Do it yourself Will software

[ochotona]

What do people like for Last Will and Testament software? Something that covers digital legacy and pets?

[Cortopassi]

https://store.nolo.com/products/quicken ... s-wqp.html

They have it at our library, so...free...

[Libertarian666]

The good news is that they have very few complaints from dissatisfied customers!

[Mountaineer]

The good news is that they have very few complaints from dissatisfied customers!

[Maddy]

https://store.nolo.com/products/quicken ... s-wqp.html

They have it at our library, so...free...

To the best that I can remember, the Nolo books are national in scope, so they wouldn't necessarily protect you against the idiosyncracies of particular states.

For simple wills, something like Legal Zoom is probably sufficient, but considering that the folks who inhabit this forum tend to have more complex estates than most, I can't say I'd recommend the do-it-yourself approach. Many neighborhood-type attorneys who specialize in wills and probate offer their will-drafting services at very reasonable rates. A guy I knew when I was first starting out (ca. 1987) did simple wills for $35.00. He was fond of staying, "If you get the will, you'll probably get the probate."

[ochotona]

Most of my assets will be distributed via beneficiary designations... so they don't even become part of the probate estate. The Will will just sweep up whatever is left.

[Cortopassi]

I'm with Maddy. If you are on this forum, and especially if you have kids, hire an estate planning attorney and set up a revocable living trust. It will cost around $2000 (for you and your spouse) now, but save a ton of money for your kids when you pass.

I don't recall the details, but I was swayed a lot by a talk by a lawyer (at the library!) who said for the majority of people, a living trust is not a good choice. If I recall as long as most assets are in the format of there being a beneficiary, those don't go through probate, which is most things.

https://www.kiplinger.com/article/savin ... trust.html

As well, every single asset needs to be transferred into the trust which can be a real pain.

It did not make any obvious sense for me to do it in my situation.

As for nolo, the software's first question is what state do you live in, so it does take care of state issues.

[Maddy]

I don't recall the details, but I was swayed a lot by a talk by a lawyer (at the library!) who said for the majority of people, a living trust is not a good choice.

Totally depends upon the state you're in. In some (California, for example), a living trust makes a lot of sense because the costs and burdens of probate are significant. In other states, a trust doesn't have much, if any, benefit.

[mathjak107]

after having to deal with not one but two wills with wording that was defective in my lifetime i would never ever not use a top estate attorney ..
the words nothing is a problem until it's a problem have never applied more to something then wills and trusts as there are no do overs .

we had two different people with two different wills done by different " general practice " attorneys and both had missing words our verbiage that was never picked up on ...then once we inherited or were supposed to inherit some things the issues pooped up their ugly heads .

as the court told us when the documents were deemed defective , the intent is very clear as to who gets what but the court cannot add missing verbiage or re-write history .

when we went looking for an estate attorney for ourselves i asked him about these documents as a test . he picked up the issues immediately upon reading it

[mathjak107]

I'm with Maddy. If you are on this forum, and especially if you have kids, hire an estate planning attorney and set up a revocable living trust. It will cost around $2000 (for you and your spouse) now, but save a ton of money for your kids when you pass.

I don't recall the details, but I was swayed a lot by a talk by a lawyer (at the library!) who said for the majority of people, a living trust is not a good choice. If I recall as long as most assets are in the format of there being a beneficiary, those don't go through probate, which is most things.

https://www.kiplinger.com/article/savin ... trust.html

As well, every single asset needs to be transferred into the trust which can be a real pain.

It did not make any obvious sense for me to do it in my situation.

As for nolo, the software's first question is what state do you live in, so it does take care of state issues.

one of the issues with trusts is people like to put their home in it to avoid probate .

but what they do is take an asset protected from medicaid and un-protect it by putting it in the living trust .

it is only a protected asset in personal name .. once it goes in the trust the dollars count for qualifying for medicaid ..un-unbeknownst to them and most general practitioner attorneys who don't really know elder law the house now has to be sold and the dollars spent on care just to qualify for medicaid if long term care is needed

[mathjak107]

Most of my assets will be distributed via beneficiary designations... so they don't even become part of the probate estate. The Will will just sweep up whatever is left.

many people have very poorly done documents because they figure they have little to pass through their estate that is not on a beneficiary .

well their death may be the result of an accident , medical malpractice suit or wrongful death suit and suddenly there is money where there was none .

also ---BE AWARE . if you have a joint account at vanguard with beneficiaries on it . vanguard made the poor decision of deleting them off ..

they got in the trust mgmt business and now are pushing everyone with beneficiaries on joint accounts to use a trust or break up the account in to individual accounts , and they never notified us they did so .


first the grand pappy of do it yourself investing sold us on how anyone can invest like the pro's and get better results ...then vanguard gets in to money mgmt and releases a study that shows the typical investor can earn as 3% more by letting a money manager handle their money keeping them away from it .
then they deleted all our beneficiaries from joint accounts and told us we would be better served by trusts ... yep vanguard was promoting its trust dept they now had .
but wait , now vanguard is telling us how their managed funds out perform ---yep you guessed it , now they are promoting actively managed funds ...
https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual-fu ... ly-managed

and this is why i cut them out .

[ochotona]

I bet the Texas protection for your homestead in case of bankruptcy goes away also if you don't own it, but the trust does.

My mom has a trust, and I don't see the point of it. It covers basically her house, car (a wreck anyway), personal effects, bank, and one Schwab account. All else divvy up by beneficiary designation. My situation would be similar.

[mathjak107]

we have no use for a trust since everything is on beneficiary , no thanks to vanguard .....

but we do still have a special trust called a disclaimer trust we can activate if needed .

new yorks estate tax limit had been going up through the years to the federal level ... but for a while we fell over the limits ..

unbeknownst to us new york had a tax cliff in place . if you went over the limit you did not pay on the overage . you lost the entire exclusion and paid from dollar one .

had we not seen a real estate attorney we never knew this .

so the surviving spouse has up until 9 months after the death of their spouse to activate this special irrevocable trust that splits the estate in two and allows 2x the exclusion to pass tax free if ever needed again .