4 Reasons to Avoid Do-It-Yourself Will Drafting Apps
1. Offset the law of unintended consequences
You know the old adage, “For every action there is an unintended consequence.” If you choose to write your own Will, or rely on someone else’s form, you increase the risk of not having your intentions followed.
Wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and business agreements are full of complex terminology and traps for those without experience or knowledge in estate planning.
The problem is that your words will eventually be interpreted by someone else — most likely by a lawyer who is trained to prove the ambiguous nature of your words. You won’t be around to explain what you really meant. Or perhaps that “friendly” business partner is survived by a “greedy” spouse who knows you and her husband never actually reviewed the provisions of that LLC operating agreement you copied from a book.
Estate planning is a skilled craft that requires technical knowledge, experience, and tools, not just the latter. At its essence, the estate planning profession exists to reduce the possibility your decisions will lead to unintended consequences.
Consider the firefighter profession. All they do is spray water on a burning house. No problem, right? Actually, the firefighter undergoes extensive training and learns a highly skilled craft. So does the schoolteacher who does much more than follow someone else’s lesson plan.
Like any other skilled profession, the estate planner will learn things about his or her trade that cannot be learned from a book. Insights may come in a flash, but understanding cannot. If you’re going to make the effort to plan for something as important as this, it’s worth some additional effort to ensure your planning will actually work the way you intended.
2. Incentive to move forward
An important part of my job description is to help you resist the procrastination bug for something that is very easy to put off until it’s too late. Who wants to think about issues relating to death, incapacity, or business partnership break-up? Not many of us.
Just talking about it or acknowledging the importance of estate planning is not enough. You need to actually get it done.
By hiring a lawyer you will apply pressure on yourself to move forward. The pressure may be financial because you are spending hard-earned dollars to do so. In other cases, having a lawyer keep reminding you to come back in for that next appointment is the one little act that helps you press on toward the completion of your estate plan. An estate planning lawyer can also remind you to keep the plan up-to-date over the years.
3. Self help products are dangerous
I am very familiar with many of the self-help products found on the Internet like Legal Zoom and Suze Orman’s Will and Trust Kit, but cannot recommend any of them. There is no substitute for the benefit of interacting with someone who is familiar with local laws and customs. Unfortunately, these programs fail to incorporate many critical provisions of the Arizona Trust Code and Arizona Probate rules.
In fact, the Suze Orman software, for example, uses California forms rather than attempt to create Arizona-specific documents. Perhaps the nominal cost for the kit is worth it to learn more about estate planning in general, but don’t expect the kit to provide a comprehensive estate plan.
My experience has been that documents created by self-help drafting software can lead to a number of different problems, including:
Forming an estate plan involves a number of important decisions regarding the selection of trustees and beneficiaries, tax planning, the timing or conditions for distributions, and other important issues, all of which may require the advice of a professional. Some things in life -and death -are worth paying an expert for.
4. Estate planning is a highly specialized area of law
I feel that it is absolutely essential to obtain counsel from an estate planning lawyer, not just any kind of lawyer.
The legal profession, like the medical profession, is full of specialized practice areas. This means that a lawyer who practices criminal law or family law is not likely to know much at all about estate planning.
In estate planning, there are many complex and emotional decisions to make, and you should have someone who understands the complexities of the law to advise you -objectively - on the available options and the effect of each option on both taxes and your overall estate plan.
A lawyer who dabbles in estate planning is not likely to attend any relevant educational seminars or be aware of recent law changes.
About the Author
Thomas J. Bouman provides legal counsel in the areas of estate planning, estate settlement, and asset protection. He brings a highly systematic approach to the practice of law, which is critically important when wading through the complex, and often bizarre, legal requirements associated with estate and trust law. Mr. Bouman is author of the Arizona Estate Administration Answer Book and a prominent member of Wealth Counsel, LLC, the nation’s premiere organization of estate planning attorneys.
You know the old adage, “For every action there is an unintended consequence.” If you choose to write your own Will, or rely on someone else’s form, you increase the risk of not having your intentions followed.
Wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and business agreements are full of complex terminology and traps for those without experience or knowledge in estate planning.
