Intake Form Questions That Qualify Better Enquiries for Financial Planning Practices

Financial planners are often the most nervous of any professional services group about their own enquiry forms, and for good reason — ask the wrong question in the wrong way, and it can start to look like personal advice before any actual advice process has begun. So a lot of practices swing hard the other way: name, email, phone, "tell us about yourself," submit. The trouble is that gives you almost nothing to work with, and every enquiry — a young professional wanting a quick check-in and a pre-retiree with real complexity — lands in the same queue, competing for the same first-meeting slot. There's a middle ground that qualifies without crossing into advice territory, and most practices just haven't built it yet. 💖

What most financial planning practices get wrong

The fear of "asking too much" is legitimate, but it usually gets applied to the wrong things. Asking someone their approximate super balance or investable assets isn't advice — it's context. Asking them what specific investment strategy they're considering, or how they should structure their portfolio, edges toward advice territory before any compliant process has kicked off, which is genuinely worth avoiding on a public form. The two get conflated, so practices end up avoiding both, and the form ends up too vague to be useful for anything except telling reception someone new has enquired.

How to set this up properly

Keep required fields to four or five at most, and make sure every optional field earns its place by changing how you'd triage that enquiry. Route responses by complexity and asset band where you can — a "pre-retirement" tick with an SMSF flag should probably go straight to your most senior adviser's calendar, while a "building wealth, no complexity" enquiry might suit a shorter first meeting. Brief whoever monitors the form on what each answer means operationally — a flagged complexity field is only useful if someone reads it before the first meeting, not during it. And have your compliance lead review the exact wording before it goes live, since "general information" versus "advice" is a line worth getting right in writing, not just intent.

Mistakes to avoid

• Asking what someone should do, rather than what's true about their situation — that's the line between qualifying and advising.
• Making the asset band question required — it's the field most likely to make someone abandon the form if they're not ready to disclose it.
• Publishing the form without compliance sign-off on the exact wording, not just the general concept.
• Treating every enquiry the same regardless of what the form reveals, which defeats the purpose of asking in the first place.
• Assuming a longer form always means better leads — past six or seven fields, completion drops faster than lead quality improves.

Frequently asked questions

Could any of these questions be considered personal advice?

The questions listed ask about the client's situation, not recommendations, which generally keeps them in general-information territory — but "generally" isn't a guarantee. Have compliance review the final wording against current ASIC guidance before publishing, since your AFSL's own policies may be stricter than the general position.

Won't asking about assets scare off younger or newer clients?

Making it optional, with broad bands rather than exact figures, minimises that risk substantially. Most people are comfortable ticking a range; it's a precise number that tends to cause hesitation.

Should the complexity checklist be required?

No — keep it optional. Some enquirers won't know these terms apply to them yet, and forcing an answer on something they're unsure about creates friction for no real gain.

Does a better-qualified form actually reduce enquiry volume?

Sometimes slightly, particularly from people who were never going to convert. Most practices find the trade-off worthwhile, but watch your numbers for a couple of months rather than assuming the result before you've seen it.

Keep reading 🤍

• A Simple Lead-Scoring Model for Financial Planners Whose Enquiries Vary Wildly in Quality
• Why a Financial Planner's Online Booking Form Should Ask a Risk-Profile Question Before Confirming a Time
• A Simple CRM Setup for Financial Planning Practices (Without Buying an Enterprise Platform)