Category: Uncategorized

Simona Ondrejkova, CFP

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Nov 06, 2023

Digital marketing offers advisors a great opportunity to expand your client base, increase your authority in the industry, and grow your business. Because digital marketing allows you to reach a wider audience of qualified prospects faster, it’s also more scalable than simply relying on in-person networking, cold calling, or other more traditional ways of acquiring financial advisor leads. Yet when it comes to online marketing, what works in other industries doesn’t necessarily always work for financial advisors. With a basic grasp of the following digital marketing strategies for wealth management, you’ll be able to connect with qualified prospects, increase awareness...

Daniel Brockley

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Oct 24, 2023

It used to be simple. Well, relatively simple. Physical possessions and properties were documented in trusts and wills, and when someone died, the executor would collect the keys and dole the possessions out. (Okay, I’m skipping probate and a few rather essential steps here, but you get the drift). What happens, though, when there is no physical possession – when there is no key? What happens when the assets in question are non-tangible? When they exist only in the digital world? Vanilla recently held a partner webinar with Kitces.com, where Jeff Levine outlined some key considerations that advisors and clients...

Daniel Brockley

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Jul 20, 2023

For Mariner Wealth Advisors paraplanner Gillian Cassidy and team, estate planning is always part of the conversation with a new client. In their onboarding process, the Mariner Wealth Advisors team inquires about existing estate plans and any life changes that may have happened since their estate documents were drawn up. They upload existing docs into Vanilla and walk through where it stands as well as potential opportunities to improve the strategy with the client.  So, when a new couple came to Gillian and team, they naturally asked about their current estate plan. What they found surprised and saddened them.  Gillian...

Daniel Brockley

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Jul 13, 2023

We want the best for our kids–for them to be happy, healthy, and love one another. And after a lifetime of working hard and weathering the ups and downs of the market, it can be heartening to know that the toils of your labor might help set up your children for success along their own paths. But money often serves as a magnifying glass, enhancing opportunities when things go well or fraying family relationships when jealousy or greed creep in. And as you consider how to leave your estate to your children, you may have a nagging feeling you can’t...

Vanilla

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May 03, 2023

  Many clients (and some financial advisors as well) tend to reduce estate planning to two simple categories: taxable estates and non-taxable estates. While it’s true that there are important differences in these asset levels, estate planning is not binary. It takes a nuanced approach, one that requires understanding a client’s situation and goals deeply.  However, even with the understanding that a good advisor will always tailor their approach to each individual client’s needs, it can be helpful to think of client needs according to a few different distinct buckets of asset classes – beyond just taxable and non-taxable. We’ve...

Amjad Hussain

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Apr 13, 2023

We’ve been hearing a lot about AI recently, and for good reason. The innovation happening with Large Language Models (LLMs) and Generative AI are remarkable, have sparked our imagination, and beg the question: What does the future hold? Of course I can’t predict the future, but I do have some thoughts about what it will mean for our industry. When it comes to estate planning, machine learning has the potential to reshape things in some important ways. This evolution may be more subtle in the present and near future – with AI playing a role in the background – but...