Why You Should Avoid Do-It-Yourself Estate Planning

There is a large amount of websites and other companies that offer, do-it-yourself estate planning programs. The number of websites and programs offered by other companies is growing due to the popularity and low cost of these programs. However, there are reasons why do-it-yourself estate planning should be avoid and here is a list of why.

1. Do-It-Yourself estate panning programs only deal with simple estate planning and do not deal with the complexities of including children from a previous relationship, children with special needs, and values of Arizona estate and Arizona estate taxes.

2. It is easy to make an error with DIY estate planning programs, which can make your estate planning documents invalid.

3. If you do not know what you are doing when you are creating your estate plan and are relying on a DIY estate planning program to guide you, you might be setting up a document that could make your beneficiaries suffer, due to mistakes that were not found in your estate planning documents until after your death, which is too late. This is because there may be language and estate planning terms that you do not understand.

4. DIY estate planning programs offer you all the forms that you think you will need, however you are not receiving any legal advice on how you should handle a situation pertaining to a specific child or property.

5. Estate planning is very specific and customized to an individual’s needs and DIY estate planning programs are very standard and general.

6. Estate planning laws can change constantly in Arizona and other states as well. DIY estate planning programs do not update to those changes, so your estate plan could be invalid if the correct changes are not made according to the new laws that are in effect.

7. You may wind up spending more later on in order to have your DIY estate planning documents updated and corrected by a professional estate planner.

Need Help?

If you are not sure as to what legal document you currently have contact one of our professionals to help you with your planning needs. They will make sure you have all of your grounds covered and have the right legal documents that best suite your wants and needs.