Estate planning has evolved from a niche legal service into a cornerstone of holistic financial advising.
As your financial planning clients increasingly seek guidance on how to protect their assets, minimize taxes, and ensure their legacy, financial professionals must keep stepping up to offer estate planning as part of their value proposition.
But with various types of software on the market, choosing the right one can feel overwhelming.
- Estate planning software should not only generate wills, but it must also integrate with the rest of your services that enhance client needs and streamline planning operations.
- From solo advisors to large financial firms, the ideal software varies based on complexity, collaboration needs, and integration preferences.
- Offering estate planning support helps planners deliver holistic, personalized advice that builds trust and distinguishes their services.
As a financial planner, you have a vast array of software tools at your disposal, but your success depends on choosing one that empowers your firm to scale, adapt, and serve clients with precision.
Whether you’re organizing estate planning documents for high-net-worth families or mapping out long-term legacy goals, the right software should support both legal compliance and strategic coordination across your entire estate planning process.
The following guide will break down what financial planners need to know about estate planning services and how to find the right tool to fit in seamlessly with your financial practice.
Why Estate Planning Software Matters for Financial Planners
Estate planning isn’t just about drafting wills and trusts.
It’s also about integrating these legal estate planning documents with the rest of your clients’ financial strategies.
The right estate planning platform will help a financial planner to:
Centralize Key Legal Documents: Store, access, and organize documents such as wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives in one secure, digital location—making it easy to retrieve and update them during client reviews.
Align Estate Planning with Financial Goals: Ensure that estate plans complement broader objectives like retirement, tax efficiency, charitable giving, and legacy transfers by keeping all pieces of the financial puzzle connected.
Model Scenarios and Tax Impacts: Visualize how different estate structures affect taxes and asset distribution, which helps clients make informed choices with long-term financial consequences in mind.
Facilitate Collaboration Between Advisors and Attorneys: Share documents with legal professionals and provide attorney access for reviews or complex plan customization, ensuring documents are legally sound and compliant.
Enhance Client Engagement and Trust: Offer personalized, proactive guidance around legacy planning to deepen relationships, differentiate your services, and demonstrate added value beyond investment advice.
Scale Estate Planning Across Your Client Base: Automate repetitive tasks, standardize workflows, and leverage templates to provide consistent planning experiences across clients with varying levels of complexity.
Protect Sensitive Data with Secure Document Management: Utilize encrypted storage, audit trails, and permission controls to safeguard client information, especially around life insurance policies, asset ownership, and family directives.
Maintain Updated and Legally Compliant Plans: Keep beneficiary designations, guardianship instructions, and financial powers of attorney current, particularly when clients are navigating life changes or legal shifts.
Whether you’re a solo advisor or part of a large financial firm, estate planning software can elevate your service offerings and deepen your client relationships.
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Comprehensive Estate Planning: Key Features to Look For
No matter what type of software you are researching for your financial firm, there’s a good chance that it won’t check every box out of the gate.
That’s why it’s crucial to know exactly what features matter most when it comes to delivering secure, personalized, and compliant estate planning services.Here are the key capabilities you should look for when choosing the best estate planning software for your firm:
Secure Document Management
While most clients will rely on estate planning attorneys to draft and finalize their wills and trusts with their own document creation tools, financial advisors are often tasked with the job of storing these documents and integrating them into their client’s broader financial plan.
This means advisors must understand not only the contents of key estate planning documents — such as wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives — but also how these legal instructions impact investment strategy, retirement goals, insurance coverage, and tax efficiency.
The right estate planning software should offer encrypted storage and customizable client permissions to protect sensitive estate data.
Integration with Financial Planning Tools
Estate planning tools should sync seamlessly with your firm’s CRM, financial asset platforms, and portfolio tracking systems.
This integration allows financial professionals to maintain consistency across tools and workflows. It’s especially effective when compatible with popular platforms like eMoney, RightCapital, and Holistiplan.
