Exactly. But thank you so much for joining us. We are going to get started.
I wanted to introduce myself and then introduce, Samantha Russell. I actually think Samantha probably does not need an introduction, and all of you guys are here to to see her.
But, I am Anne Rhodes. I’m the chief legal officer of wealth dot com. Prior to coming, to wealth, I was an estate planner at two of the largest law firms that do estate planning. And so I had a practice that ran the gamut, from kind of mass affluent, but focused a lot on the high net worth and ultra high net worth, space.
So a lot of the anecdotes that I’ll be sharing here today come from, my years of practice and, all come from real stories, actually. Some of them will maybe sound unbelievable, but they are true. And we’ve really just, you know, wanted to, bring this topic to you. And who better to join me than Samantha Russell who, needs no introduction, as I said before, but she’s the chief evangelist of FMG Suite.
And soon, we’ll be moving to London, which is really impressive.
I am very, very excited. And, I am on the advisory board of wealth dot com. We should say that too, for full dis disclosure.
But it’s because I love, love, love the product in which you guys have built.
And, for those of you who’ve maybe followed my story, estate planning is something near and dear to my heart, because I lost my beloved husband, almost a year and a half ago now.
And estate planning was something that I do I do think a lot of people when they’re young and healthy just don’t think about, and so I’ve become a real advocate for it. So thank you so much for having me join you today. Absolutely.
And thank you too for joining us, making the time to, hear about this topic. You know, it’s, I feel like estate planning as a financial adviser is one of those topics where you have you may have comfort, you know, of variety, like, a big range of, you know, how comfortable you feel with addressing some of the topics. But that being said, you know, this particular webinar very much is focused on how to involve both spouses in the conversation, and and you can meet them at whatever level of comfort they have also about the topic, which is really great. And so, kind of the premise, I think, when Samantha and I were, thinking of what we wanted to to talk about today, it really comes from the space of, you know and I’m sure this story will resonate with you where you, work with a couple.
Right? You’re their financial advisor, and you have this, like, really great relationship. Maybe you’re, you know, texting or communicating with, one half of the couple, and you hear from them mostly. And then there’s this, like, silent half of the couple where you just have very little relationship with them.
And one of the statistics that you may have heard, in this space is that, you know, seventy percent of widows or widowers will change their financial advisor within a year of their spouse’s death.
And because, you know, you may not have that close relationship with that person, they don’t think of you as part of their sort of trusted adviser circle. When that moment happens, there’s a death in the family.
They’re in, you know, this moment of vulnerability.
And when they think about who they turn to, for some reason, they just don’t think of you, the financial adviser, who has all of the planning, you know, and and the idea about the planning that you’ve done with the other spouse who has now passed away. And it just feels like this moment where you may have potentially, you know, lost the opportunity to keep that relationship.
Samantha, I don’t know if you wanna add anything before I jump into some of, you know, kind of Yeah. Real estate planning can can help with that.
Well, and for anybody who maybe, ended up here, you know, obviously, we were both promoting it. We are also gonna talk about, I wanted to say, at the middle to end, about ways you can use estate planning in your communications and messaging to not only better connect with the clients you already have, but to engage multigenerations of the family as we think about assets transferring hands as well as use it as, you know, your marketing messaging with prospects. Because one of the things we do know is that this is something that most clients there was a great study from the Spectrum Group that they found that ninety four percent of clients expect that their adviser is going to help them facilitate estate planning, but yet less than twenty five percent report that that’s actually a service they’re getting.
So when people hear from a friend or they’re talking looking at referrals and this is top of mind for them, it is a great way to differentiate. And a lot of advisers, I think, are doing it in some capacity, but they’re not necessarily talking about it, and it’s a missed marketing opportunity. So we are gonna, show some of that to you as well.
Yeah. And if you think of it as, you know, let’s say you have and this is maybe going to sound a little bit morbid, but at at the end of the day, estate planning is about death. You know, if you have, you know, five to ten years to develop a relationship with, you know, the half of the couple that is always engaging with you, etcetera, that’s five to ten years of, like, missed opportunity to get to know the other half of the couple. And what’s nice about estate planning is that there are, you know, reasons the couple needs to be, you know, coordinated on some topics.
I mean, you know, we’ll go over some of these, but, like, the number one example here is, like, what will happen to the kids. Right? If this is a younger couple, they have minor kids, they need to decide on guardianship, like, right there is an opportunity for you to coordinate and get to know the other spouse and what’s important to them because the two of them need to decide on the same set of guardians. So that’s kind of the nice thing about estate planning.
The other thing that you need to be worried about, I think, and this is really a worry also for us as estate planners, is at that moment where that death the first death occurs, it’s going to be a very tough and sensitive time for the the widow or widower who remains behind.
