Fifth Third has launched a digital platform for consumers looking for a straightforward approach to estate management.
For $99 a year, users can access an asset manager service that catalogs, tracks and distributes assets. The LegacyLink platform also offers educational content and interactive checklists to anyone wishing to use the resources free of charge, Fifth Third said in an announcement on Monday.
The launch comes as banks and other players in the advisory industry vie for the $30 trillion in wealth that is expected to change hands in next several decades.
"Most people don't like to talk about death, let alone plan for their own," Mike Michael, head of Fifth Third's Wealth and Asset Management business, said in a statement. "Fifth Third wanted to find a way to demystify estate planning and executor duties, finding a new way to guide families through the difficult process."
The digital platform gives users the choice of working with an adviser or completing estate planning tasks entirely on their own. It is available online and via mobile app.
In preparation for the launch of the platform, Fifth Third said it spent two years hosting focus groups, surveying millennials, gen-Xers and baby boomers, conducting one-on-one interviews and researching estate planning and estate settlement trends.
Millennials and many others want more of a do-it-yourself model, said Daniela Demaria, the bank's managing director of strategic business development. "We learned that the way people want to manage their estates has changed. And although millennials aren't the first group we think of in estate planning, it's a process that touches all ages," she said.
