It may seem cheap, quick and easy to get your estate plan done using an online do-it-yourself legal document creation service. But the downside of these DIY services is that there is NO ONE to guide you and guarantee that you have accurate, complete or even semi-functional legal estate documents in place.  (Which means what you print may not even be worth the cost of that printer ink!)

Legal Zoom does not lose their license if you do not fill out their form and sign it correctly.  Without an experienced estate planning attorney to guide you through the process of creating a comprehensive estate plan, the likelihood of having an actual complete and functional plan in case of emergency is slim to none. So without further ado let’s talk about why this is the case.

 

Doing It Online: No Guarantee your Plan is Complete

I get it.  Who wants to go to an attorney to do anything?  They are expensive, they are inconvenient, they speak in a different language and they seem to make things more confusing than they need to be. Online legal Do-it-Yourself services seem really accessible, super inexpensive, and you don’t even have to leave your desk to get-er-done. It really does look easy, cheap and inexpensive to do it this way.  It may even be faster.

The downside however, is that you get what you pay for. You get legal forms that you are left alone to fill out. And you have to guess which forms to download to create a complete estate plan. And if you are most people, you do not know all the documents that are included in a complete estate plan and you do not know how to fill them out accurately and completely.  Last but not least, no one actually ever signs these documents in the way that is required by the state they live in to make them legally viable documents.  The result then from these DIY services is an incomplete, and not legally recognized plan. They are not worth the ink you used to print them.

 

A DIY Service Only Provides you FORMS…. not Legal Advice

A do-it-yourself (DIY) service does not lose their law license if you fill out the forms wrong or fail to sign them correctly. It does not get sued for malpractice if you fail to choose all the forms you need for your unique family circumstance to ensure you have a comprehensive plan. You are instead left alone in a world of confusing lawyer language – we call it “legalese,” with no one to translate, and make sure you understand correctly.  As a result, when doing it yourself you miss important details, you misunderstand what the form is asking for, and your plan doesn’t have everything it needs to do its job for you when the time comes.

Finally, online DIY services do not give you detailed instructions on how to finalize your estate plan.  It does not tell you how and when to sign your documents and all of the other things you need to do besides filling out the forms to create a complete estate plan.  Other instructions missing include; how to fund your trust, beneficiary designations, creating a legally binding pet trust/pet legal guardian, appointing short term guardians for your children, and making sure your house is protected. The list goes on. Because all you are paying for is a fillable PDF.  You are not getting instructions on how to create an actual legally binding estate plan, and the DIY Service is not liable to you or your family if you fail to use the forms the way they intended. They are not liable if people forget to sign their documents or if when they do sign them, you don’t sign them properly. At the end of the day you bought a form, not an estate plan, so there is no guarantee that you have an actual legally binding estate plan in place.

 

Working With An Attorney: Ensures You are Buying a Legally Binding Estate Plan

The first benefit of working with an experienced Estate Planning attorney is that you have an advocate who will translate the language of the law for you.  We call that especially confusing legal language “Legalese.”  You are not left alone having to guess if you are filling out forms correctly, or what forms you need.  At Latterell Law we listen to you, in your own words, to understand what you want, and then we translate your goals into the legal documents and other tools you need. We do not confuse you with legal language, or force you to figure it out for yourself, we translate the legalese for you making sure you have a functional and legally binding estate plan that works when you need it.

Most people do not even know where to start when creating an estate plan. You are in a foreign land, without a map and you do not speak the language.  When you work with an experienced attorney they act as a tour guide for you. In my firm we give you a simple place to start, and we guide you step-by-step through the process to make sure we have left no stone unturned, no place in your life unexamined, so that we have the right people in the right place doing the right things in your legal documents, and that we have done all the other necessary steps necessary to make sure your comprehensive plan does what it is intended to do when the time comes.

Hands on Consultation to Make Sure Your Plan Works When You Need It Most

Finally, there are things you need to do after you sign your legal documents to ensure that your estate plan works as intended. What is UNIQUE about my firm is that we are not just going to give you your legal documents and send you on your way.  We are going to hold your hand until you have completed all the other practical and administrative steps necessary to complete your plan. This step is often missed, even by attorneys, but is most certainly not provided by DIY legal form providers.  At Latterell Law we provide unlimited consultation to ensure you have a plan that does what it is supposed to do, and that you understand how to use it.  And then we sit down with you every three years to make sure your estate plan is always up to date.  And this is all included in one flat rate. You pay us once and you get our support for life and beyond (because we’ll help your family after you are gone too).

DIY legal services may look cheap and easy but at the end of the day they do not work. It is garbage in, garbage out.  If you do not know how to read the language or fill out all of the correct forms DIY form providers are a waste of time and money, providing a false sense of security.

Instead of risking leaving your loved ones in a world of hurt when you die because your plan is incomplete or not even legally binding – you can hire an experienced estate planning attorney who will listen to you, speak your language, and make the process of creating a comprehensive estate plan easy to navigate. Hiring an attorney will guarantee you have a complete and legally binding plan in place.  It is an investment in peace of mind to ensure that your plan will work when you need it most.

If you would like to get started on the path to creating a comprehensive estate plan that will work for you when the time comes, use the link below to book a call with us today.