How Encompass Financial Planning Turned Estate Planning Conversations into Referrals and New AUM with Wealth.com

The Challenge: Clients Who Need Education at Every Step, and an Advisor Forced to Refer It Out

Encompass Financial Planning is a holistic financial planning firm that Sarah Soria, a Certified Financial Planner with 15 years in the industry, owns with her husband Josh. Serving a small-town community, the firm has built a distinct niche: women navigating major life transitions such as divorce, widowhood, a job change, or a move, and single women who specifically seek out a female advisor.

For many of these clients, estate planning presents two challenges at once: wrapping up an existing estate after losing a spouse, and then building a plan of their own, often for the first time. Many arrive without a solid financial education, having deferred decisions to a spouse for decades. As Sarah explains, “women specifically really want to make decisions based on education and understanding and not blind trust, and a lot of women have felt like the education hasn’t been offered or provided.”

Sarah had deep estate planning knowledge from years of holistic planning work, but referring clients out to attorneys meant losing control of the very conversations that mattered most: “It’s a bummer to refer it out and to just hope that the conversations and the plan and the education you’re providing is going to be continued by another professional in the same way.”

The Solution: Education at Every Step Turns the Advisor into a Coach

Encompass was introduced to Wealth.com through C2P and was among the first firms to sign up. What stood out immediately was how the platform reframed a regulatory constraint into a relationship-building opportunity. Every explanation in Wealth.com is designed to inform clients, not replace legal advice, so Sarah can focus on being their trusted advisor. Instead of interpreting the law, she sits alongside her clients as a coach and educator. “We say, ‘Let’s read this together and really understand why you’re making this decision. What is a worst case scenario where you’d need a medical directive? Why might you choose co-trustees or a backup trustee?'”

The result is a fundamentally different kind of client conversation: less about what documents say and more about why each decision matters. As a result, clients “ask questions and have a really solid understanding of why they’re making the decisions they’re being asked to make.”

“Wealth.com provides so much education at each step of the process that it allows us to come alongside the client as a coach and an educator.”

Bringing estate planning in-house also strengthened the firm’s holistic offering. The wealthy have always had a full team of professionals at the table, but coordinating four or five specialists isn’t feasible for most families. Holistic planning consolidates those conversations, and adding estate planning means one more critical piece of a client’s financial life gets discussed in the same room, connected to everything else it touches. “In clients’ eyes, we went from being the advisor who manages their investments and helps them choose how they spend their money in retirement to the advisor that manages their family’s whole financial future.”

Encompass charges $500 per estate plan, deliberately priced for buy-in rather than profit. Clients typically spend just 90 minutes across two appointments, often meeting over Zoom or when it’s most convenient.

The timing is just as intentional as the pricing. Encompass guides every prospect through a structured three to four meeting “Bucket Plan” process, and only at the end do clients decide whether to move forward with a full wealth management relationship. The estate plan often gets done before that process is even over, which means prospects experience what it’s like to work with the firm before committing a single dollar. “It’s like a baby step to working with us… They’re not turning over money. That’s a big emotional trust decision to move your money to a new firm. It just gives us another way to connect with them and to have a conversation and show our value and connect on a deeper level that builds trust.”

The Results: Conversations That Drive Referrals and New AUM

For new clients without an estate plan, choosing Encompass “is not even a decision,” Sarah says. “I also visibly see them relax when I tell them that we can be done in an hour and a half for $500. They are like, ‘Oh my God, where do I sign up?’”

Two client wins stand out. A couple who came in as friends of the firm completed their estate plan, then referred their parents, who had told Encompass they were already working with another advisor. By the end of the parents’ estate planning process, meetings were scheduled to move their money and begin holistic planning: a high-six-figure relationship won through estate planning alone.

The second was one of the firm’s biggest clients: a discerning seven-figure prospect weighing whether to leave his existing advisor. “Us being able to offer everything in-house was absolutely what led them to decide to work with us. Wealth.com for sure helped us in creating value for this client enough to switch,” Sarah shared.

The platform has also opened new planning conversations entirely: documents for clients’ children who have just turned 18, so parents retain a voice in a medical emergency. Encompass now adds these plans for around $100.

Client feedback centers on ease and control. “We hear over and over how easy the system is to use… when I tell them that they can go in and make changes at any time and they’re not going to have to pay an attorney a thousand dollars to do it. That’s just a huge selling point. It’s their information and they have control over it.”

Completed estate plans feed directly into the firm’s legacy planning process. Once clients know exactly how their wealth will pass to the next generation, they gain the confidence to spend with purpose and fully enjoy the retirement they’ve worked so hard to build.

The Future: How Sarah Sees Wealth.com Fitting into the Future of Advice

Sarah calls herself Wealth.com’s “number one cheerleader,” and her message to other advisors is simple: don’t be intimidated. The platform is easy to use, easy to learn, and designed so advisors never have to step into the role of an attorney. “As soon as a client asks you the difference between a trustee and executor, all you’re allowed to say is, well, let’s go look and read about it and we’ll talk about it together… It gives you enough knowledge to be a coach and a partner and help walk clients through it.”

The cost of standing still, she warns, is measured in relationships: every client meeting that happens outside the firm is a chance for someone else to win the relationship. “They’re leaving relationships on the table by not engaging with the software.”

“Wealth.com didn’t just add a service to our offering. It changed the kind of conversations we have with clients, and that’s what’s driving referrals and new AUM.”

Special thanks to Sarah Soria for sharing how Wealth.com has helped Encompass Financial Planning bring estate planning in-house and create deeper, education-driven relationships with clients.