Tag: Advisor Enablement

What is a Trust and Is It Right for You? Part 2

TL/DR

A Trust is a financial agreement between someone who owns an asset and a trusted person to hold and manage that asset for them. In estate planning, a Revocable Trust is often used as a substitute for a Will, but there are many types of Trusts that accomplish different objectives. If you’re trying to decide whether you should have a Trust in your estate plan, read this two-part article.

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What’s the difference between a Marital Trust and a QTIP Trust? Are Bypass Trusts and Credit Shelter Trusts trying to accomplish the same goals? As you start learning about Trusts, you’ll learn that there are subtle differences between the Trusts that you might include in your foundational estate plan. Adding to the confusion, each lawyer has a different name for Trusts that do pretty much the same thing, and we try to provide the most common names for them.

Choosing to use a Trust in your estate plan is about being clear on your goals for how your assets should go to your loved ones. Trusts are created through a contract, and so there are a million different ways to write a contract to meet your specific goals.

This Article is divided into two parts. Part 1 is a primer on the key differentiators between Trusts. This Part 2 is a summary of the most commonly created Trusts in a foundational estate plan and their benefits.

The trusts named in this article are the ones you are most likely going to encounter when creating your foundational estate plan, which is centered on a Will or Revocable Trust and disposes of your assets when you pass away. This article does not discuss Trusts that you might create during life for wealth transfers or tax planning.

It is also important to realize that the descriptions for these Trusts are not mutually exclusive; you can use multiple adjectives to describe one Trust in your estate plan. For example, you can create a Marital Trust that is also a Spendthrift Trust.

Revocable or Living Trust

This Trust is most often used as an alternative to a Will for disposing of someone’s assets at death. It is also a great vehicle to transition the management of your financial affairs smoothly to someone whom you trust, in case you become incapacitated.

Learn more about Revocable and Irrevocable Trusts in Part 1 of this article.

Marital Trust

The Trust’s creator (“trustor”) creates this irrevocable Trust for the primary benefit of the spouse (i.e., your spouse can enjoy your assets after you have passed away). A Marital Trust is useful for someone who has a blended family, worries about elder abuse of their spouse or someone influencing their spouse to disinherit their beneficiaries, or is wealthy enough to worry about the estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes. There are many ways to design a Marital Trust, but if you also want your spouse’s inheritance to qualify for a benefit called the “unlimited marital deduction” (i.e., you could pass an unlimited amount of property to your spouse completely free of estate tax at your death), the Tax Code has stringent requirements for the design of this Trust (see “QTIP Trust” below).

QTIP Trust

The Qualified Terminable Interest Property Trust is a specific kind of Marital Trust. Its terms are properly structured to comply with the tax rules so that you can pass your property to your spouse in a trust and still benefit from the unlimited marital deduction.

One of the biggest “loopholes” under the estate tax rules is the unlimited marital deduction. This deduction allows you to pass unlimited amounts of property to your spouse (beyond the estate tax exemption of $12.92M in 2023), completely free of the estate tax.*

Not all Marital Trusts comply with these rules. For example, your Marital Trust may say that your spouse will be the only beneficiary for the rest of your spouse’s life, but if your spouse remarries, the Trust will end and your assets will pass to your other loved ones. By inserting the condition about remarriage, your Marital Trust does not comply with the tax rules. Your gift to your spouse counts toward the federal tax exemption, along with any property you pass to other non-charitable beneficiaries, and could lead to an inadvertent foot fault where your estate owes estate taxes.

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*As with all things tax, there are a lot of factors to unpack in this statement. Importantly, your spouse must be a U.S. citizen. In addition, the federal government only grants this benefit to individuals who are legally married, and not individuals in a domestic partnership, civil union, or other relationship arrangements. The fact that the unlimited marital deduction was not available for individuals in same-sex marriages performed under state law was the basis for the seminal case, U.S. v. Windsor, 570 U.S. 744 (2013). The case declared the federal law, the Defense of Marriage Act, to be unconstitutional and forced the federal government to grant the same government benefits to same-sex spouses. Those government benefits include the estate tax deduction!

Family, Bypass, or Credit Shelter Trust

This Trust goes by many names, but in essence, it is an irrevocable Trust created at your death to allow your family to engage in death tax planning.* If your estate may have a tax issue, this Trust allows your executor or trustee to use what remains of your tax exemption amount ($12.92M in 2023 at the federal level*2) and shelter those assets from future death taxes. This Trust becomes a “family bank,” where assets continue to grow and benefit a family, but no death tax will be imposed with the passing of each generation.

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*“Death taxes” in this article refers to the estate tax and generation-skipping transfer tax. These two tax regimes exist at the federal and state levels.

*2 The exemption amount may be significantly lower at the state level, and can be as low as $1M.

A/B Trusts

This term applies to estate planning for couples. It describes the most common combination of Trusts that are formed at the death of the first person who passes away: the Marital Trust (“A Trust”) and the Family Trust (“B Trust”). Your estate plan will then specify a mechanism for how your executor, trustee, or even your spouse, can allocate assets between those two Trusts.

As an additional variation on this term, if you and your spouse have a joint Trust (i.e., you created your estate plan together through one Revocable Trust), your estate plan may use A/B/C Trusts. In addition to the Marital and Family Trusts, your estate plan might create a Survivor’s Trust (read more below).

