A 90-day social media content calendar is a dated schedule that tells a financial advisor what to post on social media, on which platform, and who approves each post before it goes live. In this example, we crate a sample template that covers one quarter, about 39 posts at three a week, and fits in a single Google Sheet.
This calendar is for social media posts only: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and similar platforms. Blog articles, emails and newsletters need their own plan, with different review steps and timelines.
This guide gives you the full kit for a sample template with 4 to 6 content pillars, an eight-column sheet with a built-in compliance review column, a 13-week plan that starts November 3, 2026, and the recordkeeping rules for how long to keep every post. Ninety days is long enough to see which topics get a response and short enough to change course.
What Is a Social Content Calendar for Advisors?
A social media content calendar is a dated schedule of what you’ll post, on which platform, and who approves each post before it’s published. Every row needs three things: a date, a platform and an approver.
It’s narrower than an editorial calendar, which plans blogs, emails and other long-form content. Keeping social posts on their own sheet makes sense because they move faster, go through review in batches and have their own recordkeeping rules.
A to-do list says “post something about retirement income.” A calendar says “LinkedIn, Tuesday, November 3, market commentary, approved by your reviewer.” The list has no deadline and no owner. The calendar has both, plus a review step.
Which Social Media Platform Should Financial Advisors Use?
Choose the platform where your ideal clients already spend time. There’s no single best platform for advisors, only the best one for the people you want to reach.
A few examples:
→ Business owners, executives and referral partners like CPAs and attorneys often use LinkedIn, where they can also check your credentials and firm.
→ Pre-retirees and retirees may be easier to reach on Facebook, especially through local community groups.
→ Younger professionals and early-career investors often learn about money on YouTube and Instagram. In a FINRA Foundation and CFA Institute study, nearly half of Gen Z investors said they learn about investing mainly through social media.
Not sure where your audience is? Ask five of your best clients which app they open every day, and which one they’d trust for money information. Their answers will tell you more than any national survey.
Then start with one platform at three posts a week. Add a second only after you’ve hit that schedule for a full 90 days. Posting steadily in one place beats posting occasionally everywhere.
Content Pillars for Financial Advisors: 4 Examples
Content pillars are the 4 to 6 topics you post about again and again. Every 90-day calendar starts with them, because each pillar gives you a running list of post ideas, so you never stare at a blank screen.
The best pillars come from your audience. Ask yourself what your ideal clients worry about, what they ask in first meetings and what they misunderstand most. Your answers are your pillars.
If you need a starting point, these four fit most practices:
Market commentary: a plain-language take on what moved and what it means for someone’s plan, with no predictions and no performance figures.
Money basics (catered to your niche): one concept per post, such as Roth conversions, required minimum distributions or updating beneficiary forms.
Local community: the charity event you supported, the school talk you gave, the chamber of commerce panel you joined.
Prospect FAQs: the exact questions people ask you in a first meeting, answered one at a time.
Then make them your own. An advisor who works with airline pilots might turn “Money basics” into “Pilot retirement basics,” covering pension choices, mandatory retirement and the gap years before Social Security.
At three posts a week, four pillars give you about ten posts each over the quarter, enough to cover a topic without repeating yourself.
Age changes the answer. In Pew's 2025 report (5,022 adults, February 5 to June 18, 2025), 80% of adults 18 to 29 used Instagram, against 19% of adults 65 and older.
Pew measures all U.S. adults and doesn't break out affluent investors, so ask five of your best clients which app they open daily before you commit. Posting steadily on one platform is also the approach behind turning a small social following into clients.
Which Tool Should You Use: Google Sheets, Notion, or Excel?
Google Sheets is an easy default for a solo advisor or a small team, and the choice depends on team size more than features. A solo advisor needs a place to type. A five-person team needs filtering and clear ownership.
Pick one and stay with it for the whole quarter. Moving the sheet midway breaks your approval history, and any of the three works if the reviewer and approval date columns survive.
How to Build a 90-Day Content Calendar in 5 Steps
Building the calendar takes five steps, from pillars to a repurposing pass, and step four adds the review column that makes the sheet usable as a compliance record.
Step 1: Choose Your Content Pillars
Pick 4 to 6 pillars before you open a spreadsheet. Start from the five examples above, then cut any you can't sustain or your compliance officer won't approve. Thirteen weeks at three posts a week gives 39 posts, so five pillars give about eight posts each.
Step 2: Set Your Posting Cadence
Choose one platform from the section above and three posts a week, for example Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Pick days your reviewer's turnaround can support. Add a second platform after 90 days of hitting the schedule.
Step 3: Build the Grid in Google Sheets
Create the eight columns from the template below, in that order. Fill the Date column first, one row per post, 39 rows in total. Then rotate your pillars down the Pillar column so no pillar runs twice in a row.
Add a drop-down to Draft Status with five values: Idea, Drafted, In review, Approved, Published.
