Can I use a do-it-yourself will kit or trust kit?
November 26, 2007
I get this question all the time by potential estate planning clients calling both my Germantown and Olive Branch offices. Here is the short answer, yes but beware. (As a side note I had a friend once who told me that he’s never heard a lawyer simply say yes before. I told him that’s because in law school virtually every exam answer starts with either “yes, but” or “no, but”. Unfortunately there is almost no straight answer for anything when it comes to legal issues.)
A well-tailored estate plan ordinarily has many more elements than can be successfully addressed in a do-it-yourself estate planning kit, will kit or trust kit. While a do-it-yourself will or trust should be valid in both Tennessee and Mississippi if it is propertly executed and witnessed, the likelihood of ending up with a proper will or trust is about the same as if you attempted to fly and land a 747 by just reading the flight manual. Heck, you might get away with it, but the affects if you don’t are catastrophic. There is simply no substitute for the experience of a professional estate planning lawyer.
One probelm with the use of these cheap (and I truly mean “cheap” here, with all the bad connotations that come with that word) estate planning kits is that people simply fill in the blanks and think that what they have done constitutes an estate plan. What many people don’t understand is that a poprer estate plan or trust must actually be funded. An estate plan is not complete simply because a piece of paper was signed. Assets must be transfered properly or else the plan is worthless. Also, all types of assets that the person owns or controls that pass to beneficiaries independently of a will, such as retirement plans and life insurance, must be considered. The beneficiary designation forms for these assets will not be found in a kit.
In my years of experience I’ve found that people who believe that they need a “simple” estate plan are often surprised to find that they have failed to consider critical points, such as the possibility of simultaneous deaths and the significant benefits that trusts offer.
A do-it-yourself kit may pass muster from a basic legal standpoint if executed properly, but its success should not be measured by whether the resulting documents are legal, but by whether one’s objectives are accomplished.
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