I am thrilled to announce that we are now B Corporation Certified!
As a mission-driven company, we at Trust & Will strive to make the world a better place, one estate plan at a time. Six years in the making, we have helped half a million families leave their legacies.
Achieving our B Corp certification is an exciting opportunity to celebrate our achievements thus far, but it is also a renewal of our commitments. We plan to leave this world a better place than we found it and hold ourselves accountable to high standards of ethics, governance, and responsibility.
Trust & Will is the first digital estate planning platform to become B Corp certified and it demonstrates our dedication to revolutionizing the estate planning industry. We are on our way to making estate planning more accessible and environmentally responsible for all families, and we invite other changemakers to follow suit.
What is a B Corporation?
A B Corporation is a designation that meets the highest standards for accountability and transparency on social and environmental performance factors. B Lab, the organization that awards this designation, is unique in its ability to measure a company’s social and environmental impact across several categories.
After undergoing a rigorous application and certification process, B Corporations are assigned a score within each category, which then make up a cumulative score that indicates their holistic impact. The qualifying score for B Corporation Certification is 80, while the median score for an “ordinary” business is 50.9. I am so proud that Trust & Will achieved a score of 97.7.
Companies are then monitored by a Standards Advisory Council and held accountable such that they continue to meet these high standards. They must undergo recertification every three years.
As a B Corp, Trust & Will is joining a community of socially and environmentally responsible trailblazers such as Patagonia, Thrive Market, Toms, and The Body Shop, spanning many industries across the globe.
We look forward to continue building trust with our stakeholders, including customers, team members, investors, and community members, while we continue improving and creating long-lasting positive change.
Trust & Will’s Commitment to B Corporation Pillars
Although we officially achieved B Corp status this year, Trust & Will has embodied B Corporation standards in the form of core values from the very beginning.
We are in the business of ethics and transparency; Trust & Will exists to be ethical to our customers and transparent to all. We always strive to share whatever we appropriately can to stakeholders. For example, we have published Annual Impact Reports for the past three years, which is not common for startup companies.
Through these reports, we have shared the positive impacts made in a number of areas that align with B Corp standards, several years before we started the B Corporation application process:
Governance: Everyday, we help families leave their legacy. Making estate planning simple, affordable, and accessible. When we succeed, every family has access to plan for long-term financial goals, and build multi-generational wealth. We are participants of Pledge 1%, where we offer our team members four days of volunteer time per year. We’re also in the active process of helping an industry go all digital. lobbying for E-Will legislation adoption. 13 states have adopted some form of E-Will legislation that allow Americans to create their Wills online, making them more accessible.
Workers: Trust & Will was named one of the highest-scoring workplaces by both Inc. Magazine and the San Diego Business Journal. We pride ourselves in being a fun, engaging, and fulfilling place to work, and we ensure that our company policies reflect these values. Our team members are given paid time off for volunteerism, as well as protected, paid leave for ordinary and extraordinary life events, such as parental or bereavement. We truly believe that our team members are empowered to take the time off they need so that they can perform while feeling their best.
Customers & Community: We have a number of ongoing programs with the intention of creating a positive social impact. From in-kind donations and sponsorships to donated estate plans, we give back to our customers and our community as much as possible. We are heavily engaged with our local San Diego community organizations and nonprofits, and our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee is hard at work.
Environment: In October 2022, we partnered with Bend to offset our carbon emissions. We’ve been a member of Ecologi since 2020, where we plant trees for every member who creates an estate plan. We’ve planted tens of thousands of trees and have been a climate-positive workplace for several consecutive years. Our lobbying efforts to help make the estate planning industry go digital is also helping save “tonnes.”
A Legacy in the Making
At Trust & Will, we’re committed to continuous improvement.
Obtaining the B Corporation designation is definitely an exciting achievement that we’ll be celebrating for a long time. At the same time, I’m looking at this as an important pit-stop on a journey where we are always on the lookout of how we can improve, how we can provide more value to our members, and how we can make a positive impact.
We’re in the business of helping as many families as possible leave a legacy, and simultaneously, we’re on a mission to leave a long-lasting legacy ourselves.
The B Corporation assessment provides a powerful framework that reveals areas in which we can ramp up our efforts even more. Be sure to keep an eye out as we continue rolling out heart-centered, mission-driven initiatives with you in mind.
I couldn’t be more proud, and I thank you for your continued support.
Is there a question here we didn’t answer? Reach out to us today or Chat with a live member support representative!
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