Filed under: Do It Yourself Estate Planning Gone Wrong,Estate Planning,LegalZoom — Christopher J. Berry @ 3:54 pm
Well, it looks like there are more problems with using LegalZoom, according to Texas attorney Rania Combs. If you remember she had a great post about LegalZoom on her blog entitled The Problem with LegalZoom(And Other Do-It-Yourself Estate Planning Solutions). Well, apparently, LegalZoom was also paying attention. They corrected a few of the problems as it relates to Texas law in their documents.
In her new post entitled The Problem With LegalZoom (Part 2)- Inaccuracies Corrected But Problem Remains, she points on the biggest inherent problem with using LegalZoom, or any other Do-it-yourself approach to estate planning. Look at the disclaimer. Attorney Combs analyzes the LegalZoom disclaimer in great detail.
Some of the troubling language includes “the legal information on LegalZoom’s website is not guaranteed to be correct or up-to-date” and “LegalZoom does not review your answers for legal sufficiency..”. Yikes!
Attorney Combs ends her post with the conclusion that LegalZoom and all of the do-it-yourself options are a risky approach to completing your estate plan. As a Michigan estate planning attorney, I concur.
Filed under: Do It Yourself Estate Planning Gone Wrong,LegalZoom,Quicken Willmaker,Suze Orman — Christopher J. Berry @ 4:00 pm
As a Michigan trust attorney, I’ve blogged many times about the issues using Legalzoom, Suze Orman Trust Kit, Willmaker, or any number of the other “do it yourself” estate planning kits. Texas estate attorney Rania Combs has put together a great blog post on the topic that you should read.
You can read the post here: The Problem with Legalzoom and Other Do-It-Yourself Estate Planning Solutions.
Filed under: Do It Yourself Estate Planning Gone Wrong,Estate Planning,Health Care Directives,LegalZoom,Living Trust,Power of Attorney,Probate,Quicken Willmaker,Suze Orman,Will — Christopher J. Berry @ 4:02 pm
With Michigan Estate Planning, there are a few basic things that you need to know.
First, no matter what your net worth is, how much in assets you have, how much debt you have, you need an estate plan. In Michigan, once you turn 18 you are legally an adult. So, even if you’re a college age adult who lives at home with your parents, there is a certain level of estate planning that should be done. That is you need, what our office calls, a disability plan. A disability plan plans for your disability or incapacity. We would put together a Patient Advocate Designation (which is the Michigan equivalent to a health care power of attorney), HIPAA Authorization, and a Financial Power of Attorney that most likely would name your parents as decision makers and agents.
Now that we’ve established that if you’re over the age of 18, you need the disability documents, the next step would be once you have assets (now matter how meager) or children, it is important to plan for your assets and children. This is done through using Revocable Living Trusts and Last Wills and Testaments. Whether you opt for a Living Trust based estate plan or a Will based estate plan will depend on your goals. Remember a Last Will and Testament only gives instructions to the Michigan Probate court on how to administer your estate, it does not avoid probate.
Lastly, it is important to consult a Michigan estate planning attorney in preparing your estate plan. Proper Michigan estate planning involves more than buying Nolo Willmaker software or reading the latest Suze Orman Trust Kit book. It involves analyzing your goals and situation and using the estate planning tools we’ve discussed in the most effective and cost effective way.
Filed under: Do It Yourself Estate Planning Gone Wrong,Estate Planning,LegalZoom,Quicken Willmaker,Suze Orman — Christopher J. Berry @ 4:36 pm
Mention Legalzoom and Suze Orman’s Will and Trust Kit and it raises my blood pressure a bit. Many attorneys and experts have spoken about the dangers of these products for unsuspecting consumers. Well, South Florida estate planning attorney, David A. Shulman, has added further evidence to the assertion that documents prepared by these “products” may not be the best for consumers.
In his blog he writes that the Wall Street Journal editorial page did a review of the two Online will packages and compared them. South Florida estate planning lawyer, David A. Shulman continues:
But there should be one and only one relevant question, and this is “Do the documents work?” In the event of her death, do the documents accomplish what she wants them to do, while minimizing taxes, protecting her heirs from creditors, and keeping administrative expenses and time and headaches to a minimum?
What’s the idiot consumer’s answer to that question?
“We didn’t hire a lawyer to review them.”
You can read David’s entire blog post here: The Wall Street Journal Totally Blows it on Online Wills. I recommend you check out his blog, especially if you are looking for a South Florida estate planning attorney.
