Trust & Will, the San Diego-based digital estate planning provider, has launched a Nevada-chartered retail trust company, marking an expansion into regulated fiduciary services and positioning the business to compete in a segment of wealth management historically dominated by banks, institutional trustees, and specialized private trust companies.

The announcement, made on October 14, 2026, introduces Trust & Will Trust Company as a professional corporate fiduciary capable of administering trusts, managing estate settlement responsibilities, coordinating distributions, and maintaining financial records on behalf of beneficiaries. The development was examined in an October 16 report by Wealth Management, which highlighted the company’s strategy of using digital infrastructure to broaden access to services traditionally concentrated among wealthy households.

Trust & Will describes the launch as the first instance of a major digital estate planning platform establishing a regulated corporate fiduciary capability of this kind. The company says the initiative connects two stages of estate planning that have often been handled by separate providers: preparing legal documents while a client is alive and executing the instructions contained in those documents when administration becomes necessary.

The new trust company operates as a separately chartered, wholly owned subsidiary of Huge Legal Technology Company Inc., the parent organization behind the Trust & Will consumer estate planning platform and EstateOS. According to its website, Trust & Will Trust Company LLC is licensed by the Nevada Financial Institutions Division under license TR100669. The subsidiary operates as a distinct legal entity with its own fiduciary responsibilities.

The expansion is notable because digital estate planning businesses have traditionally focused on lowering the cost and complexity of creating wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives. Trust administration presents a different operational challenge. It requires ongoing decisions, financial accountability, beneficiary communication, compliance procedures, and the management of potentially complicated family relationships.

By entering this regulated segment, Trust & Will is attempting to extend its relationship with customers beyond the initial purchase of estate planning documents and into services that may continue for years or across generations.

The company has helped more than one million families begin estate planning, according to its announcement. That existing customer base provides a potential distribution channel for the fiduciary subsidiary, although clients are not required to use Trust & Will Trust Company simply because their estate documents were created on the affiliated platform.

Cody Barbo, co-founder and chief executive of Trust & Will, described the expansion as a progression from helping families establish estate plans to carrying out those plans through professional administration. The central commercial proposition is that households with relatively ordinary combinations of property, retirement savings, insurance policies, and financial accounts may require sophisticated fiduciary support despite having estates considerably smaller than those traditionally served by private banking institutions.

One of the most consequential elements of the launch is its absence of minimum account size requirements. In an interview published by Wealth Management on October 16, Barbo explained that established trust companies have often concentrated their services on clients with substantial wealth, in some cases requiring assets totaling tens of millions of dollars. Trust & Will is instead targeting families below those traditional thresholds, including households with estates valued at less than $10 million.

That positioning could widen the addressable market for professional trust administration, particularly among homeowners, retirees, and families whose assets may be substantial enough to create complex settlement obligations but insufficient to qualify for conventional institutional trustee relationships.

The company has structured its fiduciary offering around several appointment arrangements intended to accommodate different family circumstances and existing professional relationships.

• Sole trustee: Trust & Will Trust Company assumes primary responsibility for administering a trust according to its governing documents and applicable fiduciary obligations.
• Co-trustee: The company shares responsibilities with a designated family member or another trustee, allowing relatives to remain involved while receiving professional administrative support.
• Successor trustee: The company can be appointed to assume responsibility when the original trustee becomes unable or unwilling to continue serving.
• Directed trustee: Trust & Will Trust Company handles specified administrative responsibilities while an existing financial advisor or designated investment professional continues managing investment decisions.

The directed trustee arrangement is particularly important for the wealth management industry. It creates a structure in which a financial advisor may preserve the investment relationship while outsourcing administrative functions that would otherwise require specialized staffing, recordkeeping systems, fiduciary procedures, and ongoing legal coordination.

Under the model described by Trust & Will, investment advisors can continue overseeing client portfolios and maintaining assets under management, while the trust company handles responsibilities such as accounting, beneficiary reporting, distributions, trust-related tax administration, and coordination with legal and accounting professionals. The precise division of authority depends on the governing trust documents and applicable law.

For registered investment advisors and other independent wealth managers, this separation may provide a way to offer clients access to professional trustees without transferring portfolio management responsibilities to the trust departments of competing financial institutions. It also creates a potential referral relationship between estate planning technology providers and advisory firms serving households with increasingly complicated succession requirements.

