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Three foundational essays. One for each topic we write about most.
A signed trust holds nothing until its assets are retitled to it. Why funding stalls, what counts as finished, and how to track it.
Compliance & UPLWhere the practice-of-law line falls for an advisor, what the document-preparation statutes require, and what to say when a client asks a legal question.
White-Label & BrandWhat white-label covers in advisor tech, the client surfaces to inspect with a test household, and what a branding fee should include.
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Five documents, signed on one day and used years apart by a court, the institutions holding trust assets, a bank, a physician and a records office.
Topic
Why trust funding stalls after signing, and how to finish it.
A signed trust holds nothing until its assets are retitled to it. Why funding stalls, what counts as finished, and how to track it.
What a funding request can start, what institutions may require, and how to confirm the resulting change.
At death, each asset follows how it was held. What the trust controls, what the pour-over will does, and how the estate process moves the rest.
Beneficiary forms on retirement accounts and insurance policies override the will. When they go stale, the estate plan fails at death and nobody finds out until then.
More in Trust Funding
Topic
The line between document preparation and the practice of law.
Where the practice-of-law line falls for an advisor coordinating estate planning, what the document-preparation statutes require, and what to say when a client asks a legal question.
What template review covers and leaves out, what individual representation adds, what to ask about generative AI under ABA Opinion 512, and the review record to request.
Define when to pause for counsel and how to complete the handoff. Software flags support the process; they do not settle it.
Test which records show client choices, consent, review and template versions, and confirm coverage and retention.
More in Compliance & UPL
Topic
What white-label actually means, and why brand is the moat.
What white-label covers in advisor tech, the client surfaces to inspect with a test household, and what a branding fee should include.
Estate-planning software increasingly reaches advisors through network deals, exclusivity terms, and equity ties. What was decided above the firm, and what to ask.
The surfaces a household meets on an estate-planning platform, in order, with what to check at each, and how to keep the back office in the evaluation.
The signed documents stay with the household. The open funding letters and the next review stay wherever the account lives, and that is a firm decision.
Topic
Capturing the estate planning revenue most firms refer out.
One meeting after the trust is signed: the asset list, where the records are, who the documents name and what they can do, the trusted contact, and ninety days of follow-up.
Fee models, what the engagement letter and invoice can say, the disclosure and records rules for a registered adviser, and why the attorney’s fee stays separate.
A guardian named in a will acts after a death or a court filing. What a parent can sign now so a stepparent or relative can act for a child.
Matching wills leave the first spouse’s children depending on the survivor. What the survivor can change, and the trust attorneys commonly use instead.
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