Vanilla

Share Early in my career at JP Morgan, I needed information about a specific trust. Details about distribution standards, successor trustees, provisions that mattered for a client situation we were navigating. The trust officer who knew that account inside and out was on vacation. Two weeks out. We waited. That moment stuck with me, not because it was a crisis, but because it was so ordinary. It happened all the time, at one of the largest, most sophisticated financial institutions in the world.

Share BELLEVUE, WA — June 3, 2026 — Vanilla, the modern estate planning platform built for financial advisors, today announced it has been named a Finalist in two categories at the 2026 Wealth Management Industry Awards (the “Wealthies”).

Share Memorial Day is behind us, school’s out and our clients are booking flights, loading up the car, and mentally shifting into summer mode. That’s exactly why this is your opening. When people travel, something shifts in how they think about the unexpected — what happens if a flight goes sideways, if there’s a medical emergency, if something unforeseen leaves their family trying to figure out who to call and what to do. That quiet anxiety doesn’t require a crisis or a deadline to feel real.

All Webinars & Videos Guides Client materials Blog In The News Share Estate planning is one of the most valuable services financial advisors can offer, but it’s also one of the most difficult to make relevant and tangible during a client meeting. For many families across the wealth spectrum, estate documents already exist, created by their attorneys.

Share Estate planning conversations don’t always start with a trust structure. Sometimes they start with a client who wants to give — to a cause they care about or to an institution that shaped who they are. What makes these conversations worth having carefully is that charitable intent and estate planning goals don’t have to live in separate lanes. When structured thoughtfully, a charitable strategy can honor a client’s values while doing meaningful work on their estate at the same time.

Share Vanilla Continues National Expansion, Adding Carson Group to a Growing Roster of Leading Advisory Firms Bellevue, Washington — Vanilla is expanding its footprint across the independent advisory landscape, announcing today a partnership with Carson Group that brings its estate planning platform to more than 600 advisors. Carson Group manages over $58 billion in assets under management and serves more than 60,000 client families across a network of 165+ partner offices nationwide.

Share A financial advisor’s book spans the full range of client complexity — from a household getting their first will to a UHNW family managing a multi-generational wealth transfer. Vanilla was built to handle all of it. More than 21,000 estates processed, $250 billion in assets modeled. Here’s what that looks like in practice.

Share If you missed our most recent product update webinar, here’s a full rundown of everything we’ve shipped in 2026 — plus a preview of what’s coming next. Our Product Marketing Specialist Jess walked attendees through the updates organized around the three commitments that guide everything we build: AI that elevates you, confidence in every client conversation, and getting you faster to the moments that matter.

Share Clients come to advisors for help navigating some of the most consequential financial decisions of their lives. Estate planning is the door to those conversations, and advisors who open it consistently become the trusted advisor for life’s biggest moments, deepening client relationships and growing their practice in the process.

Share As demand for estate planning increases, adoption of AI estate planning software is accelerating. Last year, Kitces Research projected that by 2026, nearly half of all advisors will employ technology to support estate planning. Firms leading the charge are positioning themselves to deliver a differentiated level of comprehensive planning with depth and consistency across their entire book of business.