The initial commercial rollout, however, will be concentrated largely on direct consumer relationships rather than aggressive competition for existing institutional trustee accounts. Barbo told Wealth Management that the firm does not intend to target advisors already working with established private trust companies or operating their own private trust structures. That approach suggests a strategy focused on expanding the market rather than immediately displacing incumbent providers.

Trust & Will’s financial disclosures illustrate the potential scale of its existing estate planning relationships. The company reported that more than 6,100 trusts have designated Trust & Will as trustee, representing approximately $6.5 billion in estate assets distributed across more than 60,000 individual assets. The company estimated an average net estate value of approximately $988,000 among the designated trusts.

Importantly, the $6.5 billion figure should not be interpreted as assets already placed under active management or administration by the newly launched subsidiary. The figures represent trusts in which the company has been designated for a fiduciary role, including arrangements that may not become effective until a future event. The timing and eventual value of assets entering active administration will depend on individual trust provisions and circumstances.

The company also reported that nearly 40% of customers purchasing estate plans directly through Trust & Will now select a trust rather than a will, compared with approximately 36% one year earlier. Since the trustee designation option became available, more than 11% of its trust purchasers have selected Trust & Will for that responsibility.

These figures suggest that the platform has already developed customer demand for professional fiduciary services, although actual revenue generation will depend on future appointments, the complexity of administration, fee arrangements, and the proportion of designated trusts that eventually require active service.

Broader consumer research provides additional context for the initiative. Trust & Will’s 2026 Estate Planning Report, based on a survey of 5,000 American adults conducted between January 28 and February 5, found that 56% of respondents had no estate planning documents. The same study reported that ownership of wills declined from 31% in 2025 to 26% in 2026, while trust ownership increased from 11% to 14%.

The research also found that 73% of respondents considered estate planning personally important. Nevertheless, many continued to postpone the process because of perceived financial barriers, uncertainty about how to begin, or the belief that their assets were not substantial enough to justify formal planning.

Although the company’s survey data reflects self-reported responses and should not be treated as a definitive measurement of all U.S. households, it highlights a potential commercial opportunity for providers that combine accessible document preparation with professional execution and administration.

Trust ownership does not eliminate the need for careful ongoing management. When an individual dies or becomes incapacitated, the designated trustee may need to identify and value assets, verify ownership records, obtain required financial information, settle obligations, prepare accounting reports, coordinate tax filings, and distribute property according to the trust’s instructions.

These responsibilities can become especially complicated when beneficiaries disagree over distributions, trust assets include real estate or closely held businesses, or financial accounts are maintained across multiple institutions. Individual family trustees may have limited experience handling such matters and may also face conflicts between personal relationships and fiduciary obligations.

The new trust company is designed to provide an institutional alternative while maintaining a consumer-focused service structure. Its website describes the ability to support both trust settlement and ongoing administration, including cases where a family requires only a temporary fiduciary engagement rather than a multigenerational relationship.

Technology is expected to be a central operating component. Trust & Will plans to combine automated workflows and digital systems with human fiduciary supervision, allowing administrative activities to be coordinated more efficiently while preserving accountable decision-making. The company is also considering additional beneficiary-facing technology that would provide clearer information about the progress of estate administration.

Barbo told Wealth Management that the company wants beneficiaries to have a straightforward way to monitor administrative milestones and understand how a trust is progressing toward settlement. Such a capability could address a common source of frustration in estate administration: the limited visibility beneficiaries may have into document collection, asset transfers, tax requirements, and final distribution timing.

However, digital infrastructure does not eliminate the underlying legal and fiduciary responsibilities. Trustees remain accountable for following trust terms, handling conflicts appropriately, protecting beneficiaries’ interests, maintaining accurate records, and meeting applicable regulatory requirements. The effectiveness of the new operating model will depend on how consistently those duties are performed as the customer base expands.

The selection of Nevada provides a significant regulatory and legal component to the company’s strategy. Nevada has an established statutory framework governing retail trust companies under Chapter 669 of the Nevada Revised Statutes, including licensing provisions, regulatory supervision, and requirements relevant to fiduciary operations.

The state is also recognized for trust planning provisions that can be attractive to families seeking long-term estate structures. These include the absence of a state individual income tax, provisions supporting long-duration trusts, and legal arrangements that may offer flexibility in the administration of certain trust structures.

Trust & Will has highlighted Nevada’s allowance for dynasty trusts lasting up to 365 years, along with provisions supporting trust privacy. These characteristics may be relevant to families considering long-term wealth transfers, although their benefits depend on each trust’s legal structure, tax circumstances, governing provisions, and the residency of relevant parties.

