Everyone benefits from planning their estate. It's a natural step in securing financial legacies and ensuring loved ones are taken care of. While the topic might seem daunting, estate planning can be a positive and empowering process. As financial success grows, it's only natural for your clients to wonder, "What will happen to everything I've built?"
It’s no surprise, then, that estate planning is the second highest converting topic Snappy Kraken offers. Since everyone inevitably needs to plan their future, estate planning becomes as universal as taxes. Content and outreach based on estate planning is already set to succeed, as everyone with questions will need financial advice.
Despite this, most advisors don’t offer estate planning as a service. Many struggle to find new leads or aren’t sure about how to start conversations about the subject. Estate planning doesn’t need to be uncharted territory, however. Advisors looking to differentiate themselves from the mainstream market can take advantage of this discrepancy to generate more leads than ever before.
With all of that in mind, Snappy Kraken partnered with the team at Trust & Will to discuss the impact of estate planning in generating leads through online content and education. Read on to see how our collective data reveals the impact estate planning content can have on your business’ future.
The Data from Trust & Will
Both Trust & Will and Snappy Kraken performed their own surveys, in order to answer what makes estate planning such a profitable source of interest. From their members and other respondents, Trust & Will’s Insights for Financial Advisors Survey learned what characteristics most appeal to consumers as they’re looking for financial advice. Here are some of their takeaways.
Takeaway 1: Millennials expect financial advisors to engage in holistic advice and offer estate planning from the start.
Everyone is thinking about the future, no matter what generation they’re a part of or how old they are. Yet, estate planning doesn’t come up as often as many individuals would like.
In particular, Millennials are concerned with their bigger financial picture, and expect their advisors to address the details. They want to know what steps they should take to protect their future, as well as the future of their families and assets.
Beyond Gen Y, members of each generation were surveyed, and the interest in estate planning was universal. People want to be proactive, and the holistic advice you can provide is exactly what they’re looking for.
Takeaway 2: An average of 28%, with Gen Z leading at 48%, use the same advisors as their parents.
Financial advisors are at an increasing risk of losing their managed assets as the older generation begins to pass away. Beneficiaries who aren’t involved in the process of estate planning are likely to seek assistance elsewhere, rather than continue to use the firm their parents or grandparents did. Without a focus on estate planning, many of those firms could lose a large portion of their income.
This underscores the need for advisors to engage in multi-generational planning. Estate planning becomes a way to involve entire families in the education process. Speak to the entire family and inspire more interest in planning for the future. They have reason to want to talk to you, and you to them. Aiming to help the whole family understand the value of your services will solidify their future, and your own.
Takeaway 3: In the next two years, 23% of respondents intend to hire an advisor.
In other words, nearly a fourth of the interviewees are interested in hiring help—and they’re already looking.
Everyone wants peace of mind. They want certainty in their future. But not everyone knows where to start. This puts you in the optimal position to reach out and start a conversation. They want to talk to you; in fact, they’re out looking for you. You just need to introduce yourself.
The Data From Snappy Kraken
Through the 2024 State of Digital, Snappy Kraken’s comprehensive report on the state of digital marketing tactics that work for advisors, millions of data points on success rates for marketing topics were compiled and analyzed. Notably, estate planning ranked as the second most top-performing subject among other forms of lead generation. This made estate planning the second-highest performing topic for driving new leads out of thirty-nine other topics.
Along with studying interest, we analyzed the performance of headlines in creating conversions. Within the top five, titles addressing legacy planning and free legacy reviews ranked as number two. This reinforces estate planning as one of the best ways to start conversations, turning it from a service into a strategy for your outreach.
Among those interviewed, individuals with high-net worth were particularly interested in tax opportunities and estate planning. If your ideal clientele are thinking about it, then you shouldn’t ignore it either. Now is the time to begin thinking of ways to include estate planning in your repertoire.
Driving Growth with Estate Planning Campaigns
Trust & Will gave their advice on how to offer estate planning as a service, to lay the groundwork for the advertising to follow. To address common mistakes and misconceptions, they offered the following tips on making estate planning impactful:
- Focus on education. Educate clients on the process. Teach them how to manage their own will so they can be empowered in the future.
- Facilitate the estate plan. Don’t draft documents or provide lists. Lead the client to create their own plan, rather than give them legal advice.
- Help clients take action. Provide them with the accountability to make their own decisions.
- Be transparent. Don’t hold back information or avoid certain topics. Give clients everything they want to know.
- Involve everyone. Ask clients to bring their whole family to the meetings. Allow participation to impact the conversation.
In summary, the process of estate planning isn’t to create the plan. It’s to give your client the tools to make their own plan. This allows them to find the peace of mind they’ve been looking for, as you help them to sort through next steps and empower them to make future choices. Meet with them, support them and inspire them.
