How to Turn Your Advisor Onboarding Workflow Into a 'Skill' for AI Agents

Most RIAs have an onboarding playbook buried in some shared drive. It's a mix of Word docs, spreadsheets, and tribal knowledge. When a new advisor joins, the team manually walks them through accounts, compliance forms, tech logins, and client introductions. It works—but it's slow, inconsistent, and hard to scale.

What if you could package that entire workflow into a "skill" that an AI agent could execute?

That's what Anthropic's new Claude Skills feature makes possible. Skills let you define a structured, repeatable process that Claude can follow end-to-end—no more copy-pasting prompts or manually guiding the AI through each step.

What Are Claude Skills?

Think of Skills as **pre-programmed workflows** you attach to Claude. Instead of asking Claude to "help me onboard a new advisor" and hoping it figures out the steps, you define the exact sequence:

1. Collect advisor details (name, start date, licenses, etc.)

2. Generate a compliance checklist

3. Set up tech accounts (CRM, planning software, email)

4. Create a 30-60-90 day plan

5. Draft client introduction emails

6. Schedule check-ins

Once you've created this Skill, anyone on your team can invoke it with a single command. Claude handles the rest.

Why This Matters for RIAs

Onboarding is mission-critical but operationally messy. Here's what Skills solve:

1. **Consistency**

Every new advisor gets the same high-quality onboarding, regardless of who's running it.

2. **Speed**

What used to take days of back-and-forth now happens in minutes.

3. **Scalability**

As your firm grows, your onboarding process doesn't become a bottleneck.

4. **Knowledge Preservation**

Your institutional knowledge is no longer locked in people's heads—it's encoded in the Skill.

How to Build an Advisor Onboarding Skill

Step 1: Map Your Current Process

Before you build anything in Claude, document your existing workflow. What are the discrete steps? What information do you collect? What outputs do you generate?

Example workflow:

Step 2: Define the Skill Structure

In Claude, go to the Skills section and create a new Skill. Give it a clear name (e.g., "Advisor Onboarding") and description.

Then, define the steps. Each step should:

Example:

Step 1: Collect Advisor Details
Input: Name, start date, licenses held, AUM joining with
Output: Structured data object

Step 2: Generate Compliance Checklist
Context: Use firm's standard compliance requirements
Output: Markdown checklist with deadlines

Step 3: Draft 30-60-90 Day Plan
Context: Focus on client relationships, training, and internal systems
Output: Detailed plan with milestones

Step 3: Add Context Documents

This is where Skills shine. You can attach PDFs, Word docs, and internal guidelines directly to the Skill. Claude will reference these when executing the workflow.

Example documents to include:
Compliance onboarding checklist template
Tech stack overview (with account creation processes)
Sample 30-60-90 day plans
Client introduction email templates

Step 4: Test and Refine

Run the Skill with a test case. Does it generate what you expect? Are the outputs usable, or do they need manual cleanup?

Iterate on the prompts. Be specific. If Claude is generating generic content, add more constraints or examples.

Step 5: Deploy to Your Team

Once the Skill works reliably, share it with your operations team. Now, anyone can invoke it by typing:

@Advisor Onboarding for [new advisor name]

Claude will walk through the entire workflow, generating all the necessary documents and checklists.

Real-World Use Case: RIA Acquires New Team

Imagine your firm just acquired a $500M team with three advisors. You need to onboard all three simultaneously.

**Before Skills:** Your operations team spends 2-3 weeks manually coordinating everything. Documents get lost in email. Steps are skipped.

**With Skills:** Your operations manager invokes the Advisor Onboarding Skill three times (once per advisor). Within an hour, all compliance checklists, tech setup guides, and 30-60-90 plans are generated. The team can focus on relationship-building instead of paperwork.

Beyond Onboarding: Other Skills for RIAs

Once you've built one Skill, you'll see opportunities everywhere:

**Client Onboarding:** Generate welcome packets, service agreements, and data-gathering forms
**Quarterly Review Prep:** Pull performance data, draft talking points, create presentation decks
**Compliance Audit Prep:** Generate documentation, flag potential issues, create remediation plans
**Marketing Campaign Launch:** Draft social posts, email sequences, and blog content

The Bigger Picture: From Tools to Workflows

Most firms are still in the "ChatGPT for emails" phase of AI adoption. That's fine—but it's not transformative.

Skills represent a shift from **AI as a tool** to **AI as a workflow executor**. You're not just using AI to write things faster; you're encoding your firm's operational DNA into repeatable, scalable processes.

This is what it means to build an "AI-augmented" RIA. Your technology stack doesn't just store data—it actively runs your business.

How to Get Started

1. **Pick one workflow** (onboarding is a great starting point)
2. **Document the steps** in a simple checklist
3. **Create a Claude Skill** with those steps
4. **Attach relevant documents** (templates, guidelines, etc.)
5. **Test with a real case** and iterate
6. **Train your team** to use it

Start small. Build momentum. Soon, you'll have a library of Skills that make your operations faster, more consistent, and infinitely more scalable.

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**Want help building Skills for your firm?** I work with RIAs to design and implement AI-powered workflows. [Book a consultation](https://calendly.com/jonathan-michael-tifinaxis/30min-1?month=2025-11).