Craig Parker explains the key differences, pros and cons, and how to start a living trust or will.
In this video, Craig Parker, Assistant General Counsel at Trust & Will, explains how wills and trusts work, their key differences, and how to decide which option fits your situation. Whether you’re just starting your estate plan or exploring a living trust, this guide walks you through the basics in clear, simple terms.
Key Takeaways
What a will does (and what it doesn’t)
How a living trust works during your lifetime
The pros and cons of a living trust vs a will
When it makes sense to have both
How a pour-over will and living will fit into your estate plan
How to create a living trust online from the comfort of your home
To learn more or connect with Trust & Will, please visit their website at https://trustandwill.com/.
About the Author:
Craig Parker Assistant General Counsel Trust & Will
Craig Parker is Assistant General Counsel at Trust & Will, a California-licensed attorney certified as a Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust, and Probate Law with over 25 years of experience representing individuals, fiduciaries, and public agencies in complex probate, trust, and conservatorship matters. He now serves as a subject matter expert at Trust & Will, helping modernize estate planning nationwide.
Across the credit union community, I’m seeing renewed energy around HELOCs and closed-end home equity loans. Rising rates have slowed first mortgages, but they’ve also created an opportunity for members to tap into the equity they’ve built over the past several years. For many credit unions, home equity feels like the most logical place to focus.
But here’s something I’ve noticed in conversations with lending leaders: we’re often trying to run modern home equity programs on infrastructure built for first mortgages.
On the surface, that makes sense. The mortgage LOS is already in place. The team knows how to use it. There’s history and investment there. Why reinvent the wheel?
The challenge is that home equity isn’t just a “smaller mortgage.” Operationally, it behaves very differently.
Home equity borrowers aren’t buying a home. They’re accessing value they already have. They’ve usually shopped around. They’re often ready to move quickly. And increasingly, they expect a digital, transparent experience that doesn’t drag on for 45 days.
When we run those loans through mortgage-centric systems, friction shows up in subtle ways.
I hear it in things like:
“Our cycle times are creeping past 30 days.”
“We have strong application volume, but pull-through isn’t where we want it.”
“We’re using a lot of manual tracking to keep files moving.”
“It feels harder than it should be.”
None of those issues necessarily point to bad teams. In fact, most credit union lending teams I work with are incredibly capable. More often, they point to systems that weren’t designed for the speed and variability of home equity.
Mortgage platforms tend to assume a linear, milestone-driven process. Home equity often requires parallel workstreams. Mortgage applications are detailed and exhaustive by design. Home equity borrowers typically don’t want to answer dozens of questions that aren’t relevant to their situation. Service ordering in a mortgage workflow can be rigid, while home equity frequently calls for more dynamic decisioning based on LTV or loan size.
Individually, these don’t seem like major obstacles. But collectively, they slow things down.
I sometimes refer to this as the “mortgage mindset,” recognizing that many of our processes were built around purchase-driven lending cycles. When that mindset carries over into home equity, we risk overcomplicating something that members expect to be straightforward.
From a leadership perspective, this isn’t just about technology. It’s about alignment.
If home equity is going to be a strategic growth area for credit unions over the next several years (and I believe it will be), then we have to ask a few honest questions:
Are our cycle times aligned with member expectations?
Can we clearly see where loans stall in the pipeline?
Are we making it easy for members to complete applications on their phones?
Can we adjust workflows quickly when policy or product changes?
If the answer to those questions is “not easily,” the issue may not be staffing or effort. It may be infrastructure.
One of the strengths of the CUSO model is that we don’t have to solve these challenges alone. Collaboration and shared services have always been part of how credit unions compete effectively without losing their cooperative identity. That same spirit applies here. Modernizing home equity operations doesn’t necessarily mean ripping out core systems. It means layering in tools, refining workflows, or partnering differently to reduce friction.
What I’ve learned is this: small operational gaps compound quickly in home equity. A few extra days waiting on a service order. A manual handoff between departments. An application that’s harder to complete on mobile than it should be. Each seems minor. Together, they shape the member experience and determine whether growth is sustainable.
