Name: Is a free (or cheap) do-it-yourself will kit safe? - Retire Happy
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Is a free (or cheap) do-it-yourself will kit safe? - Retire Happy

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Please enable JavaScript in your browser.Estate PlanningAdvertiser DisclosureShould you have a lawyer prepare your will, or is a do-it-yourself will kit adequate? This is one of the most common questions I get from clients.I get it; everyone likes a good deal. A lawyer will charge hundreds of dollars for a will, power of attorney and living will.kits can be tempting – until you know the risks.I advise my clients to deal with a lawyer instead of using one of the many kits that are available. In my opinion, the small savings aren’t worth it. Make a mistake and your will could be invalid or there could be delays, court battles, higher costs to settle an estate or assets that don’t go where you intend.Related Article: Should You Write Your Own Will?There is a reason that cheap or free DIY kits have those blatant disclaimers saying that they’re not responsible for any errors or omissions. Problems can happen – and often do. Lawyers have insurance against errors, which are far less likely anyway.Estate-planning author Sandra Foster agrees. “I always recommend a formal will drawn up by a lawyer to ensure that the wording and the provisions in the will are complete and valid,” she writes in her book You Can’t Take it With You. “It is an unfortunate fact of life that our laws are getting more and more complicated.”Foster’s excellent book covers much more than wills and is one of the best estate-planning guides available for Canadians.I’m aware of a multi-millionaire businessman near Edmonton who, tragically, was killed in a car crash along with his wife and their adult daughter. The man’s will left everything to his wife and subsequently to their daughter – their only child. However, the daughter was going through a divorce that had not yet been finalized. Long story short, the family’s wealth went to the son-in-law – a drug addict. The business went under and the reprobate squandered the fortune.Yes, that’s an extreme example. However, lots of other things can go wrong and even something like the number and status of the witnesses can invalidate a will.There are many cases where even providers of cheap or free will kits advise against using DIY wills. Here are some of the cases where a will kit should not be used:You’re going to get married.You have a common-law spouse.You’re separated from your partner.You need advice, including requiring help choosing executors or trustees for minor children.You own or will inherit assets outside of Canada.You have minor children or dependents with special needs.You own a recreational home, rental property or business.You need dual wills to save probate tax.You want to forgive debts to children or disinherit children.If your children are unable to handle a large inheritance.That seems to include pretty much anyone.Related Article: Popular Estate Planning QuestionsWill kits are usually written as one-size-fits-all solutions. However, everyone’s needs are unique. Your will may be invalid if it has vague wording, is badly drafted or contains ambiguous of conflicting provisions. A lawyer will be able to explain the consequences of your decisions, something you won’t get from a kit.Given that 56 percent of adult Canadians don’t have any will, a DIY will is probably better than none if your needs are simple (leaving your assets to your spouse and then to your children if you and your spouse die together or if you have no spouse). However, if something goes wrong a DIY will may be no better than dying without a will.Pension, Group BenefitsPersonal Finance, Debt, InvestingReplyExcellent advice. If anyone has a doubt, ask yourself this question: do you know what goes into the estate and does not? Do you understand this question? If you don’t, do not even attempt to make a will on your own AND make sure your lawyer reviews with you your assets and discusses with you your financial circumstances – including answering this question.ReplyGreat Question, I think people just want to get value out of the money they spend.Given the correct information and risks, I believe most people will go to a lawyer to complete their will.ReplyWhile I don’t meet any of those 10 situations listed for NOT using a DIY kit, my plan was to use one in advance of going to a lawyer, as I would have to figure out most of those same things anyway.What about using the DIY kit, then taking that to a lawyer to look over, or else use as a basis for a “real” will?ReplyAs an Estate &amp; Probate Lawyer, I can, with experience, say that very few will kits are filled out properly. We have a saying in Estate Planning. “Where there is a Will, there is a