And there will invariably be something, you know, that becomes hard, you know, a a conversation topic that’s hard. And sometimes it’s because out of surprise something has happened or because they, you know, just having to deal with those issues themselves are just, you know, really challenging.
And you want to be in that position of trust so that when that tough conversation happens, you have a foundation of trust to be able to, you know, get over kind of that that hurdle, if that makes sense.
So And I would just like to say, you know, from my own personal experience, again, I was really young when my husband was diagnosed with with brain cancer, and we had a financial adviser.
We did not have an estate planning attorney, and we did not, have a relationship with anyone. And our adviser was the one facilitating those, and that was so crucial because we trusted him already. But we didn’t yet have a relationship with someone who was gonna, you know, help us with creating the documents, going through all that. And so he was involved in every single meeting, every single conversation, and that was so crucial to us.
And then once my husband did pass away, the adviser was the one that I was, you know, getting in touch with, asking follow-up questions or talking about the sequence of events that needed to happen, because that was the person that I had the relationship with. I would love to know for everybody on listening in right now, if you could maybe put in the chat, you know, what kind of, like, how involved would you say you currently are in terms of offering or facilitating estate planning currently? Do you use Wealth dot com and that’s how you do it? Do you partner with an estate planning attorney?
Do you have someone in your office, more like a family office set up? We would Anne and I would love to know kinda who’s listening in and how you structure it currently as we’re going through and talking about this. But I totally agree, Anne, that, you know, waiting until the moment it happens is too late. You need to be proactive in it.
Yeah. And speaking of too late, this is a story that I wanted to bring up. So you may have heard, some, you know, news stories about Gene Hackman and his wife, and, how they passed away within probably a week of each other or a few days of each other. And there are questions as to whether or not you know, how long she survived because it makes a difference for, sort of how who gets the assets, whether or not she survived long enough so that her will controls or she didn’t survive long enough so that, you know, etcetera.
So the order there matters. And the reason I bring this up is because we had a situation at wealth, at, the law firm where I worked at prior to coming to wealth, where we had a very strong relationship with the husband, and he really came in because, you know, he was wealthy. He wanted to do some tax planning. And so all of us attorneys were, like, geeking out, nerding out about the tax planning.
And we kind of, like, forgotten that the spouse was, you know, in the background. I mean, we asked her the, you know, typical questions, etcetera, but she didn’t really have an opportunity to review any of the documents we had put together before they came in for the signing. And let me tell you, that signing was really awkward because so she comes in and she had just read the trust, you know, in that last like, the few days before coming in, And she zeroed in on that survival provision, which is the provision that has now come into play for Jean Hackman’s estate. And so she comes in, and we had actually put in quite a long survivorship provision.
It was something like three months, ninety days.
Sometimes they can be shorter, and it’s really up to the drafter kind of what provision they put in there. But the idea is, you know, if you are, if the deaths are too close in time, the survivor needs to have survived for x number of days. Otherwise, it’s actually as though they had both passed away at the same time, and his assets go to his preferred beneficiaries and her assets just go to her preferred beneficiaries as opposed to his realize into her hands. Right? It’s kind of like this weird provision. Like, why do you need it?
Would have died in a car accident. It’s a completely different scenario.
Exactly. And part of it is actually the car accident story, which is, like, sometimes when you have a horrific accident like this happen, you know, is it really fair for his beneficiaries to be disinherited when they were in the same accident? And it just happened to be that one survived slightly longer. So that’s why that provision is in there.
And she was so angry with us. She came in being like, how could you, you know, not have my back? How could you not have told me that this provision was in there? And to be honest, from an estate planning perspective, we’re kind of like, lady, like, this is, like, not the most, like, controversial provisions.
Like, we had no idea that she would care this much.
And so her, like a late person who doesn’t who doesn’t live in this world, it was jarring.
Exactly. And she’s thinking of us as her husband’s, you know, advisers, not her adviser, which right there and then in that signing ceremony, which by the way did not happen because of it, you create a really awkward situation.
Right? And so just be aware that couples and how they make decisions together can look very, first of all, different to you as you’re communicating with them. You’re hoping that in the background, they’re talking to each other, but that’s not necessarily the case. And, you know, some of these statistics here that we’re putting up on the page make you realize, like, you don’t know what you don’t know about how that couple is communicating, but you are in a position to try to understand what that more silent couple is thinking of by actually trying to engage with them.
Right? And so a lot about this webinar is going to be how do you communicate better with that couple. We’ll give you some materials at the end, to try to, you know, get that conversation kind of going. But just so that we get to kind of go over these stats, twenty percent of couples make long term financial decisions together.
That’s one fifth.
That’s crazy to me.
Terrible.
