Vanilla, the estate planning-focused fintech provider, is helping to raise the bar on estate planning across the wealth space as it revives a key advisor education initiative.
On Monday, the planning focused fintech announced its relaunch of Vanilla Academy, an estate planning educational platform specifically designed for financial advisors and planners.
The updated Academy offers free, on-demand continuing education, multimedia content, and downloadable guides and resources. Several courses also provide continuing education credit for certified financial planners.
“Vanilla Academy’s relaunch represents a significant step forward in our mission to empower advisors and estate planners with the knowledge and skills they need to deliver outstanding service,” Gene Farrell, CEO of Vanilla said in a statement. “We are committed to making estate planning accessible and effective for everyone regardless of wealth level."
For its initial lineup, the revived educational program includes a three-part series on Estate Planning 101, a course on estate planning for non-taxable estates, and a primer on advanced strategies for taxable estates.
The preliminary syllabus also includes a course on client conversations led by Steve Lockshin, Vanilla’s founder and chairman, and a primer on leveraging the estate tech planning platform in client conversations.
Vanilla says the academy is designed to accommodate professionals across all expertise levels, with insights from in-house experts and partners and regular updates.
Patrick Carlson, in-house counsel at Vanilla, said the academy will help scale estate planning services across the industry by leveling the playing field with respect to advisors’ confidence and expertise.
“Vanilla Academy will be a tremendous asset in helping ensure all advisors have a basic competency in estate planning and are able to continually uplevel that competency to provide additional value to clients,” said Carlson, who’s also one of the featured instructors.
The relaunch of Vanilla Academy is part of the wealth tech provider’s Summer School offering, which includes live courses and office hours with subject matter experts.
The firm has made the courses available to all qualified advisors, planners and attorneys, but said it will be limiting access to make some courses exclusive to its customers in the future.
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