Survivor’s Trust

The Survivor’s Trust is relevant only when a couple creates a joint revocable Trust; it is the continuation of the revocable Trust once one person has passed away. With a joint Trust, the estate plan must describe where all of the couple’s assets will go – not only the deceased person’s assets, but also the survivor’s assets. Because one half of the couple is still living, the Survivor’s Trust exists to collect and hold the survivor’s assets without requiring the survivor to create a brand-new estate plan. The survivor can thus change and revoke the Survivor’s Trust as desired (but a Marital Trust or Family Trust is irrevocable).

Trust for Descendant or Trust for Issue

This type of Trust goes by many names, and often references the name of the primary beneficiary (e.g., Trust for Sara). This irrevocable Trust allows the beneficiary to enjoy the Trust assets, but without the full control that comes with owning assets in their own name. This Trust is useful for designating someone else to manage financial affairs while the beneficiary is not ready or able to handle the responsibility, ensuring that assets stay within a family, protecting an inheritance from divorce or creditors (e.g., the beneficiary’s personal debts), and planning for death taxes.

These Trusts are drafted in many different ways, and can take the form of a Holdback Trust or Special Needs Trust, as appropriate.

Holdback Trust

The primary purpose of this Trust is to “hold back” the inheritance for a younger beneficiary until the beneficiary comes of age. This irrevocable trust is meant to be a temporary vehicle and is more robust than a UTMA account in allowing the trusted person to manage the beneficiary’s finances. Usually, you will be given the opportunity to decide on which birthday the trust will end and the beneficiary should be able to receive all the assets.

Special Needs Trust

This irrevocable Trust is structured with a beneficiary who has long-term special needs in mind. The Trust usually lasts during the life of the beneficiary and preserves the beneficiary’s eligibility for government programs like Medicare. This Trust should have provisions allowing a trusted person to modify the Trust terms to optimize the Trust for the needs of that beneficiary, such as restricting certain powers, or adapting to government rules to access benefits.

Charitable Trust

This irrevocable Trust benefits a charity, and usually is created so that the gifts to the Trust qualify for a charitable deduction for income tax purposes, estate tax purposes, or both.

The second of the biggest “loopholes” in the estate tax rules is that a properly made gift to charities qualifies for an unlimited deduction (see “QTIP Trust” for the other unlimited deduction). To set up a Charitable Trust for tax planning, you must make sure that there are restrictions so that the organization cannot receive a Trust distribution unless it qualifies under the Code (usually, an organization that has maintained its 501(c)(3) status, but the estate tax rules have slight variations).

Pet Trust

This irrevocable Trust benefits pets. You would name someone to take care of the pets and to handle the finances for your pets (which may be the same person or different people). However, Pet Trusts are disfavored under the law. For example, you may be able to benefit only the pets who are alive when you pass away, and not their descendants, and the Trust’s distributions are taxed as income to the caretaker even if they are used to cover the pets’ expenses.

Spendthrift Trust or Asset Protection Trust

This Trust must be properly structured according to state law to grant the layer of protection from legal claims against the beneficiary and the creditor’s state must also respect that result. When the asset protection is respected, the Trust’s assets are considered separate from the personal assets of the beneficiary to satisfy personal claims against the beneficiary. For example, the Trust’s assets may not be considered in alimony calculations upon divorce, or the Trust’s assets cannot be forced out of the Trust to pay the debt or a monetary judgment against the beneficiary. Oftentimes, creating this Trust requires an affirmative statement in the Trust document and giving the trustee full discretion to decide when distributions can be made.

Originally published January 27, 2023, and updated on November 14, 2025.

What is a Trust and Is It Right for You? Part 1

TL/DR

A Trust is a financial agreement between someone who owns an asset and a trusted person to hold and manage that asset for them. In estate planning, a Revocable Trust is often used as a substitute for a Will, but there are many other descriptions for any single Trust such as Irrevocable, Living, Joint, Testamentary, and Grantor. If you’re trying to unpack these terms and decide whether you should have a Trust in your estate plan, read this two-part article.

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A Joint Trust, a Testamentary Trust, a Sub-Trust, a Revocable Trust (which sounds so much like “Irrevocable Trust” when said out loud)… There are so many adjectives used to describe Trusts, and it can quickly make your head spin. Once you dig deeper into these descriptive words for Trusts, you realize that many of these concepts come in pairs. Once you understand what feature of a trust is being described, and what the point of comparison is, it becomes much easier to understand the Trust’s use case.

This Article is divided into two parts. This Part 1 is a primer on the key differentiators between Trusts. Part 2 is a summary of the most commonly created Trusts in a foundational estate plan and their benefits.

Choosing to use a Trust in your estate plan is about being clear on your goals for how your assets should go to your loved ones. Trusts are created through a contract, and so there are a million different ways to write a contract to meet your specific goals.

Here are the ways to describe a Trust that we will explore in this article:

Different types of Trusts

Every term describes a different aspect of a Trust, and they are not mutually exclusive. In fact, every Trust can be described using one of the two choices from each category above. For example, if you use a Trust as a substitute for a Will in your foundational estate plan, you likely created a Revocable, Individual, Inter Vivos, Grantor Trust (most commonly shortened to “Revocable Trust”). If a Marital Trust will be created at your death, you will be creating an Irrevocable, Individual, Testamentary, Non-Grantor Trust. Let’s unpack each of these terms.

Revocable vs Irrevocable Trusts

The Revocable Trust, as the name implies, can be undone or unwound; the person who creates the Revocable Trust can simply “revoke” or “pull back” the Trust. The Irrevocable Trust, on the other hand, is much harder to change.

