Vanilla
•
May 20, 2025
Unauthorized Practice of Law (UPL) Training (1 hour CFP® CE)
Key takeaways UPL is a patchwork of state-based rules without one settled definition, but the throughline test is whether specific, individualized legal advice or judgment is being applied to someone’s situation, whether spoken aloud or built into a bespoke document drafted for them. Self-service legal document software has been legally settled for decades: providing access to a tool and helping someone navigate it is not UPL, but making the client’s choices for them is. Advisors can describe what an existing estate plan does and its consequences, including tax consequences, without that being UPL. The line gets crossed when an advisor...
Vanilla
•
May 07, 2025
AI in Estate Planning: Setting the Standard
AI won’t replace advisors—but advisors who use AI will replace those who don’t. Advisors who understand how to use AI to do their jobs better will set the standard for holistic advice going forward, and this webinar focuses on how to get your firm there. We’ll discuss the evolution of advice and why right now is a critical moment, demystify the real business value of AI, and share examples of firms who are taking the lead. Designed to go far beyond basic summarization, Vanilla’s evolving AI toolkit empowers advisors to analyze estate documents as a cohesive whole, uncover planning opportunities, and...
Vanilla
•
Apr 24, 2025
Critical Estate Planning Mistakes Costing Your Clients (and Your Advisory Firm)
In today’s complex financial landscape, estate planning errors don’t just damage client legacies—they can permanently sever advisor relationships. With research showing that over 70% of assets transfer away from the original advisor after the death of a primary client, the stakes couldn’t be higher for your practice. Join us for an essential conversation with Patti Brennan, CFP®, CFS, CEO of Key Financial, Inc., and author of Am I Going to Be Okay?, as she partners with Sarah Marriott to reveal the most damaging estate planning pitfalls threatening your clients’ wealth and your firm’s future. In this practice-changing webinar, you’ll discover: Top...
Vanilla
•
Apr 16, 2025
Helping Clients Navigate Market Volatility
As advisors well know, periods of market volatility can elicit anxiety, frustration, and lots of questions from clients. These moments of instability are the time for advisors to lean in, calmly and confidently helping clients navigate through uncertainty. Rather than hunkering down to wait out the storm, savvy advisors can pivot to other planning opportunities during times like these. In this webinar, Vanilla’s experts will draw on their years of industry experience to share tips for navigating market volatility, like: Think about asset protection Focus on the long-term planning goals Look beyond investing to more holistic planning Optimize tax efficiency...
Vanilla
•
Mar 11, 2025
6 Steps to Get Started with Estate Planning
Key takeaways Eight in ten people now expect their financial advisor to include estate planning in their offering, and 61% say deep tax expertise is very important in whoever handles that work, according to Vanilla’s 2025 State of Estate Planning report. Building an estate planning offering breaks down into six concrete steps: define the scope of service, build a team of professionals, train the team, set a fee structure, engage and educate clients, and choose the right technology. An interactive client questionnaire like Vanilla’s Estate Health Check, can surface a prospect’s net worth, existing documents, and potential state estate tax...
Vanilla
•
Feb 11, 2025
Key Trends from the 2025 State of Estate Planning Report and How Advisors...
As the wealth management industry evolves, client expectations around advisory services are shifting, particularly regarding cost transparency, technology, and advisor performance. As clients seek a more integrated approach to financial planning, it becomes clear that the role of the advisor is expanding beyond investment management. Advisors who can offer value-driven services, including holistic estate planning with clear fee structures, will be better positioned to meet the needs of today’s more discerning clients. In this webinar, we’ll walk through some of the key findings from our survey of 1,000 consumers on the state of estate planning in 2025, with commentary and...
Vanilla
•
Oct 30, 2024
Vanilla Academy Live 2024: Advisor Panel Discussion
FMB Wealth Management’s Grant Blindbury, CFP® and John D’Anna, CFP® of Hirtle, Callaghan & Co., share their first-hand insights on using Vanilla day to day. Hear how these cutting-edge firms are using Vanilla to simplify the estate planning process, drive loyalty with a modernized experience, offer more holistic financial advice, and more.
Madison Eubanks
•
Oct 01, 2024
Gifting & Charitable Strategies
In estate planning, gifting and charitable funds can serve many purposes: not only are they a way to impart assets to beneficiaries like charities and family members, they can also be mechanisms for reducing income and estate taxes for the giver. In this webinar with Vanilla and UI Charitable Advisors, you’ll learn approaches to charitable giving, non-charitable gifting, Donor Advised Funds, annuities and more that allow clients to meet their tax and planning goals while benefiting their chosen people and causes. Topics covered in the webinar include: The different types of charitable strategies, and the benefits of incorporating them in...
