By the Templateez Team · Licensed Attorney · June 2026

Financial Planning Intake Forms: What Every Advisor Needs to Capture at Client Onboarding

The first meeting with a new financial planning client sets the trajectory for everything that follows. Miss a critical data point during intake and you may build a retirement projection on incomplete income figures, overlook a life insurance gap that leaves a surviving spouse exposed, or recommend an investment allocation that conflicts with the client's actual tax situation. The intake form is not administrative busywork — it is the foundation of the entire advisory relationship.

A well-structured financial planning intake form does three things simultaneously. It captures the quantitative data you need to run analyses and build plans. It surfaces qualitative concerns — the client's anxieties, priorities, and non-negotiables — that no spreadsheet will reveal on its own. And it creates a compliance record that satisfies KYC, suitability, and fiduciary documentation requirements from day one.

This guide covers every section your financial planning intake form should include, why each matters, and how to structure the document so nothing falls through the cracks.

Financial Goals and Priorities

Every engagement begins with the question that drives the entire plan: what is this client trying to accomplish? Your intake form should present the major goal categories as checkboxes with space for detail — retirement planning, education funding (number of children, ages, target institutions), estate transfer and wealth preservation, debt reduction and elimination, major purchase planning, charitable giving, and business succession.

Checkboxes alone are not sufficient. Each selected goal needs a target date, an estimated dollar figure (even a rough one), and a priority ranking. A client who checks both "retirement at 60" and "fund four years of private university for three children" is expressing goals that may be in direct tension. The intake form should make that tension visible before the first plan is drafted, not after.

Include a free-text field for goals that do not fit neatly into categories. Clients regularly arrive with objectives that are deeply personal — caring for an aging parent, funding a sabbatical, buying a vacation property in a specific location. These goals shape the plan as much as the standard ones.

Current Financial Snapshot

The financial snapshot section is the quantitative backbone of the intake. It needs to capture three things: what comes in, what goes out, and what remains.

Income. Document all sources — salary, bonuses, commissions, self-employment income, rental income, dividends, interest, Social Security, pensions, alimony received, and any other recurring cash flows. For each source, capture gross amount, frequency, and whether it is expected to continue, increase, or sunset. Dual-income households require separate entries for each earner.

Expenses. A detailed expense breakdown is ideal but rarely realistic at intake. Instead, capture fixed obligations (mortgage/rent, car payments, insurance premiums, child support, student loans) and ask the client to estimate discretionary spending as a monthly figure. You can refine this in subsequent meetings. The intake form should also flag any large anticipated expenses in the next 12 to 24 months — a roof replacement, a wedding, a vehicle purchase.

Net worth. Total assets minus total liabilities, broken into liquid assets (checking, savings, money market), invested assets (detailed in the next section), real property (primary residence, rental properties, land), personal property of significant value, and business interests. On the liability side: mortgage balances, HELOCs, auto loans, student loans, credit card balances, personal loans, and any contingent liabilities such as co-signed obligations or pending legal judgments.

Existing Accounts and Investments

This section requires a line-item inventory. For each account, capture the institution name, account type (401(k), 403(b), traditional IRA, Roth IRA, SEP-IRA, SIMPLE IRA, taxable brokerage, 529, HSA, annuity, CD, savings bond), current balance, approximate asset allocation (stocks/bonds/cash split), named beneficiaries, and whether the client is making ongoing contributions.

Employer-sponsored plans deserve special attention. Document the employer match formula, vesting schedule, and available investment options. A client contributing 3% to a 401(k) with a 6% match is leaving money on the table — but you cannot flag that if the match details are not on the intake form.

Annuities require their own fields: contract type (fixed, variable, indexed), surrender period and schedule, guaranteed minimum rates, rider details (living benefit, death benefit), and annual fees. Annuity surrender charges can run 7% or more in early years, making them a critical constraint on any rebalancing recommendation.

Stock options and RSUs — increasingly common among tech and executive clients — need grant dates, vesting schedules, exercise prices, and expiration dates. These are time-sensitive assets that can drive significant planning decisions around concentration risk, tax timing, and liquidity events.

