I have spoken out many times against “Do-It-Yourself” estate planning services - most recently in an article for Boomer-Living.com entiled, ”The Dangers of DIY Wills and Trusts - Packaged Estate Planning Documents Are a Big No-No.”  From LegalZoom and Suze Orman’s Will & Trust Kit to LegacyWriter and Build-A-Will, there are no shortage of companies and products promising “customizable” wills and other estate planning documents – at “a tiny fraction of the cost of an estate planning attorney.” 

There are many flaws with this “one-size-fits-all” model for estate planning:  Laws change.  Laws also vary from state to state.  Most importantly, only a well-experienced professional who is current on the laws and your unique circumstances, can provide you with the kind of security and accuracy crucial to having a solid estate plan.  It’s one of those life choices in which you really will get what you pay for.

A simple story underscores why:

There is an old story about a factory which shut down due to an equipment failure.  The owner of the factory called a renowned expert to rush to the factory to get things moving. The owner told him, “This shutdown is costing us $100,000 per day!”  The expert arrived, walked around the faulty machine, then took out a screwdriver and adjusted a thing or two.  Within moments the machine came back to life and the factory began to hum with activity.  The owner was thrilled—until he was given a bill for $10,000.  He roared, “But it took you less than 10 minutes to fix the machine—it cannot possibly cost $10,000!”  The expert calmly responded, “No, it took me a lifetime to know exactly where and how to use that screwdriver.  The bill is $10,000—but the value to you is $100,000 per day.”