One of my closest friends called me for a recommendation of an estate planning attorney. He called the lawyer and then called me back wondering why he can’t just fill out on-line forms.
As I told my friend, you "could" pay for on-line forms, but there is a catch. 1. How do you know what you really need? e.g. My friend’s wife is receiving money from an inheritance and they want to keep that money separate. 2. What happens if you have questions? 3. What happens when you need to make a change? 4. How secure are you that the form is done correctly and will do what you want? e.g. If you are creating a will to determine who will have custody of your child if you die isn’t it worth it to know that document was prepared 100% correctly and will survive any challenges?
There are many attorneys out there that focus on Illinois estate planning and often are not much more expensive than on-line forms that aren’t focused on just Illinois. We can’t encourage you enough to go through a lawyer because you only get one shot at this. It’s not that an on-line form couldn’t be right, but when you consider that the cost savings aren’t that great and the consequences if things are done wrong, we just believe you are risking way too much.
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