diff --git a/src/Type.cc b/src/Type.cc
index 397a27ebe8..82185faa77 100644
--- a/src/Type.cc
+++ b/src/Type.cc
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 #include "zeek/Traverse.h"
 #include "zeek/Val.h"
 #include "zeek/Var.h"
+#include "zeek/ZVal.h"
 #include "zeek/module_util.h"
 #include "zeek/zeekygen/IdentifierInfo.h"
 #include "zeek/zeekygen/Manager.h"
@@ -1105,6 +1106,7 @@ void RecordType::AddField(unsigned int field, const TypeDecl* td) {
     ASSERT(field == managed_fields.size());
 
     managed_fields.push_back(ZVal::IsManagedType(td->type));
+    field_properties.push_back({.is_managed = ZVal::IsManagedType(td->type), .type_tag = td->type->Tag()});
 
     // We defer error-checking until here so that we can keep deferred_inits
     // and managed_fields correctly tracking the associated fields.
@@ -1539,6 +1541,15 @@ bool RecordType::IsDeferrable() const {
     return std::ranges::all_of(creation_inits, is_deferrable);
 }
 
+void RecordType::InitSlots(std::span<zeek::ZValSlot> slots) const {
+    int n = NumFields();
+    if ( slots.size() != field_properties.size() )
+        zeek::reporter->InternalError("wrong number of slots and slot properties");
+
+    for ( int i = 0; i < n; i++ )
+        slots[i] = field_properties[i];
+}
+
 FileType::FileType(TypePtr yield_type) : Type(TYPE_FILE), yield(std::move(yield_type)) {}
 
 FileType::~FileType() = default;
diff --git a/src/Type.h b/src/Type.h
index cc30238708..4a9ec8c101 100644
--- a/src/Type.h
+++ b/src/Type.h
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ namespace zeek {
 
 class Val;
 union ZVal;
+class ZValSlot;
 class EnumVal;
 class RecordVal;
 class TableVal;
@@ -635,6 +636,11 @@ private:
 
 using type_decl_list = PList<TypeDecl>;
 
+struct RecordFieldProperties {
+    bool is_managed = false;
+    TypeTag type_tag = TYPE_VOID;
+};
+
 class RecordType final : public Type {
 public:
     explicit RecordType(type_decl_list* types);
@@ -692,7 +698,11 @@ public:
 
     // Returns flags corresponding to which fields in the record
     // have types requiring memory management (reference counting).
-    const std::vector<bool>& ManagedFields() const { return managed_fields; }
+    [[deprecated("Remove in v9.1: Unused and optimization related internal. Use FieldProperties() instead.")]]
+    const std::vector<bool>& ManagedFields() const {
+        return managed_fields;
+    }
+    const std::vector<RecordFieldProperties>& FieldProperties() const { return field_properties; }
 
     int NumFields() const { return num_fields; }
     int NumOrigFields() const { return num_orig_fields; }
@@ -771,10 +781,16 @@ private:
     const auto& DeferredInits() const { return deferred_inits; }
     const auto& CreationInits() const { return creation_inits; }
 
+    // Initialize the slots using slot_properties.
+    void InitSlots(std::span<zeek::ZValSlot> slots) const;
+
     // If we were willing to bound the size of records, then we could
     // use std::bitset here instead.
     std::vector<bool> managed_fields;
 
+    // Field properties for ZvalSlot initialization
+    std::vector<RecordFieldProperties> field_properties;
+
     // Number of fields in the type.
     int num_fields = 0;