Know-Your-Client (KYC) & suitability

Investment time horizon. The date the money is needed. Not the date the client hopes to need it, and not the date they retire if the money is needed sooner.

Two more facts sit in the record and belong in your thinking. Source of wealth asks where the client's net worth came from, over their life. Source of funds asks where the money in this account came from, now. Both matter for anti money laundering purposes, and both are easier to ask at the start than to reconstruct later.

A joint account needs each holder's information, the account's objectives, and a clear record of who may give instructions. Two spouses with different risk appetites do not get averaged into one investor. The account is documented in a way that respects both, and the instructions question is settled in writing.

And when a client will not give you enough information, you have an answer available that many candidates forget. You may decline to make a recommendation. Advice built on missing facts is not advice. It is a liability with your name on it.