How to prepare a will ?

[Familyman 10]

Is Legalzoom a good website to prepare a will ? or can you suggest another source ?

[Crazy Cat 39,380]

Legalzoom is one way to do it.  Another way is to find a free format online, complete it, and then sign it in front of a notary.  I see no reason to pay for having a will prepared, to be honest.

[Sukie 1,440]

First thing you need to do is find out the legal requirements for your state (such as whether or not you need an attorney, whether or not you need witnesses, whether signatures need to be notarized).  Look this up first, as I am not sure LegalZoom or self-help programs can help you in every situation.

 

Second, if you have a simple estate, then by all means use one of the online tools.  But if there are any complications (trust funds, children, partnerships, pre-nuptial agreements, and a host of others) you MAY be safer hiring an attorney.

 

It really does depend upon your state and your estate!

 

Best of luck.  Having a will is sooooo important!

 

Sukie in NY

[Pitaya 2,576]

In trying to get our ROC petition approved, we had our wills, powers of attorney, and living wills prepared.  We used legal zoom.com, as that our estate planning is relatively simple, and we didn't really have the money nor time to do a lot of research on the topic. We were trying to fully respond to a RFE. You basically pick out want documents you require, go through their online interview, some additional emails verifying/correcting information and proofing of drafts. They then send you the prepared documents with thorough instructions on how to finalize your documents as required by your particular state.  I was pleasantly surprised by the quality, level of service and affordability provided by legal zoom.com.

 

YMMV 

 

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with legalzoom.com, except as a satisfied customer.

[yuna628 9,533]

We used Legalzoom. While I wasn't 100% satisfied, but it is what it is, and gave us what was needed. Due to state laws some documents needed notarizing and only by certain persons, so keep state regulations in mind. They do explain that in the instructions. While the package included advanced directives, our state actually has a completely legal free one available through our AG. We found that to be much more helpful in instructions and suited our needs better than LZ. But for the rest, wills and poa, it was fine for simple purposes. Wouldn't use them for anything complex though.