Vanilla

Oct 09, 2026

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Vanilla Named Technology/Solutions Provider of the Year for Emerging Technologies at the 2026 MMI/Barron’s Industry Awards

Bellevue, WA, October 9, 2026. Vanilla, the modern estate planning platform built for financial advisors, today announced it has been named Technology/Solutions Provider of the Year in the Emerging Technologies category at the 2026 MMI/Barron’s Industry Awards.

Now in their 18th year, the awards recognize firms making strides in innovation and leadership in the investment advisory solutions industry. The Emerging Technologies category honors technology and service providers with early-stage or niche innovations that show strong potential to impact the industry, and winners are chosen by a vote of representatives from MMI member firms.

The recognition follows Vanilla’s wins in the Estate Planning: Technology category at the 2026 Wealthies and in the 2026 InvestmentNews 5-Star Technology awards, and comes weeks after the company unveiled the next evolution of VAI at Future Proof.

Estate planning has long been one of the hardest parts of wealth management to bring into technology. The documents are dense, and the expertise has traditionally lived with specialists. Vanilla changed that by turning complex legal documents into clear, interactive visuals advisors can walk through with clients.

Vanilla’s next innovation is agentic estate planning. A clear plan helps an advisor once the client is in front of them. Agentic estate planning works between meetings, keeping watch across an advisor’s entire book and bringing forward what needs attention, so the advisor can act before a change in a family’s life becomes a gap in their plan. The advisor stays in control of every decision.

Vanilla’s AI, VAI®, will work across the platform through specialized agents: reading documents to onboard new clients, building the client profile alongside the advisor, catching discrepancies as they surface, and flagging the planning opportunities worth acting on for advisor approval. VAI is expertise led and agentic by design, built with veteran planners and leading firms whose judgment shapes what it notices. VAI is expected to reach general availability later this year.

“Estate planning is where advisors earn a place with the whole family, and the technology behind it took too long to catch up,” said Gene Farrell, CEO of Vanilla. “Every advance we’ve made has been aimed at putting expert estate planning in the hands of every advisor. VAI is the next step, and being recognized by the firms that make up MMI tells us the industry is ready for it.”

About Vanilla

Vanilla is the modern estate planning platform built for financial advisors. By transforming complex legal documents into clear, interactive visuals, Vanilla enables advisors to deliver more personal, impactful conversations around legacy, wealth transfer, and generational planning. With deep integrations, intuitive workflows, and expert support, Vanilla helps advisors bring estate planning into the heart of holistic financial advice. Learn more at www.justvanilla.com.

Media contact

Rocco Aloe, Gregory Agency
vanilla@gregoryagency.com