Category: Estate Planning

Vanilla

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May 18, 2026

A financial advisor's book spans the full range of client complexity — from a household getting their first will to a UHNW family managing a multi-generational wealth transfer. Vanilla was built to handle all of it. More than 21,000 estates processed, $250 billion in assets modeled. Here's what that looks like in practice. Mass affluent clients: delivering good plans at scale For emerging wealth clients, the problem most advisors face isn't what to do — it's how to do it consistently across a large number of relationships without the process falling apart. Vanilla's Document Builder™ gives clients the tools to...

Vanilla

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May 12, 2026

As demand for estate planning increases, adoption of AI estate planning software is accelerating. Last year, Kitces Research projected that by 2026, nearly half of all advisors will employ technology to support estate planning.  Firms leading the charge are positioning themselves to deliver a differentiated level of comprehensive planning with depth and consistency across their entire book of business. Advisors who build estate planning into their core service offering, supported by AI software that enables scale, can establish deeper relationships with both current and next-gen clients while setting themselves apart from firms focused exclusively on investment management and retirement financial...

Vanilla

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May 06, 2026

The wealth management industry is at an inflection point. Cerulli Associates projects that $124 trillion in assets will transfer by 2048, with $105 trillion flowing to the next generation. Trusts are among the most commonly used vehicles for structuring those transfers. For RIAs, multi-family offices, and private wealth firms, the volume of trust documents that will need to be reviewed represents both a significant opportunity and an operational challenge. Trust documents govern beneficiary rights, distribution conditions, tax strategies, and succession intentions, making a thorough review consequential to comprehensive financial planning.  The growing complexity of trust review in wealth management Client...

Sarah D. McDaniel, CFA

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May 01, 2026

A 2026 analysis of more than 12,000 advisor-client meetings found that 72% of clients express interest in estate planning but defer. Only 26% move forward. Most clients aren't opposed — they're waiting for a reason to act now. Volatile markets provide one. When markets are turbulent, it’s a smart time to revisit estate planning. While the instinct might be to pause and wait for stability, volatile periods can actually open up strategic opportunities. Using the blog The Building Blocks of Estate Planning Techniques as a guide, we’ll outline some timely actions advisors can take to calmly and confidently help clients...

Sarah D. McDaniel, CFA

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May 01, 2026

May is prime wedding season. More couples marry this month than any other and this concentration of celebration creates a natural opening for financial advisors. Couples marking a major commitment are uniquely receptive to thinking about their shared future, including the financial one.  That future is more consequential than ever. The U.S. is in the early stages of the largest wealth transfer in history, with an estimated $124 trillion moving between generations through 2048. But before that wealth reaches the next generation, it will first move horizontally with approximately $54 trillion expected to pass to surviving spouses. How wealth is...

Vanilla

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Apr 28, 2026

Trust documents contain the instructions that dictate how wealth moves between generations, who controls assets, and when beneficiaries receive distributions, provisions that directly impact investment strategy, tax planning, and legacy outcomes. When advisors miss or misunderstand key trust terms, they risk recommending strategies that conflict with a client's actual estate structure. For advisors, trust document review isn't a legal exercise; it's a planning function that plays a key role in comprehensive wealth management. The advisor's role in reviewing trust documents A proper trust review identifies the provisions that matter for investment decisions, distribution planning, and wealth transfer strategy. Advisors need...

Sarah D. McDaniel, CFA

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Apr 03, 2026

Once a year, clients do something remarkable: they gather every meaningful financial document they own. W-2s, 1099s, brokerage statements, retirement account summaries, Social Security income, rental income, trust distributions, charitable contribution receipts are all collected in one place, often for the first time since last April. For a few weeks, your clients have a clearer picture of their complete financial life than at almost any other moment in the year. They know what they own, what it earned, who depends on them, and what they owe. That document gathering process is more than a tax compliance exercise. It’s a full...

Jennifer Raess JD, CFP®, CLU®

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Mar 26, 2026

Most estate plans were written for a different world. A world where the federal exemption was heading back to $5 million, indexed for inflation, where the planning urgency was about beating a deadline, and where the core question was: how much can we shelter before the window closes? That world no longer exists. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) permanently extended the exemption, raising it to $15 million per individual in 2026, and indexed for inflation thereafter. This means no more sunset, no more deadline, no more countdown. For clients, that's genuinely good news. For their estate plans, it...

Gene Farrell

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Mar 24, 2026

When the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed last July, I watched advisors exhale. The exemption sunset everyone had been bracing for didn’t happen. The $15 million per-individual exemption was locked in permanently. The deadline pressure was gone. That exhale worries me. Not because the law is bad — it isn’t. But because relief has a way of crowding out urgency. And right now, sitting inside millions of client files, is a problem that didn’t go away when the exemption did. It just got harder to see. The sunset created a habit. The OBBBA broke it. For years, the looming...