The Revocable Trust is often used as an alternative for a Will. It can also be used as an alternative to LLCs or Corporations to own an asset more privately while the owner is still alive.

The Irrevocable Trust is often used to give away assets while maintaining control over how the assets are used or to protect from specific types of taxes.

For most people, the introduction to Trusts begins with their own estate planning when they have to choose between making a Will or a Trust. In this context, the type of Trust you will be considering is the Revocable Trust (also commonly called a “Living Trust”).*2

Just as you would be able to change or completely revoke a Will (in many states, you could do this by ripping the original document!), you should be able to change or completely revoke your Revocable Trust. This is important because you could change your mind over the course of your life about key terms, such as who should get what asset. While you are alive and have mental capacity, you can easily change or revoke your Revocable Trust by signing a new Trust document.

An Irrevocable Trust is much harder to change, and it becomes especially difficult to remove or add beneficiaries or modify their individual rights. You might encounter this type of Trust even when creating your foundational estate plan (for example, a Marital Trust). In most states, once the Irrevocable Trust exists, changing this Trust requires the appointment of an independent trustee (if the Trust allows for it), the agreement of all the beneficiaries, or a court action. All of these options may be expensive and may require hiring an estate planner to do it right. For this reason, you must be certain you understand what powers and benefits you are giving up when you transfer property into an Irrevocable Trust.

That being said, Irrevocable Trusts are powerful vehicles for wealth transfer and preservation because you can control how the assets will be used. When properly structured, they provide protection against death taxes and creditors, which Revocable Trusts cannot do.

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*This article is about different adjectives describing Trusts. To learn more about why you would want a Revocable Trust instead of a Will, check out the article.

*2 “Living” is also sometimes used interchangeably with “Inter Vivos” (see section on “Inter Vivos v. Testamentary Trusts”). But its most common use is to mean a Revocable Trust that is used as a substitute for a Will.

Individual vs Joint Trusts

An Individual Trust has one creator (called a “trustor,” “grantor,” or “settlor”), whereas a Joint Trust has two or more trustors. If you would like to create a Trust with someone else, be clear on why.

The most common reason to set up a joint trust is with your spouse. You already share in the management of the assets (e.g., you live in a community property state), file income taxes together, and share similar values, goals, and beneficiaries.

Income tax filings and payments may become messy if you and the other person are expected to report and pay the income taxes on the assets of the Trust (see “Grantor vs Non-Grantor Trust”) below.

For gift tax reasons (as well as introducing potential for complicated legal claims), you should also consider carefully giving your assets into a Trust that was created by someone else. For example, it may be tempting to give an inheritance to your nephew in a Trust that your parents set up for your nephew. It may be better for you to set up your own Trust to keep the Trust management straight-forward.

Inter Vivos vs Testamentary Trusts

Inter Vivos Trusts* are created during the trustor’s lifetime, whereas Testamentary Trusts are created only at the trustor’s death. This description is about the timing of when a Trust exists and can hold assets.

Inter Vivos Trusts allow the creator of the trust to transfer assets during life. Testamentary Trusts lie in wait until the creator has passed away and receive assets only then. The most common way to create a Testamentary Trust is to draft it into a Will or within another Trust (i.e., a “Sub-Trust”).

You may encounter both Inter Vivos and Testamentary Trusts when creating your foundational estate plan. For example, if you use a Revocable Trust as a substitute for a Will, you are creating an Inter Vivos Trust. In fact, it is important to transfer as much of your assets into this Trust during your life, if minimizing probate is important to you.

Your estate plan may also involve any number of Testamentary Trusts (created under your Will or your Revocable Trust) in order to specify how your assets can be used or given away after your death or to allow your loved ones to minimize future taxes. For example, you might set up a relatively short-lived Testamentary Trust called a “Holdback Trust” just so someone can help your child manage their financial affairs until your child is older.

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*This term means “among the living” in Latin, and the English translation is “Living Trust.” However, the Living Trust is now commonly associated with Revocable Trusts used as a substitute for a Will, and so “Living” has become a confusing term because you can create an Irrevocable Trust during your life.

Grantor vs Non-Grantor Trusts

If you’ve made it this far in this article, you are really well on your way to understanding the features of a Trust that are important to an estate planner. Here is one more concept, which may matter more to your CPA. Your Trust may own assets that produce income (for example, real estate that is leased). It’s important to understand who is responsible for paying income taxes for Trust assets: you or the Trust.

A Grantor Trust does not pay its own taxes; another person (usually the Trust creator) must include the Trust’s income on his, her or its tax return and pay any income taxes. A Non-Grantor Trust pays its own taxes using the tax brackets for estates and trusts, which are different from the tax brackets for individuals.

Grantor Trusts retain enough of a connection to its “owner” (or “Grantor”) under the Tax Code so that the Grantor pays the taxes. Who is an owner is determined under a complex set of tax rules, and estate planners often intentionally turn on or turn off Grantor status on the Trust; but at a minimum, the owner must still be alive.

Having a Grantor trust is beneficial if you do not want to complicate tax reporting by having the Trust file a separate tax return or you want to treat the payment of taxes as an additional annual gift to your loved ones. In addition, a Non-Grantor Trust generally pays more income taxes than an individual taxpayer on the same amount of income. This is because the trust tax brackets are “compressed”; a Trust taxpayer reaches the maximum tax rate (i.e., 37%) at a lower income than does an individual taxpayer.

