Do It Yourself Wills

[cooliemae]

I recently got married and my wife and I are looking at preparing our will. Has anyone used online services such as legalzoom, etc.? If so what was your experience?

What other experiences have people had with physical lawyers, software, online, etc. We don't want to have any problems in the event of something happening, but also don't want to spend a fortune if there's a cheaper alternative.

Thanks in advance.

[MonkeyMama]

A cookie cutter will is better than nothing. & will probably suffice if you don't have kids.

We did a Quicken will before which was fine, but a couple of years ago we met with a physical lawyer to get our wills/trusts drawn up (after we had our second child). There were lots of little nuances that the computer did not handle well, and it was very eye opening to me. I think when you have kids, it is one area you don't want to go cheap.

I don't remember it all but the biggest example I can think of is we had appointed my husband's sister and her husband as guardians of our kids. Our lawyer pointed out we should just make the sister the guardian, unless we were really in love with BIL's parenting or something (& pointing out the mess that could occur if they were to divorce). Just important things that are easily overlooked when you go the cheap route. We actually had no interest in BIL being guardian if SIL was not in the picture. You feel like, "DOH!" & this was NOT the only thing we came across that Quicken did not handle well.

[Caoineag]

A lot of estate lawyers do their work on a flat fee so you could always check and see how much it costs for what you want. I am a trust and estate paralegal so I am a little bias because some of those cut and past wills can be a little scary. Like Monkeymama said though, its more important when you have kids involved. You really don't want to skimp then.

[MonkeyMama]

Yes, our lawyer charged a flat fee. It was around $2k for health care directives, wills, trusts, etc. (She is a Bay Area lawyer so on the more expensive end, just because everything is expensive there).

It was someone we knew and she did all the work for about $1k for us. (My spouse had done her wedding video deeply discounted years ago. Thank goodness for bartering. Though if we had to pay $2k, it would have been worth it).

[cooliemae]

That thought had occurred to me, but for the moment it's just the two of us.

[KB24]

wow, the things you dont ever think about... those lawyers are actually good for something sometimes