problem with treating all of this as a checklist on a piece of paper is that the information often stops there.
Instead, the onboarding process should be the point where information enters the firm's system of record.
Build the Process Around What the Back Office Actually Needs
One of the simplest ways to improve onboarding is to start with the people who deal with its problems every day.
Ask your back office:
“What information do you need before you can onboard a client without coming back to the advisor with questions?”
Make that list.
Then build your process around it.
The goal isn't to make advisors fill out an enormous questionnaire for the sake of having a process. It's to make the required information clear enough that everyone knows when the onboarding is actually complete.
A good process should make it obvious:
What's missing
Who needs to provide it
Where the information belongs
What happens next
If the trading team keeps asking which model a client is in, that information probably belongs in the onboarding process. If the back office repeatedly asks for beneficiary details, those details probably belong there too.
Repeated questions are a signal that the process needs to be improved.
Your CRM Should Do More Than Store the Information
This is where a financial advisor CRM can become much more useful than a database.
When onboarding information is captured directly in the CRM, it can become the starting point for ongoing financial planning workflows and workflow automation.
For example, information entered during onboarding can become an actual record in the system rather than simply a note that someone typed into a form. That creates opportunities to use the information later.
An IPS entered during onboarding can be monitored as part of an ongoing process. Beneficiary information can remain available when the client meets with another advisor years later. Account information can be available to the teams that need it.
The point isn't automation for automation's sake.
The point is capturing information once and making it useful beyond the day the client signs on.
Design for Your Firm, Then Iterate
There isn't one perfect onboarding process for every RIA.
Some firms collect information by phone. Others use forms or gather information during meetings. Different firms use different custodians, planning software, portfolio accounting systems, and internal processes.
Your CRM for financial advisors should support the way your firm actually works.
Start by pulling the required fields from your client agreement, custodial paperwork, IPS, planning software, and other systems involved in onboarding. Build the process, then run a few clients through it.
You will miss things.
That's okay.
Fix what you missed, run the next client through it, and keep refining. By the third or fourth iteration, the process should be substantially better than where you started.
Better Onboarding Means Better Advisory Firm Operations
The best onboarding process isn't necessarily the one with the most automation. It's the one that makes it difficult to miss something important and easy for everyone involved to know what happens next.
For advisory firms trying to improve their RIA technology and financial planning workflows, that's the real opportunity: turn onboarding from a handoff between people into a repeatable process the whole firm can rely on.
The client gets a smoother experience. Advisors spend less time answering follow-up questions. The back office gets what it needs. And the information collected on day one can continue working for the firm long after onboarding is finished.
Ready to see how Quivr can help you build a more efficient, workflow-driven advisory firm? Schedule a demo to see how Quivr can fit into your firm's processes.