How does this concept apply to your foundational estate plan? If you use a Revocable Trust as a substitute for a Will, it will be a Grantor Trust that you “own” during your lifetime. A Revocable Trust does not result in any income tax savings: you must include the Trust’s income on your own tax return and pay those income taxes.

If you use a Sub-Trust (or Testamentary Trust) in your Will or Trust, that Trust will be created at your death and will usually be a Non-Grantor Trust. It will have to file and pay its own income taxes.

If you’re ready to get started creating a Revocable Trust follow this link.

To learn more about specific types of Trusts and their objectives, read Part 2 of this series.

Originally published January 24, 2023, and updated on November 14, 2025.

Digital Assets in Estate Plans: The Six-Figure Question Your Clients Aren’t Asking

For financial advisors managing the complexity of estates, the frontier of wealth planning is no longer focused solely on tangible assets. It is digital. Your clients hold substantial value in airline loyalty points, cryptocurrency, and domain names: assets that are often entirely invisible to their estate planners. This gap is no longer a niche problem; it is a fiduciary liability and a significant missed opportunity for bringing deeper client value.

Every estate plan that remains silent on digital property risks permanent financial loss for beneficiaries and creates unnecessary legal and administrative friction for the fiduciaries administering the estate and the family’s financial advisors. To close this gap at scale, fiduciaries and advisors require a modern, integrated platform designed to secure all client wealth. Wealth.com empowers advisors to transition from managing historical wealth to safeguarding the modern reality of their clients’ full financial lives.

The Scale of the Hidden Asset Class

The term “digital assets” encompasses far more than just financial technology. It includes any online account, file, or data that holds either monetary or sentimental value. These assets have grown in value and complexity at an exponential rate, yet estate planning practices have largely lagged.

 

Type of Digital AssetMonetary Value PotentialRisk of Loss in Estate
Cryptocurrency (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.)High; often six- or seven-figuresHighest; requires awareness of existence, knowledge of private keys or seed phrases when stored in a cold wallet
Online Business Assets (Loyalty Programs such as Airline Miles or other Credit Card Rewards Programs)High; cash flow savingsHigh; requires awareness of existence
Cloud-Stored Files (Digital Art or Photos, emails, family photos, voice recordings, videos and other files with sentimental value uploaded to a cloud service)Sentimental and administrativeMedium; requires ability to access account and successfully download or transfer assets
Social MediaSentimental or reputationalLow

 

The collective value of digital property, including cryptocurrency and digital assets held globally, is measured in the trillions of dollars. According to the IMARC Digital Asset Management Market Size, Share, Trends and Forecast Report, The market for digital asset management—which includes the systems required to manage this content—is projected to be a multi-billion dollar sector, underscoring the substantial enterprise attention being paid to this asset class. Advisors must position themselves ahead of this trend to capture the planning opportunity.

The Core Problem: Security Versus Access

The primary barrier to including digital assets in an estate plan is the inherent tension between security and fiduciary access. Digital assets, especially decentralized ones like cryptocurrency, are designed to be accessible only with specific, private credentials. The security that protects the owner during life is precisely what locks out the fiduciary after death.

Consider a common scenario: A client, a dedicated cryptocurrency investor, dies with over $200,000 in crypto holdings stored in a cold wallet. The client’s Will names a spouse as the executor, but the spouse was never informed where the seed phrase (the recovery key) was stored. Despite the legal document stating the spouse is the sole heir, the court is unable to access the funds. The money remains locked on the blockchain, permanently inaccessible to the estate. In addition, the bureaucratic elements of interacting with the companies that control the digital asset (like Facebook for social media accounts and Apple or Google for cloud-stored content) can be a source of distress for the family.

A will or a trust may grant legal authority to the executor, but it does not provide the practical access required by the digital asset custodian. Without specific instructions for access, a substantial portion of the client’s wealth can be lost forever. Wealth.com solves this critical access problem by providing a secure, centralized system for managing explicit access directives separate from the public-facing legal documents.

The Legal Framework: RUFADAA and the Hierarchy of Consent

Advisors cannot afford to rely on generic language that applies to traditional assets. The management of digital assets after death or incapacity is primarily governed by the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA), which has been adopted in over 45 states.

RUFADAA established a clear, three-tiered hierarchy for determining how a fiduciary can access a client’s digital assets, with the client’s direct, explicit consent overriding nearly everything else.

  1. Online Tools (Highest Priority): A client’s instructions made through the custodian’s own platform (e.g., Google’s Inactive Account Manager, or Facebook’s Legacy Contact) override all other legal documents and the custodian’s Terms of Service.
  2. Legal Documents: In the absence of an online tool, a client’s express directions in a will, trust, or power of attorney control the fiduciary’s access. This requires clear language specifically addressing digital assets in all three legal documents. This explicit power is often missing from older estate planning documents.
  3. Terms of Service (TOS): If a client provides no direction via an online tool, or legal document, the custodian’s Terms of Service agreement dictates access.

For the client, the power of attorney, will and trust are critical tools. By using a durable Power of Attorney with express authority, an agent can manage digital assets during a period of incapacity. Wealth.com makes it simple to place digital assets in your client’s trust during life (“funding” the trust) and the forms provide explicit powers to the executor, trustee, and agent, ensuring that they have the best chances to access the client’s digital assets once something happens to the client. 

A Practical Conversation Guide for Advisors

To effectively incorporate digital assets into an estate plan, you must move beyond basic financial reviews and become a proactive digital asset manager for the firm’s clients. This begins with a simple, direct conversation.

