For most of his career, David Haughton has worked on the same problem from every side of the table: clients need estate planning, and advisors have rarely had a consistent, scalable way to help them get it done.
He practiced law. He led advanced planning at Commonwealth Financial Network. He served as Senior Corporate Counsel at Wealth.com, one of the industry’s leading digital estate planning platforms. He built out estate planning services as Vice President of Estate Planning at Carson Group. Along the way he became one of the most widely read voices on the subject for financial advisors, writing regularly for Kitces.com and WealthManagement.com on how advisors and attorneys should work together, how to motivate clients who keep putting it off, and how to do all of this without crossing into the unauthorized practice of law.
Few people have seen the problem from as many angles: as the attorney drafting the documents, as the planner supporting advisors inside a broker-dealer, inside the technology built to make estate planning faster, and inside a large RIA responsible for delivering it to thousands of advisors and their clients.
At Carson, part of his job was evaluating the services and technologies available to advisors. That is how he found Hargrove, and ultimately how he brought Hargrove’s attorney-led estate planning to Carson advisors.
Today he joins Hargrove. Read the full announcement here.
Why this role, and why now
Wealth management is absorbing estate planning into the core of comprehensive advice. Advisory firms are growing across state lines faster than their local attorney relationships can follow. Software has made parts of the process easier, and David has written about where digital platforms fit alongside advisors and attorneys. But the gap that shows up in every partner conversation we have is the same one: the advisor knows the client needs a plan, and there is no dependable path to getting it drafted, funded, and done, with an attorney accountable for the result.
Hargrove exists to close that gap with an actual law firm, licensed in all 50 states, delivered in partnership with wealth management firms. What we have learned from the firms we serve is that the model works, and that the remaining challenge is a human one. Advisors need to know when to reach for it, how to prepare their clients, and what the process looks like from their seat.
That is David’s mandate. He will work directly with our partner firms to help advisors build estate planning into how they practice, and he will serve as an advisor-facing voice on estate planning trends, education, and practice management for the industry at large.
“In evaluating the different services and technologies available to advisors, I had the opportunity to work directly with Hargrove and realized this was the model I had been looking for,” David said. “What excites me about this role is the opportunity to help advisors across the industry make estate planning a meaningful part of the advice they provide.”
David will be based in Boston, anchoring our expanded presence in the Northeast.
What to expect
If your firm partners with Hargrove, David is available to speak with your advisors: team meetings, master classes, lunch-and-learns, and conference sessions. Email Mo Zoubi, who leads our Advisor Success team, at mzoubi@hargrovemso.com to schedule.
If you don’t yet work with us, keep an eye on this space. David has spent years explaining to advisors how estate planning fits into a wealth management practice. He’s going to keep doing that here, with the added advantage of a law firm behind him that can actually do the work.
Welcome, David.
Hargrove Firm (Hargrove Online, PLLC) is an independently owned national estate planning law firm providing attorney-led, malpractice-backed estate planning in all 50 states. Hargrove Management Services Organization, Inc. is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.