Estate Planning for Advisors

How to deepen client relationships through estate-planning conversations without giving legal advice. Scripts, frameworks, and the warm-handoff process to attorneys. 2-hour CE-eligible format. Trains an entire team to lift generational retention from 30% to 70%.

Duration

2 hours

Audience

Financial advisors, RIAs, insurance agents, wealth management teams

Investment

$1,000 – $2,000 per event

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The thesis

Why advisors lose 70% of inherited AUM

The pattern is consistent across Cerulli, Hartford Funds, and PwC research: ~70% of inheritors fire their parents' advisor within 12 months of the inheritance. Almost never because of returns.

It's because the advisor never met them.

The fix is operational, not strategic: build a family-meeting discipline into the practice for clients ages 60+. The advisors who do this retain ~70% of next-gen AUM. The advisors who don't retain ~30%. That's a 40-percentage-point delta — material to the long-term value of the practice.

This workshop teaches the discipline. It does NOT teach legal, tax, or estate-planning content beyond what every advisor should already know — and it draws a clear line so attendees stay inside their lane.

The arc

120-minute structured curriculum

Module 1 — The Generational AUM Math (0:00–0:20)

• Cerulli data: 70% generational attrition for the average advisor; ~70% retention for advisors who run family meetings. • The math on YOUR book: 200-household book × 40% over 60 × ~2.5% annual mortality × $1.2M avg AUM × 1% fee = $19,200/yr in retained advisory revenue from the retention delta. • Compounding over 10 years if you start NOW vs in 5 years. • ROI of a family meeting (60-90 min) vs the cost of replacing AUM through new-client acquisition.

Module 2 — The 8-Document Framework (0:20–0:50)

Every advisor needs to be able to walk a client through these in plain English. NOT to give legal advice — to recognize what's missing and refer appropriately. 1. Will 2. Revocable Living Trust 3. Durable Power of Attorney (financial) 4. Healthcare Power of Attorney 5. Living Will / Advance Directive 6. HIPAA Authorization 7. Letter of Instruction 8. Digital Legacy Plan For each: what it does, what it doesn't do, what's the typical cost to get one, when to refer to an attorney vs DIY, what's the common mistake. ACTIVITY: Beneficiary alignment audit. Each advisor reviews a hypothetical client's account beneficiaries vs their stated will and identifies the misalignments. 10 min, individual.

Module 3 — Running a Family Meeting (0:50–1:30)

The 90-minute structured family meeting format: Pre-meeting (1 week before) — send agenda + portal link to the parents; they invite the adult children; confirm format Opening (0:00–0:15) — introductions, expectations, what you'll cover and what you won't The structure of the practice (0:15–0:35) — high-level overview of assets, philosophy of allocation, NOT specific holdings unless the parents choose to share The documents (0:35–0:55) — walk through the 8-document framework against what the parents have. Critical: are the named executors / POAs / proxies aware they were named? The triggers (0:55–1:15) — "what happens when" scenarios. The highest-value 20 minutes — the kids almost always have questions they've been afraid to ask. Next steps (1:15–1:30) — three commitments in the next 30 days; schedule the next family meeting (quarterly, semi- annual, or annual) ROLE-PLAY: One advisor plays the family-meeting facilitator, three play the parents and an adult child. Use the script verbatim. Each advisor swaps roles. 25 min total.

Module 4 — The Attorney Handoff (1:30–1:50)

When and how to refer to an estate-planning attorney: TRIGGER → REFER: • Outdated documents (>5 years old) • Documents from a different state • Blended family or complex beneficiary structures • Business interests in the estate • Special needs heir • Charitable goals • Estate over the federal exemption • Multi-state real estate HOW TO HAND OFF WITHOUT LOSING THE CLIENT: • Have 2-3 estate attorneys you know and trust • Make warm introductions, not cold referrals • Stay in the loop on document execution • Schedule the post-execution review IN YOUR MEETING The reciprocal: how to receive referrals FROM estate attorneys. Attorneys send to advisors who: • Don't sell products inappropriately • Coordinate on basis tracking • Handle re-titling of accounts for trust funding • Don't second-guess the attorney's legal recommendations

Module 5 — Compliance + Wrap (1:50–2:00)

The compliance side of this is real. Advisors need: • CCO / RIA principal approval of family-meeting materials • Standard disclosures on any documents shared with prospects • SEC Marketing Rule compliance on any case studies • Books-and-records retention of all client communications What's NOT compliance-risky: • Talking about general document categories • Running a family meeting as a value-add for existing clients • Co-hosting an estate-planning workshop with an attorney • Sharing the free family playbook content with clients What IS compliance-risky: • Giving specific legal advice • Drafting documents yourself • Recommending you over an attorney as the "estate planner" • Sharing client names or stories without explicit consent

CE credit + post-event resources

What advisors take home

Each attendee receives:

Workshop slide deck (PDF)
The Family Meeting facilitation guide (the 90-minute script + agenda)
The 8-document framework client handout (your firm-branded version)
The beneficiary alignment audit worksheet
The attorney-handoff scripts
The CCO / compliance one-pager for /partners/advisor-compliance
CE attendance certificate (where state-eligible)

CE approval: 2 hours of estate-planning continuing education approved or in-progress in CA (DOI), TX (TDI), FL (DFS), NY (DFS), IL (DOI), and several others. CFP Board approval depends on the specific session and is filed per event.

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Let's talk dates.

Email Roger with your preferred dates, audience size, location (or Zoom), and any specific topics. We respond within 24 hours with availability and a custom quote.

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