Fifth Third and Trust & Will Receive Finovate Recognition for Innovative Fintech Partnership
Fifth Third and Trust & Will have been recognized as the Best Fintech Partnership at the 2026 Finovate Awards, highlighting a collaboration designed to make estate planning more accessible, affordable and convenient for banking customers.
The recognition acknowledges the companies’ work to integrate estate planning into the banking experience and provide customers with tools that can help them prepare for the financial needs of their families and beneficiaries.
The award also marks a notable achievement for Fifth Third, which is the only large U.S. bank to receive a 2026 Finovate Award. The Finovate Awards recognize organizations and partnerships across more than 30 categories covering areas including payments, lending, wealth management, artificial intelligence and financial technology.
The recognition reflects the growing role of fintech partnerships in expanding the services offered by traditional financial institutions. By working with specialized technology companies, banks can introduce additional financial tools while integrating them into established customer relationships and digital platforms.
Expanding Access to Estate Planning
Fifth Third launched its partnership with Trust & Will in 2025 as part of an effort to address one of the often-overlooked aspects of financial preparedness: estate planning.
Through the partnership, Fifth Third became the first and only U.S. bank to offer free, attorney-approved wills to all of its customers.
The initiative is designed to remove a significant barrier to estate planning by eliminating the cost associated with creating a will through the program. It also allows customers to access estate-planning resources through an institution they already use for their financial needs.
Estate planning can play an important role in helping individuals establish how assets should be handled and distributed. However, many people do not complete an estate plan, whether because of cost, complexity, lack of awareness or the perception that estate planning is only necessary for individuals with substantial wealth.
Fifth Third and Trust & Will’s collaboration seeks to address these barriers by making the process more accessible to a broader customer base.
Tens of Thousands of Customers Create Estate Plans
The first year of the partnership generated substantial customer participation.
According to Fifth Third, tens of thousands of customers created estate plans through the program during its first year. Collectively, those plans represented more than $10 billion in protected estate value.
The initiative also reached thousands of people who were creating an estate plan for the first time.
This aspect of the program is particularly significant because estate planning is frequently associated with later stages of life or higher levels of wealth. By incorporating estate-planning services into the banking relationship, Fifth Third is extending access to customers who may not otherwise have taken the step of creating a will.
The partnership therefore combines technology with financial education and planning, giving customers another tool to address long-term financial responsibilities.
A Broader Approach to Financial Wellness
The collaboration reflects Fifth Third’s broader approach to financial wellness.
Rather than limiting financial services to everyday banking, payments, deposits and lending, the Bank has continued to expand its digital capabilities to support customers with a wider range of financial decisions.
Estate planning is one example of this broader approach.
A customer’s financial needs can extend from managing daily cash flow to preparing for major life events, protecting assets, establishing beneficiaries and planning for the future. Providing access to complementary services can help integrate some of these activities into the customer’s overall financial relationship.
For Fifth Third, the Trust & Will partnership provides an example of how fintech collaboration can extend the capabilities of a traditional bank without requiring the institution to develop every specialized service internally.
Fintech Partnerships Support Faster Innovation
Fifth Third’s Best Fintech Partnership recognition also highlights its strategy of collaborating with specialized financial technology companies.
The Bank has emphasized partnerships as a way to bring new capabilities to customers more quickly and at scale.
This approach is supported by a technology and data infrastructure designed to connect products, channels and customer experiences across the organization.
Fifth Third has invested in cloud-native platforms, application programming interface-based connectivity and advanced decisioning capabilities. These technologies allow the Bank to integrate new services and develop digital experiences across multiple customer touchpoints.
For customers, the objective is to make interactions more seamless regardless of whether they engage with Fifth Third through a branch, telephone, website or mobile application.
Connecting Technology Across the Customer Experience
Modern banking customers increasingly expect financial services to work together across different channels.
A customer may begin a financial activity on a mobile device, seek assistance by telephone and later complete the process through another digital or physical channel.
A unified technology foundation can help banks maintain continuity across those interactions.
Fifth Third’s investment in cloud infrastructure, APIs and data capabilities is intended to support this type of connected experience.
The Bank’s fintech partnership strategy builds on that foundation by allowing external technology solutions to become part of the broader customer journey.
The Trust & Will collaboration illustrates this approach. Instead of requiring customers to independently search for an estate-planning provider, Fifth Third makes the service available as part of its banking relationship.
Fifth Third Highlights Customer-Centric Innovation
Erin Crawford, Vice President and Head of Consumer Digital, Payments and Money Management at Fifth Third, said the Bank views financial wellness as extending beyond traditional banking services.
According to Crawford, the Bank’s fintech partnership strategy is designed to bring innovative solutions to customers more quickly and seamlessly.
She cited estate planning alongside other customer-focused capabilities, including tools that can help customers switch direct deposits and make important financial decisions.
