6 Essential Will Preparation Tips for Your Banking Customers This National Make-A-Will Month

August 13, 2024   -   , ,

August National Make-A-Will Month
August is National Make-A-Will Month, an annual event intended to encourage people to create their wills if they haven’t already done so. But despite the importance of life planning, just 32% of US residents had one of these documents ready to go in 2024—a 6% decrease from the previous year.

It isn’t hard to understand why wills tend to be neglected. Most people assume this is a job for lawyers, but it’s increasingly becoming a service that forward-thinking banks can offer to strengthen customer relationships and set families up for multigenerational financial success. Unfortunately, without proactive support from their financial institution, customers may lack the context and guidance they need to create a plan that makes the most out of the wealth they’ve built.

That’s a missed opportunity for banks, families, and communities alike— but with the help of digital platforms designed to support life planning and succession services, everyone can benefit from structuring their financial future together. Here’s how your institution can deliver will creation services to customers and make National Make-A-Will Month a cornerstone of your long-term business strategy. 

Why Do Your Customers Need Wills?

While 40% of Americans don’t think they’re rich enough to create a will, your customers don’t need to be wealthy to justify preparing one of these documents. Building wealth is a multigenerational activity, and even a modest legacy can be the foundation of great future success if it’s prepared thoughtfully and purposefully. A well-structured will benefits customers and banks alike by:

  • Clarifying intentions and goals. This process encourages parents to bring children and grandchildren into long-range financial planning conversations.
  • Structuring business succession. While succession planning is a separate and valuable service for banks to offer, it is nonetheless part of the life planning and will creation process that can have a huge financial impact on both banks and customers. 
  • Strengthening family, community, and institutional ties. Offering life planning and succession services allows banks to create durable and sustainable financial foundations for the families they serve, which helps communities grow and thrive. 

Will Creation Services that Encourage Engagement

Many banks offer extremely limited will preparation guidance that’s often in the form of simple workbooks or checklists. These materials don’t really encourage engagement from customers and offer little additional value—or interest—beyond basic needs. 

Digital platforms and services that meet customers where they are and make it easy for them to take an active role in the process offer banks the opportunity to strengthen the financial security of their customers while developing deeper financial ties. For example, here’s how helping customers establish the core components of any will can lead to greater engagement and loyalty:

  • Beneficiaries: Every will should identify who will receive assets, and it’s an opportunity for banks to open discussions with family members about their current financial health, future goals, and how your services can help.
  • Terms of Distribution: Many wills include funds that are earmarked for major purchases like houses or college tuition. By ensuring everyone is aligned with these goals and priorities, banks are in a unique position to offer guidance and financial advice on building wealth and maximizing the value of these assets. 
  • Naming Executors: Banks can help customers structure and organize the transition process so there’s no question things will go according to plan. 
  • Identifying Opportunities: There are a lot of details customers may miss when creating their own will, including valuable assets, tax advantages, and effective strategies for achieving financial goals. Unlike lawyers, banks are perfectly placed to assist customers in navigating all the options so they can make the most of their legacy. 

Fundamentals of Will Creation 

Any will creation software or platform your bank chooses must be able to create documents that are legally binding in the state where your customers reside while offering additional services that promote engagement. Here are the foundational elements of the will creation process—all of which represent opportunities for opening larger banking conversations with customers and their relatives.

1. Collect Crucial Information

As the first “official” step in the will creation process, your customers should gather the following information to ensure their will is legally binding and meets basic legacy goals:

  • Social Security card
  • Birth certificate
  • Insurance information
  • Marriage license
  • Medicare/Medicaid data
  • Property deeds
  • Children’s birth certificates and Social Security cards
  • Financial and legal documents for their assets

2. Review Their Assets

Next, your customers should closely examine their assets, and that doesn’t just include money in deposit accounts. Your representatives will need to actively counsel families to consider things like:

  • Stocks and bonds
  • Property and real estate
  • Investments
  • Ownership stakes
  • Valuables (such as jewelry and art)
  • Personal belongings

3. Account for Debts

While they’re thinking about their assets, your customers should also take some time to consider their debts—especially debts against items they plan to include in their will. In this situation, a person’s estate may be unable to bequeath an asset or even be forced to sell off assets in order to cover debts.

When issues like this arise, your customer’s will could get stuck in probate until the situation at hand is resolved. Financial institutions can assist their customers with these tricky situations and provide solutions that preserve their legacy and intentions, as well as advise beneficiaries about what to expect and the steps they can take to ease the process. 

4. Create Instructions for Asset Distribution

Your customers can place stipulations on any and all assets they transfer, including money, property rights, and family mementos to beneficiaries in their wills.  To avoid confusion, conflict, and potential loss, banks assisting in the will creation process should encourage families to have honest, clear conversations about their intentions and the legal obligations they entail. This ensures families are all on the same page and minimizes issues that can lead to large legal bills and years of litigation. 

5. Pick Trustees

Sometimes, a person’s beneficiary won’t receive assets that have been set aside for them until they either fulfill a specific condition or come of age. In that case, trustees will be responsible for managing a person’s estate until it’s time for their beneficiary to take over.

Many customers will be unfamiliar with this process, and banks should be prepared to introduce core concepts of trusts, the services they offer, and how their customers can take advantage of them. Also, these assets can be significant windfalls for children and grandchildren, and banks should take a proactive approach to prepare them for the financial responsibility these gifts entail. 

6. Document Their Wishes and Organize Memories

A person’s last wishes aren’t technically part of their will, but this is still an essential and value-added step in the life planning process that is often included in will preparation. 

Online life and succession planning platforms make it easy for people to actively add meaningful content to their planning process through digital vaults. By partnering with one of these software providers, banks can empower their customers to add videos and pictures and store all of their cherished content in one secure place. This also builds engagement by making it easy for them to share digital content with family members and opens the door to larger conversations about the process. 

Is Your Bank Ready for National Make-A-Will Month?

When your bank can help people prepare their wills, it can strengthen its emotional ties with current customers while attracting new customers interested in this service. Even so, there’s a good chance that will preparation is outside your financial institution’s area of expertise. Will creation is a developing industry trend in banking that offers fertile ground for exploring enduring competitive advantages and building multigenerational customer loyalty.  

The Postage is a comprehensive life and succession planning platform that partners with banks across the country to offer these valuable services. In addition to giving your customers a secure and legally binding opportunity to solidify their plans online, you’ll be able to promote a wide range of financial conversations and business opportunities that engage traditionally siloed departments.  

That’s just one of the many features our life planning and succession platform includes: we can also help your bank preserve customers’ important documents and personal messages, and all of these activities lead to increases in non-interest and deposit accounts. Financial institutions that partner with us to offer these services see an average ROI increase of 300% within months.

If your bank is ready to start offering will preparation services to its customers this National Make-A-Will Month, you’re in the right place. Take the first step toward working with The Postage by booking a demo today.