Seed every client with documents on day one
The single highest-leverage move. Facts from documents arrive already verified, so ten minutes of uploading gives a new client a strong, trustworthy profile before your first meeting, instead of one that accumulates over months of conversations.1
Gather the core packet
The most recent custodial or brokerage statements, the latest tax return, insurance policy declaration pages, and estate documents (will, trust). A pay stub or equity award statement rounds out the picture for working clients.
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Upload to the right place
Drop everything on the household’s Documents tab so facts are shared across the family. Use an individual’s page only for documents that belong to them alone.
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Let the order take care of itself
Upload in any order. Hazel dates facts by the document’s own date when the document shows one; otherwise the upload day is used, and the date on the document row shows which. Newer information wins, so a dated old statement won’t overwrite a fresher number. On older uploads, glance at the row date rather than trusting the order to sort itself out.
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Skim the result
When documents read In profile, open the Data tab and give it two minutes. Assign any facts waiting under Needs owner, verify them as you file them, and you’re done.
Talk so the profile writes itself
Hazel records what was actually said, so how you and your clients talk in recorded meetings directly shapes the profile. Four habits make capture dramatically cleaner:- Say numbers and institutions out loud. “So the Schwab brokerage is at about $840,000 as of this month” refreshes a balance for free. A number that appears on screen but is never spoken can’t be captured.
- Name the owner. Ownership is filed from the words used: “my 401(k)”, “Sarah’s Roth”, and “our joint account” all file correctly. “The 401(k)” leaves Hazel unwilling to guess, and the fact waits in Review → Needs owner for you. Speaking possessively saves you the triage.
- Get the “no” on record. “So just to confirm, no long-term care coverage today?” turns a silence into a recorded answer (“None — confirmed with client”), which is often as valuable in planning as the assets themselves.
- Recap to capture. A 60-second verbal summary at the end of a meeting (“so we’re opening the 529 at $450,000, not $415,000” said aloud updates the profile naturally.
Hypotheticals stay out by design. “Clients like you typically save around $50k” won’t be recorded as a fact about this client. Speak plainly about what is true and let illustrations be illustrations.
Update the profile straight from chat
Between meetings, the fastest way to keep a profile current is to just tell Hazel. In Ask Hazel, including the chat rail on the household page, describe what changed in plain English:“The Hendersons paid off the HELOC and opened a 529 for Maya at Fidelity: $500 a month.”
“Update Bob’s 401(k) balance to $612,000 as of yesterday.”
“Add a concern: Marianne is worried about her mother needing memory care.”Hazel shows you exactly what will be added or changed; confirm, and the updates land in the profile as your entries, verified immediately, just like edits on the Data tab. Nothing changes without your confirmation, and everything stays source-linked. This is also the way to add something brand new: an account, a goal, a policy the client mentioned in a hallway conversation, without waiting for a meeting or a document. Make it a habit: hang up the phone, tell Hazel, move on. Prefer writing things down? Notes work too: a quick note in Hazel after a call feeds the profile just like a meeting would. Chat gives you a confirmation step; a note is capture-and-go. Use whichever fits the moment. The point is that nothing you learn should live only in your head.
Build a review rhythm
Verification is what turns “what Hazel heard” into “what your firm knows.” It works best as a small, regular habit, not a project:- After each meeting: two minutes in Review. The Data tab opens on Review with exactly what’s new: the quote, the source, a Verify all button. Confirm what’s right, Edit what’s off, assign owners. Done.
- Verify what you’d act on. You don’t need 100%. Prioritize the financial figures that feed decisions. Hazel will still use unverified facts, but flags them as unverified until someone confirms them, and the flag is only useful if verified actually means checked.
- Watch the ring. The Data Verification ring on the household page shows how much of the profile is confirmed at a glance: a quick health check before a client meeting or a planning session.
- Check “as of” dates before acting. The profile shows the most recent stated value, not a live feed. A balance “as of Jan 2026” is telling you to ask, upload, or update before you rely on it.
Work as a team
There’s one shared profile per client, so a little coordination goes a long way:- The meeting owner does the review pass. Whoever ran the meeting spends the two minutes in Review afterwards. Their memory of the conversation is freshest, and one person’s pass covers the whole team.
- Delegate maintenance freely. Anyone with edit access to the client can verify, correct, and upload, including assistants. Verification carries firm-wide, so a well-run operations seat can keep every profile clean.
- Onboard the profile, not just the tool. When a new team member takes over a household, the Summary tab plus five minutes on the Data tab is the fastest handover in the firm: every fact sourced, dated, and attributed.
Habits that pay off
Do: upload the document packet on day one · say numbers, owners, and institutions out loud · confirm what clients don’t have · recap decisions at the end of meetings · tell Hazel about changes the moment you learn them (chat or a quick note) · spend two minutes in Review after each meeting · check “as of” dates before acting on a number.
Skip: retyping what a document already proves (upload it instead) · verifying everything indiscriminately (verify what you’d act on) · using Rebuild profile for a single wrong value (that’s what Edit is for) · scanning paper when a clean PDF export exists.
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