Trust and Will Review

Planning for the death of a loved one is always challenging—emotionally, mentally, and often financially. Trust and Will (aka “Trust & Will”) is a web-based company that helps ease estate planning’s financial and legal challenges.

Advertised as a much cheaper option than traditional lawyers, Trust and Will makes estate planning more affordable than ever before. But how do they work? Is it safe? And, most importantly, should you use them? Find out the answer to all of these questions and more in our Trust and Will review.

What Is Trust And Will?

Trust and Will is an online service that lets you make official legal documents governing your estate for as little as $39. Whether you’re looking to designate a legal guardian, create a will, or establish a trust fund, Trust and Will can help you quickly and cheaply create the necessary legal documents.

Trust and Will also prides itself on making the document-creation process as painless as possible. For example, the average amount of time needed to create a will is only 10 minutes!

It’s also important to note that since laws differ state to state, you’ll need documents valid in your state. Luckily, Trust and Will also automatically takes care of this, using your location to create an estate plan that fits within your state’s laws.

How Does Trust And Will Work?

Trust & Will uses online questionnaires to gather relevant information about your current situation. These questions include whether you have kids under the age of 18, own a home or business, or want to donate gifts upon your death.

After indicating which of these options apply to you, Trust and Will directs you towards a product that’s best suited for your needs.

For example, if you say you have more than $160,000 to your name, Trust and Will sends you to their wills section. This is because most people with that amount of money need to have a plan for what to do with it after they’re gone. 

While the specific product may change depending on your answers, the short questionnaire is still a useful tool for finding a product if you’re unsure what to look for. It’s the same process used by sites like Policygenius to help you shop for insurance.

Once you’ve chosen a product, Trust and Will asks you the necessary questions to create a valid legal document. Let’s talk more about that process for anyone interested in creating a will.

How To Get Started On Trust And Will

Making A Will – Basic Info

Trust and Will suggested I look into creating a will, based on my initial information about my living situation. After signing up for an account with my email address and password, I started the process of creating a will.

First, I had to give some basic information. This included my name, state (to provide customized documents), date of birth, marital status, and children.

After filling out the basic information, Trust and Will asked me to indicate whether I had pets and if I wanted to nominate guardians for any of them. Saying no brought me to the main part of the will⁠—distributing my assets.

Making A Will – Determining Beneficiaries

This section was where I got to decide who would receive my assets upon my death and how much each person would get. To fill out this section, simply input the names of each beneficiary and the percentage of your assets you’d like them to receive.

Next, Trust and Will asks if you’d like to decide on a backup beneficially in case all of your other beneficiaries cannot be contacted. This can be a good idea to fill out since there are certain minimum withdrawal laws that apply to money left in Rollover IRAs.

With a backup beneficiary in place, you have an extra layer of protection against losing some of your money to the IRS.

The remainder of this section lets you create all sorts of specifications. This includes anyone you want to exclude from receiving property, deciding Executors (people who help make sure your will’s wishes occur according to plan), charitable donations, and a few other things.

One nice feature of Trust and Will is their “I have a question” button at the end of each section. If you have a question about anything at any point in the process, click that button to get sent to their customer service team.

Alternatively, you can click the question mark in the top right corner to see FAQs related to your current question. For an earlier question about where I live, common questions were “What if I moved recently?” and “What if I spend time in more than one state?”

Both of these features are incredibly useful to help guide you through the process of creating a will.

Handling Your Will’s Arrangements

After filling out the long list of questions about your assets and how to split them up, you reach the very end of Trust and Will’s questionnaire—arrangements. 

The options for this section are quite flexible, ranging from cremation to scientific donation to leaving it up to your executor.

Trust and Will also lets you dictate whether you want a funeral service, mausoleum burial, etc.

Finally, there’s a section for special requests. Trust and Will lists a few possible options for things to include here. Songs played, people invited or not invited, or extremely unique requests for dividing up your assets all qualify as special requests.

After that, you’re done! Congratulations, you just created a will with one-quarter the cost in about one-tenth the time it would’ve taken a traditional attorney. 

What Makes Trust And Will Unique?

