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Anatomy of a Will & Trust Report

The Holistiplan Estate product is designed to make reviewing Wills and Trusts easier and more collaborative for advisors and their clients. Below are key details to help you get the most out of your reports and illustrations.

Holistiplan Estate supports consolidated Will & Trust summaries for up to two household members. Our summaries identify trusts intended to be created under the documents (resulting trusts) along with their fiduciaries, beneficiaries, and distribution provisions, giving you a clear, consolidated view of estate plans.

If you haven’t already done so, make sure to set yourself up for success by uploading your documents correctly. Once the review is complete, you can review and present the Will & Trust Summary! Follow along as we break down each section of this report:

 

Client Information, Reviewed Documents and Notes

At the top of the screen on the left hand side are a few small sections to pay attention to. 

First, you’ll see a button that allows for adding or updating client information. This brings up a 3-page survey of questions about asset information, tax information, and heir and agent information. Through the client information modal, you can further customize the Insights section by providing additional context that isn’t captured directly in the documents—like tax considerations, asset details, and information about heirs or agents.

Below this section, users will see the documents that were uploaded and reviewed. 

Our team will occasionally find something that they want to bring to your attention. In these cases, you’ll see our notes located in the dark bue box above. If our reviewing team finds something of note, like a document that was executed on a day that doesn't exist in a particular year, we’ll note it in this section:

Users can determine the best way to address these with their clients (ex., add as an insight at the bottom of the report, use it as a talking point during a client meeting) and add their own internal notes by clicking + Add New.

 

Summary of Uploaded Documents

To the right of the Reviewed Documents and Notes section, users will find a synopsis of the documents as well as dates of execution if not draft documents.

 

Who Will Act on Your Behalf

We’ll break down each uploaded document and give you notable parties or fiduciaries involved if present in the documents, as well as relevant notes!

We can identify at least 12 different roles:

  • Wills: Executors/personal representatives and guardians for minors.
  • Trusts: 12 roles including:
    • trustees
    • trust protectors
    • investment trustees
    • administrative trustees
    • distribution trustees
    • trustee appointers
    • designated representatives
    • committees (investment and distribution)
    • and advisors (investment and distribution)

 

Who Gets What

The Who Gets What section is a visual breakdown showing the estate flow by event (max of 3 events), noting pour-over trusts as well.

Broken or dashed lines indicate that our system does not know the actual asset amount, its taxability, or if it will be funded, as that information is not provided in the uploaded documents. This is a great use case for the Asset Diagram, where you can model the taxable assets in a similar flow chart!

How Illustrations Are Generated

Descriptions and order of disposition are taken directly from the documents. Holistiplan Estate Specialists create these illustrations using custom-designed software to visually represent complex plans in a clear, digestible way.

  • Multiple Distribution Events
  • Illustration Notes & Badges: Where applicable, illustrations display funding information (e.g., dollar amounts, fractions, percentages, remainder, or formula-based funding) and contingency treatment (e.g., per stirpes, per capita, alternate named beneficiaries, or lapse).
  • Common Visualization for Spouses: Most estate illustrations for spouses include a surviving spouse and a predeceased spouse, each with up to two distribution events.

Limitations of Illustrations

Estate illustrations are designed to simplify complex plans, but there are some important limitations to keep in mind:

    • Maximum of Three Distribution Events: Illustrations can include up to three key distribution events (e.g., death of the first spouse, death of the surviving spouse, and termination of trusts created upon the surviving spouse’s passing).
    • Character Limits: Illustrations have limited space for typewritten characters, which may result in the omission of middle names or abbreviations of long, specific gifts of real or personal property.
    • Family Disaster Provisions: In most cases, family disaster provisions are not available for illustration.
  • While citations are not currently linked to report insights, we’re actively exploring features like hover-over highlights and advisor-facing “next step” reports to make it easier to navigate and act on document details.

 

Trusts Created Under Your Living Trust

Here, we’ll list some details about the trusts that are created under the uploaded documents, if applicable. 

We’ll categorize the trusts created by the flow chart in the section above, looking at 

  • Beneficiaries, in order
  • Distribution permissions and withdrawal rights, including lump sum distributions and restrictions for age attainment or drug/alcohol testing
  • Provisions to watch for (ex., spendthrift language)

At the bottom of this section, you’ll see insights specifically for trusts created under living trusts.

 

Insights

In the Insights section, you’ll find insights regarding a few different categories:

  • General Insights
  • Trustee Insights
  • Executor Insights
  • Guardian Insights
  • Property Insights

 

These insights are populated by a combination of information uploaded in the documents and client information. You can drag and drop insights to reorder, edit the insight phrasing, or hide insights to tailor the report to your clients’ needs.