Category: What’s New

Vanilla

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Dec 29, 2023

Welcome to 2024! It's a new year which means higher inflation-adjusted exemptions. Accordingly, we have updated the Vanilla Estate Advisory Platform with the newest inflation-adjusted estate planning figures recently released by the IRS. This will enable advisors to accurately project the growth of clients’ estates and strategize on trust structures, gifting, tax mitigation and more. Source: IRS.gov Federal Estate Tax Exemption The federal estate tax exemption has increased from $12.92M to $13.61M per individual (or $27.22M per married couple). For advisors whose clients have taxable estates, it’s important to note that estate tax exemptions are “unified”. This means that if...

Vanilla

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Dec 04, 2023

If there’s one thing we all agree on here at Vanilla it’s that estate planning matters, a lot. But not every client understands just how important estate planning is. Proper estate planning ensures the preservation of wealth – and its intended purpose for clients and their families. The best planning keeps a client’s family secure, both while they’re alive and long after, whereas improper or lack of planning may expose a client to lengthy legal proceedings, unnecessary taxes, probate fees, and more.  We know from advisors that clients need ongoing education to make the most informed decisions for their estate...

Amjad Hussain

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Oct 19, 2023

When we launched the Vanilla Estate Advisory Platform just over a year ago, we did so because we saw a problem without a solution. There was a deep need for a tool that enabled wealth advisors to help clients with their estate strategy as part of their holistic financial planning. Over the past year, our customers have not only used the Vanilla platform to grow their business and bring value to clients – they have helped us grow, too. We have worked hand in hand with our customers, from small RIAs to the largest enterprise firms to innovate and bring...

Vanilla

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Aug 17, 2023

Today, we are launching a refreshed Balance Sheet Builder to help advisors bring client financial information into Vanilla more quickly. The new ownership-driven balance sheet makes it easier to enter client accounts and data.  Instead of creating individual assets, entering a client’s information now begins at the account level through one centralized drop-down menu. New dynamic fly-outs for each account or asset type require minimal information to get set up which allows for a faster and more intuitive data entry process. Or if you’re using one of our integration partners, your client’s data will be reflected in the balance sheet...

Vanilla

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Aug 08, 2023

Today, Vanilla is excited to release a new feature available during the document abstraction process. Advisors who use the Vanilla Document Abstraction Services will now receive in-app messages and e-mail notifications after submitting their client’s estate planning documents, if additional information is required. Additionally, advisors will receive a status update in Vanilla with detailed notes indicating exactly what is needed to finalize the abstraction submission. With more direct feedback between an advisor and Vanilla during the document review, advisors can onboard their clients onto the Vanilla platform faster, enhance communication, and speed up the document abstraction process for them and...

Vanilla

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Jul 27, 2023

Build a more comprehensive balance sheet with new partner integration features Today, we are excited to announce several upgrades to our integrations with Black Diamond, Orion, and Addepar that enable advisors to import client financial data faster onto the Vanilla Estate Advisory Platform. With these new enhancements, an advisor can bring in more data from portfolio management systems to their client’s balance sheet for a more accurate representation of their estate. Advisors can select any number of clients in an estate to sync to a single Vanilla client profile when building out the balance sheet in the WealthCenter. Multiple clients'...

Vanilla

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Jul 05, 2023

Today, we are excited to announce the latest feature to go live on the Vanilla Estate Advisory Platform, Class Distributions designations for advisors and wealth and estate planning strategists. Class Distributions designations What this means for Advisors Our newest feature, Class Distributions, allows advisors to visualize how their client’s assets flow to future generations when a beneficiary predeceases the client.  The addition of this new fact pattern allows the advisor and client to have a more holistic view of the entire estate.  Within Vanilla, advisors can align their clients’ Family Tree with the Balance Sheet by selecting per stirpes (deceased...

Vanilla

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Jun 09, 2023

At Vanilla, we are continually iterating to expand our product features and support more complex estate planning scenarios.  First-to-Pass analysis We are excited to announce our newest feature, First-to-Pass. First-to-Pass allows advisors to have deeper conversations with their clients with the Vanilla Estate Advisory Platform. Now, advisors can dynamically switch between death pattern sequences, allowing advisors to provide a holistic view of the client’s estate plan. The advisor can also decide which death sequence they want to add to the PDF report before sending it to their client.  And if the advisor chooses, they can send out two reports with...

Vanilla

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May 25, 2023

Creating a complete estate profile for a client requires blending family, estate plan, and financial information together in one place. Today, we’re happy to announce a new partnership and integration between Addepar and Vanilla to simplify bringing financial data into the Client Profile. Addepar is one of the leading portfolio management systems for wealth advisors, and by bringing the account data from Addepar into the Vanilla Estate Advisory Platform, we will help advisors create a more comprehensive picture of their client’s estate plans. During the onboarding process, advisors can save time and avoid unnecessary manual data entry by connecting their...