New household,
every paper in place

Onboarding has stages, and each stage has its own paperwork. Splitting the household folder the same way means you can see progress at a glance: identity is done, transfers are waiting on one statement, planning inputs are still thin. Once onboarding is finished, the folders simply become the household’s permanent file.

Keep planning inputs apart from account paperwork. A tax return, a will or an insurance policy feeds the plan; a transfer form or account application feeds the custodian. They are read by different people at different times, and mixing them slows both.

Lead with the person for identity documents and with the date for everything else. Morgan-Linda_Passport_exp-2027-01-19.pdf tells you whose it is and when it stops being valid. 2026-09-30_Harlan-Securities_Trust-Statement_x4471.pdf tells you the period, the old firm and which account.

Leave full account numbers and tax ID numbers out of file names. Names travel: they show up in email subjects, search results and previews. The last four digits are enough to tell two accounts apart, and it keeps a forwarded file from exposing more than it should.

When an account moves from another firm, the receiving firm usually asks for a transfer form and a recent statement from the old firm. The transfer is commonly held up when the two do not match: a middle initial missing, a trust named differently, a joint account listed as individual, or a statement too old to confirm the account still exists.

Trusts and estates add their own paperwork, such as a trust certification showing who the trustees are. Keeping the latest prior-firm statement right beside each transfer form makes the check a side-by-side read rather than a hunt, and it can be done before submission instead of after a rejection.

Many practices run onboarding from a checklist task in their CRM, with documents saved to a shared folder or the custodian’s forms system. The checklist says what should exist; it cannot tell you whether the scan in the folder is actually Linda’s passport or the back of Robert’s licence.

Client portals help when clients use them, but plenty still email photos or hand over paper at the first meeting. Filex works with whatever arrives: upload it, and it reads and files it, so the folder and the checklist finally agree.

Filex does not verify anyone’s identity, open accounts, submit transfers or decide what your firm must collect. Your custodian and compliance team set those requirements. It reads and files the documents you receive and answers questions about them.

It does not ask clients for documents or act as a client portal. A cropped photo or a page with glare may not be readable, so check that IDs and signature pages are clear before you rely on them.