Estate advisory platform Vanilla announced the relaunch of education-focused Vanilla Academy on Monday.
The revamped educational platform will feature multimedia content ranging from checklists to client-facing PowerPoint presentations to free, on-demand courses approved for continuing education credits.
“One of the biggest obstacles to getting advisors into estate planning is education.” Vanilla Director of Content Marketing Dan Brockley said. “We’re trying to give advisors the information they need to engage in estate planning conversations more confidently and comfortably.”
Vanilla Academy’s content, which will initially be free with sign-up for advisors (though in the future, some courses will be reserved strictly for Vanilla customers), largely falls into three categories: 1) CE-accredited courses for advisors; 2) Estate planning resources, such as advisor-facing playbooks and client-facing presentations and handouts to help illustrate certain concepts; and 3) Technical guides on how best to best use Vanilla’s specific functionalities to leverage clients.
The initial lineup of four CE courses (video presentations with written supplements and quizzes) includes: Estate Planning 101 (a three-part series); Basis and Beyond: Estate Planning for Non-Taxable Estates; Advanced Strategies for Taxable Estates; and New Client Conversations with (Chairman and co-founder) Steve Lockshin.
The plan is to regularly add new courses, ranging from core estate planning topics, such as highlighting notable jurisdictional planning differences, to soft skills, like how to have challenging conversations with clients.
“We’re keeping it broad at the start,” Brockley said. “We’re going to let user feedback guide us where we head next.”
Vanilla Academy’s curriculum assumes that advisors, attorneys and planners all come to estate planning with varying levels of knowledge and experience. Brockley said that potentially overwhelming skittish estate planning beginners with a wall of content up front would be counterproductive.
"We are committed to making estate planning accessible and effective for everyone, and the enhanced Vanilla Academy is a testament to that commitment." Vanilla CEO Gene Farrell said.
The launch of the new Vanilla Academy is a part of the company’s ongoing Summer School initiative, which includes live courses, office hours with subject matter experts and networking opportunities.