Vanilla
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Oct 07, 2025
Vanilla Approved by Osaic as a Comprehensive Estate Planning Solutions Provider to Over...
The partnership empowers Osaic's advisor network with cutting-edge estate planning technology to enhance client relationships and drive holistic wealth management BELLEVUE, Wash.--Vanilla, the most trusted modern estate planning platform for financial advisors, today announced a strategic partnership with Osaic, Inc. (Osaic), one of the nation's largest providers of wealth management solutions. Through this partnership, Osaic's national network of more than 11,000 financial advisors can now access Vanilla's comprehensive estate planning platform to streamline complex processes, create compelling planning scenarios, and deliver more meaningful, results-focused client experiences. "Estate planning has become essential to comprehensive wealth management, especially as our clients navigate...
Vanilla
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Oct 03, 2025
Vanilla Appoints Larry Steinberg as Chief Technology Officer
We’re excited to announce that Larry Steinberg has joined Vanilla as our new Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Larry brings decades of technology and business leadership experience, from founding and scaling startups to guiding global tech organizations through major transformation. His career reflects a consistent track record of building high-performing teams, modernizing technology platforms, and driving innovation to accelerate business growth. A proven technology leader Most recently, Larry served as CTO at Spring Health, where he led the company’s technology strategy and operations. Before that, he was CTO at Rent the Runway, playing a pivotal role in preparing the company for...
Sarah D. McDaniel, CFA
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Oct 01, 2025
Changes in Interest Rates and Why Estate Planning Reviews Matter
The Federal Reserve's September 2025 rate cut may create planning opportunities The Federal Reserve's recent quarter-point reduction to 4.00%-4.25% represents the first rate cut of 2025 with Fed projections indicating additional cuts may follow later this year. While these monetary policy shifts primarily target economic conditions, they create significant ripple effects throughout the estate planning landscape that may warrant immediate attention. Why interest rates drive estate planning effectiveness Estate planning isn't a "set it and forget it" process. The effectiveness of wealth transfer strategies fluctuates dramatically based on prevailing interest rate environments, making periodic reviews essential—particularly during periods of monetary...
Vanilla
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Sep 29, 2025
What Is a Spendthrift Trust and How Do You Set One Up?
Many families worry about what will happen to wealth after it passes to the next generation. There may be concerns about poor financial decision-making, personal debts, unstable relationships, or even exposure to lawsuits. In some cases, some traditional estate planning strategies may not offer enough protection if beneficiaries are financially vulnerable. In these situations, there are additional legal structures that can be used to help protect wealth from being misused, mismanaged, or lost to credits when it passes to future generations. This article will offer a detailed overview of one of the most effective tools for balancing long-term support with...
Vanilla
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Jun 02, 2025
How to Bring Up Conversations About Estate Planning With Clients
Estate planning is one of the most important—and frequently overlooked—aspects of a client’s financial life. Despite its importance, a significant number of adults don’t even have a basic will in place. This gap represents both a risk to clients’ families and a tremendous opportunity for advisors to deepen relationships by addressing a crucial area of need. While estate planning conversations can feel awkward or emotional, avoiding them may result in confusion, unnecessary expenses, or the client’s final wishes not being carried out. When advisors take the lead in these discussions, they provide peace of mind, safeguard client legacies, and position...
Vanilla
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Jun 02, 2025
Vanilla Named a Finalist in Four Categories in the 2025 “Wealthies”
June 2, 2025 — Vanilla, the most trusted estate planning platform for advisors, was named a finalist in four categories at the 2025 WealthManagement.com Industry Awards, recognizing our continued innovation and impact in estate planning software. Now in its 11th year, the “Wealthies” honor outstanding organizations and individuals that support financial advisor success. Vanilla has been recognized in estate planning across the following categories: Advisor Service and Support: Document Abstraction Services Implementation: Vanilla Academy Technology: V/AI Copilot Thought Leadership: The State of Estate Planning Report 2025 “These recognitions affirm what we’ve known from the start—that modern estate planning requires tools...
Sarah D. McDaniel, CFA
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Jan 28, 2025
The Building Blocks of Estate Planning Techniques (And a Cheat Sheet for When...
Trust, tax, and estate planning can be intimidating to behold. Not only is there a sea of new terminology, acronyms, and legalese to decipher, there’s also an enormous gravity to the decisions being made and how they’ll affect the financial wellbeing of a client’s loved ones. There are three sequential components underpinning trust, tax and estate planning: wealth stages, objectives, timing & deployment. Creating an optimized plan requires understanding the interdependence of each of these building blocks and how they relate to a client's estate. In this article, we’ll walk through how these three elements add up to effective trust,...
John Costello
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Oct 24, 2024
Vanilla Named to the 2024 CB Insights’ List of the 100 Most Innovative...
Vanilla recognized as a leader in modernizing estate planning for wealth management NEW YORK, October 24, 2024 – CB Insights today named Vanilla to its seventh annual Fintech 100, showcasing the 100 most promising private fintech companies in the world. “The 2024 Fintech 100 winners are high-momentum companies shaping the future of financial services,” said Laura Kennedy, Principal Analyst at CB Insights. “Unsurprisingly, this year’s cohort is deploying AI across a wide variety of solutions. But they’re also diverse in their reach in emerging and developing economies, and focus on everything from fraud prevention to financial inclusion.” "As Vanilla continues...
Madison Eubanks
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Jun 11, 2024
Beneficiary Deemed Owner Trust (BDOT): What You Need to Know
When it comes to planning for the future, trusts are helpful tools that can protect your money and make it easier to pass it on to others. Some trusts are simple, while others are more advanced and offer special tax benefits. One of the more advanced types is called a beneficiary deemed owner trust, or BDOT. Although the name sounds complicated, the main idea is that the trust is set up in a way that makes the beneficiary, not the person who created the trust, responsible for paying income taxes on the money the trust earns. This can sometimes save...
