SEC Regulation Best Interest Client Relationship Summary (Form CRS)

SEC Regulation Best Interest Client Relationship Summary (Form CRS) Template

Navigating the complex requirements of SEC Regulation Best Interest can be challenging for investment advisers, broker-dealers, and financial services firms. This comprehensive Form CRS template helps you create a compliant Client Relationship Summary that clearly communicates your services, fees, conflicts of interest, and legal standards of conduct to retail investors.

What is Form CRS and Why It Matters

Form CRS (Customer or Client Relationship Summary) is a mandatory SEC disclosure document introduced under Regulation Best Interest. It requires broker-dealers and investment advisers to provide retail investors with a brief, plain-language summary of:

• The types of client relationships and services offered
• Fees, costs, conflicts of interest, and required standard of conduct
• Whether the firm and its financial professionals currently have reportable legal or disciplinary history
• Additional information and resources for investors

This Paperform template simplifies the process of collecting necessary information from clients while ensuring your firm meets regulatory disclosure requirements with a professional, branded experience.

Who Should Use This Form CRS Template

This template is designed for:

• Investment Advisers providing advisory services to retail clients
• Broker-Dealers offering brokerage services and securities transactions
• Dual-Registered Firms providing both advisory and brokerage services
• Financial Services Compliance Teams ensuring regulatory adherence
• Wealth Management Firms onboarding new retail investor clients
• RIAs and Independent Financial Advisors meeting SEC disclosure requirements

Key Features of This Form CRS Template

Comprehensive Service Disclosure Clearly outline the types of investment services your firm provides, whether advisory, brokerage, or both. The template guides clients through understanding the nature of your relationship and the services they can expect.

Fee and Cost Transparency Detail your fee structures, including asset-based fees, commissions, transaction costs, and other charges. Help clients understand exactly what they'll pay and how those fees might affect their investment returns over time.

Conflicts of Interest Documentation Properly disclose potential conflicts of interest, including revenue sharing arrangements, proprietary products, and compensation structures that could influence recommendations.

Legal Standard of Conduct Communicate your fiduciary duty (for advisory services) or best interest obligation (for brokerage services) in plain language that retail investors can understand.

Disciplinary History Disclosure Collect acknowledgment of disciplinary history disclosures and provide resources for clients to research your firm and financial professionals through FINRA BrokerCheck and the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure database.

Conversation Starters Include the SEC-required conversation starter questions that encourage meaningful dialogue between clients and financial professionals about the relationship, services, and fees.

Why Paperform for SEC Compliance Forms

Paperform makes it simple to create professional, compliant disclosure forms that protect your firm while providing an excellent client experience:

Brand Consistency Design your Form CRS with your firm's fonts, colors, and logo to maintain brand consistency across all client touchpoints while meeting regulatory requirements.

Digital Efficiency Replace paper-based disclosure forms with digital versions that clients can complete from any device. Automatically capture timestamps and electronic signatures for your compliance records.

Secure Data Collection With SOC 2 Type II compliance, Paperform ensures client information is collected and stored securely, meeting the high standards financial services firms require.

Automated Workflows with Stepper Connect your Form CRS to Stepper to automatically route completed forms to compliance teams, update your CRM, trigger follow-up communications, or create tasks in your project management system. Build compliant onboarding workflows that ensure no disclosure is missed.

eSignature with Papersign Use Papersign to convert form submissions into formal advisory agreements, brokerage account opening documents, or other contracts that require secure electronic signatures—keeping everything connected to the original disclosure for a complete audit trail.

Integration with Financial Services Tools Send disclosure data to Salesforce Financial Services Cloud, Redtail, Wealthbox, or other advisor CRM systems. Connect to compliance management platforms, document storage systems, and client portal solutions through native integrations, webhooks, or automation platforms like Stepper, Zapier, and Make.

Streamline Client Onboarding and Regulatory Compliance

For investment advisers and broker-dealers, Form CRS is just the beginning of the client relationship. With Paperform's conditional logic, you can create comprehensive onboarding experiences that:

• Show different fee schedules based on account type or service level
• Collect additional information required for account opening
• Route institutional vs. retail clients to appropriate disclosure documents
• Trigger different follow-up sequences based on service selection

Meeting SEC Requirements with Confidence

SEC regulations require that Form CRS be filed with the agency and delivered to retail investors at the beginning of a relationship and kept up to date. This template helps ensure you're capturing client acknowledgment of receipt and understanding while maintaining organized records for regulatory examinations.

Financial services compliance teams can use Paperform's submission management to track which clients have received and acknowledged Form CRS, export data for compliance reporting, and maintain the documentation trail that SEC examiners expect to see.

Get Started Today

Whether you're a registered investment adviser, broker-dealer, or dual-registered firm, this Form CRS template provides the foundation for transparent, compliant client relationships. Customize the template to reflect your specific services, fee structures, and conflicts of interest, then deploy it across your organization with confidence.

Trusted by financial services professionals worldwide, Paperform combines regulatory compliance with modern user experience. Join over 500,000 teams using Paperform to digitize critical business forms and workflows while maintaining the security and compliance standards your industry demands.

Start building better client relationships with transparent, professional SEC compliance forms today.