LegalWills

What LegalWills does

LegalWills, operated by PartingWishes Inc., is an online estate planning platform founded in 2000 by Tim Hewson (CEO) and Henry Raud (CTO). Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, with a US mailing address in New York, the company serves individual consumers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and South Africa through country-specific websites (uslegalwills.com, legalwills.ca, legalwills.co.uk, legalwills.co.za). The platform enables self-serve creation of legally valid wills, financial and healthcare powers of attorney, living wills, and expatriate wills via an interactive question-and-answer wizard, complemented by a suite of legacy services including funeral planning, encrypted digital vault storage, posthumous message delivery, and the proprietary Keyholder Security System that allows users to designate up to 20 trusted individuals for controlled post-mortem access to documents and assets. The platform supports all US states except Louisiana, all Canadian provinces including Quebec, England and Wales, and South Africa, and has reportedly served over 2 million customers across its 26-year operating history.

Name

LegalWills

Legal name

PartingWishes Inc.

Website

https://uslegalwills.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2000

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

LegalWills (PartingWishes Inc.) is a bootstrapped, Ottawa-based online estate planning platform founded in 2000, offering self-serve wills, powers of attorney, and legacy services across the US, Canada, UK, and South Africa to over 2 million individual consumers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Online Estate Planning Software

NAICS

Legal Services (5411), Offices of Lawyers (541110), All Other Legal Services (541199)

SIC

Services-Legal Services (8111)

akta.pro primary industry

Family & Private Client (Trusts & Estates) Law (BPAHAAAK)

akta.pro secondary industry

Estate Planning, Trust Structuring & Governance (FSAAADAF)

Keywords

• Online estate planning
• Will creation software
• Legal document generation
• Power of attorney tools
• Digital legacy services

Headquarters

HQ city

Ottawa

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Individual Document Sales: One-time purchase model where customers buy individual legal documents (Will, Power of Attorney, Living Will, Expatriate Will). Documents are generated online and can be printed for legal execution. Includes 1 year of updates.
2. Package Sales: Bundled packages (Essentials, Premium, Ultimate) combining multiple documents and services at discounted rates compared to individual purchases.
3. Membership/Subscription: Optional annual or multi-year membership for continued access to online document storage, updates, and legacy services. Renewal pricing: 1 year $14.95, 5 years $29.95, 10 years $44.95, Lifetime $59.95.
4. Add-on Services: Additional paid services including lawyer review ($69), printing and shipping ($14.95), vault storage expansion, and spouse/partner discount (40% off).
5. Gift Cards: Gift cards available for purchase to give the service as a gift.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

LegalWills is a self-serve online platform that guides individuals through a question-and-answer wizard to create estate planning documents including Last Wills and Testaments, Financial Powers of Attorney, Living Wills, and Expatriate Wills. It also provides complementary legacy services such as secure digital vaults for asset storage, post-mortem message delivery, funeral wishes documentation, and a proprietary Keyholder Security System that designates trusted individuals to unlock information after death.

Product overview

LegalWills operates as a modular platform-plus-packages architecture offering online estate planning document creation. The core platform consists of legal document products (MyWill™, MyPowerOfAttorney™, MyLivingWill™, MyExpatWill™) that generate printable, signable, and witnessable legal documents. These are complemented by legacy services (MyFuneral™, MyLifeLocker™, MyVault™, MyMessages™, MyKeyholders™) that provide non-legal organizational and communication features accessible through an active membership. Products are available individually or bundled into three tiered packages: Essentials ($69.95), Premium ($99.95), and Ultimate ($129.95 USD). The platform supports U.S. (all states except Louisiana), Canada (all provinces/territories including Quebec), U.K. (England and Wales), and South Africa.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• MyWill™: Online Last Will and Testament creation service for the United States
• MyPowerOfAttorney™
• MyLivingWill™
• MyExpatWill™
• MyLifeLocker™
• MyFuneral™
• MyVault™
• MyMessages™
• MyKeyholders™

Products and services

• MyWill Comprehensive Last Will and Testament creation service that guides users through a question-and-answer wizard to produce legally valid Wills customized for any U.S. state (except Louisiana). Includes features for estate distribution, guardianship nomination, executor appointment, charitable bequests, and trust setup for minors and pets.
• MyPowerOfAttorney

Quantifiable outcome

• Save 75-90% compared to traditional lawyer-prepared wills
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature6 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Legatus TrustcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 25 July 2023Partnership with Legatus Trust to expand LegalWills online will-writing services to South Africa. Legatus Trust serves as the local partner enabling distribution of estate planning services in the South African market through LegalWills.co.za platform.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Nolo: Long-established legal information and self-help platform that has offered online wills and estate planning forms for decades. Directly comparable to LegalWills in product offering and target customer, with a stronger legal-publisher brand.
• FreeWill: Online will-making platform that originated as a nonprofit tool and now offers free and premium estate planning documents. Competes with LegalWills on price and ease of use in the online will space.
• LawDepot: Canadian-founded online legal document platform with a similar Q&A wizard model for wills, POAs, and other documents. Direct competitor with overlapping jurisdiction coverage (US, Canada) and a comparable self-serve product.
• Trust & Will: VC-funded online estate planning platform offering wills, trusts, and POAs with a modern UX. Direct competitor in the self-serve estate planning category, with comparable pricing and a similar product-led growth approach.
• Rocket Lawyer: Subscription-based online legal services platform offering wills, POAs, and a broad range of legal documents plus on-demand attorney access. Competes directly with LegalWills on the will-creation and document-generation product.
• LegalZoom: The largest online legal services platform in the US, offering wills, POAs, LLC formation, and a wide range of other legal documents. Direct head-to-head competitor to LegalWills in the online will/estate planning category, with a much larger marketing budget.

Emerging players

• Gentreo: Online estate planning service for wills, healthcare directives, and power of attorney, with a focus on family-centered UX. Directly comparable to LegalWills on the will/POA creation product with overlap in target market.
• Cake: End-of-life planning platform that helps users create wills, pre-plan funerals, and organize affairs. Comparable to LegalWills' MyFuneral and MyWill products, with stronger funeral-planning vertical depth.
• Wealth.com: Estate planning platform focused on financial advisors and wealth management firms, with consumer-facing will tools. Adjacent competitor that overlaps with LegalWills on the underlying document generation technology but sells primarily B2B.
• Fabric (by Homrich): Modern online estate planning platform offering wills, life insurance, and beneficiary management. Comparable to LegalWills in will creation and target customer, with a younger brand and a more integrated insurance offering.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/legalwills
• Xx.com/legalwills

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about LegalWills