Rachel Pettis

Apr 16, 2024

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What’s New in Vanilla: New features for April 2024

Spring (and Legacy Now) is in the air! April is showering Vanilla with multiple new features, enabling our customers to:

• Expedite document reviews in Vanilla Estate Builder with smart suggestions powered by VAI™ and additional customization with Advanced Distributions
• Show the potential future impact of layering on a SLAT or GRAT with Vanilla Scenarios™
• Invite clients to engage an estate attorney in certain states when completing their documents with Vanilla Document Builder
• Include the cost of Vanilla Document Builder in your firm’s fee structure with a Charge Me option
• Add your firm’s custom compliance disclosures to the Vanilla PDF report
• And coming end of the month, upload financial information quickly to your client’s Balance Sheet with a spreadsheet import feature

Simplify client onboarding with Estate Builder powered by VAI

We’re excited to announce that VAI™ for Estate Builder is now generally available as a beta feature making it easier for advisors, planners, and attorneys to transform their clients’ estate planning documents into structured data in Vanilla. VAI reads estate planning documents and suggests key information such as names, dates, trust details, and other relevant information to populate in Estate Builder. VAI also calls out noteworthy annotations or inconsistencies in documents and points to where the information was obtained. This new time-saving feature enables you to spend more time with your clients while VAI does the heavy lifting.

Also available in Estate Builder are new Advanced Distributions. It is now easier to abstract estate documents in Estate Builder with additional customization and a more intuitive abstraction flow. Dedicated tiles for every document allow you to mix and match distribution combinations offering support for more trust structures, such as AC trusts. As you build estates, you can easily edit and save information as you go through a document.

Model the future outcome of a SLAT or GRAT with Vanilla Scenarios

A few weeks ago, we launched our innovative scenario planning feature, Vanilla Scenarios™ through a limited release. Today, we are thrilled to offer Scenarios as a beta feature to all Vanilla customers with the ability to add a SLAT (Spousal Lifetime Access Trust) or GRAT (Grantor Retained Annuity Trust) on top of a client’s existing estate plan.

Advisors can easily layer on either or both strategies and compare the effectiveness versus the existing plan. With a detailed graph demonstrating changes in the estate over time and at key milestones like the 2026 Sunset, advisors can visualize how to potentially mitigate a clients tax liability and maximize what goes to their beneficiaries.

Vanilla Scenarios will start with the ability to add a SLAT or GRAT and overtime add additional strategies like ILITs, QPRTs, IDGTs, charitable strategies, and annual gifting.

Vanilla Document Builder gets better with Attorney Engagement and Charge Me payment option

With Vanilla Document Builder, your clients have an easy, self-service experience to create a Basic Trust Package. Now, your clients have the option of selecting self-service documents or engaging a trusted firm. Vanilla has partnered with the modern law firm Accelerant Law PLLC . Clients in select markets may directly engage Accelerant attorneys who will advise them in building a plan that complements their family and financial situation. Upon completion of their documents, the client’s plan will sync automatically with the Vanilla Estate Advisory Platform.

Additionally, with a new Charge Me payment option, advisors can cover the cost of creating a Basic Trust Package for more flexibility with their firm’s fee structure. By opting in on a client-by-client basis, the advisor will be invoiced separately for the client’s document package.

Import client financial information faster and add custom disclosures to PDF reports

The Vanilla PDF client report can now include a firm’s custom compliance disclosures. This new enhancement to the report streamlines advisor compliance requirements. Organization administrators can easily add their firm’s custom disclosure by navigating to the Settings menu and then pasting their disclosure in the Custom Disclosures box. The firm’s custom disclosure and the Vanilla Disclosure will then appear in all newly generated PDF reports.

And coming at the end of April, advisors can expedite adding their client’s financial information to the Balance Sheet with a new spreadsheet import feature. An advisor can save time and avoid tedious manual effort by downloading the Vanilla import template, populating data, and submitting to Vanilla to upload. A notification will follow signaling the successful import of a client’s information.

To learn more about these new features or for a demo, contact sales.