GoodTrust review: a low-cost trust plan, the yearly fee after year one, and the download rule to plan around

GoodTrust’s pitch is simple: one plan, one price, a living trust and everything that goes with it, and your whole family can use it. At $149 for a plan that includes a revocable living trust, that undercuts most of the market for guided trusts.

The price page is accurate, but it is not the whole story. GoodTrust’s help centre adds three rules that matter: updates after the first year cost extra, you need an active subscription to edit or download your documents, and the refund window is short. None of them is hidden in the legal sense; they are just not where most people look before paying. This review puts them in one place. Everything here comes from GoodTrust’s own pages, read on the date shown in the facts table. We have not bought a plan.

What do you get for the price?

GoodTrust sells one paid plan, which it calls Estate+. According to its help centre it includes:

• Documents: Revocable living trust, will, financial power of attorney, health care directive, funeral and pet directives, digital vault.
• Updates: a year of unlimited updates, then $39/year if you want to keep editing.
• Family: Each adult family member can make their own plan at no extra cost. You request a family plan code in your dashboard and share it.
• Support: the pricing page lists unlimited support seven days a week.

The funeral and pet directives are a nice touch that most rivals do not offer as separate documents. The digital vault, where you store account details, passwords and instructions for whoever handles your affairs, is the feature GoodTrust is best known for, and it is the main thing it does that the estate planning specialists do not.

What does GoodTrust really cost over three years?

The answer depends on how you use it.

How you use it	What you pay
Make everything in year one, download and print it, never update	$149
Keep updating for two years	$188
Keep updating for three years	$227

The fee after year one is $39/year, which GoodTrust says is charged “to continue making updates”. Its help centre also says you can cancel at any time and re-subscribe when you want to make changes. What it does not say is whether the yearly fee renews automatically. Check your billing section after buying, and set a reminder for eleven months later.

For comparison, Quicken WillMaker & Trust’s Plus plan, with a living trust, is $149 once, with revisions for a year and an optional $39.99/year for more revisions, optional after that. Trust & Will’s trust is $499, with an optional $49/year membership for later edits. The three companies have arrived at the same idea: the first year is included, ongoing changes cost a yearly fee.

The rule to plan around: downloads need a subscription

This is the line in GoodTrust’s help centre that matters most:

You need to have an active subscription to be able to edit or download your documents.

And its refund page says what happens when you are no longer a paying subscriber: Account drops to the Free plan; the will can no longer be downloaded.

In practice this is less alarming than it sounds, because your estate plan is the paper you sign, not the file in your account. A signed and witnessed will, and a signed and notarised trust, are valid whether or not GoodTrust ever lets you log in again. But it changes how you should use the service:

1. Finish the documents in your first year, while downloads are included.
2. Download every PDF and save it somewhere you control.
3. Sign the paper originals and store them safely.
4. Do not treat the GoodTrust account as your only copy. If you cancel later, you lose the downloads, not the plan.

WillMaker’s online version has a similar cutoff (documents stay viewable for 90 days after the revision year unless you renew), and its download version avoids it altogether. If permanent access to the files without paying again matters to you, that is the point in WillMaker’s favour.

How do couples and families use one plan?

GoodTrust is generous here. Each adult family member can make their own will or trust at no additional cost, which can make it the cheapest option by far for, say, a couple plus two adult children, or for adult children helping their parents get organised at the same time as themselves.

For couples, GoodTrust’s trust page says: A joint trust is possible; each spouse needs a separate pour-over will. That is the normal structure: one trust holding the couple’s assets, and a pour-over will for each spouse to catch anything left outside it.

One thing to check: GoodTrust’s own pages disagree on how far “family” stretches. The pricing and trust pages say unlimited family members; a help-centre article says up to four complimentary accounts. For two or three people it will not matter. For a large family, ask before you pay.

Is there any lawyer involved?

Only in the drafting. GoodTrust’s home page says its documents are drafted by leading estate planning attorneys. But its help centre is unambiguous: Not a law firm; no legal advice or attorney service. There is no paid attorney add-on, no written question service and no review of your finished plan.

If you want a lawyer within reach, the alternatives are Trust & Will’s attorney add-on at +$299, LegalZoom’s Premium tiers with a year of attorney consultations, or Rocket Lawyer’s membership with written attorney questions.

Who helps you fund the trust?

You do. GoodTrust’s trust page describes funding as step three, transferring your assets into the trust’s ownership, and its help centre explains what funding means. But it does not publish a deed transfer service or any partner to retitle your house.

That matters more than it sounds. A living trust only avoids probate for assets you actually move into it, and for most families the main asset is the house. Retitling it means a new deed, signed before a notary and recorded with your county. You can do that yourself or with a local title company or attorney; our guide to funding a living trust walks through it. If you want it done for you, Trust & Will offers deed transfers at $140 per deed, plus recording fees and LegalZoom at $249, plus state filing fees.

Signing: a detail to get right

GoodTrust’s trust page says to print and sign “with two witnesses”. For a will, two witnesses is the rule in most states. A living trust is different: most people sign it before a notary, and you will need the notary for the deed transfer anyway, because county recorders generally require notarised signatures. Follow the instructions that come with your documents, and if they do not mention a notary for the trust, have it notarised anyway. It costs little and removes doubt.

The fine print

• Refunds: 14 days from purchase, free-trial days included. The trial counts toward the 14 days, so if you start a trial and decide on day 12 that you want your money back, you have two days. Requests are made by support ticket.
• Free trial: One trial only; cancel from your billing section. GoodTrust does not say how long it lasts or whether a card is needed.
• Where it works: Says valid in all 50 states; documents valid only in the U.S.. GoodTrust does not mention any state exclusion; WillMaker, by contrast, cannot be used in Louisiana and Trust & Will does not make trusts there.
• Legal status: GoodTrust, Inc. is not a law firm. We could not read its full terms of service when we checked, so we cannot report its arbitration or renewal clauses.

GoodTrust compared with the alternatives

	GoodTrust	Quicken WillMaker & Trust	Trust & Will
Living trust, one person	$149	$149	$499
Couple	Each adult makes their own, no extra fee	No surcharge for immediate family	$599
Updates after year one	$39/year	$39.99/year for more revisions, optional	$49/year
Download without paying again	No	Yes, with the download version	Yes, on the free tier
Attorney option	None	None	+$299
Deed transfer service	None published	None	$140 per deed, plus recording fees
Refund	14 days from purchase, free-trial days included	Not published	30 days from purchase

Our Trust & Will vs GoodTrust page goes through the gap between the two in detail.

Who should buy GoodTrust?

Buy it if:

• You want a living trust and the documents around it, for the least money, and you will finish them within a year.
• Several adults in your family need plans at once.
• You value having account details and instructions organised in one vault for your executor.

Skip it if:

• You want permanent download access without a subscription; WillMaker’s download version is the better match.
• You want a lawyer within reach, or help retitling your house; Trust & Will or LegalZoom.
• You need a will only, and nothing else: FreeWill does a will, health care directive and power of attorney for free, as our FreeWill review explains.

If you choose GoodTrust, do it in this order

1. Note the date you buy. You have 14 days from purchase, free-trial days included to change your mind.
2. Make your trust, will and directives, and invite family members with the family code.
3. Download every document as PDF and save copies outside your GoodTrust account.
4. Sign: the will with two witnesses, the trust before a notary, following your state’s instructions.
5. Fund the trust: retitle your house and accounts into it. This is the step that makes the trust work.
6. Check your billing settings for the yearly update fee and decide whether you want it.
7. Update beneficiary forms on life insurance and retirement accounts, which the trust does not control.