Yeah. That’s terrible. And then seventy percent of men actually wish that they could get their spouse more involved.
And so just keep that stat in the back of your mind because you could actually be helping that more, you know, vocal couple, couple, draw out those spouse that seems a little bit more disinterested by helping them with some of, these communications about estate planning.
Okay. So here are some inherent features about estate planning that make it kind of this great topic to engage both couples in if you’re finding that you’re not getting traction with that more silent couple on kind of, like, all the other topics you’ve brought forth before. So this could be even, honestly, like, retirement planning or investments, you know, ROI, whatever it may be that you normally talk to them about, even insurance, life insurance. And it turns out that couple is just kinda not resonating or you’re not getting to draw them out. Estate planning is actually kind of that that perfect topic to get them going. So, part of that is a little bit more touchy feely. Right?
So The Wall Street Journal in, I think it’s August of twenty twenty three ran this, like, slightly more fluffy piece about how, oh, these days, you know, the modern couple, the husband is the CFO and the wife is the CEO, actually kind of resonated for me and my family.
But there is a little bit of truth to that. Right? So, like, think of, like, your stereotypical, like, you know, the the woman might be the one who’s, like, making sure the kids are going to where they need to be, who might be taking care of an elderly family member as well. They’re the ones who are kind of, like, in control of the schedule. But as a result, they might actually you know, because they play that role of the caretaker, there’s something about estate planning that touches on who steps into your shoes if you’re not in that role anymore. Right. And so that’s, like, a great way to engage that that spouse because they’re the ones who literally play the role today, and they may have a lot of thoughts about who should step into their shoes.
One interesting statistic here, and this was actually kind of surprising, is that sixty one percent of women do use a financial adviser compared to fifty six percent of men. Samantha, I don’t know if this is something that’s borne out in what you’re seeing out there.
I was expecting women to have fewer, you know, financial advice.
Yes. Yes. I I had the exact same reaction. And I do wonder I I think a few things are in like, you know, we’re at definitely a crossroads. I think younger generations are you know, there’s there’s a lot of stats that show more women are enrolled in colleges than men.
So that, you know, there’s the younger generations, I think it’s it’s a different even going back to the last slide about the number of women being involved versus men, I think as generations move along, that will definitely change. But it also speaks to the fact that the men usually die first and the women are left behind. And I’m sure that that, when we look at all of the people that are still using an adviser, that probably plays into it as well.
Yeah. I mean, I will tell you anecdotally from my relationship, my husband is like, oh, I took economics when I was in college. I, like, I’ve got this. So Exactly.
Yeah. They think of it more as, like, being an investor and a DIY investor versus the financial planning as a whole and all the things that go into it.
Exactly. And so, anyhow, so one of the things I wanted to stress about this webinar is sometimes the stories are a little bit about, like, you know, a stereotype of where, like, this the woman, the wife might be the more silent spouse. But, truthfully, this webinar is about just in general reaching regardless of gender, you know, reaching the spouse that you feel like you’re not connecting with as much.
So anyway another because we had some great feedback, by the way, which I’ll share in the q and a box.
Sorry. I didn’t realize the the chat wasn’t on. So in the q and a box, people were saying that they often use wealth dot com to provide estate planning for the majority of their clients. And then for the more complicated, you know, or estates maybe over five million, then they’re bringing in an attorney.
But this is a follow-up question. How many of you feel like you do struggle to engage both, partners or spouses in the conversation? And are you looking for tactics to engage the other spouse? Do you maybe make it mandatory that both of them come to every meeting, or do you try to cc on all the correspondence?
You know, if one person emails you, do you try to cc the other spouse? What are some, what are you seeing kind of boots on the ground as as Anne keeps going through?
Thank you, Samantha.
Yes. Please do share your stories and your, anecdotes, the strategies that work for you.
You know, one of the things too about estate planning that’s interesting is from a lawyer’s perspective, actually, just so that you’re aware, there are actually legal ethics rules that force attorneys to be mindful of that, like, potential for conflict. So, again, that story about the spouse who was shocked about the survival provision, and we had no idea. Right? That was an an opportunity that we missed. But the legal ethics rules actually require you, as an attorney, to copy the other spouse.
When they sign an engagement letter, for example, there are provisions about how to resolve conflicts. And attorneys, you know, have to disclose to the spouses that there could be conflicts that arise during the representation and what happens if these conflicts arise. So you kind of have to be, you know, mindful also, on your end as a financial adviser that actually some of these best practices or these rules that are required of attorneys kind of there are reasons behind them, and they actually make it easier for you to, have conversations where you do want the spouses to cooperate. Right?
