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§ Private Profile · Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Vanilla is a technology company.
Vanilla develops an advanced estate planning software platform designed for financial advisors. The company’s patented, AI-powered solution offers comprehensive tools to streamline the estate planning process, enabling advisors to create on-demand plans, visualize client estates, and identify tax optimization opportunities. This fully digital platform supports a broad spectrum of needs, from foundational planning to intricate arrangements for ultra-high-net-worth clients.
The company was founded in 2019 by Steve Lockshin, a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience in the wealth advisory industry. Lockshin’s insight stemmed from the observed need to empower financial advisors, allowing them to proactively guide clients through complex estate planning with sophisticated, yet accessible, technology. His background, including co-founding RIA AdvicePeriod, informed Vanilla's approach to integrating estate planning seamlessly into wealth management.
Vanilla serves financial advisors and wealth management firms, providing them with the technological infrastructure to lead the estate planning conversation. The company’s vision is to establish estate planning as a central growth engine for advisory practices, fostering deeper client relationships and facilitating multi-generational wealth transfer by offering a superior and more integrated planning experience.
Vanilla has raised $77.0M across 3 funding rounds.
Vanilla has raised $77.0M in total across 3 funding rounds.
Vanilla is a fintech company providing AI-powered estate planning software for wealth management firms, financial advisors, planners, and estate attorneys.[1][2][3][4] Its platform enables users to create, visualize, manage estate plans, analyze documents, calculate tax implications, and generate planning documents like wills and trusts, serving clients at firms such as Vanguard, Mariner, and Baird to grow AUM and deepen relationships.[1][3][4] Vanilla solves the problem of complex, manual estate planning by automating processes with AI agents for onboarding, summarization, and plan building, targeting wealth professionals who need scalable, holistic advisory tools.[1][2][4]
Founded in 2019 and based in Salt Lake City, Utah, Vanilla has raised $76.6M in funding, including a $35M round, and employs around 97 people with revenue under $5M.[2] It demonstrates strong growth through partnerships with Orion and Addepar, high-profile investors, and adoption by thousands of advisors.[2][3][4]
Vanilla was founded in 2019 by Steve Lockshin, a top-ranked independent advisor at AdvicePeriod and pioneer in estate planning, who identified the need for modern tools amid outdated, costly processes.[1][3] Lockshin, drawing from his daily client work, aimed to scale estate conversations in wealth planning relationships, leading him to build Vanilla (formerly OpenAdvisor Technologies) to automate and simplify bespoke strategies.[1][3]
The company quickly gained traction with funding from Venrock, Insight Partners, and notable investors like F. William McNabb III (former Vanguard CEO), Michael Jordan, and Jason Wenk (Altruist CEO).[2][3] It assembled a team from Amazon, Smartsheet, Stripe, Addepar, and major wealth firms, focusing on customer-obsessed, trust-based innovation.[3] Pivotal moments include a $11.6M raise with Venrock, board addition of McNabb, and partnerships accelerating enterprise adoption.[2]
Vanilla stands out in estate planning software through:
These features enable advisors to deliver high-value service at scale, differentiating from consumer-focused competitors like Trust & Will or Wealth.com.[1]
Vanilla rides the AI-driven fintech wave in wealth management, where estate planning shifts from niche luxury to essential holistic advice amid rising asset complexity, generational wealth transfers, and tax law changes.[3][4] Timing aligns with post-2025 estate tax cliffs and demand for scalable tools, fueled by market forces like aging high-net-worth populations and advisors' need to grow AUM via deeper relationships.[1][4]
It influences the ecosystem by partnering with platforms like Orion and Addepar, standardizing AI-augmented estate tech for RIAs and institutions, and enabling smaller firms to compete with giants through accessible innovation.[2][3] This positions Vanilla as a key enabler in the $100T+ wealth transfer trend, bridging legal, financial, and tech silos.[1][4]
Vanilla is poised to dominate AI estate planning with its advisor-built platform, recent innovations like 2025 AI enhancements, and momentum from major funding and partnerships.[2][4] Next steps likely include deeper integrations, global expansion, and advanced AI for predictive scenario modeling amid evolving tax regimes.
Shaping trends—AI automation, regulatory shifts, and multi-gen client needs—will amplify its growth, potentially evolving Vanilla into a full-suite wealth ops leader. As Steve Lockshin envisioned, it transforms broken systems into scalable legacy-building tools, delivering day-one value to advisors and clients alike.[1][3]
Vanilla has raised $77.0M across 3 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $35.0M Series B in August 2024.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 1, 2024 | $35M Series B | — | Alumni Ventures, Angel Investor, Ballistic Ventures, BlueRun Ventures, Climate Capital, Color Capital, Craft Ventures, Divergent Capital, Double Down, DST Global, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Insight Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Listen, Menlo Ventures, Partners Resolute, Scribble Ventures, Shrug Capital, WEB Smith, Techstars, Todd And Rahul's Angel Fund, Venrock, Alex Pattis, Andrew Gluck, Balaji Srinivasan, Casey Neistat, Gokul Rajaram, Jaime Schmidt, JEN Rubio Butterfield, Kevin Weil, Ligaya Tichy, Mark Chou, Moshe Lifschitz, Peter Hunn, Sahin Boydas, TIM Ferriss, Zach Segal | Announced |
| Apr 28, 2022 | $30M Series B | JON Rosenbaum | Bill Mcnabb, Michael Jordan, Vanguard, Venrock | Announced |
| Aug 1, 2021 | $12M Series A | Venrock | Ballistic Ventures, Insight Partners, Matterscale Ventures, Bill Mcnabb, Curtis Polk, Jason Wenk, Michael Jordan | Announced |
Vanilla has raised $77.0M in total across 3 funding rounds.
Vanilla's investors include Alumni Ventures, Angel investor, Ballistic Ventures, BlueRun Ventures, Climate Capital, Color Capital, Craft Ventures, Divergent Capital, Double Down, DST Global, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Insight Partners.