Aitana Cantú

What are you passionate about outside of work?
I am passionate about spending time with my family, going out into nature and learning new things. I also enjoy reading, designing typefaces and biking.

What is your daily life like at Vanilla?
As a designer, my weeks can look very different depending on what is going on at Vanilla. Sometimes that looks like designing branded collateral for an offsite, doing UX research, creating illustrations for an upcoming blog post or helping with product.

What gets you excited to keep coming to work every day?
I really enjoy being able to work on different types of projects and with different departments and teams. Since we work remotely, being able to go from working on design heavy things to more research based tasks allows me to interact with more coworkers.

How does Vanilla help you to have a healthy work/life balance?
Being a fully remote company allows for flexibility when it comes to all the other daily tasks and errands I need to get done. I find that I am able to be more focused while I work because I can balance tasks outside of work more easily. Cutting out a commute, especially in a city like Los Angeles, gives me more time to take on the day.

How did you end up in estate planning?
I found estate planning unintentionally. When I first learned about Vanilla, I was really drawn by how design and tech focused the company is. At some companies, design feels like an afterthought, so I really appreciate how Vanilla leads with design.

What do you see in the future of estate planning?
I see companies like Vanilla creating a space in the outdated estate planning industry that marries advances in tech and passionate people to create a platform that is intuitive and enjoyable to use.

How do you see estate planning impacting people’s lives?
Estate planning is important for everyone, whether we want to admit it or not. I hope that with the work we do at Vanilla, more people will feel confident in taking it on.