How to Inspect Your Onboarding Process

I love touring old homes – you get to see the culmination of all the changes made over the years and wonder what events may have inspired the modifications. The milk window that now serves as a cute little cabinet; the telephone niche where the fancy vase now sits; transom windows that were installed originally to circulate air but have long since been painted shut. Occasionally you can see signs of a big structural change that happened - a room with a brick wall indicating it was an addition, a heavy beam added to a room that was enlarged, a modern electrical panel placed next to an older fuse box.

Reviewing onboarding workflows give me a similar experience. There's rarely a collaboration where I don't at least take a peek at the advisor's onboarding process. It's fun because they are all so unique. They come in all shapes and sizes. I've seen short ones and long ones; ones that are accomplished in a single, drawn-out, in-person meeting; and ones that are completed with a bunch of small baby, steps spread out over an entire quarter.

The reason they all look so different is because they were initially built around the original combination of systems and software that the advisor selected when they first opened their firm. Over time though, compliance requirements changed, advisors were added, CRMs got swapped out, and custodians merged – and the onboarding got tweaked to accommodate each change. Very rarely do I work with an advisor who has done a ground-up overhaul of onboarding. It's simply not high on the to-do list because technically the client is getting onboarded and as the old saying goes “if it ain't broke, don't fix it”.

Unfortunately, these workflows are like a house that has undergone numerous renovations without anyone calling in an engineer to ensure the structure is still sound. The end result of these overly-modified systems is an onboarding process that feels disjointed and may eventually buckle under a heavy load.

Today I'm going to help you re-evaluate your client onboarding system and determine if you still have a solid foundation to build on, or if it's time to call in the architect and draw up fresh plans.

Run through this scoring system and see where you stand. There's an interactive version on my website if you'd prefer to have the scoring done for you and a printed report of the results.

The Onboarding Structural Inspection

Structural engineers don't ask “does the building still have four walls and a door?” They inspect defined elements, score each against a standard, and total the score to determine the soundness of a home. Once scored, the engineer issues a tag: green tag (inspected, occupy it), yellow tag (restricted use, repair before full load), or red tag (unsafe, do not occupy). That's how we'll evaluate your onboarding process today.

So don your hardhat and grab your clipboard – we're going in for inspection.

1. As-Built Accuracy

Does the documented process match what actually happens?

• 0 — Nothing is documented.
• 1 — A doc exists but nobody follows it.
• 2 — Mostly accurate, drifted in places.
• 3 — Written process matches the last three clients.

2. Load Distribution

If your CSA were out for two weeks, would onboarding continue?

• 0 — Everything stops.
• 1 — It limps, with errors.
• 2 — Someone can cover with a briefing.
• 3 — Any trained team member can run it.

3. Connection Points

Count the handoffs between people or systems.

• 0 — More than 10, none tracked.
• 1 — Tracked informally, by email, messaging, or memory.
• 2 — Tracked in the CRM, some slippage.
• 3 — Every handoff triggers automatically or is clearly defined and traceable.

4. Data Integrity

How many times does the same information get input to a system?

• 0 — Four or more times.
• 1 — Three times.
• 2 — Twice.
• 3 — Once.

5. Dead Load

How many steps that exist for a reason nobody remembers or no longer is relevant.

• 0 — Half the workflow.
• 1 — Several.
• 2 — One or two.
• 3 — Every step traces to a current requirement.

6. Cycle Time

Signed agreement to fully onboarded – how much is active work time and how much is waiting on your own processes?

• 0 — Unknown, you've never measured.
• 1 — Mostly waiting.
• 2 — Half working time, half dead air.
• 3 — A mix of working time and intentional pauses.

7. Code Compliance

Does the workflow reflect and support your compliance requirements?

• 0 — You're not sure.
• 1 — I haven't reviewed it since registration, legislation, or ADV changes occurred.
• 2 — Mostly up-to-date with the important requirements.
• 3 — Fully compliant with our current state/SEC regulations, ADV, CRS, and Privacy Policy.

8. Occupant Experience

What does the client feel during the process?

• 0 — You've never asked.
• 1 — You've had some complaints.
• 2 — Clients don't really comment on it or the feedback is “okay”.
• 3 — Clients comment on how easy it was.

The Results

• 20–24 — Green Tag. Congratulations! Your process is structurally sound and has been green-tagged for occupancy. Maintain it and inspect annually.
• 12–19 — Yellow Tag. Restricted use. The foundation holds, but specific elements need repair before you add load. Additional clients, more advisors, a new custodian could cause the structure to buckle under pressure. Fix your lowest-scoring elements first.
• Under 12 — Red Tag. The structure is unsound. Stop patching. Every renovation from here compounds a problem you already can't trace. Bulldoze the process and call in the architect - it's time for a total rebuild.