The Three-Question Digital Asset Diagnostic:
Use these three questions in your next client review to identify planning gaps:

  1. “Do you have any assets that exist only online?” This moves the client past the definition of “crypto” and includes frequent flyer miles, domain names, investment account logins, and cloud storage. The focus is discovery, not valuation.
    1. It is common for heirs to struggle dividing and transferring points from rewards programs like frequent flyer miles or credit card rewards. If your client has valuable points, help them look into the program’s policies for post-death transfers.
  2. “If you were to become suddenly incapacitated, does your designated fiduciary (Trustee, Executor) have the credentials to access those assets?” This highlights the access problem. The client may have the account listed, but does the fiduciary have the private key or access to the device to complete multi-factor authentication (MFA)?
  3. “Where do you currently store the access information (passwords, private keys, seed phrases) for these assets?” If the answer is “in my head,” “on a sticky note,” or “in the Will,” the advisor must intervene to advocate for a secure digital document management strategy. 

The Wealth.com platform provides a proprietary, secure digital vault where fiduciaries can find necessary access information only upon authorization, eliminating the risk of paper-based or public record exposure.

How Wealth.com Modernizes Digital Asset Planning for Your Firm

Wealth.com empowers advisors to close the digital asset gap and deliver comprehensive estate planning solutions at scale. The platform is purpose-built to address the unique compliance, security, and access challenges presented by modern wealth.

  • Integrated Digital Vault: The platform’s digital vault provides a secure, single source of truth for all client documents and digital asset credentials. This eliminates the risk of losing private keys or relying on the flawed approach of listing passwords in a public Will.
  • Advisor-First Efficiency: By integrating estate planning with digital asset management, the platform streamlines the entire client experience. You spend less time tracking down scattered information and more time delivering high-value advice, driving efficiency and client impact for your firm.
  • Comprehensive Planning: The platform’s technological and legal depth ensures that whether the client’s wealth is invested in a mutual fund or stored in a cold storage wallet, the estate plan is truly modern and comprehensive, protecting the full scope of their financial legacy.
    • Points to Consider:
      • Will your clients be successfully passing any objective value in the digital assets to your intended beneficiaries? Examples include inheritance of frequent flyer miles or crypto.
      • Did your client set up the post-death access and control rights to someone where possible? Examples include social media like Facebook or cloud-storage access.
      • Does your client grant post-death access and control rights to their executor/trustee through their will or trust?

By adopting Wealth.com, you deliver better client outcomes by moving beyond outdated, fragmented processes and reinforcing your firm as the trusted expert in securing wealth for the digital future.

Sources

  • Carolina Estate Planning. Why 90% of Crypto Holders Will Accidentally Disinherit Their Families.
  • Kitces, Michael. Why Managing Digital Assets is Critical In Estate Planning.
  • IMARC. Digital Asset Management Market Size, Share, Trends and Forecast by Type, Component, Application, Deployment, Organization Size, End-Use Sector, and Region, 2025-2033.
  • Uniform Law Commission. Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA).

 

The Why Behind Estate Planning (CFP CE Credit)

Upcoming Webinar

Date & Time: Nov. 20 | 11 am PT | 2 pm ET

As $124 trillion transfers from Baby Boomers to younger generations by 2048, advisors face a defining opportunity and risk. The “great wealth transfer” will reshape the industry, but only advisors who engage families through estate planning will retain assets and build multigenerational trust. In this session, advisors will learn why estate planning has become a core growth driver, how to position it as a differentiator, and how top advisors are embedding planning into client workflows. Participants will leave with a repeatable, scalable process for introducing, delivering, and maintaining estate planning as part of their value proposition.

Upon completion of this program, you’ll be able to:

  • Articulate the business case for estate planning as a tool for retention, relationship deepening, and intergenerational engagement.
  • Describe the advisor’s role in coordinating estate planning across legal, tax, and family dynamics.
  • Identify repeatable workflows that integrate estate planning into annual reviews and client service calendars.
  • Outline actionable next steps to begin offering or improving estate planning guidance within their firm.

Save your seat today!

Wealth.com Named Exclusive Estate Planning Provider for Indivisible Partners

PHOENIX — November 6, 2025 — Wealth.com, the leading end-to-end estate planning platform for financial advisors, today announced that it has been selected by Indivisible Partners (“Indivisible”) as its exclusive estate planning technology provider. The fast-growing independent wealth management firm was founded by a team of industry veterans, including John Thiel, former head of wealth management at Merrill Lynch, and John Hogarty, former chief operating officer of Global Wealth & Investment Management for Bank of America/Merrill Lynch.

Through this collaboration, Wealth.com will serve as Indivisible’s exclusive estate planning technology provider, seamlessly integrating into the firm’s modern advisor wealth platform. Advisors will be able to generate accurate, real-time plans that evolve alongside clients’ financial lives—reducing administrative burden, increasing efficiency and supporting better client outcomes.

“We set out to build the platform elite advisors told us they need, and Wealth.com fits into that commitment,” said Thiel, co-founder and executive chairman of Indivisible Partners. “For high-net-worth families with complex estates, this level of integration materially elevates the quality of advice. It also strengthens the advisor value proposition—enabling more transparent, collaborative and intuitive planning experiences that truly put the client first.”

This announcement follows Wealth.com’s integration with Advyzon, the all-in-one wealth management platform that underpins Indivisible’s technology platform. With both integrations now live, Indivisible’s advisors gain access to a unified environment connecting portfolio management, financial planning and estate planning.

