PE HUB Wire Highlights, 11.7.19

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Cody Barbo, founder and CEO of Trust & Will, did the impossible. He made estate planning interesting. “Fifty percent of Gen Xers don’t have an estate plan,” he said. “One-half of the population dies without a will or intestate,” he said.

Barbo, who launched Trust & Will in October 2017, rattled off these figures like a machine gun during a break at Money20/20 last week. Ninety percent of children born in the U.S. are born to millennial parents, but a large majority, or 80 percent, of these adults don’t have estate plans, he said.

This didn’t surprise me. Estate planning is usually up there with going to the dentist for most people. Trust & Will is looking to change that; the company has lined up partnerships with MassMutual and Policygenius. Its website appears fairly easy and not scary.

Barbo wants Trust & Will to become the “TurboTax” of estate planning. “Adulting is hard,” said Barbo, who is married, has a puppy and a baby on the way. “If I can look back and say that I helped families set up their estate planning online…that’s a great legacy.”

Hubsters, I don’t have much but I do have pets and some assets. I decided to give T&W a try. The company has three products: guardian, which targets people with kids; will-based estate planning; and, trust-based estate planning.

For $69, setting up a will was relatively painless and only delayed my going to the gym by half an hour. The only downside? The will, which is to be mailed to me, must be notarized. This means I have to find one. I was told by a T&W customer service rep that many banks and most UPS stores have notaries on staff. “We do not provide [notaries]. We’re in San Diego. You need to sign your documents in person in front of a notary,” the rep said.

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