A Nevada charter should not be understood as eliminating federal tax obligations or guaranteeing favorable tax treatment for every trust. Trust taxation can depend on factors including the type of trust, the residence of trustees and beneficiaries, the location of assets, and the application of federal and other state tax rules.

The company also distinguishes its fiduciary responsibilities from direct asset custody. According to the trust company’s website, trust assets are held by an independent, unaffiliated qualified custodian rather than being taken into direct possession by Trust & Will Trust Company. This arrangement separates fiduciary administration from custody, although the operational responsibilities and risks remain subject to the underlying agreements and governing documents.

Pricing will be an important factor in determining whether the new model can materially expand access to professional trustee services. Wealth Management reported that the company’s fees will depend on the value of the account and the types of assets held in trust. Specific fee schedules were not detailed in the report.

The absence of minimum account requirements may reduce one traditional barrier, but it does not establish that administration will be economical for every household. Trusts containing illiquid assets, complicated beneficiary arrangements, or substantial tax and legal requirements may involve significantly more work than trusts holding conventional financial accounts.

For consumers evaluating the service, total costs, administrative responsibilities, investment-related expenses, termination provisions, and the trustee’s discretionary authority will remain important considerations. The suitability of a professional trustee will also depend on whether the proposed arrangement provides a practical improvement over naming a qualified individual trustee.

For the wider wealth management industry, the launch illustrates how financial technology companies are beginning to move beyond software distribution and into regulated execution services. Digital estate planning platforms have demonstrated that standardized technology can reduce friction in preparing documents. The next commercial question is whether similar efficiencies can be achieved in fiduciary administration, where legal accountability and individualized judgment are central to the service.

That transition creates opportunities for recurring administration revenue and longer customer relationships, but it also introduces obligations that differ from those associated with distributing digital estate planning products. A regulated trust company must develop the personnel, governance structures, compliance procedures, financial controls, and operational continuity necessary to perform fiduciary responsibilities over extended periods.

Potential operational challenges include safeguarding sensitive financial information, accurately documenting beneficiary communications, managing discretionary decisions, coordinating third-party service providers, and preventing errors in asset transfers or tax administration. Difficult cases may require intensive human involvement, limiting the extent to which technology alone can reduce costs.

Established trust institutions retain advantages in experience, brand recognition, specialized staffing, and the management of complex or high-value estates. Trust & Will’s competitive opportunity appears more concentrated in households whose administrative requirements are substantial but do not justify the customized services and minimum balances associated with traditional private wealth institutions.

The company’s strategy could also influence the relationship between estate planning platforms and financial advisors. If technology-enabled corporate trustees can handle administrative work without requiring control of the underlying investment relationship, advisory firms may gain additional flexibility in selecting fiduciary partners.

Such partnerships could become more significant as wealth transfers accelerate and families seek coordinated advice involving retirement accounts, property ownership, charitable intentions, insurance proceeds, and intergenerational planning. In that environment, the ability to integrate estate documents, investment management, fiduciary administration, and beneficiary communications may become an increasingly important differentiator.

Trust & Will has indicated that its longer-term ambitions could extend beyond providing trustee services directly to consumers. In the October 16 Wealth Management interview, Barbo discussed the possibility of eventually offering the company’s technology capabilities to established trust institutions seeking more efficient ways to serve smaller accounts.

That potential business-to-business opportunity remains prospective rather than an announced commercial product. Nevertheless, it points to a possible second dimension of the company’s strategy: using its direct fiduciary operations to develop and demonstrate technology that larger financial institutions could later adopt.

For the moment, the central development is the company’s move from providing estate planning infrastructure to assuming legal responsibility for administering trusts. Its Nevada-chartered subsidiary is open for business, with a service offering intended to bring professional administration to households that may previously have had few practical corporate trustee options.

The longer-term implications will depend on how effectively Trust & Will converts trustee designations into active relationships, establishes sustainable pricing, manages complex estates, and maintains fiduciary standards as operations scale. For financial advisors and families, the launch introduces another option in a market where the practical administration of wealth transfers has often received less attention than the creation of the estate plans themselves.

Trust & Will’s expansion ultimately reflects a broader proposition within private wealth management: accessible estate planning requires more than affordable legal documents. It also requires reliable institutions capable of carrying out those documents when families need them most. Whether the company’s technology-led fiduciary model can deliver that combination at scale will be an important measure of its impact on the estate administration market.