Category: Estate Planning

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....

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,...

Madison Eubanks

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Sep 19, 2024

Estate planning strategies are like tools in a toolbox: Different tools do different jobs. Deciding which estate planning strategies to employ depends on any number of personal factors including (but not limited to) marital status, level of wealth, whether or not someone has children, charitable inclination, liquidity, and many more. A savvy planner takes all these variables into account and chooses the most appropriate tool for a person’s situation, values, and goals. In this article, we provide fictional examples of when someone might use six different trust strategies, and illustrate how the right strategy can achieve their estate planning goals. ...

Madison Eubanks

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Sep 10, 2024

For the ultra wealthy, a well-planned gifting strategy can be a great way to reduce the size of the taxable estate over time.  However, various tax laws mean gifting isn’t always as straightforward as it may sound. When gifting, it’s important to understand annual and lifetime exclusions, when gifts must be reported to the IRS, and how to plan for tax exposure.  Read on for a complete overview of gifting.  For a deeper dive on gifting strategies, download the Vanilla Guide to Gifting here. Introduction to gifting In the eyes of the IRS, a gift is any property or assets...

Madison Eubanks

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Aug 28, 2024

As a financial advisor, you don’t need to be an expert on estate planning documents. However, you do need enough foundational knowledge to understand what makes quality documents, to spot red flags, and ultimately to ensure your clients’ documents serve their long-term goals.  Documents vary widely from client to client, with the complexity, density, and number of documents often increasing as wealth does. With so much nuance, how is an advisor to know what to look for in a client’s plan?  Dana Foley, Founder and Partner at Accelerant Law, outlines the four hallmarks of quality estate planning documents that advisors...

Daniel Brockley

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Aug 06, 2024

How to take back control with thoughtful financial and estate planning My dad has dementia. He survived stage-four esophageal cancer against every medical prediction, and then, just a couple years after his remission, his memory began to falter. It was hardly noticeable at first. Over a glass of wine, my mom confided in my brother and sister and me that she felt like something wasn’t right, that he wasn’t able to hold on to what they had just talked about or done.  We didn’t see it, not at first. We listened to my mom and nodded along, but we all...