Step 4: Add a Compliance Review Column
Add Compliance Reviewer and Approval Date, then set one rule: no row reaches Approved without both filled in. For a FINRA member firm, a registered principal must approve each retail communication before first use, and the firm's records must show the principal's name and approval date.
Step 5: Batch and Repurpose
Block one session every two weeks, draft the six posts due in that window, and send them to your reviewer together. That's one sitting instead of six separate requests. Drafting goes faster with ChatGPT prompts for social posts than with a blank caption, as long as a person checks every claim before the batch reaches the reviewer.
90-Day Content Calendar Template: What to Include
A 90-day content calendar template needs eight columns: date, platform, content pillar, draft status, caption or hook, compliance reviewer, approval date, and published link. The table is a build spec for Google Sheets, and the same layout carries over to Notion or Excel.
If you pull or replace a post, log the removal date in the Draft Status cell. That date is your record of last use.
Here are the first two weeks of a quarter that starts Tuesday, November 3, 2026, posting on LinkedIn. Sam Sample is a fictional reviewer. The sample leaves out the Caption/Hook and Published Link columns to fit the page.
What Should an Advisor Post in Each of the 13 Weeks?
Give each week one seasonal hook and let that hook set the pillar for the week's first post. The other two posts rotate through your remaining pillars. This plan covers November 3, 2026 through January 28, 2027.
Three notes keep the plan on schedule:
Election week: Election Day falls on your first posting day, November 3. Have your reviewer clear the market commentary a week early, and keep it free of predictions and party lines.
Holiday weeks: Weeks 4, 8, and 9 include Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. Approve those posts two weeks ahead, because your reviewer may be away.
Year in review: Describe what moved in plain words and leave out performance figures for your own strategies.
At day 90, count how many of the 39 posts went live on time and note which pillar drew the most replies, then replace one pillar for the next quarter. Read those counts next to the marketing metrics advisors track, such as lead-to-client conversion and referral rate, because post counts alone say little about growth.
How Long Must Advisors Keep Social Media Posts?
Registered investment advisers keep a copy of each advertisement until at least five years after the end of the fiscal year in which they last disseminated it, under Advisers Act Rule 204-2. FINRA member firms keep retail and institutional communications for at least three years, the first two in an easily accessible place, under FINRA Rule 2210 and SEA Rule 17a-4(b). Which rule applies depends on how you are registered, and a dually registered advisor may answer to both, so confirm with your compliance officer.
For RIAs under the Advisers Act:
Rule 204-2(a)(11) requires a copy of each advertisement you disseminate.
Rule 204-2(a)(15) requires records of testimonial and endorsement disclosures, plus support for your belief that testimonials, endorsements, and third-party ratings comply with the Marketing Rule.
For FINRA member firms:
Rule 2210(b)(1)(A) requires an appropriately qualified registered principal to approve each retail communication before the earlier of its first use or filing with FINRA.
Rule 2210(b)(4)(A) requires the records to include a copy of the communication, the dates of first and last use, and the name of the approving principal with the approval date. If no principal approved it before first use, the record names the person who prepared or distributed it.
Posts on an online interactive forum, such as comment threads, are excepted from pre-approval when the firm supervises and reviews them like correspondence.
Regulatory Notice 17-18, published April 25, 2017, confirms that whether a communication must be retained depends on its content, not on the device or app used to send it.
Each calendar column maps to a record. The Date column shows first use, the removal note in Draft Status shows last use, and the reviewer and approval date columns show who approved the post and when.
A spreadsheet logs approvals but isn't an archive. The retained copy of each post usually comes from archiving software or dated screenshots, so ask your compliance officer what your system of record is.
Social posts also raise Marketing Rule questions about testimonials, performance, and third-party content. Kitces Research notes that referencing a client's third-party review would likely count as adopting it, which can make that content your advertisement. Flag any post that touches those topics in the Caption/Hook cell, and run every new post type through your compliance review before it goes live.
How Do You Repurpose One Idea Into Four Posts?
Content repurposing means turning one pillar topic into three or four posts in different formats instead of writing something new every time. One worked example shows how.
Maya Example is a fictional solo advisor who posts only on LinkedIn. Her market-commentary pillar produces one idea: what the quarter's results mean for clients nearing retirement. She turns it into:
A LinkedIn text post with the full take, written for peers and referral partners.
A LinkedIn carousel with three one-line takeaways.
A short post that answers a question a follower asked in the comments.
A follow-up post a week later on the one point readers asked about most.
She gives each version its own row in the sheet. Each is its own post, so the reviewer and approval date attach to what actually went live.
One idea, four rows, one review session. After her first 90 days, the best-performing version becomes the first piece for her second platform, which makes a 90-day calendar realistic for a one-person marketing team.
Next Step: Build Your Social Content Calendar
Open a blank Google Sheet today, add the eight columns, and send week one's three posts to your reviewer. A 90-day calendar only works once pillars, cadence, and compliance sign-off sit on the same sheet. If you want a second set of eyes on your pillars first, you can book a call with The Advisor's CMO and go through your draft sheet together.