Zocks completes the Schwab Advisor Center® digital onboarding workflow using what it already knows about your client from meetings, emails, and your connected CRM and planning systems. It checks everything against Schwab's requirements, then creates the envelope in Schwab Advisor Center, either as a draft for you to finish or sent straight to your client, who electronically authorizes it using their secure Schwab Alliance™ credentials.
You can open accounts for new clients and add accounts for clients who already have accounts at Schwab. Nothing goes to Schwab until you've reviewed it and sent it yourself.
What's supported
Area | What is supported |
Custodian | Schwab Advisor Services™ |
Clients | New clients, and existing Schwab clients who need additional accounts |
Accounts per flow | One or more accounts for the same client in a single flow |
Schwab One® brokerage | Individual, joint, tenants in common, community property, tenants by the entirety, designated beneficiary, living trust, custodial |
IRAs | Traditional (contributory), Roth, rollover, inherited |
Prefill sources | Meetings, emails, your CRM (Salesforce, Redtail or Wealthbox) and financial planning tools |
Before sending | Validation against Schwab's requirements |
After sending | Envelope status synced back to Zocks |
Important notes
Some account types aren't available through Schwab's API yet, such as SEP and SIMPLE IRAs, community property with rights of survivorship, separate revocable and irrevocable trusts, charitable (DAF) and PAL accounts. Open those in Schwab Advisor Center.
Before you begin
Zocks Ultimate. Account opening is part of the Ultimate plan. On other plans, the Account Opening tab on a contact shows an upgrade screen. Account owners and admins can start a free 30-day Ultimate trial from there, everyone else can ask their account owner.
Schwab connected. Connect your Schwab Advisor Center account under Integrations. Zocks only sees the accounts you already have access to in Schwab. See Schwab Advisor Services integration with Zocks.
Schwab contact sync turned on. Zocks uses it to tell existing Schwab clients from new ones. Without contact sync, every holder shows as new to Schwab.
Access to the master account. Anyone with access to the client's contact in Zocks and to the firm's Schwab master account can open accounts, including assistants.
New and existing clients
Every holder on an account is either new to Schwab or an existing Schwab client. Zocks decides this based on Schwab contact sync: your Schwab clients are synced into Zocks and matched to your contacts by email address.
A holder who was synced from Schwab is an existing client. Anyone else is new.
| New client | Existing Schwab client |
Who | Doesn't have a Schwab account yet, or wasn't synced from Schwab | Synced into Zocks from Schwab, matched by email address |
New account field | Yes | No |
Client details | Prefilled from your meetings and CRM. You review and edit them. | Come from Schwab Advisor Center and are read-only. Changes are made in Schwab Advisor Center. |
The client you start from is set automatically: existing if they were synced from Schwab, new if not. You can't switch this.
To add a new client as a holder, click Add Holder, set New account to Yes, enter their name and pick the holder type. Zocks prefills the rest of their details for you to review in step 4.
To add an existing Schwab client as a holder, click Add Holder, set New account to No and pick them from the dropdown, which lists the Schwab clients synced into Zocks.
You can mix the two on one account, for example a joint account for an existing Schwab client and a spouse who is new to Schwab.
Step 1: Start from the client's contact
Account opening always starts from the client's contact in Zocks.
Open the contact, go to the Account Opening tab and click Open Account.
Schwab is already selected as the investment firm.
Pick the account Type (for example Schwab One or IRA) and the Registration (for example Individual, Joint or Rollover).
To open more than one account for the same client, click Add Account and pick the next one. Remove an account with the bin icon.
Click Continue.
Step 2: Account basics
Set up the accounts you're opening and who holds them.
Type and registration carry over from step 1. Click Edit to add, change or remove accounts. If a change affects other parts of the form, Zocks asks you to confirm first.
Master account is your default Schwab master account. If you have access to more than one, pick the one you want.
Holders: the client you started from is already the primary holder. Click Add Holder for joint owners, minors or anyone else the account needs, set New account to Yes or No for each one (see New and existing clients above), and pick their holder type.
The panel on the right shows what's still needed. Once everything is filled in, click Confirm.
