New Account Form (NAF)
A new account form, usually called the NAF or just new account paperwork, is the application that opens a brokerage or advisory account at a custodian or broker-dealer. It captures the owner's identity, the registration type, the investment objective and risk tolerance, funding instructions, and the authorizations attached to the account. It goes to the custodian or the broker-dealer, not to a regulator.
- Who handles it
- Operations or client service assembles the packet, the client signs it, and the custodian's new accounts team reviews it and opens the account. At a broker-dealer the registered representative and a principal appear in the record as well.
- Filed through
- Custodian
- Applies to
- SEC-registered RIA, State-registered RIA, Broker-dealer, Dually registered
What the form asks for
- Owner identity: legal name, date of birth, tax identification number, address
- Registration type: individual, joint, trust, entity, IRA or other retirement
- Employment, source of funds, and control person or affiliation disclosures
- Investment objective, time horizon, risk tolerance, and liquidity needs
- Funding and delivery instructions, including incoming transfers
- Authorizations: advisory fee debit, discretion, margin, options, trusted contact
- Signatures, plus the authority documents an entity or trust registration requires
The work behind the filing
Stop entering the same client into a fourth container
The client's facts already exist in the CRM. They exist again in the plan, and again in the signed agreement. The new account form asks for them a fourth time, in the custodian's field names and the custodian's order. Nothing about the data changes between containers, only the shape, which is exactly the kind of work an agent can do end to end. Caddi can read the client record and produce the populated packet for review.
Catch NIGO before the packet leaves the building
Not in good order is a missing initial on page six, a blank objective, a registration that does not match the trust document attached, or last year's version of the form. The packet comes back, the client signs again, and the open slips a week for a reason nobody would call judgment. Caddi can check the assembled packet against the client record and the current form before it goes out, and route what fails to the person who can fix it.
Open the household, not the account
One new relationship is rarely one account. It is a joint account, two IRAs, a trust, and a custodial account for each child, which is six packets carrying one set of client facts and six chances to transpose a digit. Caddi can fan a single client record out across the registrations the household needs and keep the shared fields identical across all of them.
Questions
What is a new account form (NAF)?
A new account form is the application that opens a brokerage or advisory account at a custodian or broker-dealer. It captures owner identity, registration type, investment objective and risk tolerance, funding instructions, and the authorizations attached to the account.
Is a new account form filed with the SEC or FINRA?
No. It is submitted to the custodian or broker-dealer that will carry the account. The customer account information it captures is a books and records matter for the firm rather than a filing, and FINRA Rule 4512 describes the account information a broker-dealer maintains.
What does NIGO mean on new account paperwork?
Not in good order. The receiving firm cannot process the packet as submitted, most often because of a missing signature or initial, a blank required field, a registration that does not match the supporting documents, a missing supplement, or a retired version of the form. The packet is returned and the open is delayed.
Why does the same client have to be entered more than once?
Because each custodian publishes its own packet with its own field names, layout, and supplements, while the client's facts already sit in the CRM and the financial plan in different shapes. The data is identical across all of them. Only the container differs, which is why the work is pure transcription and why it is worth automating rather than staffing.
Can Caddi handle this paperwork end to end?
Caddi runs the work around it: pulling the client facts out of your CRM, plan, and document systems, producing the populated form, checking it against the client record before it goes out, routing it for signature, and writing the result back into every system that holds the same fact. A person reviews and submits. Caddi is not a custodian or a broker-dealer and does not act as one.
Related forms
The filing is the easy part
Caddi does not file forms. It runs the work around them: pulling the underlying data out of your portfolio, CRM, and document systems, reconciling it against the prior filing, and evidencing delivery. See it run on your own stack.
See the compliance specialistThis page describes what the form is and the work it creates. For requirements, deadlines, and whether any of it applies to your firm, see FINRA Rule 4512: Customer Account Information.