“Estate planning has long been one of the most complex and overlooked areas of wealth management,” said Tim White, co-founder and chief growth officer at Wealth.com. “Indivisible’s forward-looking approach embodies the standard for modern advisor firms—technology-enabled, client-centered, and advisor-empowering. We’re proud to be part of their mission to redefine the wealth management experience.”

With Wealth.com integrated directly into Indivisible’s advisor platform, estate planning becomes a seamless part of the client journey. Advisors can now deliver personalized, compliant plans in real time, supported by transparent data and intuitive workflows that strengthen trust and deepen client relationships over time.

To learn more about how Wealth.com empowers advisors with modern estate planning solutions, visit wealth.com.

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About Wealth.com
Wealth.com is the industry’s leading estate planning platform, empowering more than 1,000 wealth management firms to modernize the delivery of estate planning guidance to their clients. As the only tech-led, end-to-end platform built specifically for financial institutions, Wealth.com enables firms to drive scale, efficiency, and measurable client impact. Trusted by some of the largest names in finance, Wealth.com combines proprietary AI, robust security, and deep technological and legal expertise to serve the full range of client needs, from foundational plans to the most sophisticated estate strategies. The company has been widely recognized for innovation and leadership, winning Top Estate Planning Technology and Top Estate Planning Implementation at the 2025 WealthManagement.com Industry Awards, being named the 2024 Best Technology Provider in the Trust category, and earning #1 in estate planning market share in the 2025 Kitces AdvisorTech Study.

 

About Indivisible Partners
Indivisible Partners is a privately held, independent advisory firm founded by experienced industry leaders to redefine what independence means for elite advisory teams. The firm combines an innovative, integrated platform with true ownership, high-touch support, and a collaborative culture—empowering advisors to deliver high-touch, comprehensive wealth advisory services to high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients. Headquartered in Clearwater, FL, Indivisible Partners operates as a federally registered investment advisor. For more information, please visit www.indivisible.com.

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How to Talk to Clients About Estate Planning Services

Editor’s note: This article provides general information for financial professionals. It is not legal advice. Follow your firm’s policies and the rules in your state.

Estate planning touches money, family, health, and legacy. Clients delay it because it feels complex or emotional. Advisors who frame the conversation with care help clients act, build trust, and show real value, while staying well inside the boundaries that avoid the unauthorized practice of law. The key is simple. Educate and facilitate, do not give legal advice or draft legal instruments. Use Wealth.com to guide clients through a structured process so they can complete their plan, then coordinate with an attorney when legal advice is needed.

Why Communication Matters in Estate Planning

Clear messaging reduces anxiety and sets the right expectations about roles.

Guiding principles

  • Lead with outcomes clients care about, such as clarity for family and reduced friction during stressful moments.
  • State your role up front. You educate, organize, and coordinate through Wealth.com. You do not provide legal advice.
  • Normalize the emotions, then make the next step simple.
  • Use plain language, avoid legal jargon.
  • Close with one concrete action, such as a scheduling link or a short intake.

Role clarity you can say verbatim

  • “My role is education and coordination. You will complete your estate plan in Wealth.com. If any additional legal guidance is needed, we will involve an attorney.”
  • “I can explain concepts in general terms. I cannot tell you which clauses to choose or interpret how a document would be enforced. During each step of the process, Wealth.com includes helpful educational guidelines.” 

Adapting Your Message to Different Pricing Models

Each talk track below positions Wealth.com as the client’s tool, keeps you out of legal advice, and makes the next step easy.

1) Included at no additional cost

Goal
Celebrate added value, clarify roles, invite immediate action.

In‑meeting talk track
“Protecting family and reducing headaches are top priorities for you. We have added estate planning support to your service at no extra cost. You will complete your plan in Wealth.com using a guided experience. My team will help you prepare information, answer planning questions in general terms, and coordinate with an attorney if you choose to involve one. Let’s schedule your estate planning session.”

Follow‑up email line
“Your service now includes access to Wealth.com. You can start your intake here [Link]”

2) Optional, stand‑alone service

Goal
Offer a clear choice, define scope and price, keep control with the client.

In‑meeting talk track
“Given your goals for the kids and the house, a clear estate plan would reduce stress and keep decisions in your hands. We offer an optional service that uses the industry’s leading estate planning platform, Wealth.com, for a flat fee. You complete the plan in the platform. We handle preparation, education in general terms, and coordination. If you would like legal advice, we will loop in an attorney. Would you like to review scope, timeline, and fee so you can decide?”

Follow‑up email line
“Attached is a one‑page overview of our Wealth.com service. If you want to proceed, reply yes and we will schedule your kickoff.”

3) Firm‑wide fee increase

Goal
Be transparent, connect the change to outcomes, outline what improves.

In‑meeting talk track
“Beginning January 1, our planning fee will increase. The change ensures every client receives a complete estate planning process. You will complete your plan in Wealth.com with our help on preparation and coordination. We will review for financial alignment and connect with an attorney for legal questions. Here is what is included and how it benefits your family.”

Follow‑up email line
“Our updated fee schedule takes effect on January 1. Your service now includes access to Wealth.com, along with an annual check‑in on beneficiaries and key roles. Use this link to begin your intake.”

Leading With Value and Empathy

Use this conversation framework to keep discussions clear and compliant.