Insurance Coverage and Gaps

Insurance is where financial plans most often have blind spots. Your intake form should inventory every active policy and, just as importantly, flag coverage that does not exist.

Life insurance. For each policy: carrier, type (term or permanent), face amount, premium, cash value (if applicable), policy owner, insured, and beneficiary. Term policies need the expiration date. Group life through an employer should be listed separately with a note that it terminates on separation.

Disability insurance. Capture whether coverage is employer-provided, individually owned, or both. Document the benefit amount, elimination period, benefit period, definition of disability (own occupation vs. any occupation), and whether benefits are taxable. Most employer-provided group disability replaces only 60% of base salary and excludes bonuses — a gap that is invisible until a claim is filed.

Long-term care. If a policy exists, document the daily benefit, benefit period, elimination period, inflation rider, and premium. If no policy exists, note the client's age and health status — LTC underwriting becomes significantly more expensive and restrictive after age 60.

Umbrella liability. Document the coverage limit and underlying auto/homeowners requirements. Clients with significant net worth, rental properties, or teenage drivers often need umbrella coverage they do not have. A simple "Do you have an umbrella policy? Yes/No" field with a coverage amount captures this in seconds.

Also document health insurance (carrier, plan type, deductible, out-of-pocket max), homeowners/renters, and auto coverage at a summary level. These are less likely to drive financial planning recommendations directly, but they complete the picture and occasionally reveal issues — a client with a $10,000 health insurance deductible and $3,000 in savings has an emergency fund problem.

Tax Situation

Tax planning is inseparable from financial planning, and your intake form needs enough tax data to inform investment placement, withdrawal sequencing, and Roth conversion analysis from the start.

Capture filing status (single, married filing jointly, married filing separately, head of household, qualifying surviving spouse), federal marginal tax bracket, state of residence and applicable state income tax rate, and whether the client itemizes deductions or takes the standard deduction. If they itemize, note the primary drivers — mortgage interest, state and local taxes, charitable contributions.

Beyond the basics, ask about capital loss carryforwards (amount and character), net operating loss carryforwards for self-employed clients, AMT history, estimated tax payment status, and any open audits or disputes with the IRS or state tax authority. A client sitting on $200,000 in capital loss carryforwards has a powerful tool for managing taxable gains during portfolio rebalancing — but only if you know it exists. For clients navigating a home purchase or refinance, a dedicated mortgage broker intake form captures the TRID-compliant borrower data, property details, and liability disclosures that feed directly into the financial plan. Similarly, an insurance agent intake form inventories every active policy and coverage gap across auto, homeowners, commercial, and benefits lines.

If the client works with a CPA or tax preparer, capture that professional's name and contact information. Coordinating with the tax preparer on strategies like Roth conversions, charitable remainder trusts, or qualified opportunity zone investments avoids costly miscommunications. For related tax documentation guidance, see our tax law intake form guide.

Estate Planning Status

Financial planning and estate planning are deeply intertwined — beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance policies override whatever the will says, making this section critical even for clients who believe their estate plan is "handled."

Your intake form should document the existence (or absence) of each core estate document: last will and testament, revocable living trust, irrevocable trust(s), durable power of attorney (financial), healthcare power of attorney / healthcare proxy, living will or advance directive, and any HIPAA authorization. For each document that exists, capture the date of execution and the attorney who drafted it.

Beneficiary designations deserve their own subsection. For every retirement account, life insurance policy, annuity, and transfer-on-death account, confirm the primary and contingent beneficiaries. Outdated beneficiary designations — an ex-spouse still listed on a 401(k), a deceased parent as contingent beneficiary on a life insurance policy — are among the most common and most consequential estate planning failures. The intake form is your first chance to catch them.

Ask whether the client has made any taxable gifts exceeding the annual exclusion amount, and if so, whether Form 709 was filed. Lifetime gift tax exemption usage directly affects estate tax exposure. For a deeper discussion of estate-related intake requirements, see our estate planning intake form guide.

