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Financial Planning > Trusts and Estates > Estate Planning

Vanilla Estate Planning Platform Wins Backing From Edward Jones

By John Manganaro

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What You Need to Know

  • The fundraising round is led by returning investor Insight Partners.
  • The scale of the new backing is similar to what the firm achieved in a 2022 capital raise.
  • Industry trends are driving major interest in streamlined and modernized estate planning services.

Vanilla has gained a new strategic investor in Edward Jones Ventures, a recently launched venture capital program aimed at finding new areas of growth for the firm via partnerships.

The estate planning platform provider has also announced new fundraising led by returning investor Insight Partners, alongside contributions from Venrock, Vanguard and other previous investors. Vanilla is also working with new investor Alumni Ventures.

In addition to supporting growth goals and customer adoption, the company will use the funding to expand its platform, including its embedded artificial intelligence capabilities. Vanilla’s core goal remains modernizing how financial advisors and estate planners help households of all wealth levels build their legacy, said CEO Gene Farrell.

Farrell declined to share the specific size of each new investment but said the scale of the backing is similar to what the firm achieved in its prior capital raise in 2022.

“It’s always about striking a balance and raising enough capital to get to the next phase of growth without taking too much onboard and seeing dilution,” Farrell explained. “With this latest round, we feel that we’re on the cusp of a big breakout in revenue. If we raise capital again in the future, we will be in a very different spot.”

The investments come at an opportune moment for both the company and the greater wealth management industry, Farrell said, especially as the adoption of estate planning software gains significant traction. He cited a recent T3 survey showing that the use of estate planning software has spiked sharply among advisors, with a 259% increase over the past two years.

Vanilla has over 10,000 end clients on the platform, Farrell noted, spanning from clients with less than $1 million in net worth to over $1 billion. Its recently launched on-demand trust and estate document offering, the Vanilla Document Builder, is now available in all 50 states.

The platform is used by a range of advisor industry clients, from small RIAs to major firms such as Vanguard, Mariner Wealth Advisors and Avantax. This network will expand rapidly in the years and months ahead, Farrell said, and the firm expects to make additional “big announcements” in the near future.

Specific areas of ongoing development include deepening advisor industry integrations, developing an end-client portal that will allow advisors’ clients to view and interact with their estate plans, and addressing the most complex needs of high-net-worth clients.

“That’s a key aspect of our approach here,” Farrell said. “When you base your approach on the ability to solve the most complex use cases, it’s then so much easier to simplify the offering to support the more basic set of needs for the mass affluent. Building the platform in the other direction makes a lot less sense.”

Nick Beim, a partner at Venrock, cited Vanilla’s “domain expertise and proven track record in building and scaling cloud software solutions” as a driver of his firm’s expanded investment.

“Advisors are under immense pressure to differentiate and deliver a modern user experience which their end clients have come to expect due to the rise of consumer fintech alternatives,” added Jon Rosenbaum, managing director at Insight Partners. “Vanilla has built an enterprise-grade platform to deeply integrate into an advisor’s stack and handle all the complexities of estate planning.”

Farrell said the case for optimism is very strong, but there’s always potential challenges to navigate. These range from the potential for an economic downturn to potentially disruptive changes to estate planning and tax laws. That said, the pending sunset of the historically high estate tax exemption is itself driving major interest in the platform, Farrell suggested.

“Overall we are very confident,” Farrell said. “We have a great team and a solid product — and a great set of highly committed investors who share our vision for revolutionizing estate planning.”

Credit: Adobe Stock

John Manganaro

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