Category: Estate Planning

Vanilla

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Jul 20, 2026

Estate planning is complex by nature. For family offices, that complexity reaches a new level: Multi-generational wealth structures Intricate entity relationships Beneficiaries with competing interests.  Tax exposure that spans federal, state, and generation-skipping layers Family offices exist precisely to address these layered nuances with dedicated expertise and infrastructure. But many are still relying on tools that weren’t built to handle the variables associated with ultra-sophisticated estate planning: spreadsheets, disconnected point solutions, and legacy software. What makes estate planning different for family offices Family offices don't operate like traditional RIAs or wealth management practices. Client relationships run deeper and longer and...

Vanilla

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Jul 09, 2026

Estate taxes are one of the most consequential numbers in a client's financial life, but they’re also highly complex and often misunderstood. While estate taxes are often associated with high-net-worth households, they’re increasingly relevant across the wealth spectrum. Even when federal estate taxes may not apply, many mass affluent clients are still exposed to state-level estate taxes, making these conversations important for a much broader set of clients.  A complete estate tax estimate draws from federal exemption thresholds, state-level tax exposure, asset valuations, discount rates, trust structures, gifting history, and assumptions about future growth, with variations on any input changing...

Karen Nachbar

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Jul 08, 2026

Estate planning is one of the most valuable conversations a financial advisor can have with a client. It also can be legally sensitive. When you invite a client to talk about their estate, you can open the door to a category of risk that advisors may want to focus on: the unauthorized practice of law, or UPL. Many advisors who run into UPL issues simply don't realize they've crossed a line — or they're trying to help a client who doesn't want to hear "talk to an attorney." But the consequences, ranging from state bar referrals and FINRA or SEC...

Sarah D. McDaniel, CFA

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Jul 01, 2026

Holiday gatherings bring the whole family together; the same people who need to align on estate plans, heirlooms, and generational transfers. Here's how to show up as an invaluable resource before, during, and after. When families gather, decisions get made It's no coincidence that some of the most meaningful estate planning conversations happen around a kitchen table or on a porch in July. Given families informally use holiday get-togethers to have important conversations, advisors who ask about family gatherings and traditions do more than make small talk, they become confidants and indirectly part of the family conversation. Advisors learn who...

Vanilla

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Jun 25, 2026

Estate planning is built on a foundation of sensitive conversations and personal information: beneficiary designations, trust structures, asset distributions, family dynamics, and tax strategies. For RIA firms evaluating estate planning software, security belongs at the center of the decision-making process. As clients increasingly demand transparency into how their data is being used and managed, and regulators step up scrutiny on technology infrastructure, RIAs need to partner with vendors that understand the high stakes of data security. The nuances of estate planning data All financial data is sensitive, and estate planning data is no exception. A client’s estate plan is tied...

Laura Jogani

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Jun 11, 2026

"This could take an hour and I'd still be thrilled." That's what a trust officer at a top trust company said to me while we were running a trust document review together in Vanilla. The AI had taken a little longer than usual — maybe seven minutes instead of five. She wasn't bothered because she knew what the alternative was. Five hours. One document. Every time. That's the reality of trust document reviews today at most trust companies. A new account comes in, or an annual review is due, and a trust officer sits down with a dense, 80-page document...

Laura Jogani

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Jun 04, 2026

Early in my career at JP Morgan, I needed information about a specific trust. Details about distribution standards, successor trustees, provisions that mattered for a client situation we were navigating. The trust officer who knew that account inside and out was on vacation. Two weeks out. We waited. That moment stuck with me, not because it was a crisis, but because it was so ordinary. It happened all the time, at one of the largest, most sophisticated financial institutions in the world. The information existed. It just lived in a person, not a system. And when that person wasn't there,...

Sarah D. McDaniel, CFA

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Jun 02, 2026

Memorial Day is behind us, school's out and our clients are booking flights, loading up the car, and mentally shifting into summer mode. That's exactly why this is your opening. When people travel, something shifts in how they think about the unexpected — what happens if a flight goes sideways, if there's a medical emergency, if something unforeseen leaves their family trying to figure out who to call and what to do. That quiet anxiety doesn't require a crisis or a deadline to feel real. It’s already there. And your clients are in that mindset right now. They're updating emergency...

Vanilla

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May 28, 2026

Estate planning is one of the most valuable services financial advisors can offer, but it’s also one of the most difficult to make relevant and tangible during a client meeting.  For many families across the wealth spectrum, estate documents already exist, created by their attorneys. But showing clients what those plans mean in the context of their full financial picture is challenging, and doing so in a way that’s simple, actionable, and engaging is even harder.  Estate planning flowcharts do the heavy lifting, surfacing relevant data from dense legal documents and helping clients immediately understand the impact of the information...