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Luminary vs Vanilla
Short answer: Luminary is best for firms serving high-net-worth families that want estate document extraction, strategy modeling and ongoing wealth-transfer tracking; Vanilla is best for advisors who want to review clients' existing estate plans and model advanced strategies. Neither publishes prices, so get quotes from both. Book demos of both and test them on your real workflow.
Luminary and Vanilla both read a client's trust and estate documents with AI and turn them into diagrams, summaries and strategy projections. The clearest split: Vanilla includes estate document creation and offers human abstraction help from its in-house team, while Luminary doesn't draft documents and leans into data: cited extraction, a deterministic tax engine, Snowflake and Salesforce feeds, and MCP access from ChatGPT and Claude.
| Luminary | Vanilla | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | AI estate and wealth-transfer platform that turns trust and estate documents into cited summaries, diagrams and tax projections. | Estate planning platform for advisors with V/AI document summaries, estate visuals and strategy scenarios. |
| Best for | Firms serving high-net-worth families that want estate document extraction, strategy modeling and ongoing wealth-transfer tracking | Advisors who want to review clients' existing estate plans and model advanced strategies |
| Category | Tax return & document analysis | Tax return & document analysis |
| Free option | None listed | None listed |
| Starting price | Contact vendor | Contact vendor |
| Key capabilities |
|
|
| Skip it if | Most of your clients have simple wills and basic trusts. | Your clients rarely have complex estates and you just need basic wills and trusts. |
| Details | Luminary overview | Vanilla overview |
Key differences
From each vendor's own site, checked October 27, 2026.
| Luminary | Vanilla | |
|---|---|---|
| Tiers | Go, Pro, Enterprise | Advanced, Expert, Enterprise |
| Pricing model | Custom proposal; no prices published | Per user by license type; unlimited estate plans, no per-plan fee |
| Document creation | No; Luminary doesn't draft documents or give legal advice | Yes, included from Advanced |
| AI document review | Human-in-the-loop extraction and summaries with citations | V/AI extraction, plan summaries and copilot; AI-assisted abstractions on Expert |
| Human help | White-glove onboarding on Enterprise | In-house specialists for complex cases and optional Abstraction Services |
| Strategy modeling | SLAT, GRAT, CRT, CLT and gifting; deterministic federal, state and inheritance tax engine | Vanilla Scenarios, estate projections and planning opportunities |
| Integrations | eMoney, Orion, Addepar, Black Diamond, Salesforce, Snowflake; public API; MCP for ChatGPT and Claude | eMoney, Orion, Black Diamond, Addepar and others; API access |
| Typical client | HNW and UHNW, net worth from $5 million to $1 billion+ | Clients at all wealth levels (Advanced) up to central planning teams (Enterprise) |
| Training on client data | No, per Luminary | No, per Vanilla |
Choose Luminary if
- Your clients are mostly high-net-worth families with trusts and entities, and you work alongside their attorneys, CPAs and trustees.
- You want estate data to flow into Salesforce, Snowflake or an AI assistant through MCP.
- You care most about source citations and deterministic tax figures you can audit.
Choose Vanilla if
- You want to create basic estate documents for clients, not only review existing ones.
- You serve a wide range of client wealth levels and want one license that covers all of them.
- Your team wants human abstraction help and CE-eligible training as part of the subscription.
About Luminary
Luminary says its human-in-the-loop AI turns estate and ownership documents into structured, source-cited data, then builds balance sheets, entity and distribution diagrams, firm-branded estate presentations and what-if models for strategies such as SLATs, GRATs, CRTs, CLTs and family or charitable gifting. A deterministic tax engine calculates federal, state, inheritance and asset taxes. It is sold in Go, Pro and Enterprise tiers, integrates with eMoney, Orion, Addepar, Black Diamond, Salesforce and Snowflake, offers a public API and an MCP connection for ChatGPT and Claude, and lets attorneys, CPAs and trustees collaborate under role-based permissions. Luminary says it is SOC 2 Type II certified and that neither it nor its model providers train on client data. It raised a $22 million Series A led by Ten Coves Capital in September 2026 and says its platform supports more than $500 billion in client assets. It does not draft documents or give legal advice.
Check before choosing Luminary
- Ask which features are in Go vs. Pro before you buy
- Confirm how attorneys, CPAs and trustees are invited and what each can see
- Luminary doesn't draft documents; pair it with your estate attorney or a document-creation tool
About Vanilla
Vanilla says its V/AI assistant extracts data from estate documents, generates plan summaries and answers questions through an AI copilot, alongside estate diagrams, gap analysis, tax projections, document creation and scenario modeling for strategies like GRATs and SLATs. It also offers an in-house team of estate planning specialists for complex cases and document abstraction, integrates with eMoney, Orion, Black Diamond and Addepar (plus an API), and says client data is never used to train AI models. Vanilla says a more proactive version of V/AI that builds client profiles and flags changes across the whole book reaches general availability later in 2026.
Check before choosing Vanilla
- Ask which features are in Advanced vs. Expert before you buy
- Abstraction Services may cost extra; get it in the quote
- Plan for a multi-week implementation
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FAQ
Luminary vs Vanilla: which is better for financial advisors?
Luminary is best for firms serving high-net-worth families that want estate document extraction, strategy modeling and ongoing wealth-transfer tracking; Vanilla is best for advisors who want to review clients' existing estate plans and model advanced strategies. Neither publishes prices, so get quotes from both. Book demos of both and test them on your real workflow.
What is the difference between Luminary and Vanilla?
Luminary: AI estate and wealth-transfer platform that turns trust and estate documents into cited summaries, diagrams and tax projections. Vanilla: Estate planning platform for advisors with V/AI document summaries, estate visuals and strategy scenarios.
Is Luminary or Vanilla cheaper?
Neither publishes prices, so get quotes from both.
Do Luminary or Vanilla publish prices?
No. Vanilla prices per user by license type with unlimited estate plans; Luminary builds a custom proposal. Both quote through sales (checked October 27, 2026).
Can Luminary create a will or trust?
No. Luminary says it does not draft documents or provide legal services. Vanilla includes document creation in its Advanced plan.
Which integrates with my planning and reporting software?
Both list eMoney, Orion, Black Diamond and Addepar. Luminary also lists Salesforce, Snowflake, a public API and an MCP connection for ChatGPT and Claude; Vanilla offers API access for custom integrations.
How long does setup take?
Vanilla says most firms are running within 3 to 6 weeks. Luminary doesn't publish a timeline; ask during the demo.