Today, I’m pleased to share that Jackson Square Ventures led Trust & Will’s $15 million Series B. For the unfamiliar, Trust & Will is the easiest way to securely create and maintain estate plans online. We are beyond excited to work with the world class Trust & Will team as they modernize a core tenant of family life.
About a year after my son was born, a friend asked me who I used for estate planning. At first I was struck by the fact that estate planning is something people use word-of-mouth recommendations for. Then I realized something even more striking: I hadn’t even thought to create an estate in the first place. I couldn’t believe that neither my wife nor I had thought to implement an estate plan—especially with a growing family.
A few months later, after a lot of phone calls, a few notarized signatures, and thousands of dollars spent, I had—what I would consider—a relatively straightforward estate plan. The whole process was so horribly inefficient I felt like I was living in the dark ages. I was frustrated for not thinking about estate planning sooner, and to make matters worse, I had no clue how to manage and maintain the plan that was created for me.
It turns out I wasn’t alone. Despite being the single most impactful thing you can do to protect your loved ones from the unexpected, estate planning has become little more than an afterthought for most families. More than half of the U.S. population does not have an estate plan. I couldn’t help but think there had to be a better way to manage such an important process.
Then I connected with Cody Barbo, Trust & Will’s founder and CEO. From the moment I met him, I knew he was the rare type of founder that investors like myself dream to meet. After diving deep on the product, my excitement only increased from there. Trust & Will is a modern solution that makes it easy to securely create and manage an estate plan online, eliminating barriers and obstacles that have left countless families, like mine, unprepared for decades. There’s no shortage of startups these days, so finding a platform that resonated with me was so intensely refreshing.
I think we can all agree 2020 has been a good reminder of how little we’re actually able to predict. Now, preparing your family for the unexpected has never been easier. We’re proud to support Cody and team on their mission to help every family in America protect their legacy. If you’re as excited by their mission as we are, I encourage you to check out their open roles.
