Getting started with Bancroft

This article walks you through the first 30 minutes of using Bancroft. By the end, you will have a firm profile set up, one household created, and one finalized document ready to deliver. If your account came with a free-plan entitlement (one complete estate plan for one client, granted as part of a founding-advisor arrangement), this article also explains exactly what that entitlement covers. Not on Bancroft yet? Start at Get Started.

Sign in

Bancroft lives at app.usebancroft.com. If your firm has a custom branded portal, your URL will be your firm subdomain (for example, yourfirm.usebancroft.com). Either URL works for sign-in. The platform redirects you to the right tenant after authentication.

You can sign in three ways: email and password, Google SSO, or Microsoft SSO. Pick whichever your firm prefers. All three land you in the same place. Sessions last 8 hours of inactivity, after which the platform asks you to re-authenticate. This is intentional. Estate planning documents are sensitive, and short session windows are part of the security posture.

Two-factor authentication via TOTP (Google Authenticator, Authy, 1Password, etc.) is available on every account and strongly recommended. Backup codes are issued during setup so you can recover access if you lose your phone. Turn it on from your account settings page on first sign-in. It takes 60 seconds.

Complete your advisor profile

Before you can create households, the platform asks for three pieces of information about you. This is a one-time setup that takes under a minute.

1. Your first name. This appears on documents and in email signatures sent from your tenant.
2. Your last name. Same reason.
3. Your phone number. Used by the platform to contact you about urgent items, never shared with clients without your action.

The platform will not let you skip this step on first sign-in and will redirect you to /setup until it is complete. You can update any of these later from your account settings. Brand identity (firm name, logo, colors, custom domain) is configured separately from the brand settings page and is not blocking on first sign-in.

Add your first household

A household in Bancroft is a single client family unit. Spouses, partners, and dependent children all live inside one household record. Single clients also become a household with one member. The household is the unit that owns documents, asset inventory, beneficiaries, and the trust funding workflow.

Click the "Add Household" button on the dashboard. You will be asked for:

• Household display name (for example, "The Jaclyn Joyce Household")
• Primary contact: first name, last name, email, phone
• Secondary contact (optional): for spouses or partners
• Mailing address
• State of residence (this determines which document templates the platform offers)

Bancroft currently supports specific state jurisdictions, with additional states in active rollout. If your client lives in a state we do not yet cover, the platform will let you create the household but will not show document types until that state is live. Tell us about it. Demand drives our state expansion priority. The list of currently supported states is something we cover in demo; ask us directly.

Generate your first document

Open the household you just created. You will see a "Documents" section with an "Add Document" button. Click it. A picker appears showing every document type available for the household state of residence.

Bancroft is per-document. You build each document on its own. There is no single bundled questionnaire that produces an entire estate plan in one shot. This is intentional. Most advisors prefer it because it gives you control over scope and timing. You can build a will today, finalize it, and come back next week for the trust without re-answering anything that was already captured at the household level.

Pick a document type. The platform creates a draft packet and drops you into the questionnaire. Each questionnaire is focused, typically 5 to 15 minutes per document. Answers autosave as you go. You can leave and come back. The progress indicator at the top shows where you are.

When the questionnaire is complete, click "Generate Draft." The platform produces a watermarked draft of the document for you to review on screen. Read it. Make sure the names, dates, and provisions look right. If anything is off, go back to the questionnaire, fix the answer, and re-generate. Drafts are free and unlimited.

Finalize the document

Once you are satisfied with the draft, click "Finalize." This produces the clean, watermark-free version of the document. The finalized document is versioned and stored in the household record. From there you can download it as PDF, send it to the client through the portal, or print it for an in-person signing meeting.

How the free plan works (if applicable)

If you came in through the free plan offer, your account gets one complete estate plan for one client at no cost. That means you can finalize one packet of each document type (will, revocable trust, durable financial POA, healthcare POA with HIPAA, personal property memorandum, and so on) for a single household. After that, attempting to finalize anything for a different household, or a second copy of the same document type for the same household, will prompt an upgrade.

The first finalization locks your free entitlement to that household. The platform takes a snapshot of the household identifying information at lock time. If you later edit the household to look like a different client, the platform will block further finalizations on the free plan. This is a guardrail, not a punishment. The free plan offer is "one complete plan for one client," and the snapshot keeps everyone honest about that.

When you are ready to add a second household, reply to any Bancroft email and we will get you upgraded to a paid plan. Amendments and restatements for your locked household stay free, exactly as they are on every paid plan.

Where to go from here

You now have a firm profile, a household, and a finalized document. The next things most advisors look at:

• Trust funding workflow: if you finalized a revocable trust, the funding letter automation is the most important thing in the platform. Read the trust funding article next.
• Compliance: every advisor wants to know how Bancroft handles UPL. Forward the compliance article to your compliance officer. They will appreciate it.
• Document reference: a quick paragraph on each document type, what it covers, and common edge cases. Useful as a refresher before your next client meeting.