Do-it-yourself estate documents – the attractions and the dangers
In an effort to avoid costly legal services, many people have entrusted their estate planning needs to proliferating online companies. Using their services, clients receive a prepared will just a couple of days after filling out an online questionnaire about their last wishes. These companies include instructions about the signing, witnessing, and notarization procedures required by each state, and claim that they are keeping abreast of the newest legislative developments. Many young parents with limited resources find this process appealing. For example, a young father, who paid $70 for his will to LegalZoom states the following:
“I don’t like lawyers. I think they’re extremely overpaid[.]*** With all the services on LegalZoom, I don’t see myself using a lawyer for anything, unless it’s a lawsuit.”
While utilizing non-lawyer services in estate planning may seem appealing, it raises issues of legitimacy and effectiveness of this practice. First, most of the companies utilize law students and other college graduates to prepare the wills. These individuals are prohibited by law from giving legal advice but can define legal terms and offer general legal information. Second, many seemingly straightforward cases contain large underwater stones. In one case, for example, stepchildren ended up paying $100,000 in legal fees to claim their inheritance; the reason is that their step-mother’s will left everything to her “children,” but she had never legally adopted her step-children.
Striving to make legal services more affordable for middle class families, one attorney started a business called Walk in Wills in a strip-mall next to a Target store. There is no initial consultation fee, and he charges a flat fee if a client does decide to prepare a will or a trust.
See Christine Larson, A Need for a Will? Often, There’s an Online Way, NYTimes.com, Oct. 14, 2007.
Special thanks to Deborah Letz (attorney, San Antonio, Texas) and Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.