A client intake form for financial advisors
A first meeting with a prospective client goes further when the advisor already knows what they want help with, over what time frame, and who else is part of the decision. The intake asks for those, and deliberately leaves account details for later.
What should financial advisors ask first?
| Ask | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| What would you like help with first: retirement, investments, a specific decision, or an overall plan? | It decides which advisor takes the meeting and what kind of meeting it is. |
| What prompted you to look for an advisor now? | Selling a business, an inheritance, a retirement date or a change in the family makes the goal concrete. |
| When do you expect to need the money, or to make the decision? | The time frame shapes everything the advisor will say. |
| Is anyone else part of these decisions? | A spouse or partner usually belongs in the first meeting. |
| Do you work with an advisor, accountant or attorney today? | You may be working alongside them, or replacing one of them. |
| Would you like an ongoing relationship, or advice on one question? | It tells you which of your service models to propose. |
If an answer would not change what you do next, leave the question out. Each extra question is one more reason for someone to stop before they finish.
Leave account numbers, balances, tax identifiers and statements out of a first-contact form. Ask for them later, through whatever channel your firm already uses for client documents. The intake decides whether and how to meet; it is not onboarding.
Which answers come back too vague to use, and what do you ask next?
The answers that cause a phone call are rarely missing. They are present and too loose to act on. A narrower follow-up, asked straight away while the person is still there, usually settles them. Offering likely answers shows the person the level of detail you need.
| What comes back | The follow-up that settles it |
|---|---|
| “I want to retire comfortably.” | When are you hoping to stop working, and is that a fixed date or a range? |
| “I just want a second opinion.” | On what: how your money is invested, a specific decision, or whether you are on track overall? |
| “We have some money to invest.” | Where is it coming from, and will any of it be needed in the next few years? |
Follow up once per gap, then move on. If an answer is still unclear after one follow-up, flag it for whoever picks the request up rather than pressing.
When is a call or a visit still the right move?
Financial advice is personal, and nobody hires an advisor from a form. The meeting is the work. The intake means it starts from the client’s own goal and time frame, with the right people in the room, instead of an hour of fact-finding.
How do you set this up from the Client intake template?
Acquainto has a Client intake template to start from. After you sign up, open Browse templates, pick Client intake, and it lands in the editor as a draft you can change before anything is published.
The template asks for a name and email, branches on the service the person is interested in, and asks one follow-up question per service. Replace the starting choices with the help you offer, such as retirement planning, investment management and a one-time review, put the reason now, the time frame and who else decides on every branch, and keep account details out of every branch.
Acquainto runs it as a short written conversation instead of a form. It:
- asks a follow-up when an answer is incomplete, and asks for clarification when one is vague;
- uses a structured choice where precision matters and open conversation where detail matters;
- shows the person every answer before it is sent, so they correct their own mistakes;
- hands back one clean value per question, delivered to your own systems by webhook.
The person answering needs no account, and nothing has to be scheduled. Start free trial, see how it works, or compare plans.