wealth.com welcomes Kathy Wunderli in private wealth push

Wealth.com is planting a stake the ultra-high-net-worth space as it brings on a veteran hire to beef up its legal team.

The leading estate planning tech provider announced Tuesday that it has added Kathy Wunderli to its legal team as head of private wealth.

Wunderli, who brings more than two decades of experience in estate planning and private wealth law to the table, will focus on developing estate planning, tax analysis, and wealth transfer solutions for ultra-high-net-worth clients in collaboration with strategic partners.

Prior to joining wealth.com, Wunderli was a partner in the private wealth group at Willkie Farr & Gallagher in Los Angeles, where she advised clients on complex legal matters, including trust administration, cross-border estate planning, and marital agreements. She's also no stranger to the problems plaguing the rich and famous either, having worked extensively with entertainment industry professionals, high-net-worth families, and business owners.

“[We on wealth.com's legal team] have the ability and experience to revolutionize the estate planning experience by blending the best of technology, legal knowledge, and artificial intelligence to benefit clients and their personal planning team,” Wunderli said in a statement on Tuesday.

Beyond her legal practice, Wunderli has been involved in advocacy and mentorship. Aside from serving on the board of the California Women’s Law Center and co-founded the Community Hope Action Initiative, she also led mentoring initiatives at Willkie to foster an inclusive workplace culture.

For wealth.com’s chief legal officer, Anne Rhodes, Wunderli's appointment is a strong signal of the tech platform's commitment to enhance its offerings for advisors serving ultra-high-net-worth clients.

“Today, wealth.com has established a foothold in the digital estate planning industry, and 2025 is about supercharging the products that we offer to advisors who have ultra-high-net-worth clients,” Rhodes said. “These are clients who engage in the most complex wealth transfer strategies. They rely on the most technically sophisticated wealth managers, attorneys, and more.”

Research by Cerulli has reinforced the need for complex services in the ultra-high-net-worth space. Among the different service areas highlighted in its " US High-Net-Worth and Ultra-High-Net-Worth Markets 2023" report, estate planning and tax planning emerged as spaces to watch, with 70 percent and 45 percent of all HNW practices flagging it as a primary or secondary service. In its more recent research on the topic, Cerulli emphasized the ongoing wave of wealth transfers amounting to $124 trillion in the decades through 2048, with nearly $100 trillion represented by movements from Baby Boomers to younger generations.

The 2024 T3/Inside Information Advisor Software Survey also pointed to a growing role of planning for death and taxes across the wealth tech space, as tax planning and estate planning platforms saw double-digit percentage leaps in market penetration between 2022 and 2024. According to T3's industry research, that two-year period saw estate planning software penetration surge from 10.95 percent to 39.32 percent. 

That whopping leap has to be taken with a grain of salt, however. According to T3, that was driven strongly by its inclusion of the eMoney module, which by itself accounted for a 17 percent addition in market share. 

"Beyond that, it’s likely that many advisors are looking at the sunset of the generous estate tax exemption at the end of 2025, and are finding tools to help their clients plan well in advance," the report said.