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Exit news: MetLife to buy Miami-based Willing

Nancy Dahlberg
Nancy Dahlberg
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By Nancy Dahlberg
Financial services giant MetLife announced Wednesday that it had agreed to acquire Willing, the Miami-based startup that makes it easy to create a will or other estate-planning documents in as little as 15 minutes. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Founded by Eliam Medina in 2015, Willing has helped more than half a million families create important legal documents such as wills, trusts, and powers of attorney.
“Whether you’re on Willing after having a baby, buying a home, or are just planning for the unexpected, our mission has always been about protecting the people you love,” said Medina, Willing’s CEO, in a statement. “MetLife is a global leader in protection solutions and together we can quickly scale Willing’s technology to make quality estate planning easy and affordable to millions of families.”
Medina was inspired to create Willing after helping his aunt get her affairs in order. But even with his Columbia MBA and years of working for McKinsey and in private equity, he was not prepared for the inefficient, confusing, time-consuming estate-planning world. Medina set out to change that with a digital solution for the half the population that had no legal will, he said in 2015.
Medina, the son of Cuban immigrants, lured marquee early investors like actor Ashton Kutcher, Christine Tsai, co-founder of 500 Startups, and Gary Vaynerchuk of VaynerMedia, and went through Silicon Valley accelerator Y-Combinator with his co-founder, Rob Dyson. Over the years, the company raised at least $7.1 million in venture capital, according to Crunchbase.
The acquisition is set to close this year. Willing’s services will continue to be offered to consumers online, and MetLife plans  to make the services available to MetLife’s group customers.
“Willing complements Hyatt Legal, our existing legal services offering, and positions us to lead the industry by offering customers more choices in how they address their estate planning needs,” said Todd Katz, executive vice president, Group Benefits at MetLife.
Pictured above: Eliam Medina in 2015.
Follow @ndahlberg on Twitter and email me at [email protected].

Nancy Dahlberg
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