Jessica Lantz

Dec 18, 2024

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What’s New in December: eMoney Integration, V/AI updates, Vanilla Document Builder, and an enhanced Balance Sheet

At Vanilla, we’re dedicated to evolving our estate planning platform to meet the needs of our users. As we close out 2024, we’re excited to share several powerful enhancements that will streamline your workflow and help you deliver even more value to your clients.

eMoney Integration: Keeping Financial Data Current

Facilitate your planning with Vanilla’s new eMoney integration. Say goodbye to manual data entry – this powerful integration keeps your client’s financial data current through daily updates, ensuring you always have the most accurate information at your fingertips for better decision-making and planning. This also ensures data accuracy and consistency between the two systems. This integration is now live and ready for all Vanilla users to start leveraging today.

V/AI Copilot: A Game-Changer for Estate Planning

V/AI Copilot Public Beta 

Your Always-Available Virtual Estate Planning Expert

Developed in collaboration with industry-leading experts, including our founder, Steve Lockshin, V/AI Copilot is a groundbreaking feature that empowers financial advisors to work smarter, not harder. With a deep understanding of estate planning intricacies, V/AI acts as your assistant, always ready to support you in delivering unparalleled value to your clients.

Here’s what Copilot offers:

• Understand your clients better: Gain insights into existing documents and plans with AI-powered clarity, helping you uncover hidden risks and opportunities.
• Deliver world-class guidance: Access best-in-class strategies to guide client conversations and engagement strategies.
• Streamline meeting prep: Effortlessly build tailored agendas to make client meetings more impactful and efficient.
• Compelling stories: Leverage storytelling techniques to create urgency and inspire action from your clients.
• Informed client decisions: Help clients confidently navigate estate planning complexities and make smarter, more aligned decisions.

Unlike generalized AI tools, V/AI Copilot is purpose-built for financial advisors by the top minds in the field. With its expert-backed design, the feature ensures you’re always equipped with curated and actionable information.

Balance Sheet: A New Asset View

Experience our completely redesigned Balance Sheet, featuring an intuitive new asset view that gives you unprecedented clarity into your client’s portfolio. Now you can instantly sort and analyze investments by asset type, while enjoying enhanced flexibility in how you view, categorize, and report on this data – whether you prefer the traditional account view or our new asset-based perspective. Customizable asset type breakdowns and streamlined reporting options make it easier than ever to understand and communicate your client’s complete financial picture.

Vanilla Document Builder: New Features for Smarter Planning

Automatic Visualizations

We’re thrilled to bring Vanilla’s signature visualization capabilities to the document creation process. Now, as your clients work through their estate planning questionnaire, they’ll see a dynamic, visual representation of their plan – complete with trust structures, specific gifts, and transfer of assets before and after the passing of a spouse – helping them better understand their choices before they finalize their documents.

The Will Package

Coming soon is our new Will Package – a thoughtfully-designed solution for clients who need robust estate planning, without the complexity of a trust. This comprehensive package uses a Last Will and Testament as the dispositive document, where your clients can still choose to leave specific gifts, and distributions either outright or in trust. Rounding out the package is a Financial Power of Attorney, Health Care Directive, and HIPAA Disclosure, offering essential protection and clear asset distribution instructions while eliminating the ongoing funding requirements of a trust. 

Now, your clients will have four packages to choose from – one for just healthcare and financial documents (Essentials), two trust-based packages (the Basic and Advanced Trust), and our new Will Package. Look for the Will Package available in the next few weeks.

Looking Ahead

As we wrap up an incredible year of innovation, these December updates demonstrate our commitment to helping our users finish 2024 strong and prepare for an even more successful 2025. We’re excited to be your partner in revolutionizing estate planning and can’t wait to show you what’s next.

Ready to take your estate planning practice to the next level? Contact our sales team to learn more about how these powerful new features can transform your business.