Why Estate Planning Is Wanted
It’s not comfortable to think about death. No one wants to ponder that for too long. But as uncomfortable as it may be to contemplate, having a plan for the inevitable is the surest path to peace of mind. This is the key to estate planning. People aren’t looking for your services just so they can have their numbers squared away. They want to secure their future and the future of their families, which means you need to give them more than a detailed spreadsheet.
By educating your clients on the process of planning and giving them an increasing accountability over the problem, you’ll give them the peace of mind they’re seeking. As shown above, holistic advice is truly what’s in demand. And that means your content needs to reflect those desires.
If peace of mind is the key to estate planning, then education is the secret to great estate planning content. By revealing the process of legacy planning and sharing much needed information, you’ll encourage interested onlookers to reach out and ask questions. Through those conversations, you can begin to generate more leads, nurture your prospects, expand your client relationships and grow your AUM.
The Power Of Estate Planning Content
Estate planning is a hot topic, but popularity won’t win people over to your brand alone. It takes more to turn legacy planning into a powerful way of generating new leads. It requires content and planning, both of which take a considerable amount of time and money to produce. That’s where Snappy Kraken can help; we have 5 ready-to-launch estate planning campaigns, and our estate planning lead generation campaign is the second-highest performing on our platform.
In collaboration with Trust & Will, Snappy Kraken has created 2 brand new campaigns (with a total of 58 pieces of content) educate clients, nurture prospects, and spark conversations on estate planning. This content is a powerful way for people interested in estate planning to find and learn more about your business. It’s as easy as plug-and-play, all the work is already done for you.
Generate More Leads
Designed to create exposure, Snappy Kraken’s lead generation campaign focuses on timely issues and strong questions to interest people in your business. Even though estate planning is already at the top of many people’s minds, you need more than just your brand and services to get their attention. It takes meaningful reasons for them to talk to you.
Start strong by giving them powerful calls to action, inviting them to learn more with topics like changes to estate planning laws or ways to review their current legacy plan. Subjects like these target everyone, whether they have a plan already or not, giving you the best chance to make connections with anyone who sees your content.
This fully automated suite comes with everything, including a landing page and coordinated social media posts for Facebook, X, and LinkedIn. It also includes targeted ads on Facebook, giving you the most outreach possible to find qualified new prospects. The entire portfolio is driven by strategies that find success, you just need to add your voice to it.
Nurture Prospects and Start Conversations
Once your prospects have become acquainted with you, maintaining their interest is vital. To that end, Snappy Kraken has created an engagement campaign that reaches out to your new leads, doing the work for you independently. It puts your unique voice into inboxes and online feeds in moderation, contacting interested individuals over the course of six weeks.
The process is fully automated, continuously reaching out through all forms of media without the need to be restarted. This isn’t the kind of campaign that needs to be renewed every thirty days, or launched at the start of every season. To simultaneously find quality leads and the most leads, the system runs itself indefinitely, giving the people who opt in indefinite opportunities to learn more about your business.
This content was designed to fit alongside other topics, to supplement the efforts already being made. Your own social media should not be ignored. Rather, this lead generation campaign seeks to fill unfilled spaces. It runs alongside your other forms of outreach, adding to your collective ability to be seen and heard. All to give you the best chance to introduce yourself.
Expand Existing Client Relationships
Made with the help of Trust & Will, Snappy Kraken has also created a series of newsletters, which answer the new, burning questions related to today’s process of estate planning. Questions like “How have changes to IRS tax laws affected estate planning?” and “What does the power of attorney do for me?” Whether it's sent to new prospects or long-time clients, these newsletters are sure to start a conversation.
There are people out there who want to understand these things, both for themselves and for their children. What parent wouldn’t want to talk to their adult children about the need for the power of attorney? These articles give them the power to begin conversations for you, giving you the chance to improve your relationship with the entire family. Start conversations and begin expanding your relationships with the people you already help, so that when future generations begin to think of someone to trust, their first thought is you.
Win New Clients and Grow Your AUM
Taken together, all this content is designed to spark new dialogue, with current clients and new leads. When people respond to your call, engage with them and educate them. Win them over by giving them the peace of mind they’re looking for. Help them see how your services are exactly what they need for their lasting financial security.
With time-tested strategies built on powerful psychological truths, Snappy Kraken’s estate planning content is designed to revolutionize your lead generation and empower your client relationships. It covers every aspect of the process needed to bring in new prospects and improve your AUM. You just have to say yes.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, our goal is to help you create REAL conversations with REAL people, by offering them a chance to learn about something they’re already interested in. From there, build their trust in you. Help convert them to your story. Take your new leads on the journey they’ve been looking for. Even if it’s uncomfortable, it’s time to show them that no one’s more qualified to talk about death than you.
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