Bringing estate planning into the digital age

What

Trust & Will is a San Diego-based online estate planning startup offering trusts, wills, and probate-court management solutions. Founded in 2017, the company has raised a total of $48M, including a $15M undisclosed venture round in 2023 from Amex Ventures, Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, SEI Ventures, and USAA.

Why

According to Cody Barbo, Trust & Will’s Founder and CEO, the estate-planning space lags in terms of innovation and accessibility. States have been slow to implement estate-planning solutions for the digital age; Trust & Will has been lobbying in seven states to update outdated rules so that platforms can offer electronic will execution. Nevada was the first state to do so in 2019, and Trust & Will was the first company to accommodate for that. 

In states without electronic will execution, Trust & Will offers online planning and physical execution of core legal documents. “What we do really matters,” Barbo said. “In my own personal network, I’ve had friends who’ve had kids—or, on the reverse, they’ve lost parents or loved ones—that have used our product and have had a good experience.” 

How

Part of Trust & Will’s product and growth strategy revolves around embedding itself within insurance platforms, and complementing their products and services. “The consumer-facing brand MassMutual has been one of our most successful partnerships for years,” Barbo noted. They co-market, print marketing materials to existing and prospective customers, run TV commercials, and more. Trust & Will also has a couple of life insurance partners, as well as membership partners such as AARP. 

“Every group has a different interpretation of what estate planning means to them,” Barbo said.  With that in mind, Trust & Will is also looking into healthcare as an angle when it comes to estate planning, since such documentation involves a healthcare directive, including power of attorney for medical decisions, as well as indications of whether a patient wishes to be resuscitated or not. “These are things that should automatically be ported into the EHR system,” Barbo suggested, naming EPIC as one such system. 

Barbo continues to receive all of Trust & Will’s Trustpilot reviews in his personal inbox to ensure ongoing product and support excellence. One-star reviews have often been informative, such as reviews from older customers who failed to click the “Print & Ship” button at the end of the document-drafting process. 

“We do a lot of product design testing, so it's as big of a button as you could possibly have,” Barbo said. “You paid for the service, you filled out all of this information: What would be the sad thing is that somebody doesn't actually execute your documents.”

While continuing to scale its trust and will products through partnerships and product improvements, Trust & Will has also recently launched its probate product. The new product line helps families navigate the post-death process for those who die without an estate plan, helping families go through probate. 

With 60% of the US population lacking an estate plan, Trust & Will looks to help US consumers confront a sensitive but crucial process. “That’s the mission we’re executing against,” Barbo concluded.