Because if there are conflicts between the spouses, all of a sudden on any of these decisions, you know, there’s an incentive for you to try to get them to, communicate with each other and come to some sort of joint decisions. So that’s something, helpful there. In terms of asset ownership, spouses actually may own assets, of course, jointly or as marital assets. But in certain states, so if you’re from California, Arizona, or Texas, be mindful that the titling of an asset may not actually, be the way that the asset is legally going to be passed down to, you know, the heirs.
So what I’m talking about here specifically is something called community property. So if you’re in one of these states that has, you know, traditionally where the married couple, anything that they earned during their marriage or acquired during marriage, except for gifts and inheritance, are presumed to be community property, you actually kind of want to, like, nudge the more silent spouse to have a conversation because they have an interest in that asset.
Prototypical example of this is, let’s say, I’m here at wealth dot com. I’m earning some sort of, you know, stock options. My husband’s name is not on the title, you know, to those assets. But, actually, because I am working at wealth earning those, that that equity comp, as while I’m married and living in California, my husband actually does have an interest in my stock options even though his name never appears. So just be mindful of that because it’s a reason for you to want to engage the other spouse because when, one of the spouses passes away, that community property character is going to, like, become very relevant at that time. And then, again, you know, avoiding conflict on very important instructions like guardianship, like, you know, whether or not to have a marital trust just as a as a point of fairness to the spouses. Those are the types of things that you might want to address with them if you feel comfortable having that kind of conversation with them.
Alright.
Perhaps we can get to the to kinda summarize, we have the chat turned on now, and we do have a lot of people saying, that they are, you know, using Wealth dot com, again, for the majority of their estate planning for their clients, but then with more complex cases getting an attorney involved.
And a lot of people also saying they try to get both spouses involved, but they do find that just like the stat show, it’s typically the man that takes the lead. Lisa Burns suggested that women are more likely to engage in the conversation because they worry more about the unknown and want to be prepared. So I just like you said, Anne, tapping into that emotional aspect, and kinda painting a picture for them, I think, is such a great way to start the conversation.
Yeah. And for me, you know, one of the ways in which I start the conversation with both spouses is to be like, think of how you spend your day. Every day, you’re, like, running around like crazy. You’re like chicken with your head cut off.
What are all the things that you’re doing? And who’s going to do them if you’re not there to do them? And that is like a woah moment to both spouses about how they they conduct themselves, what they care about the most, where they spend the most of their time, and who then can pick up, you know, for them. And, so anyways so I’ll I’ll mention that.
I will say in terms of engaging both spouses, here are a couple of things, kind of values or, objectives to keep in mind as you’re, trying to have that conversation with the spouses. The first is just when you start talking about estate planning, set it as a goal for yourself from the very get go to engage both spouses at that point in time. Right? I think we can get into this habit of just, like, always going back to your inbox and finding the last email thread that you had, which might have been about some other topic completely unrelated, and then just using that, you know, reply, the the the subject line is something completely different.
And then all of a sudden, you’re you’re just doing the same thing that you were doing before. With estate planning, see it as an a way for you to set the stage anew. Pull in that spouse, change the subject line, and then, you know, start with that clean slate.
I love that tip. Such a small tweak but can make a huge difference.
The second thing is as that email thread gets going, remember to check whether or not the other other spouse is still on email thread.
So, again, it can still thing, but makes a huge difference.
Yeah.
We tell you never to use reply all. Well, when you hit reply, do keep cc’ing the other spouse.
And so, you know, this can this could have saved us a lot of problems with that, you know, spouse who was so upset about the survival.
We did go back and realize that as we were pass passing, drafts back and forth, she had been dropped off at a certain point. But for us as attorneys, we had a rule that, like, right before the signing ceremony, you clean up your email threads, you copy, and only attach the, like, PDFs that are relevant that are going to get signed because we know that there are versions. And, the versions of the drafts can get really confusing. And so that was the moment where she actually, like, honed in, and we didn’t catch her, you know, on time. So that was that was our bad.
In terms of, you know, then things that can make things easier for the to engage that other spouse, and this is where we’re hoping at wealth dot com that it will make your conversations easier, is that very few folks like reading legal documents that are thirty pages long. It’s a trust, and it’s all just legalese. And so one of the ways in which we’re hoping to empower you is by creating, let’s say, automated, you know, automatic immediate visual tools that simplify and, delineate what’s going on in the plan. You can actually more easily also engage with that spouse if they’re kind of put off by all this text and even, honestly, like, maybe even reading those long emails and keeping track of the thread, it’s, you know, out of a certain point in time, telescope out, be like, here’s a visual of what’s going on.
Do you guys agree? You know, do you need any of this explained? So at Wealth, we really do try to put an emphasis emphasis on bringing a different format to the same question so that you can try to find a way to engage that spouse visually.
