Using an attorney can be incredibly costly, and not everyone has the cash on hand to pay for professional help. Even a simple will can cost hundreds of dollars, and you can end up spending thousands if you want to get fancier and create a living trust. But there are several very sound reasons why you might not want to wing your estate plan on your own. You’re not just paying someone to write up some documents for you when you hire a professional. You’re paying for advice so you know that your estate plan has been done correctly. You can part with the money now, or your estate can spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars settling things later if you make a mistake.
It’s Not Just About Having a Will
An estate plan doesn’t involve just a last will and testament. It’s not even just a will and a living trust. A comprehensive estate plan prepares for other eventualities in addition to what happens to your property after your death. Take your home, for example. Do you own it with your spouse or someone else? How you hold title can affect whether it will be subject to probate when you die. And what if you don’t die, but you become physically or mentally incapacitated to the point where you can no longer make important decisions on your own? You’ll need an advance directive, more commonly known as a living will, to express your wishes for health care. A health care power of attorney can also allow someone you trust to make medical decisions for you. You might also want to have a durable or springing power of attorney (POA), naming someone to take care of your personal business if a time comes when you can’t. A durable POA remains in effect if you should become incapacitated. A springing POA doesn’t go into effect unless and until you do. Creating a revocable living trust and naming a successor trustee can achieve the same result. All of these documents and others comprise a comprehensive estate plan. You’re not just scribbling out the terms of a will if you decide to create your estate plan yourself.
What To Consider Before Do-It-Yourself Estate Planning
There are a couple of things to consider before pulling together your estate plan. These factors could impact how your plan needs to be put together or if you should seek a professional to advise you.
Do You Know the Law?
Do you know how to write all these documents if you decide to take care of things on your own? Let’s say you get those beneficiary designations wrong on your insurance policy or retirement plans. The individuals you name might be unable to accept the proceeds, because they’re ineligible for some reason, but maybe you didn’t even know that those reasons existed under the law. Maybe you didn’t know you could name a contingent beneficiary just in case the first person you named can’t inherit. Or maybe you were unaware that those designations override anything you put in your will about those same assets. A will contest can result if you name one person in the designation and someone else to inherit the asset in your will. Unless you’re well versed in the estate laws of your state, paying for help with your plan can be worth every dime. Estate laws aren’t the same countrywide. Each state can have its own unique quirks, and legislation can be updated and changed at any time. Community property states have rules all their own. A probate court judge is going to have to accept your will as valid when you die, and that won’t happen if you make a procedural or language mistake that keeps it from meeting state law for a valid will. Your entire last will and testament will be thrown out, and it will be like you never bothered to write a will at all.
How Old Are You?
Depending on your personal circumstances, you might not need every single document that comprises a comprehensive estate plan. An estate planning lawyer can guide you, but you might want to keep some things in mind if you’re not planning on hiring one. How old are you? This issue might be more pressing if you’re getting up in years, or it might be way down on your to-do list if you’ve just graduated from college—particularly if your checking account and the secondhand furniture in your apartment are all that you own. You might not need a will in that case, but you might want an advance directive if you’re not comfortable letting someone else, even your parent, make health care decisions for you. And you’ll probably want both an advance directive and a will, at minimum, if you’re in your mid-50s or older.
Do You Have Kids?
How old are your children? Is your current spouse their other parent, or were they born during a previous marriage? Blended families can create a quagmire of problems if you don’t understand or address them in advance. Your adult children could be disinherited if you were to die with an improperly drafted will in some states, and the court will decide who raises your minor children if you and their other parent are both deceased, and you don’t name a guardian in your will. Disabled children have unique needs that can require a special kind of living trust so they don’t lose government benefits if they inherit from you, and you might not be able to create one of these on your own, at least not without making a critical mistake.
How Large Is Your Estate?
Another important consideration is the size of your estate. Will it be subject to estate taxes? That might not be likely at the federal level, because the estate tax exemption is a walloping $12.06 million as of 2022. Only estates worth more than that are taxed on the balance. But this legislation could change, and some states have their own estate taxes with much lower thresholds. Do you know what they are? Do you live in one of those states? The more valuable and complicated your estate is, the more extensive your estate plan will have to be. In fact, you might not just need an attorney to advise you. A tax professional or financial advisor could be a good investment as well.
Hiring a Professional vs. Do-It-Yourself Estate Planning
Do-It-Yourself Estate planning is often low-cost, and typically good for people with simple assets that plan to leave everything to just one person. However, state laws require estate planning documents to meet certain legal standards to be valid, so the process, wording and specificity is important to get right. While a lawyer may be cost prohibitive, they can not only produce the will in a way that will ensure it is approved by the courts, but can also advise you on the best way to achieve your intended outcomes.
You Have Other Options
Assuming that your estate isn’t teetering near a value of $12.06 million, and if you don’t have other unique concerns such as a blended family, you might consider taking a middle step between creating your own estate plan and hiring a lawyer to draft all of those documents for you. Software programs that will help you draft some basic estate documents can be found all over the internet. LegalZoom is one of the best-known products, and it allows you the option of consulting with an attorney if you run into problems. Of course, that will cost you about $249. Quicken offers WillMaker Plus, provided by the legal website Nolo, which also has an Estate Planning Bundle as well as a Living Trust program. Its basic plan is priced at less than $100, but it doesn’t offer real “live” help. Other options include LawDepot and Rocket Lawyer. Some of these programs will just let you draft a will, while others will help you put together an entire estate plan. Research and compare if you think using this kind of software is an option that might work for you. Make sure the software you select is specific to your state.
If You Create a DIY Plan
If your software choice doesn’t give you access to an attorney, or if you decide to wing it on your own, you might want to consider having a lawyer simply review what you’ve created so you know that it’s right and that it achieves what you intend. You don’t have to pay a professional to actually prepare your documents. Many attorneys will be more than happy to review the documents you’ve created yourself for a more modest fee. You might think that any estate plan is better than no estate plan, but that isn’t always true. Simple mistakes—even something as seemingly innocent as a typo—can result in unintended consequences.
