Vanilla simplifies estate planning in Washington by helping you organize and visualize every client’s complete financial picture.
Vanilla simplifies estate planning in Washington by helping you organize and visualize every client’s complete financial picture.
"We’ve gotten a lot of really great feedback from our clients on the Vanilla visualizations. A lot of clients have never seen their plan outside of the documents, some of which are a hundred pages long and get kind of confusing. It really changes the conversation.”
Grant Blindbury
Partner at FMB Wealth Management
Washington Estate Planning Documents
Advisors invite clients to create estate documents.
Clients go through a self-guided questionnaire.
Clients review and finalize the plan.
Printed documents are shipped for signature.
Advisor keeps track of clients’ progress.
The estate plan is visualized in Vanilla.
Probate laws and proceedings vary from state to state. Here are some probate and estate distinctions to be aware of in Washington.
Washington is one of a few states that imposes a state estate tax in addition to the federal estate tax. Currently, Washington’s tax applies to any estates valued at $2.193 million or more. The rates range from 10% to 20%, depending on the value of the estate.
For estates below a certain threshold in value, Washington offers simplified probate procedures. Heirs can use a simplified procedure to claim assets without going through formal probate for qualifying estates.
Washington is one of 12 community property states, meaning that assets acquired during marriage are automatically considered jointly and equally owned by both spouses. This means marital assets are subject to equal division in the event of divorce or death.
Washington has specific requirements for creating a valid will, including a witness signature. If a will doesn’t meet the state’s validity requirements, the estate may become subject to intestacy laws.
Washington offers homestead protections or awards in lieu of homestead for a surviving spouse, surviving registered domestic partner, and minor children. These protections can allow them to retain certain rights to the family home or receive financial support during the probate process.
Washington has specific laws regarding non-probate assets, such as joint tenancy property, payable-on-death accounts, and assets held in a trust. Typically, these assets can pass to designated beneficiaries without going through probate.
Clients answer questions through a step-by-step process that generates their estate planning documents.
Invite your clients to create core estate planning documents. Monitor the status of invites sent and your clients’ progress to ensure they’re successfully completed and executed.
Information from the estate documents flows directly into Vanilla so advisors can immediately see the specific fact patterns and integrate their clients’ financial data.
Clients have the option to engage with licensed attorneys from Accelerant PLLC in certain states who will help facilitate and complete the estate planning documents.
Integrations
Create estate plan overviews
Organize and onboard clients’ plans in one place.
Visualize how the estate plan works
Simplify complex plans with interactive diagrams.
Drive ongoing legacy planning
Create strategies and opportunities through impactful estate planning conversations.
Yes, Vanilla has a suite of core estate planning documents that have been tailored to WA law by top WA-licensed attorneys.
Yes, Vanilla enables advisors to create new estate plans and generate automated visualizations, reports and potential opportunities through Document Builder.
Yes, Vanilla takes all of your client’s household information, financial data, and estate documents to create the dynamic visualizations of the estate plan.
Vanilla’s vision is to empower everyone to create a meaningful legacy. We do this by making it easy for advisors to have ongoing estate planning conversations with their clients with simplified, dynamic visualizations of the estate plan that can be updated as life events occur such as the birth of a child, marriage, divorce, etc.
Instead of interpreting legal documents and turning them into PowerPoint presentations or Excel spreadsheets, advisors can save time and reduce errors from manual work by inputting all of their client information into Vanilla. This data becomes the Client Profile and ultimately represents the estate plan. Their estate plan is dynamic so that if something changes, it will update as the plan changes.
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