How one estate planning question became a repeatable client process

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“As an independent advisor with 500 to 600 clients, I’ve found Estate Guru is about the easiest way to gather assets of any procedure I’ve followed.”— Rich Osterhoudt, Independent Financial Advisor, Karlo Financial, LLC

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How one estate planning question became a repeatable client process

The estate planning problem: A referral ended Rich’s involvement

Rich could help clients recognize gaps in their estate planning, but acting on those conversations usually meant referring them to an attorney. That left him without a consistent way to stay involved or connect the legal work to the client’s broader financial needs.

The Estate Guru solution: A process that carries the conversation forward

Estate Guru gives Rich a guided intake he can work through with clients while an independent attorney reviews, personalizes, and signs the legal plan. Rich stays involved in the financial decisions surrounding it, turning workshop interest into a repeatable process and a fuller understanding of each client.

During his estate planning workshops, Richard Osterhoudt uses one question to expose the distance between wanting control and having a plan that can carry out those wishes. Many attendees have a will or trust created years ago and assume the work is finished. Rich helps them understand what their documents address, what decisions remain, and how the people and assets involved fit together. Estate Guru then gives him a structured way to carry that education into a completed plan.

“We have a slide that asks, ‘Do you want the government’s plan, or do you want your own plan?’ I tell people I’m taking a survey. So far, not one person has ever raised their hand for the government’s plan.”
— Richard Osterhoudt | Independent Advisor, KARLO Financial

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Turn family conversations into planning priorities 

Questions about who clients want to provide for help Rich connect financial recommendations to their family’s needs.

Surface the assets other conversations miss 

Working through our intake gives clients a reason to discuss their assets together, including accounts they may not have mentioned before.

Keep momentum without rushing the decision 

Our guided intake helps clients work through important questions at their own pace, with Rich’s support and a clear next step.

Extend the relationship beyond the plan 

Our platform helps Rich stay involved in the financial decisions surrounding an estate plan while an independent attorney leads the legal work.

About Richard Osterhoudt

Richard Osterhoudt is an independent advisor in Central Florida whose work spans retirement, wealth management, insurance, long-term care, and legacy planning. After spending part of his career at larger financial firms, Rich moved into independent practice, where estate planning workshops have become a regular part of how he meets and educates clients.

• 500 to 600 clients across investment and insurance relationships
• Approximately two estate planning workshops per month

A referral left too much unfinished

Before Estate Guru, Rich could discuss the importance of estate planning, but helping clients act on that conversation was harder. When someone needed legal documents, he referred them to an attorney.

The introduction did not consistently lead to an ongoing working relationship. Rich had limited visibility into what happened next or how he could help coordinate the financial work surrounding the plan.

“[Attorney] relationships generally aren’t all that reciprocal.”

Clients also faced obstacles, from concerns about cost to the assumption that older documents needed no further attention. Rich could help them understand why their planning deserved another look, but following through required a process that kept him involved and connected the client, advisor, and attorney with clear responsibilities for each.

Connecting workshop interest with Estate Guru

A marketing contact at Magellan Financial, an independent marketing organization serving financial advisors, recommended Estate Guru to Rich. Magellan also introduced him to a seminar approach other advisors in its network were using and supplied the presentation and event marketing.

Rich had a way to start the conversation. Our platform offered a way to continue it, though he initially wondered how complicated that work would be.

“It walks you through everything very easily and asks all the right questions.”

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How Estate Guru fits the way Rich works

Rich used our guided intake, educational materials, and suggested questions to develop a process suited to his clients. He created his own question template and usually works through the intake with clients over two appointments.

“I like talking to them about it. I think it builds trust, and it ends up bringing up questions.”

In the first meeting, Rich and the client work through the platform’s questions and gather the information available. They identify what remains unresolved, whether that means finding an account statement, confirming a family member’s address, or discussing who should take on an important responsibility.

The second appointment, generally about a week later, gives them time to complete those details. Rich says Estate Guru makes it easy to return to the information already entered, allowing the conversation to continue where they left off.

That flexibility lets him stay personally involved while giving clients room to think. Some complete the intake in one meeting; others benefit from the additional time.

Our platform also connects that preparation with the legal work. An independent, licensed attorney reviews, personalizes, and signs the estate plan, while Rich supports the information gathering and financial planning surrounding it.

The results so far

Rich’s workshop-to-intake system has translated directly into growth. Magellan's presentation and marketing brought people into the room, but it was Estate Guru's guided intake and attorney-led process that turned that interest into completed, funded plans — and it's that combination, working together since Rich began in February 2026, that gave him a fast start.

$8–10 Million Total assets Rich estimates his practice has gathered from all sources — investment, insurance, and estate-related — since starting the workshop-to-intake approach

25–30% Estimated increase in total practice revenue over the same period the previous year

Rich is the first to say these are ballpark numbers, not figures pulled from a spreadsheet — but they're the kind of ballpark that gets other advisors' attention.

"In our business, I've found this is pretty much the easiest way to gather assets of any procedure I've followed."

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Beyond the signed plan

A signed plan isn't where Rich's workshop question stops paying off. The same conversations that walk a client through their estate also surface the things a standard portfolio review never gets to — and that's turning into some of his best new business.

Family priorities, not just legal documents

Rich opens every intake with two questions:

"Why do you feel you need an estate plan? Who are you trying to provide this for?"

Those questions rarely stay on the surface. Clients talk about children, grandchildren, and what they want their money to accomplish, and couples sometimes discover their expectations don't match. Rich uses what surfaces there to shape the rest of his advice — recommending how a trust should be funded, who should be named where, and what protections actually matter to that family, instead of applying a generic plan.

Assets clients weren't planning to mention

Rich has had clients go months, even years, before disclosing an account he didn't know existed. Estate planning changes that. Clients think about their assets as a whole because the plan asks them to, not because Rich asked twice.

"They tell us about their children. They tell us about their grandchildren. There's a comfort level based on this topic for them to disclose everything."

Every account that surfaces this way is a candidate for funding into the trust, for a beneficiary update, or for a conversation about insurance or retirement income Rich wouldn't otherwise have had a reason to start. The estate plan becomes the occasion; the assets it uncovers become new business.

A reason to stay, not just a reason to start

Referring a client out to an attorney used to be the end of Rich's involvement. Now it's the start of a broader one — Rich stays in the room for the financial decisions connected to the plan while the attorney handles the legal work, which means the client has one advisor managing the whole picture instead of a legal relationship that has nothing to do with the financial one.

"The more services that you can provide to somebody, the less likely somebody is going to leave you and go somewhere else.”

The workshop question gets clients in the door. What keeps them is a process that turns one conversation into ongoing, connected work with Rich at the center of it — client after client, which is what makes it repeatable rather than a one-time pitch.

Give your estate planning conversations a clear next step

Our platform gives financial advisors like Rich the structure to guide client intake, coordinate with licensed attorneys, and connect estate planning with the financial guidance they already provide — backed by educational resources advisors can use to build a process that fits how they work, and an intake that picks up exactly where a client left off, no matter how many conversations it takes to get there.

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