Trust&Will: A Single Mom’s Review of Online Estate Planning

In my late 20s, (whenever it came up, and estate planning actually did come up a handful of times) people were horrified to discover I was a personal finance blogger without a will. That horror only grew in my 30s when I married an attorney and neither of us ended up putting together estate plans during our marriage. We always said we’d get around to it after our son was born, but one excuse or another always kept that action item on the “someday” list. The TL: DR of this article is that I found the online service Trust&Will which helped me create an estate plan very easily and completely online.

What is Trust&Will?

Trust&Will is an online company with a mission to help families of all wealth and income levels plan for the future. Like many others, I'm sure, I was of the belief I had to have a certain amount of assets to even bother with the cost of putting together a will and estate plan, but this isn't true.

Trust&Will has a very handy quiz to help you evaluate your current situation and recommend if you need a simple will or a more involved trust for your loved ones. As it turns out, after taking the quiz I was recommended a trust plan, which I purchased with ongoing legal support for a year for $599.

This price is NOMINAL compared to how much it would cost an attorney (hourly) to do these preparations for you, and with the ease and convenience of it being fully online, I was pumped to be able to knock this long-nagging to-do off the list in advance of my first trip out of the country since 2019.

My Trust&Will story

In May of this year (2023), I found myself traveling out of the country for the first time since the pandemic…and since my son was born. I was nervous in a way I’d never been before and I knew it had everything to do with the fact that I was now a mama.

“It wouldn't be a bad idea to have something put together, just in case,” My own mother said to me one day. With the divorce settled and long in my rearview mirror, I knew it was time to quit procrastinating and actually put together an estate plan. But where to start? Where to turn? I didn't really want to bug my divorce attorney about it, because, well, that's not what they do. And I already knew from my experience getting divorced how expensive good attorneys can be.

I've known about Trust & Will for a while because of other personal finance influencers. Poking around on their website, I liked the look of their materials and how easy it seems to be to get started with guided questions. (It reminded me a lot of how easy/seamless the TurboTax software is, to be honest.)

I had a deadline for my trip (Egypt, late May) so I didn't have a ton of time to evaluate other options. The fact that Trust & Will had so many positive reviews made the decision for me, honestly, and so I went with them.

Why Single Parents Especially Need a Will

Here are three (pretty important) reasons why a single parent would especially be in need of a will:

1. Guardianship: One crucial aspect of estate planning for single parents is determining who will take care of their children in the event of their passing. With Trust&Will, single parents can designate a guardian for their children, ensuring that their wishes are legally recognized and their children are taken care of by someone they trust.

2. Asset Distribution: Trust & Will allows single parents to specify how their assets should be distributed among their children. This is particularly important for single parents who want to ensure that their children receive their fair share and are financially secure in the future. Trust & Will's platform simplifies the process of dividing assets and ensures that the distribution is carried out according to the parent's wishes.

3. Healthcare Decisions: Trust & Will also enables single parents to establish healthcare directives, such as a living will or a healthcare power of attorney document. (Both of these were included in the package I purchased, so I did these too!) These documents allow parents to outline their preferences for medical treatment and appoint someone to make healthcare decisions on their behalf if they become incapacitated. This is especially important for single parents who want to ensure that their healthcare choices align with their values and that their children's well-being is protected.

How Does Trust&Will work?

As I mentioned, similar to the TurboTax software, Trust&Will works by guiding you through estate planning through a series of easy-to-understand questions, one per screen. It is very comprehensive and covers all facets of estate planning — ones I knew about and some that I didn't, including:

• Estate Planning Basics (Who you are and your dependents)
• Guardians (For married couples or single parents, you'll need to decide who you want to take care of your minor-age children in the event of your passing)
• Trustees (if you're creating a trust plan)
• List of Assets (Real estate, retirement accounts, cash assets, life insurance and business interests)
• Distributions (Who gets what)
• Your wishes for funeral arrangements
• Your healthcare directives (in the event of an accident or something happens where you can't make medical decisions for yourself)

You fill out all of this information about yourself (It took me a few hours, spread over a couple of days) and then the software generates the following documents for you to review.

What happens after using Trust&Will

Once you're good with everything, Trust&Will ships you a hard copy of your documents to execute in front of a notary public. This is what makes these documents stand up in a court of law. I did have to pay the costs of having a notary come to my house (~$225 in metro Atlanta) and sign everything (and my gracious neighbors agreed to be witnesses!) and it took about half an hour.

Then, you take the signed copy put it in a safe place, and let the executor of your estate (who will handle putting your wishes into action) know where this copy lives.

Just remember, anyone named in the will (even if they're just receiving a piece of art or something) cannot be a witness.

Additional Attorney Support

Because of the circumstances of my life — me being a co-parent/single parent, having multiple businesses, and recently divorced — I opted to pay the extra money for attorney support. Because of this, I get to schedule a call with a real attorney at my convenience. In full transparency, I've only used this service once so far to answer a few initial questions. But I like knowing I can schedule a call again when it comes time for me to fund my trust, too.

They also send you a hard copy of the trust funding guide. It's all very neatly laid out for you, which makes something as overwhelming as estate planning and end-of-life decisions more manageable.

Trust&Will Pricing

Trust & Will offers different plans to cater to various needs. Their pricing starts at $39 per year for a membership, which means you have access to your individual portal and can update your documents etc. With a basic will plan, it includes your first year of membership unlimited updates, and access to customer support. They also offer more comprehensive plans, such as the Trust plan, which starts at $399 per year and includes additional features like a revocable living trust and a power of attorney.

But after you pay the $159-$599 for your first year and the documents, it is $39 per year thereafter to keep using the Trust & Will portal. Up to you, but something to think about. I love the service, but I don't know if I'll keep paying for the membership. I haven't really had a chance to think about all of that yet.

My Review of Using the Service

No one likes thinking about death, or what will happen to the ones they love after they're gone. It is no picnic at any point, but feels especially gut-wrenching when you have young children. Those feelings alone make writing up a will or an estate plan difficult to tackle.

But sometimes it can be hard to get our financial lives in order because we just don't know how it works. Like, we know we should be doing it, but we don't know the how or why or the mechanics behind these things we want to set in motion. It's a lot like investing or taxes. I know they need to be done, but I'm not always sure of the levers to pull to accomplish my goals.

While having a lawyer to hold your hand and explain everything would probably feel better from an educational standpoint, you really can't beat Trust&Will for the time, convenience, and money.

And if the worst were to happen, you don't want to get caught with your pants down, which is why you need something legally binding. Trust&Will takes care of all of that — the questions, the next steps, and makes it easy to update in the event your family and needs change over time.

Besides the time crunch, the ability to easily make changes is why I ultimately decided to go with an online provider like Trust&Will – at the price point, I wanted a living document (no pun intended) that I could easily change as my assets and family grow.

There's also a peace-of-mind component too. I'm covered in case the unthinkable happens, and it's easy for my loved ones to navigate in my absence, as well. And I can finally get this off my plate until it comes time to update it in the future (in the event of a marriage, another dependent, or the addition of substantial assets). While grabbing it all together in the sprint up to my trip to Egypt made things a bit more stressful, I was able to rest easy and enjoy my first trip.

Click here to explore estate planning options with Trust & Will.