It’s such a good idea, and it’s so true. And depending on where people are at when they’re making the the documents too, you know, think, we all want somebody to kinda give us the TLDR, too long didn’t read version. And even even something that’s so important. Right? You can your eyes sort of glaze over after a while, so that is a huge, huge win for everyone involved.
Yeah. And then speaking to that point about, you know, you don’t know what’s happening behind closed doors, you know, late in the evening when the kids are in bed or, you know, finally, the couple gets to, like, you know, hopefully coordinate about their estate plan, but, like, they’re they’ve they have a glass of wine and they’re talking to each other. Like, you don’t know kind of how that conversation is going, but what you can do is give them the tools to try to encourage better conversation. And And so to that end, at the end of this webinar, we will share with you a worksheet where we’ve distilled down, like, the most critical questions.
And, unfortunately, that survival clause is not in there. That is considered to be sort of more boilerplate. But, like, the really critical points that, like, really the spouses need to be aligned on before they step into a meeting with an attorney and that you’re helping facilitate that conversation or they’re using Wealth dot com, let’s say, to, like, do their estate plan, like, what are those key decision points? We’ve distilled those down to seven questions that they can talk to each other about.
And then lastly, I will say when those conversations get a little hard and the spouses don’t always agree and are are not always aligned, here, you know, to engender that trust so that, you continue being the trusted adviser to both spouses, think about not taking a side on the issues. You know, maybe guiding them, but not necessarily being like, well, you know, your, you know, your wife is correct. Like, the tax implications of this are the most important thing, so don’t think about x y z. Like, you know, having that, sort of more of a mediator approach is going to serve you, well in the long run.
Such a good point.
Okay.
I love that somebody brought up, I also use estate planning to fold in the next generation. Right? So we talk about engaging two spouses, but then that is an opportunity with estate planning to also engage the children or, you know, the next beneficiaries.
And so, by sort of almost like practicing those conversations with the two clients, the couple, you actually also start engendering that type of trust where you can also ask them if it would be appropriate to start speaking to their children about, what to expect when both spouses are gone. And so I know, Samantha, you have a ton of thoughts about this too.
Yes. And we have some really great resources you’ll see on the coming slides that we’re gonna give you, and that are for FMG.
Do we have any FMG customers? If you are using FMG, let us know. I’d love to know who’s here. But in our library, we have some great, great emails and worksheets for how to facilitate a family meeting.
There is a ton of research out there that shows, especially for people who are affluent or high net worth, ultra high net worth, they want their adviser to start talking to their children as early as eighteen years old. But the adviser you know, how does that start? What does it look like? It can feel a little bit tricky, and I understand why.
And so estate planning, as Anne mentioned, is such a great way to start the conversation because we’re not talking about investments. We’re not talking about taking control of the money, anything really controversial at all. It’s just a pure benefit to the entire family and wanting to help everyone get aligned.
So we have a ton of great resources. And, again, we’re gonna we’re giving you away so many great things at the end of today, that can help you facilitate that. And when we think about all of the wealth being transferred, it is, you know, just such a great opportunity to introduce your firm and allow that next gen to get comfortable with who you are, see that you’re not some old stodgy advisor just working with their parents, but that you use technology, hopefully, like wealth dot com, to you know, you’re using AI tools, whatever it is, it will really, really go a long way. And so just the idea of so called family meeting, can go so far. So let us know in the chat. Do you have you ever hosted a family meeting or do you maybe you don’t call that, but do you pitch it that way? We like naming it that too.
In marketing, we know that the more you give something a name, it becomes tangible to people and they think like, oh, we haven’t had our family meeting yet or we haven’t had our family meeting this year. So we’ll show you some more strategies, for that.
And I will say one of the most powerful techniques that I used when I was an estate planner, was engaging with that child early, and it can be as early actually as when they turn eighteen.
Because when they turn eighteen and they go off to college, they get all of these rights that come with being an adult, like running your own financial lives and making decisions on health care for yourself.
And what parents don’t realize because they’re still paying the tuition bill when the child goes off to college is that actually if something were to happen to that child and let’s say it can just be, like, being unavailable, you know, to to, like, pay their bills.
For the parents to be able to do that for their child, they actually need a financial power of attorney. And so I actually tickled, so, like, reminded myself, every single summer to look at all of my clients whose children were going to go to college and remind them, like, hey. I can actually do, you know, a financial power of attorney for your child. And it’s a great way to start engaging the child.
And, honestly, like, the child knows that they’re going to pick mom and dad. This is not the most, like, controversial, you know, document for them to fill out. And it’s just a way for them to, like, be like, oh, I’ve met with Anne before, and, like, I thought she was pretty cool. Like, you know, she gave me free coffee or and stuff at her office.
And the fact that you’re even trying goes is such a great indicator to the client, right, the primary client client of, how you are viewing the relationship.
