For years I watched smart people argue over why Americans won’t plan their estates. Too expensive. Too complicated. No one wants to think about death. While there’s some truth to each of these points, our data shows a lot of those barriers are dropping at a rapid rate.
Our 2026 Estate Planning Report was based on data from a national survey conducted by Trust & Will between January and February this year, with 5,000 U.S. adults. These are the top reasons that Americans cite for not having an estate plan: lack of information on where to start (17%), procrastination (23%), and the belief that they do not have enough assets to warrant creating an estate plan (27%). Again, these are real challenges.
According to our data, all three issues decreased significantly over the past year. Specifically, procrastination fell seven percentage points, lack of information regarding where to begin decreased 10 percentage points, and concerns about cost fell by nine points. So, traditional friction has been reduced. However, despite the reduction in barriers, 56% of Americans still have no estate planning documents, with very little change since last year. This gap is what keeps me up at night and makes another finding from the same study worth paying attention to.
THE AI TREND NO ONE SAW COMING THIS QUICKLY
The number of Americans who trust artificial intelligence more than a human attorney for guidance on estate planning increased 10% in just one year, from 20% to 30%. Conversely, skepticism decreased by the same margin. This represents a substantial shift in consumer sentiment in a category that has resisted change for decades.
This trend also reflects a change in thinking among those who hesitate to use AI for estate planning. In 2025, most of these concerns were philosophical: Should a machine be making decisions related to my family’s future? By 2026, these philosophical questions were replaced with more practical ones: Will it get this right? Is my data secure?
There is a major difference between these two types of thinking. This indicates that most individuals have already accepted the concept of using AI to assist in estate planning. Therefore, they are evaluating whether they can trust the execution process. This represents a point in time for many industries where adoption starts to increase.
That shift in how consumers think about AI also changed how we think about what we’re building. Trust & Will has spent years developing a platform that provides users with step-by-step instructions to create attorney-approved, state-specific estate plans. We did not start off using AI in this process. The technology wasn’t reliable enough for decisions this consequential, and consumer trust wasn’t there yet. We just connected users to the correct documents for their situation and jurisdiction. As both matured, we faced a clear choice: layer AI on as a feature on top of workflows we’d already built, or rebuild with AI as the foundation. We chose the latter, and we’re clear-eyed that it only adds value when implemented with rigor and appropriate oversight. We are now incorporating AI to help consumers and advisors navigate complex issues in real time, surface gaps in existing estate plans, and extract relevant information from documents that may otherwise remain stashed away in a filing cabinet. Our goal is to make the process effortless for users.
Attorneys are still part of the process and available to customers through our platform. We are providing attorneys better visibility into client plans when clients engage them, and flagging situations for users when professional review would be appropriate. AI handles the guidance and sets the groundwork, but attorneys handle the judgment calls.
THE GENERATIONAL SHIFT DEFINING THE NEXT DECADE
Our survey found that 46% of Gen Z now trust AI more than a human attorney for estate planning guidance. Only 13% of baby boomers hold similar views.
Gen Z is entering adulthood today as they purchase homes, establish families, and make important financial decisions for the first time. The way this generation expects to interact with legal and financial services, through guided digital tools rather than appointment-only professional consultations, will define the market in the next five to 10 years. Companies that develop platforms designed for expectations of this nature today will position themselves well ahead of competitors that are waiting to see how it all plays out.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR THE INDUSTRY
Estate planning is not the only field grappling with this shift. The same trend is visible across financial advising, tax preparation, healthcare, and legal services more broadly. Every category in which a credentialed professional has historically served as the primary gateway is now confronting a version of the same question: What happens when consumers decide they trust AI enough to move forward without you?
This is not simply a matter of consumer sentiment. A 10-percentage-point shift in AI trust changes how institutions, advisors, and technology companies need to think about the services they offer and how those services are delivered. AI is no longer a feature to be layered on top of an existing product; rather, it’s increasingly becoming the foundation upon which entire categories of professional services are being rebuilt. The work happening across our platform and institutional partnerships reflects that reality. It is early foundation-building for something considerably larger, and the category we are building toward goes well beyond what most people associate with estate planning.
The 56% of Americans without an estate plan are not waiting because they lack access or information. The tools exist and costs have come down. What drives adoption at this point is whether people trust the process enough to take that first step. That is a fundamentally different problem than the one this industry has been focused on solving. And it is one that AI, when implemented thoughtfully and with appropriate oversight, is genuinely well suited to address.
Cody Barbo is cofounder and CEO of Trust & Will.
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