Document generation workflow

This article follows a document from questionnaire to signing, and explains why each step works the way it does. Create a household first using Getting started. For the steps after a trust is signed, see the funding workflow.

One document at a time

The documents offered depend on the household’s state of residence. Bancroft builds one document at a time. There is no single questionnaire that produces an entire estate plan. This is deliberate. It gives you and the household control over scope and timing: build the will today and come back for the trust next week. Household details (names, addresses, family members, assets) carry across every document, so nothing is entered twice.

A household has one revocable trust. Once it is signed, it changes through Change trust rather than a second trust. See changing a trust.

The questionnaire

Each document has its own questionnaire, in plain language, with help text where a question needs it. The household record prefills what it already knows. State-specific questions appear where the law differs.

The client makes every selection. If anyone else enters or changes an answer, you go through every selection with the client and confirm in the platform that the client made it before the final document is generated. If you were not with the client when the answers were entered, the client answers from their own login instead.

How the document is assembled

The document is assembled from the questionnaire answers, using state-specific templates for the household’s state. The answers decide which provisions appear; the platform does not choose for the client.

Every preview before the final document is watermarked. A preview is for review, not for signing, and the watermark keeps it from being signed by mistake.

Reviewing the document

Read the document with the client and check that it matches what the client entered: names, dates and addresses; the beneficiaries; who receives what, when and how; and the people named as executor, trustee, agent and guardian.

Whether a provision suits the client’s situation is a question for an attorney, not for the advisor or the platform.

Attorney review

Some answers describe situations that call for an attorney’s judgment, such as a beneficiary who receives government benefits. Those answers flag the document for review by an attorney licensed in the household’s state before it is finished.

The household chooses how a flagged document is reviewed. It can engage an independent attorney licensed in its state who is listed on the platform, for the limited scope set out in the attorney’s engagement letter, or take the draft and its notes to an attorney of its own choosing. The review is $299 per document, paid directly to the attorney; Bancroft does not perform the review and takes no part of the fee. Listed attorneys are not available in every state.

Finishing and signing

Finishing a document locks its answers and stores it permanently in the household record. It also records the acknowledgment that the document comes from templates, is not legal advice, and should be reviewed by an attorney before it is signed.

The finished document can be downloaded, seen by the client in the portal, or ordered as printed copies. Its signing steps become tasks for the household, with the state’s execution requirements: how many witnesses, whether a notary is needed, and anything else the state asks for. A finished trust also starts the trust funding work.

Revising a finished document

If a mistake turns up, or the client wants a change before signing, you can revise the document. A revision starts from the existing answers, and the earlier version stays in the revision history. A revised document that was already signed must be signed again. Revisions are free.

For a signed trust, use Change trust. For other document types, a new document replaces the prior one. See changing a trust.