Interview with AdviceTech.LIVE Speaker Abby Schneiderman of Everplans

Abby Schneiderman
Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Everplans
AdvisorTech.LIVE Panel: Practice Multipliers

How did you get your start in financial services?

I am a repeat entrepreneur whose passion has always been to find innovative ways of using technology to make people’s lives better. Everplans is all about helping people organize, store, share and keep up to date all the important information they need at their fingertips throughout their lives—and that their families may need in the event that something happens to them.

The original idea for Everplans came about through a confluence of events, where I found myself researching online resources around life events. I found plenty of resources to help people plan a wedding, the birth of a child, buy a home, send kids to school, plan their finances and retirement. But after retirement planning that was it: There was a big hole—death—not addressed. Everplans was initially created to help people and their families deal with this unfortunate aspect of life—how to navigate it, how to prepare for it, and how to get properly organized ahead of time so that when the time does come, your family isn’t left scrambling. Eight summers ago my brother was killed in a head-on collision by an impaired driver driving down the wrong side of the road. I know firsthand what happens when families aren’t prepared and we’re on a mission to make sure families have good plans in place.

In May of 2015 we launched our Enterprise platform, Everplans Professional, which allows financial professionals to offer our platform to clients, upload critical information on their behalf, and keep track of their clients activity so they can nudge them along in making sure this important aspect of planning is developed as part of a holistic financial plan. Today, we have thousands of financial services and insurance professionals who use Everplans, many of whom are with us at this conference.

What’s something that you know now that you wish you’d known when you started your career?

This is a question I think about often. Passion and purpose for what you do matters more than anything. Having that passion makes the very long days, and there have been many during this pandemic for all of us, feel more like a mission and less like work.

Start-ups require so much effort and if it’s only about business you might burn out, but having a mission provides the energy you need to keep going until you’ve made an impact.

What excites you most about the financial advice profession right now?

There is so much crossover between Everplans and services provided by financial advisors, which makes it such a good fit. It has also gained so much greater importance in the past few months. There’s such criticality right now to help people live better; to gain a sense of controllability over their lives and plans. We hear from advisors all the time about how they help families be more prepared financially, and Everplans is there to help with that mission—but also to help advisors go “beyond the balance sheet” with their clients.

Another exciting development in the field right now is the increased role played by data sources in fueling the financial advice dynamic. The data sources out there are getting richer and richer to the point that we are able to make better-informed decisions for people. That’s only going to be more powerful in the future.

Is there something your company does that you don’t think advisors know about that they should be aware of?

There are a few things I’d call out here. The first is Everplans’ wealth of content. We get millions of organic visitors to our site every year because we have amazing in-depth content about a broad range of topics, from end-of-life traditions to digital estate management. We even have a book being released nationally in December called In Case You Get Hit By A Bus, which is the perfect way to get engaged with our brand of planning -it’s all about planning ahead for the unexpected.

The second thing I’d mention is Everplans’ unique Deputy system; our built-in mechanism that helps users share their important information with others in their life. This is primarily family members and loved ones, as well as their advisors. Through our deputy set-up advisors can help clients designate the important people in their life who need access to this critical information. Clients can choose which deputies get access to what specific sections and even when deputies get access (you can specify only after death, for example). Advisors should use this feature to identify who in their clients lives are really important to them, and use that as an opportunity to establish new relationships with those people.

Everplans is in a state of constant innovation; we regularly release new features, and so there’s a lot to share from just the past few months. For example, there are two new features we launched recently: the first is the ability to generate a quick just-in-case list for the most critical information in your life, which you can check out here. The second is our funeral cost calculator, which is a dynamic calculator based on users’ preferences and choices. Both have really nice, clear user experiences, and are an example of our ongoing innovation. There is much more to come on the horizon.

Any words of advice for advisors looking to update their tech stack?

Advisors are able to leverage data today in a way they never were able before. I’d suggest taking a close look at your clients’ needs and use technology to provide them with as transparent a lens into what their lives look like as possible, what they are doing well, and what areas need some extra attention—so you can help make the most personalized recommendations on their behalf.

Using technology, and especially services like Everplans, advisors can tap into client needs way beyond the traditional financial plan. Our clients expect more from us (and deserve more from us today). In that sense, technology is helping evolve the financial planner profession into something much broader.

What are you looking forward to the most about attending AdviceTech.LIVE?

I’m grateful to the amazing Adam Holt and Asset Map for organizing this incredible event. I look forward to meeting advisors and helping as many of them as possible connect better with their customers. This is a cutting edge event and I’m looking forward to listening to the other speakers and presenters, visiting virtual booths, and learning as much as I can.