Tax & Estate Planning A practical way to help clients get started on estate planning

Estate planning often falls into a planning blind spot. Many clients avoid beginning the process because it feels unpleasant, complicated and easy to postpone. Advisors may avoid it because they lack specialized estate planning knowledge and prefer not to venture into legal discussions. As a result, this important need can go unaddressed. 

But estate planning creates a golden opportunity for advisors. By proactively starting the conversation and guiding clients toward the appropriate resources and professionals, advisors can help clients overcome inertia, make meaningful progress and build deeper, more enduring relationships in the process. Importantly, advisors do not need to provide legal advice or offer in-house estate planning services to play a valuable role. Attorneys remain responsible for drafting legal documents and providing legal counsel. 

Advisors, however, are often uniquely positioned to encourage clients to take the first step and help them prepare for productive conversations with qualified estate planning professionals. What clients often need — and what advisors can provide — is a practical starting point.

To support those conversations, we've created “Preparing for your first meeting with your estate planning attorney,” a practical resource designed to help clients organize their thoughts and documents before meeting with legal counsel. When clients arrive prepared, the first meeting with legal counsel can be productive and efficient — potentially saving them time and money.

To be clear, we’re not suggesting clients must arrive at their first meeting with an estate planning attorney having every decision already made. Doing so would probably be a mistake. That initial meeting is typically a discovery conversation. The attorney's goal is to learn about the client's family situation, assets, objectives and concerns, not to finalize an estate plan on the spot. The more organized and prepared a client is for the first meeting, the more productive the meeting can be.

Instead, clients should be aware of topics that frequently arise during the planning process, including family considerations, personal goals, information gathering and the selection of individuals who may serve in important fiduciary roles. It can help clients approach the process with greater confidence while reducing the anxiety and uncertainty that often lead to procrastination.

For advisors, helping clients address estate planning concerns can deepen advisor-client relationships and give advisors an important early working relationship with the next generation of a family. Estate planning discussions often involve family, legacy, personal values and long-term goals, topics that extend beyond investment portfolios. By helping clients navigate these conversations, advisors can demonstrate a deeper understanding of what clients want their wealth to accomplish and reinforce the value of an ongoing advisory relationship.

This early conversation about getting started has particular value for advisors who do not offer estate planning services in their practice. Just providing support during the process can play an important role in delivering client value. Sharing educational materials, encouraging clients to meet with qualified estate planning attorneys and helping them prepare for those conversations can demonstrate care for the client's broader financial picture while keeping the advisor appropriately within their role.

Consider sharing our resource when a client expresses interest in estate planning, experiences a major life event or simply isn't sure where to begin. By helping clients take the first step, advisors can address an important planning need, create a better client experience and deepen relationships built on trust, guidance and long-term partnership.