National Make a Will Month, observed every August, prompts reminders urging Americans to draft or update a will. For advisors serving high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients, that nudge is only the entry point. Interviews with three wealth advisors point to a shared conviction: the estate plan is not the finish line, and treating it as one costs advisors deeper client relationships and assets under management.
Buck Patton, senior vice president and wealth advisor at Truxton Wealth, sees the estate plan as foundational to a holistic advisory relationship — the structure that determines how a client's assets should be titled to carry out their wishes.
"Having an estate plan in place is great, but it's not a set-it-and-forget-it task. Tax laws can change, family dynamics can shift and new opportunities can arise. A thoughtful plan should be accompanied by thoughtful monitoring in conjunction with an assessment of the current facts and circumstances of the people involved. A review of the client's estate plan is included in every meeting we conduct, so that clients are always aware and knowledgeable of what their documents say," Patton said.
Advisors who want to be seen as trusted thought leaders need a strong command of clients' estate plans, wealth transfer goals and current tax law, Patton said, adding that advisors who stay at arm's length from those documents likely miss meaningful tax opportunities. The stakes are measurable: a 2026 Trust & Will report found that 68% of advised clients said they would consider switching to another financial advisor who offers estate planning becoming a client retention issue for financial advisors.
David Haughton, vice president of estate planning at Carson Group, said the industry has long split duties between advisors managing investments and attorneys handling documents — a division that still makes sense for drafting, but overlooks how much more often advisors see clients.
"They're in the best position to understand the client's evolving priorities, family dynamics, behavioral tendencies, and overall financial picture. There's a reason estate planning is a core part of CFP and CPWA education. Advisors aren't expected to draft legal documents, they're expected to educate clients, identify planning opportunities, coordinate with estate planning attorneys, and help ensure the plan continues to reflect the client's goals over time," Haughton said.
Haughton said the conversation needs to shift from asking whether a client has estate documents to asking whether their wealth transfer goals will actually be met under the current plan. Many consequential conversations, he said, require no new paperwork — just education and coordination as life or the law changes. The biggest mindset shift is recognizing that a referral to an attorney is a starting point, not a finish line.
"The advisor's value isn't replacing the attorney, it's in helping keep the entire planning process moving forward. That's what can help transform estate planning from the traditional one-time transaction 'set it and forget it' model into an ongoing advisory service where the plan is constantly monitored and updated as life and the law evolve," Haughton said.
David Barnard, founder and chief executive at Luminary, said the most revealing part of an estate planning conversation is what it exposes about how a client thinks about the meaning of money — whether it ultimately goes toward lifestyle, people, causes or taxes. Advisors who lead those discussions, he said, build deeper relationships and retain clients longer because they understand what those clients truly care about.
"Those questions make wealth transfer a standing agenda item rather than a periodic legal exercise, because marriages begin and end, businesses are sold, and tax laws change. It's also the most natural way to broaden the relationship to spouses and future generations, more important than ever as the 'great wealth transfer' results in more and more clients switching advisors," Barnard said.
Barnard said the wealth transfer conversation isn't reserved for the ultra-wealthy, particularly with today's high federal exemption levels. The shift advisors need to make, he said, is treating wealth transfer as a delivered service rather than a one-time event, while staying clear about what stays in-house versus what gets referred out.
"Our view is that the best advisors are the hub of the wheel with great spokes: they make it easy for the client to get the best of all worlds, instead of betting on a one-stop department store where convenience comes at the cost of the best of everything," Barnard said.
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