People have many options today for creating their own estate planning documents. Forms can be purchased quickly from websites and books. However, trying to create your own estate plan can actually be more expensive than hiring an attorney.
Have you ever tried to save a little money by doing a project yourself? Hopefully, your experiences were better than mine! Unless the project is beginner-safe, I have learned to go ahead and hire a professional – this way I only pay once! While most of us would not sign up for a do-it-yourself course on performing your own root canal, other choices might not be quite so obvious. Like your estate plan. Forms are available for downloading online that promise buyers they just need to read the instructions and fill in the blanks to create their own wills and trusts.
One major problem with these services is when estate planning is not done properly, it is much more expensive to fix things than it would have been to hire an attorney to do things right in the first place.
Recently, the Record-Bee published a story with some examples of what has gone wrong with these downloadable estate plans. The article is appropriately titled “Your Legacy and Peace of Mind: The pitfalls of do-it-yourself estate planning.”
If you are considering making your own estate plan, take some time to read the stories in the article. Hopefully, that will inspire you to go ahead and visit an estate planning attorney to make sure that you do not make mistakes doing things on your own.
Please contact our office today at 239-225-7911 to schedule an appointment with Barbara M. Pizzolato if you are interested in protecting your legacy and need to create or update your estate plan. You may also wish to attend one of our free seminars.
Reference: Record-Bee (January 20, 2015) “Your Legacy and Peace of Mind: The pitfalls of do-it-yourself estate planning.”