Risk Tolerance and Time Horizon

Risk tolerance assessment is both a planning input and a compliance requirement. Your intake form should capture it through a combination of structured questions and scenario-based prompts.

Structured questions include investment experience (years investing, asset classes used, self-directed vs. advised), reaction to past market downturns (did the client sell, hold, or buy more during the 2020 or 2022 corrections), and comfort level with portfolio volatility expressed as a maximum acceptable decline over a 12-month period.

Scenario-based questions are more revealing. Present two or three hypothetical portfolios with different risk/return profiles and ask which the client would choose. A client who selects the conservative option despite stating a "moderate-aggressive" risk tolerance on a scale question is telling you something important — and the intake form captures the discrepancy in writing.

Time horizon is goal-specific, not client-specific. A 45-year-old client has a 20-year horizon for retirement but a 3-year horizon for a college funding goal and a 30-year horizon for estate transfer. The intake form should link time horizons to the specific goals identified in the first section, not ask for a single number.

Regulatory and Compliance Documentation

Financial advisors operate under regulatory frameworks that impose specific documentation requirements at onboarding. Your intake form must satisfy these requirements or you will be building your compliance file from scratch after the fact.

Know Your Customer (KYC). Full legal name, date of birth, Social Security number, current address, citizenship status, and government-issued ID. For non-U.S. citizens, capture residency status (permanent resident, visa holder, non-resident alien) and country of tax residency. If the client is a politically exposed person (PEP) or has beneficial ownership in entities, additional due diligence fields are required.

Suitability. FINRA Rule 2111 (for broker-dealer affiliated advisors) and Regulation Best Interest require documentation of the client's investment profile — financial status, tax status, investment objectives, time horizon, liquidity needs, risk tolerance, and any other information the client discloses. Your intake form should capture each of these elements in a way that maps directly to your compliance file.

Fiduciary duty. Registered investment advisors operating under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 owe a fiduciary duty that requires thorough understanding of the client's complete financial situation. The intake form is your primary evidence that you gathered the information necessary to provide advice in the client's best interest. Gaps in the form are gaps in your defense if a recommendation is later challenged.

Include a section for the client's investment restrictions or preferences — ethical screens (no tobacco, no firearms, ESG mandate), concentration limits, liquidity requirements, and any legal constraints on trading (insider trading blackout periods, Section 16 reporting obligations for corporate officers). For bookkeeping coordination with financial planning clients, our bookkeeper client intake form guide covers the accounting side of the onboarding process.

Structuring the Form for Practical Use

A financial planning intake form that captures everything listed above is only useful if clients actually complete it and advisors can efficiently extract data from it. Three structural principles make the difference.

Section ordering matters. Start with goals (engaging, forward-looking) before moving to the current financial snapshot (detailed, tedious). End with compliance fields (necessary but dry). Clients who start with their aspirations are more likely to push through the detailed sections that follow.

Fillable fields with clear labels. Every data point should have its own labeled field — not a blank page with "describe your financial situation." Drop-down menus for standardized entries (filing status, account types, policy types) reduce errors and speed completion. Free-text fields should be reserved for narrative responses where standardization is impossible.

Built-in completeness checks. The form should make missing information visible. If the client checks "yes" for owning life insurance but leaves the policy detail fields blank, the advisor knows exactly what to follow up on. Conditional sections — fields that appear only when a prior question is answered affirmatively — keep the form from overwhelming clients whose situations are straightforward.

The Cost of Getting Intake Wrong

An incomplete intake creates three categories of risk. Planning risk — recommendations built on partial data may be wrong. Compliance risk — regulators expect documented evidence that you understood the client's situation before making recommendations. Relationship risk — discovering a critical fact six months into the engagement (an ex-spouse on a beneficiary designation, an annuity in full surrender, an unreported rental property) erodes the client's confidence that you have their full picture.

A comprehensive, well-designed intake form eliminates these risks at the moment they are easiest and cheapest to address — before the first plan is built.

Financial Planning forms are included in the Professional Services Bundle — 35 complete sets at a bundled discount.