Vanilla

Oct 11, 2024

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Vanilla Academy Live: Sneak Peek & Why You Don’t Want to Miss It

At Vanilla, we believe in making estate planning accessible to everyone—and that means providing advisors and financial professionals with the education and resources they need to deliver estate planning services. 

On October 30th, we’re hosting Vanilla Academy Live, a free half-day estate planning summit featuring two hours of free CFP® CE credit, an estate planning tech spotlight, and an advisor-led panel discussion on streamlining the estate planning experience day-to-day. 

Curious to learn more about what’s in store? Here’s a quick overview of what you can expect at Vanilla Academy Live for Fall 2024.

Register to attend here.

Welcome & Tech Spotlight: Gene Farrell and The Vanilla Team

We’ll kick things off with a quick look at how an estate planning platform like Vanilla can unlock advanced planning opportunities and elevate client relationships through enhanced collaboration. 

In this session, attendees will get a look behind the curtain at how Vanilla creates centralized access to estate information, the return on investment firms using the platform are seeing, and how AI is taking our solution (and those using it) to the next level of estate planning. 

We don’t want to give too much away—this will be an exciting glimpse into the fast-evolving world of estate planning technology.

1 hour CE Estate Planning for Business Owners: Steve Lockshin

Veteran advisor and founder Steve Lockshin will draw on his decades of professional experience to host an educational session on estate planning for business owners. 

In his CE-eligible session, Steve will share practices wealth advisors can use to facilitate estate planning for clients who own businesses, including strategies for continuity, estate minimization, advanced planning, and more. 

Steve will bring his unique approach and perspective to topics like: 

• The importance, challenges, and opportunities of estate planning for business owners
• Why early planning is especially crucial when businesses are involved and example scenarios
• Advanced planning techniques that can benefit business owners, like IDGTs and GRATs

Plus, attendees will have the opportunity to participate in Q&A with Steve after the course. 

Modernizing the Estate Planning Experience: Panel Discussion with Grant Blindbury and John D’Anna

More and more, firms are looking for ways to set themselves apart, drive long-term loyalty, and connect with the next generation. And more and more, firms are finding that engaging clients in estate planning helps achieve all of these goals. 

In this featured panel, you’ll hear from two advisors who have incorporated estate planning into their practices and are using estate planning technology to simplify, modernize, and scale the experience. 

The panelists, who are using Vanilla to offer more modern, holistic financial advice, include: 

• Grant Blindbury, CFP®, Partner at FMB Wealth Management
• John D’Anna, CFP®, Director, Hirtle, Callaghan & Co. 

If you’re curious about how an estate planning solution can empower your firm to offer better, more streamlined estate planning services to more clients, this panel is one not to miss. 

1 hour CE Estate Planning for Income Taxes: Jeff Levine

In this session, attendees will hear from Kitces’ Jeff Levine, a nationally-recognized and award-winning financial advisor, speaker, and educator. He’ll explore the principles of maximizing basis planning opportunities and how this strategy plays into income tax optimization. 

Given recent changes in the law, “tax planning” for one’s estate at death has become a lot less about estate tax planning, and far more about the income tax planning opportunities at death… particularly with respect to maximizing available step-up in basis opportunities. 

With that in mind, this session will explore topics including how pre-death asset transfers can help maximize step-up in basis, how other types of pre-death transfers can help avoid the potential for a step-down in basis, complications associated with these strategies for clients living in community property states, and the disadvantages of traditional credit shelter trusts that emerge in an estate planning environment driven by income (rather than estate) tax planning.

With free CE opportunities, insights from cutting-edge firms, instruction by wealth industry thought-leaders, and much more, Vanilla Academy Live will pack a ton of value into just three hours. Don’t miss your chance—registration is open now. 

Register here for Vanilla Academy Live on October 30th.