Vanilla Blog

Vanilla

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Dec 20, 2024

In 35+ years of solving estate planning challenges for clients—including some of the most complex ultra-affluent cases—our founder Steve Lockshin learned that simplicity, precision, and practicality are the keys to success. That’s why we're excited to introduce Vanilla Labs, our new hub for lightweight, innovative tools that redefine how advisors engage with their clients. Vanilla Labs is designed to ideate quickly and launch tools that make it easier for you to illustrate impactful planning concepts without overwhelming your clients or requiring extensive data inputs. These prototypes allow us to gather your feedback, iterate rapidly, and integrate the most effective solutions...

Jessica Lantz

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Dec 18, 2024

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...

Madison Eubanks

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Dec 10, 2024

In case you missed it, our recently released Vanilla’s 2025 State of Estate Planning Report is chock full of relevant facts and figures about what’s new and noteworthy in consumer mindsets around planning.  This annual survey of 1,000 US consumers is designed to unlock insights about how people view their families and values as well as the role of advisors and technology in the context of estate planning.  While the full report is well-worth a read, we also put together this skimmable roundup of some of the most important (and sometimes surprising) findings.   Read the complete, ungated State of Estate...

Vanilla

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Dec 05, 2024

The best advisors (and, truthfully, our favorite people) are the curious ones—they dig in, ask questions, and are always learning. They want to bring clients great advice that’s backed by education, experience, and perspective.  For all the lifelong learners out there, Vanilla is your partner for refreshing, broadening, honing, brushing up, mastering, reviewing, or just dipping your toes into estate planning topics and skills.  Vanilla Academy launched earlier this year as an estate planning learning hub for advisors who want to up-level their offering and show clients a breadth of expertise, and we’ve just added three additional courses to the...

Vanilla

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Dec 03, 2024

Let’s face it—most people procrastinate. Deadlines are often the only motivators that spur action, and for financial planning, this “crunch time” tends to hit in November and December. Unfortunately, this end-of-year rush isn’t ideal for a number of reasons: The holidays: Advisors and clients alike are juggling travel, vacations, and family obligations. Emotional rollercoasters: Whether it’s the stress of family reunions or the joy of celebrations, emotions can cloud judgment. Rushed decisions: Big-picture financial planning requires clarity and focus, neither of which are easy to achieve in a hectic environment. The result? A less-than-optimal setup for making critical long-term decisions....

This month, Vanilla introduces powerful updates designed to address the real-world challenges of estate planning. From expanded client options to time-saving innovations, these features reinforce Vanilla Document Builder™ as the premier solution for advisors and their clients. Vanilla Document Builder™ updates Advisor Access: Clearer collaboration with clients Advisor Access allows clients to share questionnaire progress and drafts of their planning documents directly with their advisors. Advisors gain insights into client planning without clients giving up control of their data. This feature helps collaboration happen more smoothly and securely, while keeping advisors informed. Guardians, stepchildren, and future children: Plan for possibilities...

John Costello

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Nov 19, 2024

New findings highlight increasing expectations for comprehensive estate planning services and technology including AI Vanilla, the award-winning estate planning software company, today announced the release of its second annual State of Estate Planning report, which surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers on their estate planning priorities, challenges, and expectations.  Vanilla’s 2025 State of Estate Planning report reveals that consumers are seeking comprehensive services and strategies from advisors to preserve both their wealth and their personal values across generations. It also highlights the need for advisors to harness technology to efficiently manage complex estate plans and provide comprehensive wealth advisory with the personal...

Vanilla

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Nov 13, 2024

There are over 33 million small businesses in the United States, employing over 60 million people. In many ways, private businesses are the heart and soul of the country’s economy, and—unsurprisingly—business owners often feel passionately about what happens to their share when they pass away.  Wealth advisors should be prepared to help their business-owning clients create a thoughtful succession plan, regardless of the size or value of their business.  In a recent webinar, estate planning experts Steve Lockshin and Patrick Carlson sat down to discuss everything from foundational concepts to advanced strategies wealth advisors should consider for clients who own...

Madison Eubanks

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Oct 24, 2024

A sub-trust, often created within a larger trust, is a type of estate planning tool that can allow you to customize how portions of your estate are managed and distributed to specific beneficiaries. They can add both flexibility and control to your plan, bringing peace of mind that your estate will be distributed according to your wishes and your beneficiaries will be cared for. Whether you want to set aside funds for minor children, protect a special needs beneficiary, or create tax-efficient structures, sub-trusts offer a tailored approach to address the unique needs of your family. In this blog post,...

John Costello

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Oct 24, 2024

Vanilla recognized as a leader in modernizing estate planning for wealth management  NEW YORK, October 24, 2024 – CB Insights today named Vanilla to its seventh annual Fintech 100, showcasing the 100 most promising private fintech companies in the world. “The 2024 Fintech 100 winners are high-momentum companies shaping the future of financial services,” said Laura Kennedy, Principal Analyst at CB Insights. “Unsurprisingly, this year’s cohort is deploying AI across a wide variety of solutions. But they’re also diverse in their reach in emerging and developing economies, and focus on everything from fraud prevention to financial inclusion.” "As Vanilla continues...

Jim Sinai

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Oct 16, 2024

this blog was originally published on 8/15/24 and updated on 10/16/24 to reflect new investors in the round Award-winning estate planning software company to accelerate investments in AI, expansion of platform, and customer adoption.  Welcomes Edward Jones, Nationwide, and Allianz as strategic investors Vanilla, the award-winning estate planning software company, today announced it has closed its latest fundraising round at $35m, led by returning investor Insight Partners, in addition to contributions from Venrock, Vanguard, and other previous investors. Vanilla also welcomes new strategic investors, Edward Jones Ventures*, Nationwide, and Allianz, and new investor Alumni Ventures. In addition to supporting its...

Vanilla

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Oct 16, 2024

Vanilla, the award-winning estate planning software, is excited to announce a strategic integration with eMoney, the industry’s leading financial planning platform. This collaboration delivers a seamless, unified planning experience for financial advisors, combining sophisticated AI-powered estate planning tools with comprehensive financial data to offer a more holistic approach to client wealth management.  With this integration, Vanilla is the first estate planning solution to bring together the best of both worlds: AI-powered estate planning combined with eMoney’s industry-leading financial planning capabilities. This allows advisors to provide their clients with a truly holistic financial plan that includes not only investment strategies and...