As an attorney who not only drafts estate planning documents such as wills, trusts, guardianships, powers of attorney and healthcare directives—I also assist clients who need help administering a loved one’s estate. Often times these clients are coming to me because their loved one used a “Do IT Yourself” or “DIY” estate plan. Though such plans can save money on the front end, they can cost your estate, and thus your beneficiaries, a lot of money on the back end. In most cases that I see, it costs substantially more money to resolve the issues caused by DIY documents than it would have cost to have a specialized estate planning attorney prepare them in the first place. Additionally, such errors arising from DIY estate planning can burden beneficiaries and executors with a significant amount of discomforting stress precisely at a time when they are already grieving and emotionally fragile.
A few years back Consumer Reports reviewed a number of DIY providers, including Legal Zoom, Nolo and Rocket Lawyer. The report cited a number of concerns and offered the following verdict. “Unless your needs are simple—say, you want to leave your entire estate to your spouse—none of the will-writing products is likely to entirely meet your needs. And in some cases, the documents aren’t specific enough or contain language that could lead to “an unintended result.” Some such unintended results that I’ve seen include disinheriting intended beneficiaries, legal insufficiencies with regards to asset protections and clauses not up to date with current laws.
If you happen to already have already a DIY estate plan in place, I recommend having an estate planning attorney review the documents. Sometimes just a few simple amendments can resolve complicated errors and thus provide your loved ones with the intended assets and peace of mind.
Contact us if we can help you.