Trust and Will’s unique selling point is that they provide more efficient services for lower prices thanks to their online status.

Because Trust and Will is a website rather than an in-person law firm, they don’t need to pay for things like renting a building to operate. This helps cut down on costs, which gets passed on to you as a customer.

Although tools like Policygenius and Earnin have been using automation to cut down on costs for a long time, Trust and Will is unique by merging legal documentation with easy to use questionnaires.

Pros & Cons Of Trust & Will

Trust & Will Pros

• Low-cost, state-specific legal documentation
• Easy to use questionnaires
• Useful customer support chat
• Only takes a few minutes to fill out a form
• One year of updates to documents completely free of charge

Trust & Will Cons

• Customer service is exclusively online
• Doesn’t offer enough flexibility to fit overly complex situations
• Lack of attorney-client privilege, meaning your information isn’t as securely confidential as it would be with a proper law firm

How Much Does Trust And Will Cost?

Trust and Will’s costs depend on which product you’re buying. But, note that all of these costs are below what you’d pay using a traditional attorney.

To purchase will documentation, it costs $89. If you want to add a spouse, it’ll cost an additional $70 ($159 total).

To purchase a trust, it costs $399. If you want to add a spouse, it’ll cost an additional $100 ($499 total).

To purchase legal designation of guardianship, it costs $39. If you want to add a spouse, it’ll cost an additional $30 ($69 total).

The one other cost to note is Trust and Will’s update fees. After your first free year of updating legal documents, you’ll have to pay $12/year if you want to continue getting unlimited updates.

Is Trust & Will Safe?

Trust & Will’s legal team is in charge of creating all legal documents. They’re all trained experts in estate planning. So, you can rest easy knowing that your trust, will, or transfer of guardianship will be taken care of by an experienced attorney.

With this in mind, it’s no surprise that Trust and Will has the highest possible rating, A+, from the Better Business Bureau (BBB). BBB is one of the biggest names when it comes to rating companies’ trustworthiness.

Now that we’ve talked about Trust and Will’s legalities, let’s talk about their financial safety. This is another way in which Trust and Will truly shines. 

For anyone skeptical about the quality of their services, you can take advantage of their 30-day money-back guarantee. So long as your request is within 30 days of your original purchase, you can get a full refund.

The one thing to note is that lack of attorney-client privilege when using Trust and Will. Since they’re not technically a law firm, you won’t be able to get the same protection level for your information.

How Is Trust And Will’s Customer Service?

Trust and Will’s customer service is, for the most part, excellent. Their online chat feature is responsive and provides useful information. 

Also, Trust and Will’s support staff can help walk you through any problem you might encounter if the FAQ section can’t help.

However, that’s not to say Trust and Will’s customer service is without any flaws.

What I Wish Was Different About Their Service

Honestly, I only have a few very minor complaints about Trust and Will. And, Trust and Will could fix all of them with a customer support phone number.

Being able to speak on the phone with a live person might allow users to create documents that fit a more complex situation. The little things that are often part of these circumstances can be tough to explain and work around over text.

But, if Trust and Will had a dedicated customer support system via phone, these issues might be resolved.

How Does Trust & Will Fare Against Competitors?

Compared to in-person estate planners, Trust and Will has a number of advantages. In addition to the lower costs and quicker turnaround time, Trust and Will’s forms can be filled out from the comfort of your home.

But, this luxury does not come without drawbacks. Since everything is online and mostly automated, Trust and Will doesn’t hold up quite as well for those who have complicated assets to divvy up.

This isn’t necessarily a criticism of Trust and Will, though. Tools like SmartAsset are built around trying to address the same issue of convenience vs flexibility. However, it’s still worth mentioning.

Should You Use Trust And Will?

If you have a particularly complex financial situation, such as owning your own business and having lots of rental property, or your family life is legally complicated (multiple marriages with children, etc.), you may need the extra flexibility afforded by an in-person estate planner.

Unless you happen to fall into either of those two categories, however, chances are Trust and Will will be a great fit for your needs. If you’re in need of their services, Trust and Will is one of the best places to get affordable legal documents for wills, trusts, and guardianship.