Estate Planning - Why not use a freebie off the web?
A licensed attorney is priceless when it comes to leaving a legacy for your loved ones.
Imagine my astonishment when I, as an estate planning attorney, discover my very own financial institution provides “Trust&Will,” an automated estate planning platform…
Reeling from this discovery, I begin investigating if other banks offer similar services, and sure enough, they do!
While it can be tempting to engage an automated estate planning service with its low cost and quick turnaround, there are several reasons why the documents generated by such a service will not yield the best result:
Reason #1: Using a one-size-fits-all template means that your individual situation was not contemplated within the document.
For example, you may consider yourself and your immediate family to be straightforward, so you figure a simple template will work for you. However, each planning scenario is nuanced by which individual in your life is best-suited to be your fiduciary. Is it your first born child? Maybe, but does that individual live out-of-state, requiring him or her to post a bond in order to serve as fiduciary? This brings me to the second reason why templates from the web — without tailored advice by a licensed attorney — are problematic…
Reason #2: One-size-fits-all estate planning templates are not typically as “state-specific” as they claim to be.
Most of the web services proclaim to be state-specific, but based on my brief review of documents from such sources, they are not. For instance, Wills executed in the state of Ohio do not require a notary acknowledgement. If that’s the case, then why did a client recently bring a web template Will to my office for review that had a notary acknowledgement on the signature page?
Reason #3: One-size-fits-all templates typically fail in the area of domicile.
I recently completed an estate plan for a couple who has several properties. They generally reside in Ohio, but frequently travel to their other residences. A licensed Ohio attorney would understand immediately the significance of determining where this couple is domiciled and why that matters for estate planning (and, more specifically, asset transfer at their deaths).
If this couple had a used an online template instead of engaging a licensed attorney, the issue of domicile likely would not have been contemplated.
Reason #4: One-size-fits-all templates lack the depth of understanding needed to determine the proper transferring of assets.
The question of “what happens to my stuff when I die?” is what drives estate planning. When you engage a web template to generate a testamentary document, that is what you get — a document. Said document probably would be accepted by a court at your death, and it would direct your fiduciary to whom to give your stuff.
However, the character of your assets, the location of your assets, the value of your assets, and the tax status of your assets should direct that decision as to whom to give your stuff and by which method transfer.
Language such as, “I bequeath my estate to my children equally,” which is what you will see in a web-generated template, does not contemplate what assets comprise your estate and how the transfer of those assets benefits both your estate and your beneficiaries.
Engaging an attorney for estate planning may seem expensive given the alternatives available, but it could cost you and your loved ones significantly more to clean up the omissions that are inevitable with a web template.
In the same way that I am not a car mechanic but could probably search YouTube to diagnose a problem with my vehicle (and likely just frustrate myself and the situation), I caution you to not take on the role of estate planning attorney when it comes to end-of-life planning.
Transferring your life’s wealth is a lot more complex than answering a few generic questions and spitting out a document that may or may not need to be notarized.
Consultations at the Cummins Law Office are always free.
The value of advice from a licensed attorney is priceless when it comes to leaving a legacy for your loved ones.
All the best,