• Help secure your clients' legacy

Estate planning solutions and resources

Use our expert resources to help advise clients on the best way to preserve their wealth and legacy, while minimizing the impact of estate taxes on future generations.

A woman in professional business attire explains the content of a booklet she is holding, as a man and woman sitting across from her listen attentively. The casually dressed couple appear as if they could be around traditional retirement age, and possible clients or prospective clients of the first woman.

Overview

Why estate planning is essential

Just as your client’s financial plan is crucial to controlling investments while they are living, an estate plan is crucial to ensure control of their legacy upon their death or incapacitation. A well-thought-out estate plan is going to become increasingly important in the advisor-client relationship as we progress through what is being called the greatest wealth transfer in history, so it is critical that you stay knowledgeable and up to date on crafting the best estate plan.

Without an estate plan in place to safeguard family wealth beyond a head of household’s lifetime, families risk losing that wealth to estate taxes or other factors. That’s where financial advisors like you can make a tremendous difference. Bridging the understanding gap between clients and the people who stand to inherit their wealth can deepen client and advisor relationships, put future generations on a solid financial path, and maintain assets under your fiduciary stewardship long after a client’s passing.

Further, developing relationships with your clients’ heirs helps to build your practice. Look for ways to interact with your clients’ heirs and build trust over time. In doing so, you can increase the likelihood they will choose your practice as they develop careers, portfolios, and advice needs of their own.

$124T

124 trillion in wealth will be transferred to heirs or charity between 2024 and 2048.1

$34T

Women will control $34T of wealth by 2030.1

64%

Only 64% of clients think their children are ready for inheritance.1

Benefits

The benefits of an estate plan

Developing a sound estate plan can help give clients confidence and security about their legacy beyond their life. It can also help with objectives and goals in maintaining wealth and optimizing estate tax implications. These goals can include:

  • Ensuring that your client’s assets are distributed in a timely manner while avoiding changes against their wishes in the face of legal challenges.
  • Providing realistic expectations, support, and stability for their heirs, including surviving spouse, children, or grandchildren.
  • Preserving assets and family businesses for future generations.
  • Ensuring that their wishes are carried out if they can no longer manage their affairs during their life or upon their death.

 

Other compelling reasons for estate planning

Effective estate planning considers your clients’ lifestyle and values, as well as their wishes for how to deploy their wealth both now and after they are gone. For instance, it can guide them on how to create a structure of charitable giving with a gift of money, securities, real estate, or other property.

It can also reduce the taxes and costs that may need to be paid when a client dies and make it easier to distribute their assets. Along with that, skillful estate planning can manage a client’s accounts so there is sufficient liquidity to meet the estate’s expenses and avoid the forced sale of assets. And through the estate planning process, you can research with clients the options that provide for the protection of their personal and family privacy.

 

PDF
Estate planning guide

Help your clients understand the importance of estate planning with this education guide that outlines basic estate planning tools, the importance of taxes, estate planning and children, and more.

Download

Key elements

Key elements for successful estate planning

Few things are as important to your clients as their financial legacy and the well-being of their heirs. While traditional estate planning is a fundamental component of wealth planning, three often-overlooked factors actually have the greatest influence on a family’s ability to successfully transition its wealth:

group of people discussing business topic in a conference room with large windows
 
  1.  Strong communication and a sense of trust among family members.
  2.  Thorough preparation of heirs. 
  3.  A cohesive purpose for family wealth.

 

Communication and preparation are vital. Frequent communication about values the family considers important helps to reinforce those values and ensure their understanding by future heirs. Preparing heirs means helping them understand how the family’s wealth was built, the responsibility of inheriting it one day, and the actions and attitudes that will be required to preserve it.

Many families find it challenging to foster the purposeful candor and openness needed to conduct such conversations on their own. That’s why structured family meetings, guided by an advisor, are an important part of wealth planning.

 

How to facilitate a family meeting on estate planning

As an advisor, you can help facilitate the family meeting by acting as an impartial moderator, strengthening your connection to the family beyond the head of household, and providing support during the eventual transition of wealth.

Structured meetings can help you open a dialogue about important issues, strengthen family harmony and trust, and educate and prepare your client’s heirs for future responsibilities.

While the goal of each meeting is to facilitate collaborative discussion and come to a mutual understanding and consensus, each meeting should be shaped to the needs of your client’s family. Meeting topics may include:

 

 
  • Responsibilities and expectations.
  • Education of heirs.
  • Shared philanthropic goals.
  • Family history and enduring values.
  • Family mission statement.
  • Preparation for wealth transfer.

89%

of high-net-worth-focused advisors cite family meetings as one of the most effective wealth-transfer planning actions.1

Resources

How to prepare for estate planning

Help get clients ready for estate planning with the resources below.

 

money hand icon

Financial education assessment

This pre-meeting assessment for clients helps you determine how much they, their life partners, and their heirs know about investments, other financial tools, and the principles of building and protecting wealth.

Download
clipboard icon

Critical financial checklist

This checklist provides a structured framework for clients to record the status and custodians of their financial assets and documents. In the event of emergency, it serves as a quick-reference guide for clients' loved ones or other survivors.

Download
speech icon

Partner preparedness assessment

This assessment can affirm the ability of clients and their partners to respond to emergencies or can reveal gaps in their preparedness that you can help them address.

Download

Next steps

Next steps: Minimize estate taxes

Many clients will require sophisticated and highly customized guidance to navigate the rules of wealth transfer. Whether they give their wealth to others during their lifetimes or after they’ve passed away, clients will want to minimize taxes and ensure that beneficiaries are well-informed.

 

  • two men discussing at a table using an ipad
  • two men discussing at a table using an ipad
    • PDF
    Trusts

    Trusts serve as vital estate management tools for transferring wealth, managing taxes, and safeguarding assets across generations. Trusts allow you to specify how and when your clients' assets will be distributed after death. Use our guide to help understand which trust works for your clients’ situations.

    Download

    Need guidance on a client’s unique estate planning considerations?

    Contact us to get connected with a specialist.

     

    Disclosures and footnotes

    1. Cerulli Associates. U.S. High-Net-Worth and Ultra-High-Net-Worth Markets 2024. The Great Wealth Transfer: Capturing Money in Motion. 2024.

    Notes:

    • All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest.
    • Neither Vanguard nor its financial advisors provide tax and/or legal advice. This information is general and educational in nature and should not be considered tax and/or legal advice. Any tax-related information discussed herein is based on tax laws, regulations, judicial opinions and other guidance that are complex and subject to change. Additional tax rules not discussed herein may also be applicable to your situation. Vanguard makes no warranties with regard to such information or the results obtained by its use, and disclaims any liability arising out of your use of, or any tax positions taken in reliance on, such information. We recommend you consult a tax and/or legal advisor about your individual situation.