Travis McClarney Case Study

McClarney Financial Group: Who We Are & What We Do

McClarney Financial Group of Prudential, is a four-person financial planning team based in Evansville, Indiana, serving clients across the Tri-State area. Travis McClarney founded the firm in 2015 after more than a decade in the financial services industry with a clear mission: to provide clients with clarity and peace of mind about their finances.

That mission has earned Travis significant recognition. He is a Forbes 2026 Best-in-State Financial Security Professional, a Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) Top of the Table qualifier, and a member of NAIFA. But the accolades are secondary to the relationships. As a father of four and a lifelong Evansville resident, Travis understands personally what it means to protect a family's financial future. This is exactly what shapes how he shows up for every client.

Travis and his team take a full-service, fiduciary approach to every client relationship—covering everything from asset management, income planning, and annuities, to life insurance, estate planning, and fractional CFO services for local business owners.

That last offering speaks to something important about who the McClarney team is: they don't just manage money. They show up as a true financial partner.

"I have clients that call us wanting us to do their taxes. I have clients calling us asking if we have a TV guy," Travis says. "Clients reach out to us for everything."

The firm serves two distinct but equally important client segments. The first is young adults between 25 and 35—early-career professionals and young families who are just beginning to think about retirement and need a foundation of financial and legal documents to build on. The second is pre-retirees between 55 and 65 who are on the doorstep of a major life transition and, more often than not, have never updated—or never created—a will or estate plan.

Estate planning isn't an afterthought for McClarney Financial Group. It's woven into the fabric of every financial plan they build.

Before Trust & Will: A Referral System That Wasn't Working

Prior to partnering with Trust & Will, Travis handled estate planning the way most advisors do: he kept a short list of trusted local attorneys and referred clients their way.

The problem wasn't the attorneys. The problem was follow-through.

"The majority of them never actually went," Travis recalls. "Because of the cost."

In the Tri-State area, a comprehensive estate plan through a local attorney runs roughly $1,500 per person or $3,000 for a couple. For many of Travis's clients, that price tag was enough to keep pushing it off indefinitely. And so the cycle continued: Travis would raise the topic, clients would nod along, and then…nothing.

His team did their best to compensate with accountability check-ins and handholding, but it was an uphill battle. Estate planning kept slipping through the cracks because the barrier to entry was just too high.

Travis reached a tipping point. He was seriously considering hiring an in-house attorney to solve the problem himself.

"I was actually on the brink of hiring an attorney for our firm," he says. "And that's why Trust & Will fit."

Enter Trust & Will: Estate Planning Built Into the Plan

With Trust & Will, McClarney Financial Group brought estate planning entirely in-house and made it a seamless part of the financial planning experience rather than something clients had to go find on their own.

Today, estate planning is included as a core component of every financial plan the firm delivers. For existing clients who want to complete their estate documents outside of a full financial plan engagement, Travis offers the service for a flat fee of $500—a fraction of what a local attorney would charge.

The process is hands-on by design. Clients come into the office, and the team walks them through their documents together. Travis's office manager—who became a notary specifically to support this workflow—is on hand to notarize documents on the spot.

"By being in control of the situation, we have a meeting and we say, 'Okay, we're going to work on the legal paperwork together now,'" Travis explains. "This is just one extra component that's a value add to our clients."

The integration also gave Travis a compelling way to reframe the financial planning conversation. His introductory financial plan is priced at $3,000—the same amount a couple would spend on estate documents alone through a local attorney. By bundling comprehensive estate planning into that plan, the value proposition becomes immediate and tangible.

The Impact: $150K–$175K in GDC And More

The business results have been significant. Travis estimates that Trust & Will has indirectly generated between $150,000 and $175,000 in GDC for the firm in a single year—driven by the way estate planning helps anchor deeper, more comprehensive client relationships that lead to additional recommendations and services.

But the number that matters most to Travis isn't always the one on a spreadsheet.

He recalls a client who came to him without the time or financial means to navigate the traditional estate planning process. It was a source of quiet anxiety—a worry that he wouldn't be able to provide his family with a clear plan if something happened to him.

"He was in tears when he signed everything," Travis says. "He told me, 'I never thought I would be able to provide this for my family.' Just having the clarity, having it done, knowing his family wouldn't have to worry about it—it was huge for him."

"It made a difference to him and his family," Travis says simply.

That story captures what estate planning, done right, can do: it doesn't just complete a legal checklist. It gives people peace of mind. And advisors who make that possible—without the friction, the cost, and the delay of the traditional referral model—become something more than financial planners. They become trusted partners.

Your Clients Trust You With Their Future. Help Them Protect It.

Estate planning is one of the most overlooked parts of a complete financial plan. Trust & Will makes it simple for financial advisors to offer clients a clear path forward at every life stage.

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