Visual Mapping & Scenario Modeling
Visual flowcharts and diagrams make it easier to understand complex estate structures and distribution paths.
Real-time scenario modeling helps financial planners illustrate tax outcomes, inheritance strategies, and gifting programs to clients. These interactive visuals can also enhance client education and decision-making during meetings.
Collaboration & Client Engagement
The estate planning software you choose should include client-friendly portals and dashboards that promote transparency and communication.
Advisors must be able to securely share client data and documents with their clients as well as their estate attorneys for review and edits. Look for tools that produce reports that are easy for clients and law firms to understand.
Strategic Planning Capabilities
Estate planning software should include calculators and tools for modeling estate taxes and structuring trusts.
It must also support the management of life insurance policies, beneficiary designations, and gifting strategies. These features help financial planners craft personalized, forward-looking plans that reflect the goals and circumstances of both advisors and clients alike.
Firms seeking flexibility should consider adaptable software for estate planning to handle diverse and changing client needs.
Robust strategic planning capabilities also ensure that all decisions made during document drafting are based on data-driven insights, reducing the risk of oversights and creating opportunities for smarter tax positioning, generational wealth transfers, and philanthropic giving.
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Get Started TodayStrategic Benefits of Estate Planning Software
Beyond document creation, estate planning software helps financial planners:
1. Prospect New Clients
Estate planning is a powerful entry point for new client communication. Offering visual tools and personalized guidance services can differentiate your firm from others and build trust quickly.
2. Deepen Existing Relationships
Estate planning requires a full view of a client’s assets, goals, and family dynamics. This opens doors to managing more of their portfolio and offering long-term guidance, thus increasing client satisfaction for the long term.
3. Scale Your Services
The right software can automate repetitive tasks, allowing you to serve more clients without sacrificing quality. This is especially valuable for firms looking to grow or expand into new markets.
Buyer Beware: Common Estate Planning Pitfalls to Avoid
When you are evaluating estate planning software, there are certain features you’ll want to look for in order to create solid estate management within your firm.
That said, there are also certain things it’s best you avoid.
Here are some estate planning software features that are best to steer clear of:
Overly Basic Templates: Avoid tools that offer one-size-fits-all documents without accounting for complex scenarios or state-specific legal requirements. These often fail to support nuanced estate planning needs like blended families, business succession, or tax optimization.
Limited Customization Options: Some software restricts users to predefined language with little ability to tailor clauses or instructions. Estate planners need flexibility to support unique client goals, asset structures, and distributions.
Weak Data Security & Storage Protocols: Security lapses can compromise sensitive information, especially when managing documents that contain sensitive information or online will makers that may have banking credentials tied to them.
Poor Integration with Financial Planning Systems: If estate software doesn’t integrate with your CRM, tax planning tools, or retirement platforms, it creates siloed workflows that slow you down. Look for tools that sync seamlessly with your current tech stack.
Steep Initial Learning Curve with Little Support: Tools with minimal onboarding guidance, unclear interfaces, or insufficient training can bog down productivity. Software should offer intuitive dashboards, client-friendly portals, and easy access to tutorials, all of which will help your team overcome any initial learning curve.
Choose software that delivers not just legal compliance and data protection, but also strategic coordination and seamless collaboration.
Choose Software That Grows With You…Choose Holistiplan
As estate planning becomes an essential part of comprehensive financial advising, financial planners need tools that go beyond basic document creation.
Holistiplan is the complete estate planning solution that delivers exactly that, combining accuracy, collaboration, and strategic foresight into one streamlined platform.
With intuitive features like dynamic estate flowcharts, tax scenario modeling, secure document storage, and real-time beneficiary coordination, Holistiplan empowers advisors to align estate plans with their clients’ overall financial vision.
The right software doesn’t just support your practice — it can actually transform it.
Are you ready to explore the possibilities? Holistiplan is here to show you how.
You can also explore Estate Planning Wills & Trusts Software Free to compare features and find tools that match your firm’s unique needs.
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