Vanilla
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May 08, 2025
Vanilla Unveils New AI Capabilities, Redefining the Future of Scalable Estate Planning
AI-powered tools accelerate meaningful conversations, eliminate manual processes, and deliver holistic insights at scale BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vanilla, the most trusted platform in modern estate planning, today announced significant enhancements to its AI suite, delivering a new level of intelligence and scale to the estate planning workflow. Designed to go far beyond basic summarization, the updated toolkit empowers advisors to analyze estate documents as a cohesive whole, uncover planning opportunities, and deliver personalized guidance with greater speed and accuracy. “At Vanilla, AI isn’t a bolt-on; it’s a belief system,” said Amjad Hussain, Chief Technology Officer at Vanilla. “Our vision was always...
Simona Ondrejkova, CFP
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May 07, 2025
What Is a Credit Shelter Trust? And How Can It Help Minimize Estate...
In estate planning, there are several types of trusts especially designed to help individuals avoid or reduce estate taxes. One of these is the credit shelter trust. The credit shelter trust is often used by married couples as one of many estate planning strategies that can help them pass on more wealth to beneficiaries after both spouses pass away. Here, we explain what a credit shelter trust is, how it works, and when you or your clients should consider using it to leave a greater legacy by minimizing or even eliminating the estate tax bill. What is a credit shelter...
Vanilla
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Apr 30, 2025
Revocable Trust vs. Irrevocable Trust: Understanding Six Key Differences
Helping clients navigate estate planning is becoming a non-negotiable aspect of comprehensive wealth management. Research indicates 70% of clients believe their advisors should offer estate planning services, and 40% would change advisors if it meant switching to one who did offer estate planning. So while you may not draft legal documents yourself, understanding the nuances of estate planning, like trust structures, allows you to have more meaningful conversations with clients and collaborate effectively with their attorneys. Two primary trust options—revocable and irrevocable—serve distinctly different purposes in your clients' financial plans. The right choice depends on each client's unique circumstances, priorities,...
Jessica Lantz
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Apr 23, 2025
What’s New in April: Plaid Integration, Scenarios PDF Export, Estate Builder upgrades, and...
Here at Vanilla, we’re thrilled to unveil a powerful lineup of new features and enhancements launching this month. These updates are all about delivering an intuitive, high-quality experience to elevate the advisor and end client journey. New client portal unveiled: A unified net worth experience, powered by Plaid We’re excited to introduce a reimagined client experience that brings financial and estate planning into a single, more connected view. Clients can self-serve and securely link accounts through Plaid with thousands of financial institutions with just a few clicks Automatic daily data syncs ensure that information stays current - reducing the need...
Madison Eubanks
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Apr 22, 2025
The Complete Guide to Estate Planning
Though an often overlooked part of financial planning, estate planning is a critical part of a well-rounded wealth management strategy. In fact, estate planning is about much more than just creating a will. A thoughtful estate plan is a comprehensive strategy for things like: Managing one’s wealth during life and after death Ensuring one’s family is cared for Supporting causes that align with one’s values Minimizing taxes and fees Documenting wishes in case of incapacitation Planning for one’s future legacy The common myth that estate planning is only for the ultra-wealthy is patently false. Estate planning benefits individuals at all...
Vanilla
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Apr 17, 2025
Vanilla Announces Partnership with $560B Firm Mariner
Vanilla Delivers Modern Estate Planning Capabilities to More Than 700 Advisors at Mariner Salt Lake City, UT – April 17, 2025 – Vanilla, the leading platform in modern estate planning, announced a partnership with Mariner, a national financial services firm, to deliver estate planning and advisory capabilities to the more than 700 advisors managing $560B in assets at the firm. Since the partnership began, Mariner has seen a 200% increase in revenue growth rates among the advisors who have adopted Vanilla for holistic planning. “We’re thrilled to have expanded our relationship with an iconic firm like Mariner, which is leading...
Sarah D. McDaniel, CFA
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Apr 10, 2025
An Advisor’s Guide to Helping Clients Navigate Market Volatility
For advisors, staying on top of financial markets and structural developments to identify opportunities for your clients and prospects—and then guiding them through implementation—is essential for success. 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 at different wealth stages navigate periods of uncertainty. For a deeper dive, download the complete...
Vanilla
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Apr 09, 2025
Vanilla Named a Finalist in the Twelfth Annual Family Wealth Report Awards 2025
Vanilla Recognized in Product Innovation and Outstanding Contribution categories; Chairman Steve Lockshin a Finalist for Outstanding Individual Contribution Salt Lake City, UT – April 7, 2025 – Vanilla, the leading platform in modern estate planning, has been selected as a finalist for the Twelfth Annual Family Wealth Report Awards 2025 program in the following categories: Product Innovation (B2B) Outstanding Contribution to Wealth Management Thought Leadership (Company) Outstanding Contribution to Wealth Management Thought Leadership (Individual) – Steve Lockshin Through a rigorous and independent judging process, the annual Family Wealth Report Awards program honors the most innovative and exceptional firms, teams and...
Vanilla
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Apr 08, 2025
Unlocking Scale: How Matter Family Office Streamlines Estate Planning with Vanilla + eMoney
Vanilla recently announced our integration with eMoney, empowering financial advisors to streamline their estate planning workflows like never before. Matter Family Office, a nationally recognized advisory firm managing approximately $3.5 billion in assets, is already leveraging this integration to enhance efficiency, improve client engagement, and scale the impact of estate planning across their client base. The Power of Integration A truly comprehensive approach to estate planning is not complete without visibility into the client’s balance sheet. For many advisory teams, this data already exists in eMoney. Until now, this gap has led to inefficient workarounds to get eMoney data into...
Vanilla
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Apr 07, 2025
Kitces Survey Spotlights Vanilla as a Leader in Market Share and Satisfaction Ratings...
The 2024 Financial Financial Planner Productivity Study from Kitces, How Financial Planners Actually Do Financial Planning, collects data on the key drivers of team productivity for advisory firms. This data is crucial for firm success as clients continuously expect more from their relationships with their advisors, and advisors are faced with finding ways to meet these evolving needs without adding hours to their day or increasing overhead costs. Importantly, this survey reflects how real advisors operate in their practices day to day—shedding light on the tools they use, how they approach certain processes, their client interactions, and more. This sets...
Vanilla
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Apr 04, 2025
What You Need to Know about Generation-Skipping Gifts (and Their Tax Implications)
Gifting to your children is an excellent way to reduce estate tax liabilities, but sometimes it makes more sense to give directly to grandchildren, rather than to your children. Because these gifts “skip” a generation, they are referred to as generation-skipping transfers (GST) and have special tax treatment. There are a few important things to keep in mind when considering a generation-skipping transfer gift, including the generation-skipping transfer tax. We’ll break the tax down for you and give you a few more important pointers to pay attention to. What is the generation-skipping transfer tax? The generation-skipping transfer tax (or “GSTT”)...
Jessica Lantz
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Mar 26, 2025
What’s New in March: V/AI Estate Summaries, New Opportunities, and More!
At Vanilla, we're excited to share our March lineup of powerful new features designed to enhance your estate planning workflows and provide deeper insights for you and your clients. Here's what's new this month: Unlock integrated Estate Summaries and onboard clients in minutes with V/AI Summarizing documents individually adds value. But synthesizing them into a single, integrated estate view within minutes sets a new standard for what’s possible in estate planning. With the launch of V/AI Estate Summaries and our expanded V/AI Automatic Profiles, you are able to: Upload multiple estate plan documents to unlock a high-level overview of your...