Filed under: Do It Yourself Estate Planning Gone Wrong,Estate Planning,LegalZoom,Living Trust,Quicken Willmaker,Suze Orman — Christopher J. Berry @ 8:12 pm
There are quite a few myths regarding Trusts, Wills and Estate Planning. A recent USA Today article address some of these myths. The article interviewed two colleagues from WealthCounsel, which is a national association of estate planning attorneys.
The myths that the article addresses include:
You can read the article in its entirety here: 5 Myths about wills, and what you should do.
While overall, the article is well written, I do have one large point of contention. The article suggest that some of the do-it-yourself options are viable, such as Legalzoom, Suze Orman Trust Maker, or Quicken Willmaker. Read some of my past posts on why these options can be even worse than having no estate plan at all.
Filed under: Do It Yourself Estate Planning Gone Wrong,Estate Planning,LegalZoom,Quicken Willmaker,Suze Orman — Christopher J. Berry @ 8:18 pm
Are you looking for a cheap living trust or a cheap will or last will and testament? Well if you are living in Ohio, there may be one less illegal trust mill taking advantage of people who are looking for a replacement to quality legal services by selling them fill in the blank garbage.
You can read more at the Florida Estate Planning blog of Jacksonville estate planning attorney David M. Goldman. Read his story here “Trust Mill Fined 6.4 Million in Ohio.”
Filed under: Do It Yourself Estate Planning Gone Wrong,Estate Planning,LegalZoom,Power of Attorney,Quicken Willmaker,Suze Orman — Christopher J. Berry @ 8:31 pm
As a Michigan estate planning attorney, I won’t have to deal with this much, but New York has just passed a new law that made their rules regarding powers of attorney much more complicated.
Trust and Estates has an interesting write up on the statute that effects the power of attorney. You can read it here :New York’s New POA Law. Florida Estate Planning attorney, David M. Goldman, wrote an interesting post on the New York Power of Attorney law while it was still in bill form back in February. You can read it here : Gifting Changes Required for POA’s in NY. Also, take a look at what New Your Estate Planning lawyer, Ellen Victor has to say about the New York Power of Attorney here: New York’s New Power of Attorney.
Part of the craziness is that a valid power of attorney must contain more than 600 words of language from the statute that are intended to better inform the principal about the serious nature of the power of attorney document.
What this means to me as a Michigan estate planning attorney? Well, it shows just how each state has different statute, laws, court rules, and common law that effects your estate planning documents. If you are one of those “do-it-yourselfers” who are using Suze Orman Trust Kits, Legalzoom online wills, Quicken Willmaker Software, I’d be a little worried. Do you think these national packages contain the state specific details to make your important estate planning document valid in your state?
-Christopher J. Berry, Esq., A Michigan Wills and Living Trust Attorney, is a Partner with The Law Offices of Witzke Berry PLLC, which practices in the areas of Michigan Estate Planning, Michigan Elder Law, and Michigan Probate Litigation, serving Metro-Detroit and Oakland County, Macomb County, and Wayne County. We can be reached at 248-971-1700.
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New Lawsuit vs. LegalZoomApril 20, 2011Filed under: LegalZoom,Suze Orman,Will — Christopher J. Berry @ 5:31 pm There is a new lawsuit against Legalzoom, alleging all the usual suspects of claims how they are an unauthorized practice of law, etc. Something to keep in mind if you’re a do-it-yourselfer with your estate planning. Here’s the link:http://www.leagle.com/xmlResult.aspx?xmldoc=In+FDCO+20101214983.xml&docbase=CSLWAR3-2007-CURR LegalZoom is Unfair & MisleadingJuly 30, 2010Filed under: Do It Yourself Estate Planning Gone Wrong,LegalZoom,Quicken Willmaker,Suze Orman — Christopher J. Berry @ 9:31 pm There has been a class action lawsuit filed against LegalZoom, which is an online “document preparation” service. You can read more about the lawsuit at the Courthouse News Service. This is no big surprise to the many estate planning lawyers and probate lawyer who stumble across people using these products. A short snippet from the article:
LegalZoom Lawsuit Claims Unauthorized Practice of LawFebruary 22, 2010Filed under: Do It Yourself Estate Planning Gone Wrong,Estate Planning,LegalZoom — Christopher J. Berry @ 3:48 pm A new law suit in Missouri has been started against LegalZoom, those creators of do-it-yourself estate planning documents. The lawsuit claims that LegalZoom is engaged in the unauthorized practice of law and sites a cease-and-desist letter from the North Carolina State Bar’s Unauthorized Practice Committee. You can read a short article about the suit at Suit Claims LegalZoom’s Document Prep is Unauthorized Practice. |
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