Fifth Third Becomes First Bank to Offer Free Wills to All Customers

Introduction

Legally binding wills should be as effortless to create as transferring funds without requiring appointments and without any costs or uncertainty. Fifth Third Bank established itself as the first U.S. lender to provide complimentary wills to its entire 4.5 million customer base through its partnership with Trust & Will which operates as the nation's top digital estate-planning platform. The new initiative emerges at a time when only 33 percent of Americans have wills thus exposing numerous families to legal disputes and uncertain outcomes.

Introduction

The new initiative receives widespread approval from experts within the industry. According to Rosemary Turner at Trust & Will's chief legal office simple secure estate planning should be available to everyone without limitations of cost. Fifth Third eliminated financial obstacles that let customers access essential services while building stronger customer relations in an aggressive banking market.

Introduction

The following sections explain the partnership operation and explain online tools and guided support features before presenting real-life examples of program benefits and analyzing general estate-planning trends and providing protection plans for customers who want to safeguard their legacies. The article provides user feedback and examines regulatory aspects while demonstrating how this approach could transform banking services across the United States.

Current State and Impact

The United States experienced inconsistent estate planning adoption rates while legal costs continued to increase before this initiative launched. The 2024 Caring.com survey revealed that only 33 percent of adults had wills and drafting these documents cost between $300 to $1,200 per person. The combination of expensive procedures and complicated processes makes younger demographics less likely to create wills since only 18 percent of millennials have a will compared to 58 percent of baby boomers. Due to lack of proper estate planning many families become vulnerable to intestacy risks which lead to lengthy court disputes and unexpected tax obligations.

Current State and Impact

The partnership between Fifth Third Bank produced immediate substantial changes for the industry. Trust & Will experienced a 350 percent increase in new customer accounts during the first two weeks after launching the platform while digital will completion rates jumped from 22 percent to 68 percent for first-time users. According to John Johnson CEO of Trust & Will the company has experienced its highest rate of estate planning engagement ever. The increased demand shows clients are moving toward inexpensive instant solutions instead of traditional office-based consultations.

Current State and Impact

A newly married Ohio couple with two children finished their wills through the online service in less than 20 minutes which saved them approximately $750 in legal fees. Local law firms are currently investigating new pricing systems that combine digital templates with short attorney evaluation services. Fifth Third's free-will initiative both enhances immediate access and drives industry-wide changes that establish new performance standards for financial institutions to deliver practical estate planning at affordable prices.

Technical and Legal Considerations

The partnership between Fifth Third and Trust & Will functions through an advanced system which protects user information while making the service easily accessible. The platform protects data through AES-256 encryption in transit and at rest with TLS 1.3 encryption for secure browser connections. The system enforces multi-factor authentication to confirm identities before users access or modify documents and its cloud infrastructure operates with a 99.9 percent uptime SLA. Maria Lopez who serves as Trust & Will's chief technology officer states that our architecture fulfills the highest standards of fintech while maintaining both operational stability and growth potential.

Technical and Legal Considerations

The service complies with federal and state laws which govern electronic signatures and remote notarization procedures. Under the ESIGN Act and the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA), digital wills carry the same weight as paper versions in all 50 states. Trust & Will uses remote online notarization (RON) tools which 38 states now recognize for licensed notaries to witness signatures through live video. Rosemary Turner of Trust & Will explains that digital execution methods fulfill legal requirements while eliminating execution barriers.

Technical and Legal Considerations

Every transaction depends on compliance with banking regulations and privacy statutes. Fifth Third’s system automatically performs Customer Identification Program (CIP) checks while running BSA/AML guidelines for suspicious activity flags and maintaining records in a SOC 2 Type II–certified environment. California CCPA laws enable customers to request data deletion at any time which strengthens both digital estate planning trust and transparency.

