4 Ways Banks Can Assist Customers with End-of-Life Planning

Without a clear end-of-life plan in place, families are more likely to lose wealth when it transfers from one generation to another and create complications resulting in expenses and frustration. That’s not good for your customers, and it impacts the success your bank can share with them along the way. 

Historically, financial institutions have taken a limited role in life planning and business succession services, but these activities are increasingly becoming a cornerstone of any modern banking strategy. They fortify existing relationships and develop valuable connections with relatives that increase engagement with a wide range of financial products and cement banks as the cornerstone of the communities they serve. 

Of course, it’s not enough to simply hand over a workbook with some checklists. End-of-life planning offers valuable opportunities for both banks and customers alike, and it’s why businesses are increasingly forging partnerships to provide these digital services. With the right digital platform, you’ll be able to help your clients with life planning and business succession with a return on the investment that underpins your institution’s financial success. 

How End-of-Life Planning Helps People—And Banks

Many people think of will creation when it comes to end-of-life planning, but it actually entails a wide range of beneficial activities. Yes, producing a legally binding document is important, but life planning is also a process. Throughout the journey, banks can facilitate meaningful conversations that lead to greater non-interest income and higher deposit levels. 

These activities can lead to greater engagement with your services through:

• Stronger links with existing clients. There’s no denying that life planning can get emotional. Helping them navigate the process builds trust and loyalty that fosters deeper financial ties. 
• New connections with potential customers. A great digital platform makes it easy for clients to engage in life planning and business succession activities and include family members in the process. That helps banks develop multigenerational banking habits. 
• Differentiation from competing banks. Not every bank provides end-of-life planning support, and those that do rarely offer more than basic checklists or workbooks. By offering a platform with services that deliver a range of end-of-life planning options, your institution will stand out for potential customers. 

Providing End-Of-Life Services Customers Value

Because people tend to want to avoid thinking about their final years, they often don’t have a clear picture of how to craft a plan that makes the most of their estate and intentions. By taking a proactive approach, banks can position themselves as an empathetic and helpful partner during the process. Here are four of the most important life-planning services every bank should be prepared to offer their customers.

1. Help With Will Creation

Having a last will isn’t just for wealthy people. If your customers have any property, dependents, or financial/legal responsibilities, they need to have one of these documents in place.

Your customers’ last wills must include information about:

• Their estate. This includes their assets (and debts), stocks, bonds, bank accounts, and more.
• Their beneficiaries. These people will receive the resources in a person’s estate.
• Their distribution details. This describes a person’s terms for how they want their belongings to be distributed to their beneficiaries.
• Their executors. These people will be responsible for distributing assets in an estate.

Last wills should be free of ambiguity; if they aren’t, they could get stuck in probate for an extended period and assets can take a sizeable hit from legal bills. Also, this is the time to bring family members into conversations about the future and discuss how your bank can help them achieve their goals by making the most of the assets at hand. 

2. Get Involved With Advanced Directives

Also known as “living wills,” advanced directives provide detailed instructions to a person’s loved ones and medical professionals on what to do if they suddenly die or become incapacitated. Since advanced directives can make it easier for people to navigate these stressful situations, creating one of these documents should be a big part of your customers’ end-of-life planning efforts.

A client’s advanced directives should explain their:

• Medical preferences. This gives people a chance to express their views on resuscitation, portable medical orders, and medical power of attorney, as well as allocate assets to support these preferences. 
• Financial choices. Your customers’ advanced directives need to define their durable power of attorney and who will pay bills/make other financial decisions while they are incapacitated.
• Decisions related to their remains. Finally, this document should clarify a person’s bodily decisions, such as whether they wish to be buried or cremated and their opinions on organ/whole-body donation.

There’s no way around the difficulty these conversations can entail for families, but by helping them clarify intentions and organize resources, you can provide security and peace of mind. 

3. Provide Funeral Planning Advice

Not everyone plans their own funeral, but this is another way that people can reduce stress for their friends and family members after their deaths. If a customer is already talking to you about end-of-life preparation, giving them tips on funeral planning is a great way to underpin their wishes with solid financial advice. 

Some factors people should take into account while making funeral plans include:

• Where they want this event to take place.
• Who they would like to attend and have speak at their funeral.
• How to organize funds for anticipated expenses.

4. Assist Customers With Ethical Wills

Though end-of-life planning involves the creation of several legal documents, not everything put together during this process falls into that category. For example, an ethical will allows your clients to share their last wishes directly with their loved ones outside the context of estate planning.

Since an ethical will isn’t a legal document, it doesn’t focus on explaining how a person’s property will be distributed (except for personal heirlooms not included in their will). Instead, it communicates a person’s beliefs, stories, wishes, and final messages.

Ethical wills aren’t legally binding, but if a person’s estate goes into probate, judges can use these documents to help determine intent. Customers want documents and content that enhance the context of their intentions to be integrated with life planning services (and the ability to store this content in a digital vault), and banks should look for innovative partners who can provide comprehensive and accessible options. 

How The Postage Can Help With End-of-Life Planning

By getting involved with end-of-life planning, banks can strengthen their ties with existing customers while reaching new people. However, most financial institutions aren’t prepared to offer services related to this process. And if your bank’s end-of-life planning support doesn’t go beyond the bare minimum, people with an interest in these services won’t have a reason to choose your institution over other banks in the area.

Luckily, that won’t be an issue when you partner with The Postage to offer end-of-life planning assistance. With access to our relationship-driven life and succession planning platform, you can help customers create last wills, advanced directives, ethical wills, and more. Whether these people have been at your bank for years or recently signed up to create a will, this will also give you a perfect opportunity to discuss your other products and services.

In addition to will creation, The Postage can give your bank the power to protect its clients’ personal messages and documents—making them even more likely to make long-term investments in deposit and non-interest accounts at your institution. Because of that, it’s easy to see how banks that work with The Postage experience average ROI increases of 300%.

To find out more about what The Postage can do for your financial institution, schedule a demo of our platform today.