Yeah. So to all of you right now on the call, like, on, I don’t know, like, August first, like, put in your calendar to look at your book and see, like, which of your clients might really, you know, appreciate you protecting their kids, as they go off to college.
And another, idea that’s such a great idea is Stuart Cameron in the chat is saying that he runs generational planning webinars, like this where, you know, you can invite people, get on the call. So I’m assuming it could be both clients and prospects.
And he said it’s really well to see. They don’t discuss account values, just the technical side of things. So that is another great strategy. And Karen said it is hard to get both spouses plus all the kids together in one room can be hard to coordinate, but Zoom sometimes solves that problem. And I that is such a great point.
You know, making it, you know, now with the technology we have where you can share your screen, you can pull up documents on the screen, it really, really is a lot easier if you can get people to agree to do it virtually.
And I will tell you that, managing to get that meeting to be in person is extra meaningful, I think, to that child. You know, if you ever pay attention to, like, TikTok, social media, like, there’s this whole, like, hullabaloo of, like, throwing parties around, like like, sending off your kid, like, making their bedrooms look like, you know, decked down in the school colors.
It’s all It’s crazy. It’s like the average family spending, like, ten to twenty thousand dollars or something. Have you seen that now? Some of these elite schools on decorating the bedroom.
Yeah. So that should tell you how much your clients care about this moment in time. And so the fact that you’ve, like, also thought to protect their kid is just like you’re just, you know, making sure that you’re part of that that moment.
Okay. So have we gone through this whole side?
Or I think we can start talking about some communication. Let’s do it.
So, when so those are just some of the ways that we can think about communication, in general.
But we also wanted to touch on the fact that, again, this is such a great value add and part of the value proposition because not every advisory firm is doing it. So those of you who are, it is a way you know, people will come to me all the time and say, Sam, should I be starting a video blog? Should I, create a newsletter? You know, should I post to Instagram?
Whatever it is. And I always say, don’t focus on what marketing tactic. You don’t wanna dive into that, but first you wanna ask yourself, what about my business is marketable in the first place? And so estate planning is something that if, you know, offering it, facilitating it, using wealth dot com to provide that that service to your clients is something that makes you more marketable.
So one tip I have for you is you can create an estate planning resource page on your website. Everybody who said they’re using FMG, I’m gonna send you an example after today, of somebody who has it right on their website because we have a ton of estate planning resources.
Some of them created in partnership with wealth dot com where you can just add a resource page on your website that goes into, they have, you know, different calculators and tools and just downloads that people can have. But I love the way this company FCA Corp did it. They have all these different case studies, and you can click through and read more about different case studies. But case studies, it sounds kinda boring.
Just think of it as stories. Right? We all picture ourselves a lot better when Anne, you know, told us a scenario but then illustrated it with a story. It makes sense to us more than just stats or numbers or figures.
So the more that you can use stories to explain how this is gonna benefit people or what the problem was someone had and how you help to solve for it, the more your messaging is going to work. If we can go to the next slide, you will see oh, he that’s fine. You can pull it up if actually, if you want. You’ll just see on that, on that website.
This is what it can look like, on your website. So it’s just gonna load for a second. But you’ll have all of these links. So if anybody wants to go and check out these pages afterwards, you’ll be able to scroll through, see how we set it up.
But you can also if you are using FNG, reach out to us and we can help you create one of these resource pages. So, yeah, you can scroll through here and see, it’s an entire page just on their website, that talks through these these case studies.
Okay. So next slide.
This is just another example. We don’t need to click on it, but one of the things I wanted to point out is whenever you are creating a section of your website devoted to a specific topic, you want to collect leads from people who are landing there. Right? So let’s say you have a resource page and you host, educational webinar or event.
Afterwards, you wanna have you direct people to a page and then you wanna have something like this. Right? So a call to action that says, okay. You know, download this quick guide, and we’re gonna cover x, y, and z that are gonna help you, you know, accomplish something.
The sad truth is that about ninety seven percent of people who visit your website do not convert. They don’t book a meeting. They don’t connect with you to learn more. And so we want a way to capture all those people.
We don’t want them to just visit our site and disappear, and we can never drip relevant information on them. So instead, you create something like this, an estate planning resource center.
And then if you go to the next slide, Martin, you’ll see that there the call to action that we have there, it, again, is a downloadable that our team has put together that anyone can use on their website. So that is not something we’re giving away. Unfortunately, it is tied into the FMG websites, but you can if you are using FMG, you can add this to pretty much any page on your website, but we suggest adding it to an estate planning resource center or a blog post all about estate planning. And you’ll to anybody who lands there then is able to download the guide, and you will be alerted that they downloaded it and that you now have their email.