Step 3: Account properties
Review the details of each account. They're prefilled from your meetings and connected systems, including checkboxes, radio buttons, dropdowns and free-text fields, and you can change every one of them.
Depending on the account type, this step covers:
Account features and advisor authorizations
Source of funds and purpose of account
Beneficiaries
Issuer communications, such as proxy voting and corporate actions
Reserved account number. Reserve the number in Schwab Advisor Center first, then enter it here.
Anything still missing is listed in the panel on the right.
When you finished filling it out, click Confirm.
Step 4: Review client data
Review the details of every holder and beneficiary. Each one is listed with their status, and Review opens their details.
New clients: details are prefilled from your meetings and CRM. Check every field, since this is the data Schwab opens the account with. Zocks maps what the client said to Schwab's own categories (for example, an engineering director is mapped to Schwab's information technology professional category), so change anything you'd read differently.
Existing Schwab clients: details come from Schwab Advisor Center and are read-only. Use the email, date of birth, Social Security number and address to make sure you picked the right person. To change an existing client's personal details, update them in Schwab Advisor Center.
Once everyone shows Reviewed, you can move on to validation.
Pulling in new information
If something new comes in after you started, for example a new meeting or an updated CRM record, click Check Updates at the top of the page. Zocks shows the updated and new values next to what's on the form, and you choose which ones to apply.
Step 5: Choose how to submit
Submit to Schwab after all clients sign. If you turn this on, as soon as every client has signed, the envelope is submitted to Schwab for processing automatically, so you don't have to submit it yourself in Schwab Advisor Center.
Leave it off if you want to review the signed envelope before you submit it.
After you send, Schwab Advisor Center opens in a new window. If it doesn't open, use the link on the screen. Your client electronically authorizes the envelope using their secure Schwab Alliance credentials, and signing works just like it does today.
Step 6: Validate
Click Start Validation. Zocks sends the application to Schwab to be checked against Schwab's submission requirements, so you can fix anything that's missing or wrong before you send it.
Validated: you're ready to send.
Failed: the errors are listed. Fix them and click Validate again. You can validate as many times as you need.
Important notes
Schwab checks its API rules first and its other business rules after that, so some errors only show up one at a time. Fix each one and validate again.
Validation checks against Schwab's real rules. Placeholder or made-up values will fail, so use the client's actual details.
Errors have to be fixed before you can send. Warnings don't block sending, but read them before you do.
If validation returns a general error instead of a list of problems with your data, it's usually a Schwab-side issue rather than something you did.
Track your account openings
Every account opening for a client is listed on their contact, under the Account Opening tab, with the account type, registration, holders and status.
In progress: you've started but haven't sent it yet. Nothing has gone to Schwab, so you can come back anytime, keep editing and send when you're ready.
Draft: the envelope is in Schwab Advisor Center in Draft state.
From then on, Zocks shows the status Schwab reports back.
Open a sent envelope to see exactly what was sent, or to go straight to it in Schwab Advisor Center.
FAQs
How does Zocks know a client is an existing Schwab client?
How does Zocks know a client is an existing Schwab client?
Through Schwab contact sync. Zocks syncs your Schwab clients and matches them to your Zocks contacts by email address, so a client with no email address in Schwab, or a different one than in Zocks, shows as new.
On Schwab's side, existing clients are identified by name, Social Security number, date of birth, email and phone number. That's why their details are read-only in Zocks.
An existing Schwab client shows as new. What should I check?
An existing Schwab client shows as new. What should I check?
Check that Schwab contact sync is turned on, and that the client's email address in Schwab matches the one on their contact in Zocks. Contact sync runs every 30 minutes, so a client added to Schwab recently can take up to half an hour to appear.
What if Schwab shows "This functionality is currently unavailable" after I send?
What if Schwab shows "This functionality is currently unavailable" after I send?
This is a known Schwab issue. The envelope is still created, and you can find it under Manage Schwab Envelopes in Schwab Advisor Center. If it blocks an application, contact Support.
Availability
Account opening is available on the Ultimate plan.
Schwab data in meeting prep, Ask Anything and forms is available on all plans.
Need more help?
Chat with us: Click the messenger icon in the lower-right corner of Zocks, the Zocks website, or the Help Center
Email us: [email protected]