relative”; our fees are $400.00 for a simply Husband and Wife Will. Very few people need a complicated will. We also discourage trying to “rule from the grave”. For fun, I have run through several will kits. The practical problem is that very few people have a one-fits-all type situation. An experienced estate planning lawyer will contemplate situations you have never thought about and offer all sort of options. For every $1.00 we make off a will, we make $1000 off estate litigation. A funnier aspect of our job is to explore proper all options of avoid leaving an estate behind; for example, if we set up so there is no estate; for a few hundred dollars we set it up so there is no need to probate, saving the family $1000s and $1000s of dollars later on while making a few hundred dollars up-front. My two cents. -Richard Verhaeghe, LawyerReplyGreat post and one that needs to be written and read 🙂My husband and I got our wills (the whole kit and caboodle) done by a lawyer this year. We’d been putting it off due to the price. However, after speaking to my uncle (who is a lawyer that does wills, he did not do ours), I realized that one small mistake would definitely end up costing us more than the $750 lawyer fee (taxes included, I didn’t really shop around either). And that’s only ONE mistake. Based on what I’ve read, we would likely make more than one mistake and depending on what it was, it could cost us tens of thousands of dollars, no exaggeration! Fortunately, not something that I need to worry about anymore.Besos Sarah.ReplyI looked at kits (I’m frugal – not cheap☺) and found that the one-time fees were worth the expertise. Hopefully I asked the right questions and understood the answers. As well, I hope the lawyer told me all I needed know.Is it perfect? Eventually my heirs will find out.ReplyGreat advice, I also thought that spending more money for worth is better, than saving money but lose more. It is always saying that “Leave it to the expert”ReplyI think the will kits are probably OK for 80% of folks. As you mentioned, if there are more complicated scenarios, it is always smart to get a lawyer involved so that things can be squared away properly!ReplyI do a lot of wills in my practice. You may think that you only need a DIY kit, but trust me – you need to speak to a lawyer. There are SO many misconceptions about how wills work, what goes into an estate, who gets what, who can contest your will (especially in BC where I am), etc. Most clients haven’t considered half of the issues I bring up during our consultation. You’ll also get educated on corollary documents such as powers of attorney, which can’t be done through a kit.A will is one of the most important documents you’ll ever make in your life. It’s worth the modest one-time fee.ReplyGreat article. It was very insightful. I ended up coming across this article as I was doing my Last Will, and after weighing and doing some research came to this conclusion. I think one of the main issues with wills is trying to keep it up to date, especially in real-time, to avoid the issue the author brings up in the example with the Edmonton man.I, in the end, settled for a service called Om (www.om.company) because it provides life-time, unlimited updates.I hope this comment helps!Click here to cancel reply.VIPRetireHappyGet exclusive access to our private library of e-books, special reports, online guides and popular newsletter.Join now!VIPRetireHappyGet exclusive access to our private library of e-books, special reports, online guides and popular newsletter.Join now!Our goal at RetireHappy is to present readers with reliable financial advice and product choices that will help you achieve your financial goals. To do that, transparency is critical.RetireHappy receives compensation from some companies issuing financial products, like credit cards and bank accounts, that appear on this site.Unless a post is clearly marked “Sponsored”, however, products mentioned in editorial articles and reviews are based on the author’s subjective assessment of their value to readers, not compensation.Read more at: https://retirehappy.ca/legal/

Please enable JavaScript in your browser.Estate PlanningAdvertiser DisclosureShould you have a lawyer prepare your will, or is a do-it-yourself will kit adequate? This is one of the most common questions I get from clients.I get it; everyone likes a good deal. A lawyer will charge hundreds of dollars for a will, power of attorney and living will.kits can be tempting – until you know the risks.I advise my clients to deal with a lawyer instead of using one of the many kits that are available. In my opinion, the small savings aren’t worth it. Make a mistake and your will could be invalid or...

Is a free (or cheap) do-it-yourself will kit safe? - Retire Happy

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