Learn How to Generate $60,000 in Revenue with Estate Planning (w/ Clark Johnson of Oak Crest Wealth Management)

Watch the Webinar Recording ("Growing Revenue with Estate Planning")

Why the Traditional Way of Referring Estate Planning is Broken

For his clients' estate planning needs, Clark proverbially dated local attorneys in his city or community, off and on over the last 15 years, only to be met with disappointment given that clients would come back with no estate plan at all (citing costs, lack of time, insert your favorite procrastination excuse) or an incomplete estate plan.

Having had enough, Clark realized a better way was possible for his clients. He decided to "vet all the tools out there" for risk analysis and estate planning in order to better serve his clients.

That's what this webinar and step-by-step guide is about.

In our latest customer + partner spotlight webinar, Alexus Rodgers (Customer Relationship Lead of RightCapital) and Matt Morris (CEO of EncorEstate Plans) asked Clark (LPL Financial Advisor at Oak Crest Wealth Management) to share his journey into estate planning, his tool vetting process, and his tips and insights for advisors looking to set up estate planning services at their firms.

Here are the takeaways:

Financial Advisors Can (and Should) Create and Coordinate Estate Plans

Clark, like many advisors who use Encore's software to create estate plans and leverage its team of estate planners and knowledge base, took the proverbial plunge into estate planning without needing to practice law. According to Clark:

"If you're an advisor, and you think it's not your place to have in-depth conversations, or assist in the creation of an estate plan, [then] I think you should change your mind. You can do this without giving legal advice, and I'd be willing to bet that many of you are already having these conversations – you're just not leveraging the right technology or partnering with the right company."

In fact, Encore's Estate Planning Support team ensures every estate plan is reviewed end-to-end, and that all corrections and clarifications needed are surfaced to advisors before the plans get signed and funded.

Note: not all client situations are appropriate for Encore and that we help advisors understand when there is complexity and when the client should work with an attorney.  The Encore platform has disqualifying questions that recognize when an attorney is best for a client.

Related: 3 Steps to Avoid Unauthorized Practice of Law (UPL)

And, you avoid UPL so long as you're only providing education and general information as part of the estate planning conversation with clients, and not specific advice to highly specific questions.

How To Create Your Estate Planning Service Without Practicing Law

Below is Clark's process along with tips and insights.

If you want more ideas and a view into 13+ advisors' processes for setting up estate planning services, here's a How To guide for building up your estate planning offering for your firm without practicing law.

Step 1: Decide If You Want to Bring Estate Planning In-House

As Clark pointed out, the traditional way of getting estate plans done for clients by referring them out to attorneys is a huge "disservice to clients" (and a frustrating experience for advisors). Not to mention, you're leaving money on the table by doing so:

"Just this year, RightCapital and Encore have helped me personally create over 30 living trusts, and that's led to about $60,000 in revenue for me. Not to mention, the assets that they've helped me gather, transferring people's assets into trust names, and getting quick access to the documents which my assistant really loves. And then the referrals on top of that! Our 40- to 50-year-old clients love it whenever you take them through this process. It opens up the door for you to not be just an advisor to your client, but also the family advisor."

Step 2: Figure Out Your Tech Stack and What You Value Most in a Vendor

After leaving Edward Jones to go independent, Clark "went on a journey to find the very best tech stack." He wanted to "find the very best at retirement, planning and estate planning, and thinks [RightCapital and EncorEstate Plans] are it."

A good starting point is to ask other advisors about their experiences using certain tools. But, always do your diligence, especially when looking at customer support / post-sale support. As you're probably aware, support and responsiveness could wither away after you sign on the dotted line.

For Clark, the three criteria he used to vet vendors are:

1. Do they truly empower him as an advisor?
2. Do they truly care about him and his clients?
3. What's the level of customization, choice, and detail his clients can get for their estate plans?

"Both RightCapital and EncorEstate Plans offer a modern look to [their] software and allow advisors to brand it. And most importantly, [they] care. I can tell that [they] both care because of the level of detail you allow me and other advisors to go into with their clients planning financial planning, and it's not throwing a blanket over all your clients and advising them to do the same thing – it's individualized."

Clark's only regret is not "finding you guys [RightCapital and Encore] sooner:"

"When I did all those tech demos with other estate planning software companies out there, I don't remember a single one of them offering to do the really annoying deed transfer paperwork that Encore does. And the turnaround is faster than I expected. They [Encore] charge $250 for that. I pass on that same fee to the client the clients that I've shared this with, and they're like, 'Hey, that's a good deal. I don't want to go to the courthouse or find someone that will do that.'"

Step 3A: Walk Clients Through the Value of Living Trusts aka Show Them the Math

If you have clients who haven't created a living trust, one of the biggest impacts you can make is showing them the math aka the savings on estate taxes just by funding a living trust.

"Living trusts are an opportunity to avoid probate."

According to Clark, doing so will then further open up the conversation of estate planning by either walking them through their retirement projections or their net worth. He takes clients down either path to ensure the math is right and help them wrap their minds around the importance of protecting their legacy and assets.

In his experience, "people know that having a living trust [is important]." But what's often forgotten about the value that trusts bring is heading off taxes and fees (especially that 40% estate tax). A tool like RightCapital will help provide powerful visuals about the cost of not "planning with a trust" and show the savings clients can get by simply funding the trust.

PRO TIP: "Be careful to not give legal advice" when discussing living trusts. Some of the phrases Clark will say are things like, "You should consider getting a trust made" or "I think this is what a trust may look like." In other words, give general education and information, not specific information or advice.