So it’s such a great way to collect leads. And it doesn’t just have to be, like, you know, a fresh lead. It could be a family member suggesting the resource library to another family member, and you’re generating it that way. I don’t see the slides anymore.
I don’t know, Anne, if you do.
Okay. So I think we need to pull them back up. We might be having again, we’ve had a lot of technical, problems on getting today started, so bear with us.
But a lot of people are saying that they use FMG. So thank you so much for being here, and I’m glad that you are using it, and that you see value in it. On the next slide, is just an example of that downloadable, that we offer for you and that you can again add to any page of your website. So let me know in the chat.
How do you talk about estate planning on your website? Do you feel like it’s something you need to do a better job of incorporating?
Do you just say it’s like a standalone service? Do you talk about it being part of your comprehensive or holistic process? Do you have a resource section all about estate planning on your website?
We’d love to know kinda how you are talking about it and, you know, whether it’s something you’d be interested in is adding a section like that, to your website.
Okay.
I think maybe we’re just having a glitch with the site. So I’ll keep going, and we’ll oh, there we go. Now we can see it. So this is just, again, what it would look like.
First name, last name, email. And one quick tip I wanna give all to you actually from a marketing perspective, if you have any form on your website where you are trying to collect leads, do not ask for more than name and email. Once you start asking for things like phone number or address or them to fill out, like, what do you wanna talk about, your rate of completion will plummet down. So you wanna keep it super simple, just name and email, and your conversion rate will be a lot higher.
Okay. Let’s go to the next slide.
Awesome. So if you are an FMG user, this is where you can find that. If you go to the library and you just type in the word estate, you’ll see this white paper and then you can add it as a download to your website.
K. Next next slide.
So some people are thinking like, how do I talk about this more maybe on social media so people are aware that this is a value that I provide? I love this example here from Vito. He’s actually a lawyer, but a social post like this can go such a long way to just show people that this is a conversation you’re dialed into, that you can provide value and it’s something you know about. Right?
So this is an example of something in marketing we call zero click content. He’s not saying go read my latest blog post to learn about estate planning tips. He’s giving you value in the post itself right up front in the meat of the post. And the reason this is so powerful is a lot of people do not click off of social media when they’re scrolling.
So trying to make them leave to go listen to your podcast or read your blog post, it can be really difficult. So instead, by giving them the information right up front, they’re just immediately connecting the value that you’re providing here with your name and your picture and starting to see you as somebody who provides this expertise. So, again, he has some really you know, planning your estate early is key. Here are some points to consider.
At eighteen, parents no longer have automatic medical decision making authority, what Anne was just talking about. In emergencies, court approval may be required. A lot of people just are not thinking about this. They’re thinking that’s my kid forever.
It doesn’t matter if they’re eighteen. They’re so young. They’re in high school still. So really simple tips like this can go such a long way on social media because remember, the average American is not in our world.
They’re not thinking about estate planning and financial planning all day. They’re going about their day getting ready to go to Target and buy bedding for their kids’ college dorm, not thinking about, oh my god, what if something happens to them while they’re there? And so some a post like this will grab attention. It’s such a again, on social media, we’re not trying to go write a thesis paper.
We’re trying to give high level tips that would make someone stop and think.
Okay. Next slide.
This was that family meeting, workshop toolkit that I talked about. So we in the FMG library have an email that you can use. You can send it out to all of your clients, or even prospects inviting them to have a family meeting with you. Obviously, it’s easier if it’s their clients, but some people do use it with prospects as well.
And this is a, downloadable we have. And what I really like about it is we didn’t just focus on the financial or even the legal aspects, but we really dive into what kind of legacy do you wanna leave behind? Just helping facilitate conversations in general. Right?
How do you want your heirs to think about wealth and their relationship to the wealth that you’re leaving them? Is there certain things that you would like, in terms of family traditions, maybe supporting charities or, you know, anything philanthropic that you would hope that your heirs would continue to do? So it’s such a great, workshop. It looks nice.
It’s not just a word doc. You can send it out to everybody, invite them to a family meeting, and then when they come, they all can work on this together. And this is, again, something you can it’s in our FMG, library as a downloadable that any FMG user can access.
And so this is, a great example of an email. Right? So, again, you you know, your work doesn’t speak for itself. You do.
People are not going to know what you do if you don’t tell them. They’re not gonna know that you can help facilitate these conversations if you don’t talk about it. So we really suggest a weekly email for every advisory firm we work with that you should be sending a weekly email to everybody on your clients list and your prospect list. And this is something, yes, you can talk about with prospects as well because it is such a value add.
So here’s just an example of a very high level email that’s giving some practical, tangible takeaways that people could implement, but it also is just, again, reminding them that this is a conversation that you are willing to facilitate. If you are an FMG customer in the library, we also have a version for centers of influence. So something you can send out to, you know, a local, CPA, for instance, and they might not realize that you help facilitate these conversations.