The problem is that your words will eventually be interpreted by someone else — most likely by a lawyer who is trained to prove the ambiguous nature of your words. You won’t be around to explain what you really meant. Or perhaps that “friendly” business partner is survived by a “greedy” spouse who knows you and her husband never actually reviewed the provisions of that LLC operating agreement you copied from a book.
Estate planning is a skilled craft that requires technical knowledge, experience, and tools, not just the latter. At its essence, the estate planning profession exists to reduce the possibility your decisions will lead to unintended consequences.
Consider the firefighter profession. All they do is spray water on a burning house. No problem, right? Actually, the firefighter undergoes extensive training and learns a highly skilled craft. So does the schoolteacher who does much more than follow someone else’s lesson plan.
Like any other skilled profession, the estate planner will learn things about his or her trade that cannot be learned from a book. Insights may come in a flash, but understanding cannot. If you’re going to make the effort to plan for something as important as this, it’s worth some additional effort to ensure your planning will actually work the way you intended.
2. Incentive to move forward
An important part of my job description is to help you resist the procrastination bug for something that is very easy to put off until it’s too late. Who wants to think about issues relating to death, incapacity, or business partnership break-up? Not many of us.
Just talking about it or acknowledging the importance of estate planning is not enough. You need to actually get it done.
By hiring a lawyer you will apply pressure on yourself to move forward. The pressure may be financial because you are spending hard-earned dollars to do so. In other cases, having a lawyer keep reminding you to come back in for that next appointment is the one little act that helps you press on toward the completion of your estate plan. An estate planning lawyer can also remind you to keep the plan up-to-date over the years.
3. Self help products are dangerous
I am very familiar with many of the self-help products found on the Internet like Legal Zoom and Suze Orman’s Will and Trust Kit, but cannot recommend any of them. There is no substitute for the benefit of interacting with someone who is familiar with local laws and customs. Unfortunately, these programs fail to incorporate many critical provisions of the Arizona Trust Code and Arizona Probate rules.
In fact, the Suze Orman software, for example, uses California forms rather than attempt to create Arizona-specific documents. Perhaps the nominal cost for the kit is worth it to learn more about estate planning in general, but don’t expect the kit to provide a comprehensive estate plan.
My experience has been that documents created by self-help drafting software can lead to a number of different problems, including:
- It is impossible for a form document to adequately satisfy everyone’s individual needs. (Do you wear “one size fits all” clothing?)
- Your planning options are severely limited. For example, LegalZoom assumes the use of restricted beneficiary trusts until age 21, even though most people prefer an older age. Special needs trusts, inheritance protection trusts, charitable remainder trusts, and IRA beneficiary trusts are all omitted from the program.
- If a variety of options are offered in order to cover different situations, there is a great danger that the reader will select the wrong option for his or her situation.
- Local courts and financial institutions are often reluctant to accept documents that do not comply with local practice in appearance or terminology, even if the forms technically comply with the laws of that state.
Forming an estate plan involves a number of important decisions regarding the selection of trustees and beneficiaries, tax planning, the timing or conditions for distributions, and other important issues, all of which may require the advice of a professional. Some things in life -and death -are worth paying an expert for.
4. Estate planning is a highly specialized area of law
I feel that it is absolutely essential to obtain counsel from an estate planning lawyer, not just any kind of lawyer.
The legal profession, like the medical profession, is full of specialized practice areas. This means that a lawyer who practices criminal law or family law is not likely to know much at all about estate planning.
In estate planning, there are many complex and emotional decisions to make, and you should have someone who understands the complexities of the law to advise you -objectively - on the available options and the effect of each option on both taxes and your overall estate plan.
A lawyer who dabbles in estate planning is not likely to attend any relevant educational seminars or be aware of recent law changes.
About the Author
Thomas J. Bouman provides legal counsel in the areas of estate planning, estate settlement, and asset protection. He brings a highly systematic approach to the practice of law, which is critically important when wading through the complex, and often bizarre, legal requirements associated with estate and trust law. Mr. Bouman is author of the Arizona Estate Administration Answer Book and a prominent member of Wealth Counsel, LLC, the nation’s premiere organization of estate planning attorneys.