ANOTHER PRO TIP: Reiterate to clients that you're just trying to show the value of having trust, and to not get hung up on the math of calculating how much their net worth will be in 30 years or how much estate tax they can avoid paying.

Step 3B: Show Clients the Beneficiary Checklist (if the estate tax savings is not resonating)

""You'd be amazed at how many people don't have beneficiaries on their stuff," says Clark, "especially for 401(K) accounts that they haven't been able to roll over yet."

Filling out a beneficiary checklist with clients allows you to have a conversation focused on safeguarding against the risk of physical loss (e.g., what if something unexpectedly happens to your children?). And, more importantly, it allows you to have candid conversations with clients about a "multitude of things that we can never expect," especially situations you can't measure or quantify under a flowchart.

For example, Clark's cousin was hit by a train and he survived, but his mental faculties aren't what they used to be. His cousin's parents left him a trust and in that trust was language that carved out a special needs trust for him. Someone can not only take care of him, but also he has the option to apply and receive government assistance.

How Do You Convince Clients to Update Their Estate Plan?

Most clients think their estate plan is done and that having a will is all they need. But, Clark always likes to ask them follow-up questions like these to help them think more deeply about estate planning (it's not just "This is what happens when I die. It's 'I'm still living, then who controls my money?'"):

• What does your estate plan look like?
• Did you know there are other documents?
• If you have those documents, then with whom will you have conversations around about who's going to make decisions for you when you're not able to?

According to Clark, you can hit clients from different angles to help them truly think through what's needed in their estate plans. He puts it best:

"You just have to dance with them sometimes. And some clients, they don't even need to see the math; they're all in."

How Do You Answer the Client Question of "Who Do You Recommend for a Trust?"

The answer should naturally be you, the trusted advisor.

Borrowing a page from Clark's playbook, you can write down the Top 5 reasons why clients should trust you and work with you, and share those reasons with clients. Clark also put together his Top 5 reasons in an excellent pdf and he's generously offered it to any advisor if they'd like it (you can email him at clark@oakcrestwm.com).

And from a transparency standpoint, Clark shares his pricing with clients and lets them know that he works with a company called EncorEstate Plans that helps him and his team get estate plans done for clients.

He also lets clients know that Encore produces attorney-quality documents that have been reviewed by attorneys in all 50 states (everything state-specific in Encore is created by an attorney in that state), and that each estate plan is reviewed by a human before it gets signed and funded.

He also emphasizes to clients:

"We don't practice law. We recognize how important estate planning is. But, we don't want to practice law. That's not our forte. So, we partner with Encore (all they do is estate planning). They offer these services exclusively through financial advisors and their clients. So the only way you would have access to them is through someone like me."

Clients already know you, the trusted advisor, and know that you already have a sense for estate planning even though you can't give legal advice.

How Do You Set Pricing for Your Estate Planning Services?

Most advisors using Encore typically set pricing in one of three ways:

1. Pay out of pocket for the cost of creating an estate plan.
2. Pass the cost on to clients.
3. Pass the cost on + layer on the cost of their time.

For Clark, he sets the price based on what he thinks is reasonable compared to the local estate attorneys in his area AND adds value in saving the client money. He also makes sure to convey this to clients:

"We don't stop working for you after it gets made. We are here to help retitle everything. Do all the paperwork. We're the first people clients' kids are going to call whenever Mom and dad pass away. We have have skin in this."

Why You Should Always Have a Corporate Trustee On Every Trust

Consider having a corporate trustee as the very last trustee on every trust because it's possible that there's no one else left to serve.

Or put another way by Clark: "The other estate planning software companies don't allow you to do a corporate trustee encore does. Why wouldn't you use this as an opportunity to make it airtight and stay out of court?"

How Clark's Clients Benefit from Both RightCapital and EncorEstate Plans

Here's Clark's process for finalizing clients' estate plans:

1. Print everything out.
2. Help clients get their plans notarized, and accompany it with the other forms on their accounts.
3. Clark will reassign the beneficiaries and change the account registrations.
4. Clients sign everything in one visit.
5. Clark and his team will upload everything into Encore and RightCapital (using their vault).
6. Clark tells clients, "'These digital copies are are going to be more valuable to you than the original copies because when you buy that next house, or when you open up a new bank account and that banker needs the trust cert, we download it send it to them.'Cclients really like that, and that's how we tie it back in full circle because they already have access to RightCapital's vault."

The Perfect Estate Plan Doesn't Exist, But Your Clients Always Need One

Encore's Estate Planning Operations team has an inside joke about how anyone can create the perfect estate plan so long as you have these three things / pieces of info:

1. You know when the client is going to die.
2. How much money they're going to have when they die.
3. What the tax laws are going to be when they die.

That's why even with imperfect and incomplete information, making sure your clients and their families have a funded living trust is one of the best things you can guarantee for them.

Get 50% Off ($225 value) Your Next Estate Plan – End Client Procrastination

With pay-as-you-go pricing (yup, no subscription lock-ins, unless you want to subscribe), Encore will help your clients complete their estate plans (and fund it, too, if they want revocable living trusts).

Whether you need Estate Plan Review, State-specific Document Creation, or Deed Preparation + Filing, we have everything you need to make sure your clients' estate plans are done and properly funded.

You can create your first estate plan with Encore and get 50% off ($225 value) by using code GrowRevenue: