What do young entrepreneurs, seasoned professionals, and retirees enjoying their golden years have in common? Not much, but sometimes they share a crucial intersection — the need for personalized financial planning.
Though it means more work for financial advisers, it also poses a practical challenge of adapting to the broad scope of unique client profiles. This is particularly difficult for financial planners who don’t have a comprehensive fact find template.
If you still haven’t created one, we’ll show you 60+ questions that should be in your planning fact finder template.
Let’s take a look!
Save time and use our free financial planning fact find template
Content Snare is a simple tool that helps you collect information, content, and files from clients on time. Send our fact finder template to your clients as-is, or customize it as you see fit.
Questions to include in your financial planning fact finder
Client information
1. Full legal name
2. Date of birth
3. Home address
4. Phone number
5. Email address
6. Do you have any legal or regulatory restrictions that may impact financial planning?
If yes, please specify.
7. Are you married?
If yes, please provide the name, address, and contact information of your spouse.
8. Do you have any children?
If yes, please provide the name, address, and contact information for each child.
Employment and education details
9. Current employer
10. Occupation
11. Employment status (full-time, part-time, self-employed)
12. The highest level of education attained
13. Do you have any professional qualifications or certifications?
If yes, please list all.
Health status
14. How would you rate your general health status?
This can be excellent, good, average, poor.
15. Are you a smoker?
16. Do you have any significant health concerns or ongoing medical expenses?
If yes, please specify your concerns/expenses.
Lifestyle factors
17. What are your hobbies and interests?
18. Do you have any travel plans or aspirations?
19. Do you engage in social or philanthropic activities?
Financial planning goals
20. What are your financial planning goals?
21. Do you have specific short-term goals or needs (e.g. major purchases in the next 12 months)?
If yes, please specify your goals.
22. What are your mid-term goals in the next few years (e.g. buying a home, funding education expenses, or starting a business)?
23. What are your long-term financial objectives (e.g. retirement planning)?
24. What age would you ideally like to retire?
25. What kind of lifestyle do you envision during retirement?
Income and expenses
26. What is your total annual income from your primary employment?
27. Are there any additional sources of employment income (e.g. bonuses and commissions)?
28. Do you have income from investments (dividends, interest, capital gains)?
If yes, please specify the type/value.
29. Are there any other sources of income (e.g. rental income or a side business)?
If yes, please specify the type/value.
30. Are you expecting any significant changes in your income in the near future (e.g. job change, promotion, additional income streams)?
If yes, please specify.
Expenses
31. What are your average monthly living expenses?
These include housing, utilities, groceries, and transportation.
32. What are your monthly debt obligations (mortgage, loans, credit cards)?
33. Do you have a plan for managing and reducing debt?
If yes, please specify.
34. Do you have ongoing education or childcare expenses?
If yes, please specify.
35. What do you typically spend on non-essential activities, entertainment, and leisure (monthly)?
36. Are you able to save money or invest each month?
If yes, please specify.
37. Do you have any savings goals?
If yes, please specify.
38. Do you maintain an emergency fund?
If yes, what is the balance?
39. Are you actively contributing to an emergency fund?
If yes, how much do you add to it per month?
Assets and liabilities
40. What is the current balance of your savings accounts, checking accounts, and any other liquid assets?
41. Do you currently hold any investments (e.g. stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc.)?
If yes, please specify their type and values.
42. Do you own any real estate (primary residence, rental properties)?
If yes, please specify the type/value.
43. Do you own any vehicles, valuable collectibles, or other tangible assets?
If yes, please specify the type and the approximate value of these assets.
44. Do you own any business interests or shares in privately held companies?
If yes, please specify the estimated value of your business holdings.
Liabilities
45. Do you currently have any mortgages?
If yes, please specify the outstanding balance, terms, and interest rates.
46. Do you have outstanding loans (personal loans, auto loans)?
If yes, please specify their type/amount.
47. Do you have any outstanding student loans?
If yes, please specify the details.
48. Are there any other debts or liabilities not mentioned above?
If yes, please specify (terms, interest rates, etc.).
49. Do you have any potential future liabilities or commitments (cosigned loans, guarantees)?
If yes, please provide more details.
Insurance coverage
50. Do you currently have any life insurance policies?
If yes, what is the coverage amount and type of coverage (term, whole life, universal life)?
51. Have you designated beneficiaries for your life insurance policies?
If yes, please provide their names, addresses, and contact details.
52. When was the last time you reviewed and updated your beneficiary designations?
53. What financial goals or obligations do your life insurance policies aim to address (e.g. income replacement, debt payoff, estate planning)?
54. What type of health insurance coverage do you have (e,g, employer-sponsored, individual, or government plans)?
55. Are there any coverage gaps or limitations you are concerned about?
If yes, please specify the details.
56. Do you have homeowners or renters insurance?
If yes, please specify the coverage amount.
Risk management
57. How would you describe your comfort level with financial risk?
This can be comfortable, medium, or not comfortable.
58. Are there specific financial scenarios that would cause significant concern for you?
If yes, please describe these scenarios.
59. Have you considered creating contingency plans for potential financial setbacks or unforeseen circumstances?
If yes, please provide more details.
Tax considerations
60. How familiar are you with the potential tax benefits and implications of these accounts?
Possible answers: Highly familiar, somewhat familiar, not familiar at all.
61. Have you recently realized any capital gains or losses from investments?
If yes, please clarify.
62. Are there specific estate planning strategies you have in place or are considering?
If yes, please clarify.
Practical tips for creating a planning fact finder template
As a financial planner, you probably feel like personalizing the fact find template with details that matter the most to your clients. In this case, it’s good to know a few things about creating online forms as they will help you create a more realistic financial plan. Here are the main tips:
- Focus on relevant objectives: Ask the questions that really matter. For instance, don’t include questions about retirement if your client is interested in short-term goals only.
- Explain financial planning concepts: Your clients probably don’t have any financial or investment knowledge, so do your best to clarify key concepts in the fact finder.
- Use structured sections: Divide your questions into logical units that provide a clear overview of the entire form.
- Encourage flexibility: Sometimes your clients will need to clarify something, so give them enough room within a template to express their thoughts or concerns.
Build a comprehensive financial plan with Content Snare
There’s no reason to build a planning fact finder form from scratch when you can use our ready-made template. Content Snare offers a 14-day free trial, so you can send our financial adviser template to the client in minutes — no strings attached.
Apart from being extremely intuitive and user-friendly, Content Snare lets you guide clients using in-form instructions. That way, it’s easier for them to provide accurate responses:
The drag-and-drop builder makes it easy to rearrange your templates, placing each field or section exactly where you want them to be. Your clients can post comments to ask for further clarification in case they get stuck.
But these are only a few benefits we know you’ll love about Content Snare. If you are interested in learning more about it, don’t hesitate to take a Content Snare tour. And if you already feel it’s worth testing, go on and sign up for free to check out how it works. We’re sure you love it!