C‑A‑R‑E Framework

  • Context. “Tell me what matters most for your family and how you want decisions handled.”
    Align. “Estate planning supports those priorities and removes guesswork. I can explain the concepts in general terms.”
  • Roadmap. “We will use Wealth.com to guide you through discovery, decisions, and documents. You complete the plan in the platform.”
    Engage. “Would you like to start with a short discovery session next week, or review an overview first?”

Plain‑language explanations

  • Advance directive, “Instructions for medical care if you cannot speak for yourself.”
  • Executor or personal representative, “The person who carries out your wishes.”
  • Funding a trust, “Moving the right accounts and property into the trust so it works as intended.”

High‑empathy phrases that keep clients in control

  • “At your pace, with your permission.”
  • “We will take this one decision at a time.”
  • “You decide who to involve. We will coordinate the process.” 

UPL Guardrails: What Advisors Can Do and What They Must Avoid

Advisors can

  • Educate clients on estate planning concepts in general terms.
  • Help clients organize information and beneficiaries, and prepare for decisions.
  • Facilitate client use of Wealth.com, including intake and next steps.
  • Review financial alignment, such as titling and beneficiary coordination across accounts.
  • Coordinate with the client’s attorney or refer the client to their attorney for legal questions. Wealth.com’s Attorney Partner Network is a nationwide network of vetted estate attorneys available to the platform’s users and financial advisors in all 50 states and US territories.

Advisors must not

  • Provide legal advice, recommend specific legal clauses, or interpret how a document will be enforced.
  • Draft legal language or modify legal provisions inside documents.
  • Select a document type for the client in a way that constitutes legal advice.
  • Represent that the advisor or the firm is providing legal services.

Red‑flag phrases to avoid and safer alternatives

  • Avoid “We will draft your documents.” Use “You will complete your documents in Wealth.com.”
  • Avoid “I recommend this clause.” Use “Here are common options and the trade‑offs at a high level. Your attorney can advise on the right clause for your situation.”
  • Avoid “This language will protect you in court.” Use “For legal guidance or interpretation, please consult an attorney.”

Strengthening Client Relationships Through Estate Planning

Estate planning creates valuable touchpoints that go beyond portfolio reviews.

Operational tips

  • Segment and prioritize. Life events such as a new child, home purchase, business sale, marriage, divorce, caregiving, or relocation are natural entry points.
  • Standardize your workflow. Intake, education session, client completes plan in Wealth.com, execution and storage, annual check‑in.
  • Clarify roles by title. Advisor educates and coordinates. Paraplanner prepares data. Attorney addresses legal advice.
  • Document the value. Track estate planning milestones in your CRM and surface them during reviews.
  • Nurture the next generation. Offer an onboarding session for adult children or trusted contacts that focuses on education and logistics.

Compliance tips

  • Use template language for disclosures.
  • Capture notes that confirm clients were advised to consult an attorney.
  • Route legal questions to counsel promptly. 

How technology helps

Wealth.com removes friction for clients and your team. Guided workflows organize information, keep everyone aligned, and make it easy for clients to complete their plan. Advisors stay focused on planning and coordination. Legal advice remains with attorneys.

Ready‑to‑Use Scripts and Snippets

Short opener for any meeting
“Before we wrap, I would like to spend five minutes on planning for life events. Estate planning keeps decisions in your hands. We use Wealth.com to make the process simple. I can explain the concepts and help you get started, and your attorney can address legal questions. Can we review next steps?”

Subject lines

  • Estate planning made simple, here is your next step
  • Your plan, your wishes, one easy process
  • Add peace of mind to your financial plan

One‑sentence value statement
“Estate planning turns your values into clear instructions your family can follow, completed in Wealth.com with our help on education and coordination.”

Call to action choices

  • “Schedule your estate planning kickoff.”
  • “Complete this two‑minute intake in Wealth.com so we can personalize your plan.”
    “Share the contact information for the person you would like to name in key roles.”

The Bottom Line

Great communication turns a sensitive topic into confident action. Whether estate planning is included, offered as an option, or introduced with a fee change, your message should highlight outcomes, clarify roles, and make the next step easy. Use Wealth.com to empower clients to complete their plan, keep legal advice with attorneys, and deliver a modern experience that clients appreciate.

Explore how Wealth.com helps advisors bring estate planning to every client. You can request a demo today.

Financial Advisors: Estate Planning, The Practice of Law, and You

By Jim Doppke, Esq., Robinson Stewart Montgomery & Doppke LLC

Financial advisors can assist clients in planning for their financial future, and their families’ futures, in many ways, and an important component of a holistic plan for financial well-being is an estate plan. Advisors who don’t have law licenses are not permitted to practice law.

Traditionally, lawyers have assisted clients with creating an estate plan. However, modern estate planning technology designed by lawyers now puts the power in the clients’ own hands, including by assisting their clients in creating an estate plan to weigh their personal situations against their legal options, and to create their own estate plans.

How can advisors make sure that they adequately address their client’s needs, while providing only the services they are authorized to provide?

What is the Practice of Law?

Only lawyers, or someone acting under their direct supervision, can engage in “the practice of law.” But how do we know what “the practice of law” is? The term doesn’t have a precise definition, but many authorities define it generally as performing any service that involves legal knowledge or legal skill. The “practice of law” can also be said to involve applying a legal principle to specific facts, even hypothetical facts that haven’t actually arisen.

