Estate planning technology firm Vanilla is looking to shake up the wealth landscape with a new planning visualization tool. The platform’s latest offering, Vanilla Scenarios, seeks to modernize how advisors, wealth planners, and estate lawyers plan and optimize their clients' estate strategies.
With dynamic, real-time scenario modeling, the tool enables the integration of various planning strategies into existing estate plans, allowing for a more informed decision-making process.
Wealth managers using the tool can dynamically simulate multiple estate planning strategies, such as grantor retained annuity trusts, spousal lifetime access trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, and qualified personal residence trusts.
By showing how GRATs, SLATs, ILITs, and QPRTs can potentially mitigate estate taxes, advisors using Vanilla Scenarios can present clients with a clear view of their planning options, according to the firm.
It also lets users visualize the possible impact of significant life events and legislative changes – the anticipated 2026 sunset of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the death of a spouse, or the sale of major assets – and access on-demand educational material to help clients understand estate planning concepts.
"Vanilla Scenarios takes proactive estate advisory to the next level, offering a comprehensive planning experience that empowers advisors, planners, and estate attorneys to deliver actionable estate advice, educate clients on the value of additional planning, and minimize both state and federal tax implications," said Gene Farrell, CEO of Vanilla.
Vanilla come a long way since its launch in 2019. Over the years, it has secured funding through a series of financing rounds, with investors including basketball legend Michael Jordan.
In October, it jumped on the artificial intelligence trend with a suite of tools powered by its own purpose-built AI model, VAI.
Earlier this year, the wealth tech provider got a huge vote of confidence from Vanguard, which announced that it will be making Vanilla’s digital estate planning tools more widely available to high-net-worth investors after a successful pilot program in 2023.
Series A funding from Portage, Bain Capital, and other investors will fuel data tools designed to speed advisor transitions and cut onboarding delays across wealth firms.
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