Online Estate Planning and Wills: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Trust & Will led the Online Estate Planning and Wills benchmark in August 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 76.9%, down from 85.2% in July 2026. LegalZoom followed at 69.4% in August 2026, down from 80.8% in July 2026, a gap of 7.5 points between the two leaders.

The largest coverage increase came from Tomorrow, which rose to 2.3% in August 2026 from 0.0% in July 2026, a move beyond normal month-to-month variation. The largest coverage decline was Rocket Lawyer, falling to 42.4% in August 2026 from 66.7% in July 2026, a drop of 24.3 points.

The month was marked by broad declines among established brands. Beyond Rocket Lawyer, notable coverage decreases were recorded for Quicken WillMaker & Trust (down 20.7 points to 55.7%), LegalZoom (down 11.4 points to 69.4%), FreeWill (down 9.0 points to 65.1%), Trust & Will (down 8.3 points to 76.9%), and GoodTrust (down 6.3 points to 6.5%).

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 307 qualified observations in August 2026 and 297 in July 2026 after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI/search surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Online Estate Planning and Wills

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design.

Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection. See the AI Market Discovery Methodology.

Current Brand Standings

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned at all.
• Valid recommendation coverage: share of qualified observations where the brand appears in a valid recommendation shortlist.
• Top-three rate: share of qualified observations where the brand appears in the top three recommended positions.
• Rank-one rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is the first recommendation.
• Net sentiment: positive minus negative mentions divided by total mentions.

For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Largest Increase: Tomorrow

Tomorrow rose to 2.3% valid recommendation coverage in August 2026 from 0.0% in July 2026, a move beyond normal variation. Its presence rate also increased to 2.9% from 0.3%, and it first registered in the top three at 1.0% and at rank one at 0.3%.

Largest Decline: Rocket Lawyer

Rocket Lawyer fell to 42.4% valid recommendation coverage in August 2026 from 66.7% in July 2026, a decline of 24.3 points beyond normal variation. Its presence rate dropped to 52.4% from 76.1%, while top-three placement held comparatively steady at 10.1% in August 2026 versus 10.8% in July 2026.

Category Leader: Trust & Will

Trust & Will retained the lead in August 2026 with 76.9% valid recommendation coverage, despite declining from 85.2% in July 2026. Its rank-one rate was 30.6% in August 2026, a much stronger first-choice position than its coverage lead suggests.

Additional notable declines this month: Quicken WillMaker & Trust fell to 55.7% in August 2026 from 76.4% in July 2026; LegalZoom fell to 69.4% from 80.8%; FreeWill fell to 65.1% from 74.1%; GoodTrust fell to 6.5% from 12.8%. These moves were all beyond normal month-to-month variation.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. The leading cluster shows notable differences between top-three and first-position rates.

Trust & Will and LegalZoom both saw their top-three rates fall in August 2026 while rank-one rates moved in different directions: Trust & Will edged up to 30.6% from 29.3%, while LegalZoom fell to 15.6% from 25.9%. Close coverage can still hide different first-position rates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in both months fell into the Brand Recommendation class.

The current public series measures brand-recommendation discovery and does not yet contain qualified observations in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

Evidence and Source Layer

The benchmark is built from prompt-level observations that retain the query, AI/search surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and, where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources. Source presence is evidence about the information environment. It is not automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure market share, attributable sales, every possible AI response, organic-search ranking, social mention volume, or private or sponsored channels. A metric movement alone does not establish causality.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index tracks how often brands are recommended across major AI answer and search surfaces. It is updated monthly and measures presence, valid recommendation coverage, top-three and rank-one placement, and net sentiment.

• AI Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Market Discovery Metric Definitions
• AI Market Discovery Research Standards
• Modeled AI Authority Value

Get a Company-Level Authority Index

The public industry benchmark shows category-level standings. A company-level Authority Index can go deeper.

Get my free AI Company Index