A Financial Planner's Guide to 4 Tools That Help Advisers Take Estate Planning to the Next Level

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Estate planning can be a complex process during which professionals collaborate to achieve their clients' goals.

Financial advisers and wealth managers sit at this table, working with lawyers, tax accountants, trust officers, insurance specialists and real estate professionals, among others.

However, financial advisers can get more involved in estate plan preparation and analysis — providing more value to clients, forging a deeper relationship with them and increasing revenue — with the help of modern estate planning tools.

These tools can help create estate plan documents (wills, trusts, powers of attorney, etc.), centralize financial documents, analyze existing estate plans, provide personalized insights, automate repetitive tasks and integrate tax planning strategies.

There are so many of these tools on the market, financial advisers often struggle to choose the best one. In this article, I compare four pieces of estate planning software that I believe may offer particularly good value.

1. EncorEstate Plans

EncorEstate Plans combines estate document creation and trust funding in one platform and helps financial advisers integrate estate planning into client services. It's best for clients who requires basic to complex estate planning.

Key features:

• Trust funding. EncorEstate Plans has a trust funding service that allows advisers to transfer ownership of assets into the trusts they create on behalf of their clients.
• Human review and trusted guidance. Every estate plan goes through a 60-point quality review by an estate planning professional. EncorEstate Plan's back office also includes paralegals and attorneys who can provide trusted guidance.
• Flexible pricing. Advisers can pay for each plan or opt for a subscription-based model, if you have a larger clientele, for example.
• Custom documents. When required, advisers can create custom documents, such as restatements, QDOT language and Special Needs Trust provisions.

2. Vanilla

Vanilla is an estate planning platform designed for financial advisers with clients who require basic to complex estate planning services. It uses AI-powered tools to help create comprehensive plans.

Key features:

• Comprehensive estate planning. Vanilla covers various components of the estate planning process, including document creation, balance sheet analysis, tax projections and tax planning.
• Dynamic estate planning. Advisers can create comprehensive plans for all types of clients, from individuals with simple estates to high-net-worth individuals with more complex estates.
• Visually appealing dashboards. One of the unique selling points of Vanilla is its intuitive and visually appealing dashboards and polished deliverables.
• Branded tools. Advisers can include their branded identities when sending customized reports to clients, helping to increase their perceived value.

3. Wealth.com

Wealth.com is an estate planning platform for financial advisers that helps them manage the process for mass affluent, high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients.

Key features:

• Flexibility. Financial advisers can create estate plans for a wide variety of clients, from mass affluent to ultra-high-net-worth clients.
• Scenario builder. Advisers can visualize how tax liabilities and estate distributions change when a component of the current plan varies.
• Dynamic visuals. The platform provides visually appealing charts and documents that clients will love to read.
• Insights from existing documents. Ester, Wealth.com's AI tool, can analyze existing estate plans and provide recommendations and insights for improvement.

4. FP Alpha

FP Alpha is a financial planning tool that evaluates estate plans, tax returns and insurance policies. It provides AI-powered insights (opportunities, gaps and risks) that advisers can share with their clients.

FP Alpha is therefore ideal for advisers whose clients already have estate plans prepared, either by themselves or other professionals.

Key features:

• Customized deliverables. FP Alpha's AI agent will summarize various estate plans into an Estate Snapshot that will be the basis of advisers' client communications.
• Scenario building. The Estate Planning Lab shows how clients' estate plans will change if they implement the insights recommended by the AI agent.
• Holistic financial planning. Advisers can also use FP Alpha for tax planning, insurance planning and prospecting, making it an all-in-one platform.

A side-by-side comparison of all four tools

These four tools help advisers expand their assets under management (AUM) and build deeper relationships with clients by providing more value.

The following comparison can help advisers evaluate all the options and choose the one that fits best with their advisory business and clientele.

	EncorEstate Plans	Vanilla	Wealth.com	FP Alpha
Level of automation	Moderate: Combines automated document creation with human review	High: AI-powered visuals and scenario models	High: AI engine extracts and analyzes estate plans for personalized insights	High: AI engine extracts and analyzes estate plans for personalized insights
Level of customization and personalization	High: Estate documents adapted to the complexity of the estate	High: Customized and branded estate plans for all client types	High: Optimized by jurisdiction	High: Personalized insights based on estate plans and other financial documents
Integration with other software	Integrates with adviser workflows via the support team	Integrates with wealth management platforms	Integrates with adviser practices and vaults for document sharing	Integrates with other financial planning software and enterprise dashboards
Adviser satisfaction*	8.0	7.1	7.5	8.3
Pricing or fees	Subscription-based ($99/month for a pro plan, $149/month for a team plan, and an enterprise plan that can be negotiated) or pay-per-project model ($100-$650)	Customized based on advisers' needs	Customized based on advisers' needs	$1,790/year for the estate planning module; $1,995/year for the all-in-one platform
Key USP	Back-office paralegal and attorney support; trust funding	Scenario modelling	AI engine for personalized insights	AI engine for personalized insights
Ease of implementation	High	Moderate	Moderate	High

* Adviser satisfaction scores are based on The-Kitces-Report 2025

Financial advisers would do well to fully explore the technology available to them, thinking about best value and fit as they seek to provide clients with even greater benefits and support.

This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.