Credit unions are well-positioned in this market. Members trust them. They value the relationship. That’s a significant advantage over purely digital lenders.
But trust alone isn’t enough. Execution matters.
If we want home equity to be more than a short-term rate-cycle play, we have to ensure our operational model supports scale, speed and consistency. That requires stepping back and asking whether we’re designing processes around how members behave today — or around how mortgages have historically worked.
My perspective is simple: home equity deserves its own strategy. Not just in pricing and marketing, but in workflow, reporting and member engagement.
The good news? Most credit unions don’t need to start from scratch. They need clarity on where friction exists and a willingness to rethink long-standing assumptions.
That conversation is already happening across the CUSO community. And I think that’s a healthy sign for where home equity lending is headed next.
Omar Jordan is the Founder & CEO of Coviance, a Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO) and lending experience platform purpose-built for home equity. Omar is passionate about helping credit unions compete effectively while staying true to their member-first mission.
Each year, thousands of credit union leaders gather in Washington, D.C. for the Governmental Affairs Conference (GAC). While the conference is known for its energy, scale, and tradition, at its core GAC represents something far more important: the collective voice of the credit union movement engaging directly with policymakers about the future of our industry.
This year, NACUSO was proud to be part of that conversation.
For the CUSO community, advocacy matters. Credit Union Service Organizations have long been one of the credit union system’s most powerful tools for collaboration, innovation, and scale. From lending platforms and payments infrastructure to insurance and operational services, CUSOs allow credit unions to work together to build solutions that none could create alone.
Yet despite how much the industry has evolved, the regulatory and statutory framework governing CUSOs has largely remained unchanged for decades. That is why NACUSO continues to ensure that the voice of the CUSO community is represented in policy conversations in Washington.
Throughout the week at GAC we spent time engaging with industry partners, regulators, and policymakers about the role CUSOs play in strengthening credit unions and expanding their ability to serve members. A central theme of these conversations was the need to modernize policies that affect credit union collaboration and innovation.
In particular, NACUSO continues to advocate for reforms that would modernize the CUSO investment cap, which today limits how much credit unions can invest in collaborative ventures designed to benefit the broader system. While the details of any potential legislative approach are still evolving, one encouraging takeaway from this year’s conference was the growing recognition across the credit union ecosystem that modernization may be necessary to reflect how CUSOs operate today.
Another recurring theme during the week was the importance of data and transparency around the CUSO sector. As policymakers increasingly evaluate how collaboration and innovation function within financial services, having reliable information about the scale and impact of CUSOs will be critical in shaping future regulatory discussions.
Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of the week, however, was the broader spirit of collaboration across the industry. Credit union leagues, trade associations, regulators, and policymakers all share a common goal: ensuring that credit unions remain strong, innovative, and capable of serving their members in an increasingly competitive financial marketplace.
CUSOs are a vital part of that equation.
They represent the credit union system’s ability to pool resources, share risk, and create solutions that benefit the entire movement. As new technologies emerge and financial services continue to evolve, the role of CUSOs in supporting credit union innovation will only grow more important.
That is why NACUSO’s advocacy efforts remain so critical. Ensuring that policymakers understand the value of collaboration—and the role CUSOs play in enabling it—is essential to protecting and expanding the opportunities available to credit unions in the future.
The conversations that begin at events like GAC rarely end there. Instead, they serve as the starting point for the ongoing work of education, coalition-building, and policy development that takes place throughout the year.
For NACUSO, that work continues.
Because when credit unions collaborate, the entire system becomes stronger—and advocacy ensures that the framework supporting that collaboration continues to evolve alongside the industry it serves.
“uncertainty does create an opportunity for credit unions and CUSOs to leverage their collaborative relationships”
Support NACUSO’s Advocacy Efforts
NACUSO is committed to ensuring that CUSOs, credit unions, and their service partners have a strong, unified voice in regulatory and legislative conversations—especially as rules around innovation, data sharing, and consumer choice continue to evolve.
Your support makes this work possible. If your organization believes in the importance of thoughtful, future-focused advocacy, please consider contributing to the NACUSO Advocacy Fund. Together, we can shape a regulatory environment that empowers collaboration and keeps credit unions competitive.
