Legacy isn't just what you leave behind. It's how you shape lives today. Estate planning is broken for most families, and Cody Barbo built Trust & Will to fix it.

On this episode of Visionary Advisor, host Alex Kirby, founder and CEO of Total Family, sits down with Cody, founder and CEO of Trust & Will, to unpack the trends transforming estate planning today. Drawing on fresh research and real-world results, Trust & Will has helped over 200,000 individuals complete estate plans and is trusted by more than 1 million users, Cody shares how generational shifts, technology, and a growing emphasis on values are reshaping how families, and their advisors, approach legacy planning.

Advisors need to step out of their comfort zone

Early in the conversation, at the 5:23 mark, Cody makes the case that proactive estate planning is a massive, underused opportunity for advisors. Most firms wait to react when a client raises the topic. Cody argues the advisors who initiate the conversation first build deeper, longer-term relationships with entire families, not just the individual client who signed the paperwork.

Legacy is how you made people feel

At 13:35, Cody offers one of the episode's most quotable lines: "Legacy, to me, is how you made people feel." It's a personal reflection that reframes legacy planning away from documents and toward memory and meaning. For advisors, it's a reminder that the emotional dimension of a plan often matters as much to a family as its technical structure.

The big nugget everyone is chasing

At 17:25, Cody calls out what separates advisors who treat estate planning as core to their value from those who treat it as an afterthought: keeping documents current, initiating conversations proactively, and making sure plans evolve as life does. He describes this ongoing engagement as "the big nugget that we are all chasing," the thing that turns a single planning event into a durable, decades-long relationship.

Procrastination is the real obstacle, not complexity

By 23:58, Cody names the number one obstacle in estate planning plainly: "Next week turns to next month, and then it's decades later." Families rarely avoid estate planning because they don't understand its importance. They avoid it because the process feels heavy and easy to postpone. Cody outlines how advisors can help clients overcome that inertia by making the process more approachable and breaking it into manageable steps.

Crisis and transition are a rare window to build trust

At 40:48, Cody points to moments of crisis or life transition as an underappreciated opportunity: "They have the opportunity to build that trust." When a family is navigating a health scare, a divorce, or the loss of a loved one, advisors who show up with genuine support, rather than just paperwork, leave an impression that can span generations.

What this means for advisors

Cody's conversation with Alex offers a clear roadmap for advisors: how younger generations are rethinking estate planning and where advisors fit into that shift, how technology is making planning more accessible without replacing the human relationship, ways to lead conversations that go beyond assets to include values, lessons, and legacy, and practical strategies to engage the rising generation before the wealth actually transfers.

Estate planning has long been treated as a compliance task to check off. Cody's work, and this conversation, make the case that it is actually one of the most human, trust-building conversations an advisor can have.

Watch this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj5dJMM4HYw

Listen to the full episode: Redefining Legacy with Trust & Will's Cody Barbo

Explore Trust & Will's research: 2024 Estate Planning Report and the 2025 Estate Planning Report

Read more articles from Visionary Advisor: totalfamily.io/visionaryadvisor

This episode features Alex Kirby, CEO of Total Family, in conversation with Cody Barbo, founder and CEO of Trust & Will.