They have people right in front of them in the office. We’re talking about taxes. They’re talking about the estate. And now you send this and it helps create you know, connect those dots.
So when you’re sending out these email communications, we really strongly suggest you also remember to include those centers of influence because, again, people are not gonna know what you do and what you can do if you do not tell them. I’d love to know in the chat, what is your strategy for talking about estate planning? Is it part of your marketing strategy? Do you have you thought about it before as something that makes you more marketable, or is that something that you struggle and you need help with?
Okay. Next slide.
Okay. I guess, one final thing and then, Anne, I know you had some other, down or giveaways you wanted to talk about too, but, I just wanted to mention that this is going to be something we give to everybody. It is an email drip campaign that, FMG and Wealth have partnered up together to put together for all of you. And it is all about how to get started with your estate plan, what to think about, and we will have it available for FMG customers in the downloadable library. So you’ll be able to just trigger it right from there. For everybody else, you’ll be able to copy and paste it and use it however you want. So, hopefully, this is really, really helpful to all of you and give you some new ideas on how to talk about these things in your marketing and your communication.
Alright. And the next thing that I wanted to mention is that checklist or, worksheet that you can use.
You know, you can be part of the meeting where the couple is discussing this, but I find it more effective if you just, give it to them, check-in on them, and make sure that they’re doing the homework in the background and having those tough conversations, and then kind of, like, walking through with, them at a later date kind of the choices that they’ve made and kind of understanding, the pros and cons of the decisions that they were, thinking through. And so the other thing that I’ll mention because I see a couple of comments about this is if you are at all interested in sort of digital estate planning, I see, you know, another, provider’s name mentioned, or you have questions about, what the boundary is of what you can discuss, about estate planning because you’re not an attorney, you know, I encourage you to actually, have a follow-up conversation with us at wealth dot com because we’d be happy to have those conversations with you, but just probably not in the context of of this webinar.
I will say this. Generally speaking, if you think about, estate planning, information that you may be finding out there, some of the most, you know, impressive, and very well drafted pieces about estate planning strategies actually come from, like, large banks, you know, perhaps even, like, retirement account administrators and things like that. And giving, you know, kind of broad stroke, like, education about estate planning is not necessarily, right, something that will trip up, like, the practice of law. So I just wanted you guys to to see that, like, there is a range. You are allowed to talk about, like, planning objectives, with your clients. And so just because it has, like, estate planning in it doesn’t necessarily trip you up. And so I encourage you to kind of, like, you know, of course, talk to your compliance departments about what is comfortable.
But there are lots of topics of conversation that you can have with a client without necessarily getting into, like, the drafting or anything that that feels, uncomfortable to either you or your compliance department. And so just wanted to put that out there.
Anything else on that, Samantha?
I don’t think so. I think the idea of giving this to people to have, obviously, first is is great. And I hope that all of the resources that we are giving you will all help you feel empowered, to have these conversations and also to think about, you know, again, how to my marketing cap’s always on how to, you know, better market all of the value that you provide.
I like some of these suggestions in the chat, about, you know, providing even more materials.
We’d be happy to take that back and see what we can do. So let’s say a PowerPoint presentation for planning one zero one.
Yeah. Yeah. And I think we could come up with something great. We do have PowerPoint presentations in FMG already on tax.
So estate planning would be a very easy I shouldn’t say easy one to add, but it would make sense as a as a next step. And be there are, a lot of different things, obviously, the ways you can market this or talk about it. So I just wanted to put this QR code up. If you just take a you know, pull up your phone, we all know how QR codes work. You can book a twenty minute consult whether you’re already a current FNG customer or not and talk about your marketing and how we can help you implement some of these ideas.
I hope that we got to all of your questions throughout the presentation. Thank you so much for being so active this morning, morning my time at least. And, you know, if you have questions, please keep them coming.
If we don’t get to one of your questions, feel free to follow-up with either me or Samantha, and we will make sure to answer them.
Yes. Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. It’s always great to I love getting your insider scoop in on, you know, different situations people have dealt with that I would have never thought of.
And, hopefully, this was helpful to all of you. Again, if you have any questions, I’m always happy to connect, and, LinkedIn is often the easiest way to shoot me a quick message. It’s Samantha c Russell on LinkedIn. But, again, we’re we’re so excited to partner FMG and Wealth together to come up with these different pieces that help you talk about the work that you do, create those email drip campaigns, and, yeah, thank you so much for for having me today.
Yeah. Samantha, we couldn’t ask for a better cohost than you and FMG. Thank you. Thank you so much, for being here with us today. No problem.
K.