Regulatory authorities have analyzed companies that provide estate planning services to consumers – especially services particularly relating to Living (or Revocable) Trusts. For example, in the estate planning space, one regulator found that a non-lawyer crossed into the practice of law by concluding, on behalf of another person (e.g., a client), that the person should have a Revocable Trust based on that person’s facts and circumstances. That’s because the decision of which estate planning vehicle is most appropriate for another person involves applying legal principles to that other person’s specific situations. That is the practice of law. If someone is not able to determine the appropriate estate planning vehicle for themselves, then a lawyer must identify whether a Will or Trust is most appropriate for that person.

So how can Wealth.com help?

Using Wealth.com

If a Wealth.com user is uncertain whether the foundational document for their estate plan should be a Will or a Revocable Trust, Wealth.com presents the user with an intake quiz. That quiz contains the factors that an attorney might normally use to determine if a Will or a Trust is most appropriate. The user responds to the prompts based on their own circumstances, and is presented with an option for a will-based plan or a trustbased plan – and with explanations for how the information they provided was reflected in the option presented. Importantly, the user then may choose one route over the other. Throughout the process, the advisors serving Wealth.com users do not give legal advice or legal services to the users.

Using the Advisor Dashboard, the advisor can review some of the information that the client enters into the software. But the advisor does not enter that information. Nor does  Wealth.com allow advisors to edit or create estate planning documents, or provide legal advice to clients about what legal means or objectives to pursue. The advisor can, however, review the client’s information – including, for example, summaries of key terms in estate planning documents and designations of trustees – and, if need be, refer the client to an attorney for legal advice about particular estate planning documents. At every stage in the process, Wealth.com makes advisors and clients aware that they are not giving or receiving legal advice or legal services.

Using the Wealth.com Advisor portal, the advisor can review the information that the client enters into the platform and send nudges and reminders to the client. That helps to make sure that the client completes the Wealth.com process. But the advisors themselves cannot make elections or decisions that could have a legal effect on behalf of the client, such as editing or creating estate planning documents, and they cannot provide legal advice to clients about what legal means or objectives to pursue, or how to pursue them.

The advisor also has full visibility into the client’s estate plan and tools. They can receive visual reports that help summarize, digest, and understand the structure and key provisions within the client’s estate plan. If need be, the client or advisor can generate a report that contains insights into the client’s estate plan. That report can highlight opportunities for updates, and it can signal when the client might want to consult with an attorney within Wealth.com’s carefully vetted network of trusts and estates attorneys.

At every stage in the process – and as early as the client registration process – Wealth.com makes advisors and clients aware that the advisor is not giving or receiving legal advice or legal services.

Legal Information & Financial Advice

What kind of advice can advisors give to clients?

While advisors must avoid giving legal advice – applying legal principles to specific facts – they can provide clients with both legal information and financial advice.

Legal information is factual and generic. It does not address any one particular client or set of facts. Governmental or regulatory websites often contain legal information regarding the statutes that govern a particular industry or area, and regarding an agency’s processes. As long as advisors do not analyze legal information with regard to the client’s particular situation, or recommend specific actions in light of the legal information, they can pass that kind of information along to clients.

Financial advice consists of recommendations of certain investments, products, or vehicles designed to help consumers meet their present and future financial goals. Financial advisors can analyze a client’s assets, liabilities, and other financial data in order to assist in planning the client’s strategies and holdings. Qualified financial advisors who are not authorized to practice law can provide many kinds of financial advice, as long as they do not draft legal documents, speculate on legal outcomes, or recommend that the client choose one particular legal course of action over another.

Examples

Below are some examples of the kinds of services an advisor using Wealth.com to assist his clients might provide, and brief discussions of whether those services could be considered the unauthorized practice of law (UPL).

  1. Providing the client the text of an IRS Alert: Not UPL, unless accompanied by specific advice, or recommendations for courses of action, based on the client’s particular circumstances.
  2. Advising the client regarding stock market trends with a view to making sure client has allocated assets appropriately for their goals: Not UPL, as this would be financial advice.
  3. Noticing that the client has no Will or Trust and advising the client what kind of estate planning document would be appropriate under the circumstances: Potentially UPL, as the advice involves determining a legal course of action. Wealth.com’s intake quiz can help guide the client in the right direction. Or an advisor can guide the client to seek legal advice, including by using Wealth.com’s network of attorneys.
  4. Noticing that the client has no Will or Trust and providing the client with access to Wealth.com for assistance in creating estate planning documents: Not UPL, as advisor is suggesting that the client seek appropriate assistance and directs client to the platform, on which the client can create documents for themselves.
  5. Noticing that a particular provision in a client’s Trust could cause assets to be distributed in a manner not in accord with client’s wishes, and advising the client to change that provision: Potentially UPL, as the application of laws to the client’s situation could give rise to giving legal advice. To avoid UPL, the advisor can provide the client with access to Wealth.com so that client can enter and analyze their own estate plan information. Or the advisor can recommend that the client seek the advice of an attorney, including one of the attorneys within Wealth.com’s network.
  6. Conducting a meeting with the client where the client clicks through the platform and makes decisions through the document creation workflows: Not UPL as long as the advisor does not answer questions regarding the legal implications of choices the client makes beyond the generalized information from the FAQs or other educational materials provided by Wealth.com.
  7. Suggesting to the client that either the client or the financial advisor can reach out to Wealth.com support if there are further questions: Not UPL. The Wealth.com support team is trained to triage, and to answer factual or product-related questions. Any legal questions are then forwarded to the legal department, which can then direct the client to the consulting attorneys in Wealth.com’s network for further assistance.

Contact Wealth.com today to start helping your clients to effectuate their estate plans and to achieve their financial goals. See the platform in action at www.wealth.com/demo.

 

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