How financial advisors request a 1099-R from clients
By Arthur Teboul, DokuTrak · Published
In short
Ask the client for every Form 1099-R from the last tax year, and from any earlier year in which they took money out of a retirement account or moved an old plan. Payers send it by January 31. It shows past distributions and rollovers, and lets you confirm that a rollover was coded as one.
Why financial advisors need a 1099-R
Form 1099-R reports money that left a pension, annuity, IRA or employer plan. Box 1 shows the gross distribution, box 2a the taxable amount, and the box 7 code tells you what happened: G for a direct rollover, 7 for a normal distribution, 1 for an early one. For the plan, it explains where old balances went, whether a rollover was completed, and what pension or annuity income is already in payment.
What exactly to ask for
Every 1099-R for the most recent tax year, one per payer, and for any year in which the client rolled over a 401(k) or moved an IRA you need to trace. The client finds them on the plan or custodian website under tax forms; the copy filed with their tax return works too.
What to check when it arrives
- The box 7 code matches the client’s story: a rollover they describe should not be coded as a normal or early distribution.
- Box 4 federal withholding is noted, since withholding on a distribution can mean the money was paid out rather than rolled over.
- Each payer is matched to an account on the client’s list, so no former plan is left out of the plan.
Email to send your client
Replace the bracketed parts. The same text fits in the message of a DokuTrak request (up to 1,000 characters).
Subject: Your 1099-R forms from retirement accounts
Hi [Client name],
To map where your retirement money has gone over the years, I would like every Form 1099-R you received for last year. If you moved an old 401(k) or IRA in an earlier year, the 1099-R from that year helps too.
You can usually download them from the plan or custodian website, under tax forms or statements. The copies attached to your tax return are fine as well.
Could you send them by [date]? If you are not sure which accounts sent one, tell me and we will go through the list together.
Thank you, [Your name]
Ask once. DokuTrak does the chasing.
- Your client uploads from one link, with no account and no password.
- Reminders go out on a schedule, by default 2, 5, 10 and 14 days after the request, until the file arrives.
- With AI review switched on in your workspace (it is off by default), each upload gets a first pass that flags a file that is not a 1099-R or an unreadable or blurry scan. It says so when it is not sure.
- You accept every file or mark it for re-upload, and your client gets the note by email. The AI never accepts a file.