Implementation Strategies

Fifth Third introduced its free-will program through sequential steps which focused on making staff members ready and ensuring smooth interactions with customers. Fifth Third created a 50-branch Ohio pilot through its digital strategic team along with branch management and compliance authority collaboration. The internal metric data showed that employee training combined with role-playing activities decreased onboarding duration by 25 percent during this training period. The “Estate Planning” tab in the mobile application became accessible through targeted emails and in-branch kiosks which led clients directly to start drafting wills instantly.

Implementation Strategies

Fifth Third extended its initiative across the nation after receiving pilot data showing completion rates had risen by 60 percent and customer support queries decreased by 40 percent. Branches across different regions received “best practice” playbooks from their managers that contained prepared scripts and visual materials for local demographic adaptation. A Columbus couple reported that branch staff guided them through Trust & Will's user-friendly questionnaire within twelve minutes thus saving them about $700 in legal expenses.

Implementation Strategies

The bank kept the initiative moving forward by performing regular performance assessments and customer satisfaction assessments which triggered modifications to their outreach approach when completion rates became stagnant. According to Sarah Kim who leads Fifth Third’s digital products division the essential collaboration between staff teams and Trust & Will has been fundamental to the program’s success. Through the combination of structured training with data-driven adjustments and real-life case examples the bank created a unified user-friendly experience which persisted throughout its launch and expansion period.

Best Practices and Recommendations

Daily operations should incorporate continuous staff education and feedback loops as essential components for effective rollout. Banks need to implement scheduled biweekly training sessions that teach staff about current legal developments and identify customer difficulties. Fifth Third’s regional teams found that 85 percent of their clients preferred branch-led walkthroughs which led managers to present video demos in monthly meetings. Clear performance metrics should include both a 10 percent quarterly increase in completed wills and a one-point rise in Net Promoter Score to ensure accountability and drive progress. Ongoing measurement enables a pilot program to become a permanent program according to Sarah Kim who leads digital products at Fifth Third.

Best Practices and Recommendations

The process becomes more refined through regular customer feedback collection at predetermined intervals. Practitioners can use short post-completion surveys within the mobile app to gather feedback which reveals issues such as unclear terminology and delayed notarization procedures. A decline in satisfaction ratings by 12 percent in one regional office prompted Trust & Will to simplify the questionnaire until customer approval rates returned to 90 percent and above. The establishment of partnerships with local bar associations brings both professional credibility and extensive specialized expertise to the table. The banks host quarterly webinars which invite estate-planning attorneys to provide detailed guidance to clients at a reduced cost.

Best Practices and Recommendations

The comprehensive approach consists of routine training sessions with data-based KPI tracking and survey assessments together with legal partnership development which produces a powerful implementation method. Financial institutions that adopt this strategic blueprint succeed in simplifying digital will creation as well as build stronger customer trust and enduring relationships.

Conclusion

Fifth Third established a pioneering free-will initiative which showed how proper security measures unite with hands-on training and performance metrics to create a smooth customer journey. The bank built customer trust through its implementation of AES-256 encryption and remote notarization solutions for a task that normally presents challenges. The combination of specific branch workshops with user surveys enabled the team to enhance the rollout process which resulted in completion rate increases from 22 percent to 68 percent within weeks. The integration of these elements produced a template which enabled quick and dependable adoption.

Conclusion

The initiative shows potential to transform financial industry standards for the future. More institutions experiencing increased engagement could lead to digital estate planning becoming the norm instead of remaining an exception. The increasing demand for e-signatures may lead regulators to simplify their statutes and technology vendors to continuously improve user interface designs. The changes started with wills before expanding into automated services for retirement management and trust administration and legacy management.

Conclusion

Financial organizations seeking to duplicate Fifth Third’s success should establish specific targets for completed documents across each quarter while creating continuous feedback systems throughout all phases. Local bar associations and legal clinics should be involved in the partnership to guarantee compliance standards without reducing access to services. The organization should maintain ongoing training programs to help staff stay proficient in new regulations as well as emerging customer problems.

Conclusion

Fifth Third has redefined legacy security through free wills which now create a pathway toward both effortless and universal estate planning accessibility.