Speed, Scale, and Client Engagement: How Robertson Stephens Elevates Estate Planning with Vanilla

Moving fast without sacrificing quality

Robertson Stephens follows three core principles in their strategic wealth planning approach: move forward as quickly as possible, focus on what clients value most, and demonstrate impact visually and interactively. Before adopting Vanilla, the estate planning component of this process was creating bottlenecks. Mallon explained that creating estate plan summaries by hand took an average of six hours per client—time that limited which clients could receive comprehensive estate planning services.

With Vanilla’s AI Estate Summary, Robertson Stephens has reduced that time to approximately 45 minutes: 10 minutes for Vanilla to generate the summary, and 30-35 minutes for a quality review by their planners. This efficiency gain has fundamentally changed the firm’s service model.

Scaling estate planning across all client segments

The time savings enabled by Vanilla have allowed Robertson Stephens to democratize access to sophisticated estate planning services. Where comprehensive estate plan reviews were previously reserved for their highest net worth clients, the firm can now extend these services to mass affluent clients.

Almost all prospects and clients engaging in planning at Robertson Stephens now receive a Vanilla AI (VAI) summary of their estate documents. The team has also developed custom queries using Vanilla’s Copilot tool to supplement the standard AI summary with firm-specific insights tailored to their clients’ needs.

For more sophisticated clients, Robertson Stephens leverages Vanilla’s comprehensive estate reports—complete with waterfall diagrams, trust summaries, and tax calculations—to facilitate deeper conversations about estate planning intentions and opportunities.

Winning prospects with visualization and engagement

Estate planning has become a major differentiator in Robertson Stephens’ business development efforts. Mallon noted that 50% of their planning time, particularly for prospects, is dedicated to estate planning discussions. Over the last four years, this planning-first approach has driven approximately $170 million in new assets annually, with the firm on track for $195 million this year. Their close rate averages 85% over that period.

The visual and interactive nature of Vanilla’s platform has been crucial to this success. Robertson Stephens uses Vanilla’s comprehensive estate reports—complete with waterfall diagrams showing exactly how assets flow to beneficiaries, trust summaries, and detailed tax calculations—to help clients understand the real impact of their planning decisions. By connecting estate planning structures with live financial data through eMoney integration, the firm can show clients not just what their plan says, but what it actually means for their family’s financial future.

By gamifying the wealth planning process through real-time scenario modeling and clear visualizations, Robertson Stephens keeps clients and prospects actively engaged. This approach has transformed estate planning from a compliance exercise into a strategic conversation that drives action.

Choosing the right technology partner

Robertson Stephens was an early adopter of AI tools for estate planning, having tested multiple solutions before selecting Vanilla. What set Vanilla apart was the combination of accuracy, client-friendly language, aesthetic presentation, and, critically, integration capabilities.

“Integrations are a huge issue in the wealth tech space. There’s a lot of great tools, but we just want them to talk to each other,” Mallon explained. Vanilla’s integration with eMoney allows Robertson Stephens to seamlessly connect estate planning structures with financial data, enabling the comprehensive waterfall reports and tax calculations that clients find so compelling.

After evaluating multiple AI solutions, Robertson Stephens found Vanilla’s accuracy to be superior to other AI tools in the market.  The platform’s ability to cite source documents—showing exactly where in estate documents each piece of information was found—has been instrumental in reducing quality assurance time while maintaining confidence in the output.

Partnership beyond the product

Beyond the technology itself, Robertson Stephens has valued Vanilla as a true partner. From an attentive and patient sales process to responsive ongoing support, the relationship has exceeded expectations.

“We’ve had great support, which means a lot. That means quick response time, answering our questions, and telling us when enhancements may come in that we want,” Mallon noted. He highlighted that Vanilla delivers meaningful upgrades on a regular basis, demonstrating a product roadmap that evolves with client needs.

After more than six months as a Vanilla client, Robertson Stephens has every confidence that the partnership will continue delivering value as they scale their wealth planning services.

Robertson Stephens is a current client of Vanilla.