As you suggest, this particular aspect of planning for when one is mentally absent is especially boilerplate. My state even has the forms for a living will (a.k.a. medical power of attorney etc.) free online and downloadable, with exact instructions for completing them. Folks should google for same in their state.
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Just for the record, I do agree that many of the simple documents are boiler-plate and probably DIY for anyone involved and responsible enough to be utilizing groups like this one. Even Quicken has a decent software bundle for simple wills, POAs, and healthcare directives.
My previous comments focus on the various trusts that not only save on estate taxes, but shelter assets from creditors, and control corpus distribution for decades after demise. Between the peace of mind that D. Johnson also mentioned and the legal recourse for mistakes (through malpractice) I personally can't justify the small savings of DIY. To each his own, I guess.
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Don't worry, hard time not received. To clarify, I have never seen either method challenged by the IRS or a court. What I meant was simply that when I sit down and start outlining what the trust document will accomplish, I often find that the DIY'er didn't include everything the creator intended.
In addition, I occasionally find that a DIY'er has done an excellent job, but unfortunately there was a more efficient way to do it. For example, an ILIT can be perfectly drafted and stand up to any court, but unless Crummey Provisions were included, the grantor isn't going to be making efficient gifts. Of course, in reality ILITs, gifting, and Crummey provisions are more complicated than that, but it was the first example that came to mind.
All in all, my non-scientific and purely anecdotal experience has been that "estate planning pro se" is penny wise and pound foolish.
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I agree with Douglas, you, and no doubt others that there are certainly many who will have complicated wishes re their estate (yes, absolutely, like trusts), and an attorney is undoubtedly the best route, particularly if one does not have the time to even investigate the possibilities. Or if one is not even sure s/he knows all the possibilities. Perhaps we are all a bit more in agreement than not.
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"No Heroic Measures" is insufficient by itself. When the occasion arose in an ICU setting the nurse presented me with a list of 5 items starting with paddles and graduating to "Open heart Message". Fortunately I was able to reach our primary care physician to help me decide. (I wasn't the patient but the patient told me later that I had made the right decision)
I also learned that in consenting to many procedures (including some interventional X-Rays & scans) you have to temporarily revoke "No heroic measures"
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Joe, I hear you on that, I balk at paying for database software - why people don't just provide that for free is beyond me! Professionally developed apps are bug-ridden and never do what you want anyway, and they just pad the bill with unnecessary consulting and customization fees.
You see my point I hope...it's a professional service, you can pay for it or you can develop it in-house. And realistically there are plenty of people that aren't going to do a good job with it no matter how many how-to guides they read. So part of the DIY ethic is a good sense of whether something is within your grasp, and that's your decision to make. Some simple estate documents require little more than a signature, but others require an in-depth understanding of the tax code, probate code, etc., that take some time and expertise to master. The $3k estate plan is probably going to include some of the latter. You should be able to find local attorneys to do more basic estate plans for less than that.
But for pete's sake get something more up to date than a CD that kicks you out at $600k! If it did so because of the federal estate tax, that is - it's been ten years since $600k had any significance in that context. A very good source of DIY materials is
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I have a few of their estate titles that make good references. Incidentally I'm a licensed attorney and beyond the basics...I hire it out. Getting it wrong is expensive, as evidenced by the higher insurance rates associated with estate planning practices.
-Tad
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To continue the unstable comparison that neither of us made... I wouldn't even think of performing my own surgery, but I don't go to the doctor for the sniffles, either.
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