Sales Pipeline Checklist

Confirm the firm's ICP for this campaign — investable assets band, household type (pre-retiree, business owner, equity-comp tech employee, multi-generational), planning complexity, and geographic footprint. Vague ICPs produce mismatched prospects who consume discovery time and never convert.

Review accountants, estate attorneys, and centers of influence in the CRM. Flag any solicitor relationships that require a Rule 206(4)-1 written agreement and disclosure — informal referral fees without paperwork are a recurring exam finding.

Submit any retail communication (email, LinkedIn, webinar deck) for principal pre-approval per the marketing rule and FINRA Rule 2210 if applicable. Track that pre-approved disclaimers and performance-presentation guardrails are intact in the version that actually goes out.

Create a record in Wealthbox, Redtail, or Salesforce Financial Services Cloud for each inbound lead. Capture source, referrer, household name, and first-recommendation status so Form CRS delivery can trigger automatically on the first recommendation.

Tag each lead with its acquisition channel — referral, COI, event, organic, paid. This drives the quarterly source-mix report and tells the principal which COI relationships are actually producing.

Run the firm's standard 45-minute discovery agenda — current situation, goals, time horizon, prior advisor history, decision process. Capture spouse / partner involvement; missing the joint decision-maker is the most common reason a deal stalls in the proposal stage.

Record investable assets across all account types — taxable, IRA, Roth, 401(k), 529, trust, DAF. This figure feeds the fee estimate and the qualification score; ballpark guesses produce ballpark proposals that re-anchor unfavorably later.

Write up retirement target, withdrawal need, education funding, business-sale timing, legacy intent, and any concentrated-position considerations. The discovery notes become the basis for the Reg BI / fiduciary rationale captured later.

Apply the firm's A/B/C/Disqualified scoring against ICP — assets, complexity, fit, decision authority. Disqualified prospects get a polite decline so the team avoids burning capacity on deals that won't close or won't serve the client well.

For Disqualified prospects, send a brief note declining engagement and pointing to a more appropriate firm or planning resource. Log the disposition in the CRM and close the opportunity so it doesn't pollute the pipeline forecast.

Deliver Form CRS at the first recommendation to a retail prospect and capture the acknowledgment in the document portal. Skipped or late delivery is a high-frequency Reg BI exam finding; the CRM should generate the timestamped record automatically.

Send the firm brochure (2A) and the lead advisor's brochure supplement (2B), along with the Reg S-P privacy notice. Document the delivery date in the CRM — the same evidence trail covers the annual offering at fiscal year end.

Send the Nitrogen (formerly Riskalyze) questionnaire or your firm's equivalent (Tolerisk, FinaMetrica). Compare the resulting risk number to the proposed allocation; a mismatch between stated tolerance and proposed allocation must be reconciled before the proposal meeting.

Draft the cash-flow, retirement, and tax projection in eMoney, MoneyGuidePro, or RightCapital. For prospects with concentrated equity comp or business interests, coordinate with the tax specialist before the proposal meeting — last-minute tax surprises kill close rates.

Write a short rationale memo: why this allocation, why this account structure, why this fee model — versus reasonable alternatives the prospect could have selected. This is the artifact the SEC or state examiner asks for under Reg BI / the fiduciary standard, and thin rationale is the most cited gap.

Walk through the eMoney plan, the proposed allocation, and the fee schedule. Both decision-makers in the household should be in the room or on the call; presenting to one spouse and asking them to relay is the single most common cause of stalled proposals.

Capture each objection — fee level, custodian choice, rollover analysis, alternative providers — and the firm's written response. The DOL PTE 2020-02 rollover analysis in particular requires documented best-interest comparison versus the existing 401(k).

Send the IAA via DocuSign or RightSignature with the fee schedule and any solicitor disclosure. Verify counter-signatures from the principal before the file is considered executed; an unsigned firm-side IAA shows up at the next branch audit.

Verify identity per CIP, collect 25%+ beneficial owners on entity accounts per the CDD rule, and run all parties (including beneficiaries and trustees) through OFAC's SDN list. Flag any PEP status for enhanced due diligence before custodian paperwork goes out.

Assemble the file: signed IAA, Form CRS acknowledgment, ADV delivery record, risk profile, recommendation rationale, KYC documents, OFAC screen output, and rollover analysis if applicable. Route to the CCO for sign-off before the account is funded.

Move the opportunity to Won, Lost, or Active in Wealthbox/Redtail/Salesforce. Stale stages distort the pipeline forecast at the weekly review and obscure which advisors actually close versus stockpile prospects.

Run the standing pipeline meeting with the principal, lead advisors, and the operations manager. Walk the top ten opportunities, surface stalled deals over 45 days in stage, and confirm next action and owner for each.

Transfer the Won opportunity to the client onboarding workflow — custodian account opening at Schwab, Fidelity, or Altruist, ACATS initiation, and the first quarterly review scheduled. Include the CSA on the handoff so day-one client communication is owned.

For Lost deals, capture the specific reason — fee, custodian preference, incumbent advisor saved, prospect deferred decision. Roll the reason codes into the quarterly win/loss analysis so the principal can see whether fee objections or planning-software gaps are the recurring blocker.

Update the weighted-AUM forecast in the BI tool — Tableau, Power BI, or the CRM dashboard. Reconcile against the prior month's projection; persistent over-forecasting by an individual advisor is a coaching trigger, not a forecasting input.