Crawford also highlighted the Finovate recognition as an acknowledgment of the impact of the Trust & Will partnership and the value that technology collaborations can provide to customers.
The comments reflect Fifth Third’s strategy of using partnerships to expand the range of services available through its banking ecosystem.
Trust & Will Brings Specialized Estate-Planning Technology
Trust & Will provides the specialized technology and estate-planning capabilities underlying the partnership.
By combining Trust & Will’s estate-planning platform with Fifth Third’s customer base and banking infrastructure, the collaboration provides customers with access to digital estate-planning resources through their existing financial relationship.
The model also illustrates how fintech companies can work with established banks to reach customers at scale.
For fintech providers, partnerships with banks can provide access to established distribution networks and customer relationships. For banks, fintech collaborations can provide specialized capabilities and help accelerate the delivery of new services.
The recognition from Finovate places this partnership within the broader evolution of collaboration between financial institutions and financial technology companies.
Digital Banking Remains a Key Investment Area
The Trust & Will partnership is part of a wider digital transformation strategy at Fifth Third.
The Bank continues to invest in products and digital experiences intended to provide customers with greater convenience, control and access to financial information.
Fifth Third Momentum Banking is one component of this strategy, offering customers a range of digital banking capabilities.
The Bank’s mobile application also provides customers with access to features designed around everyday financial management and banking convenience.
Among the services highlighted by Fifth Third are Early Pay and Extra Time, which are designed to provide customers with additional flexibility in managing their finances.
The Bank has also continued developing personalized digital experiences, real-time payment capabilities and security features.
Expanding Mobile Banking Capabilities
Fifth Third’s mobile app serves millions of monthly users and supports more than one billion digital interactions each year.
The scale of activity demonstrates the importance of digital channels within the Bank’s customer experience strategy.
As customers increasingly use smartphones and online platforms for everyday banking, banks are investing in mobile capabilities that go beyond basic account access.
Digital platforms can provide customers with payment tools, account management capabilities, personalized financial information, security controls and access to additional financial services.
Fifth Third’s ongoing investment in its mobile platform provides the infrastructure through which these capabilities can be delivered to customers.
Strengthening Security and Real-Time Payments
In addition to convenience-focused services, Fifth Third has continued investing in digital security and payment capabilities.
The Bank’s SmartShield security tools are designed to provide customers with additional protection as they conduct financial activities through digital channels.
Real-time payment capabilities represent another area of digital investment, reflecting broader changes in the payments industry as customers and businesses seek faster movement of funds.
These capabilities form part of a broader digital ecosystem in which banking, payments, financial planning and security services increasingly intersect.
Finovate Recognition Reflects Broader Industry Trends
The 2026 Finovate Award for Best Fintech Partnership recognizes the collaboration between Fifth Third and Trust & Will at a time when partnerships between banks and technology companies continue to influence the development of financial services.
Traditional banks have increasingly turned to fintech companies to expand digital capabilities, introduce specialized services and respond to changing customer expectations.
At the same time, fintech companies can benefit from established financial institutions’ infrastructure, regulatory expertise, distribution capabilities and customer relationships.
The Fifth Third and Trust & Will partnership provides an example of this model applied to estate planning.
By making attorney-approved wills available at no cost to customers, the initiative focuses on accessibility while integrating estate planning into a broader financial-services relationship.
Bringing Estate Planning into Everyday Financial Conversations
One of the key aspects of the partnership is its potential to make estate planning part of a customer’s broader financial planning process.
For many consumers, creating a will can be viewed as a separate legal or financial task rather than an element of everyday financial wellness.
Making estate-planning tools available through a bank can place the subject closer to other financial activities such as savings, payments, investments and money management.
The participation levels recorded during the partnership’s first year indicate significant customer interest in the service.
With tens of thousands of customers creating estate plans and more than $10 billion in estate value represented through those plans, the initiative has demonstrated the potential reach of digitally delivered estate-planning services.
Continuing the Digital Financial Wellness Strategy
Fifth Third’s recognition from Finovate highlights the role of fintech partnerships within the Bank’s broader digital strategy.
The collaboration with Trust & Will combines specialized estate-planning technology with Fifth Third’s banking infrastructure, providing customers with access to a service that addresses long-term financial preparedness.
At the same time, the Bank continues to develop its digital banking platform, payment capabilities, security tools and customer experiences.
Together, these initiatives reflect an approach in which financial institutions increasingly provide customers with a broader range of tools covering both everyday financial needs and longer-term planning.
The Best Fintech Partnership award recognizes the Trust & Will collaboration within that wider transformation, highlighting how partnerships between established banks and fintech companies can create new ways for customers to access financial services.
For Fifth Third, the recognition adds to its ongoing investment in digital banking and financial wellness, while the Trust & Will partnership demonstrates how estate planning can be incorporated into a modern banking experience.
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