Why DIY Estate Planning Can Cost You: Expert Insights from the Elder Law Report

Can DIY estate planning really safeguard your legacy? Tune in as Jane Deerwester and I, Jordan Bentley, tackle this critical question on the Elder Law Report. In our latest episode, we promise to equip you with the knowledge to avoid the common pitfalls of DIY estate planning. Comparing the process to the complexities of DIY home improvement, we underscore the value of seasoned estate planning attorneys who can navigate the intricate legal landscape for you. Through our shared personal experiences, we illustrate how professional guidance can ensure your documents are both comprehensive and legally sound.

Discover the hidden risks of using DIY services like Google or LegalZoom, which could lead to costly litigation or unintended outcomes. We'll explore the vital role of professional estate planning to avoid the chaos and confusion that can arise from improper planning. Jane and I will walk you through the necessity of a personalized and professionally crafted estate plan that adapts to life's changes, such as births, deaths, or marriages. Whether you're starting from scratch or need a review, our team at McIntyre Elder Law is ready to provide expert assistance. Listen in to understand why entrusting your estate planning to professionals isn't just wise—it's essential.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:09

Hi, thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Elder Law Report from McIntyre Elder Law. My name is Jordan Bentley. I'm one of the attorneys here and I'm joined by Ms Jane Deerwester, another one of our attorneys. Hi.

Speaker 2: 0:21

Jane, hello, hello from Hendersonville.

Speaker 1: 0:24

And today I think we're going to be talking a little bit about DIY or do-it-yourself estate planning, whether that's a good idea. If it's a bad idea which I think we might suggest, it is what the potential pitfalls or issues could be, because when someone tells me something's a bad idea, I shouldn't do it, I certainly want to know why. So I think, especially right recently, I think, when people think about DIY or do-it-yourself, we're talking about Home Depot or home improvement projects, things like that, and it's great to be able to do some of the things yourself, right, sometimes at a lower cost than you'd pay a professional for. I know I've done some home projects like that Growing up. I did a lot. I've done some on my home.

Speaker 1: 1:03

Now, and even when you do those, right, your caution, you know, kind of don't delve into the areas of experts, right, you might not want to do electrical work or plumbing if you don't know how. Um, because a fire or a flood or water main can be disastrous. Right, you don't want to cause those issues. You don't deal with those issues. Um, in recent years we've seen a rise in do-it-yourself professional services. Um, you know, tax planning, estate planning, um, real estate, things like that, and it's important to remember that, even with those things, they do have a benefit. Right, it's a lower cost for people to do things you are delving, similar to electricians or plumbers. Right, you're delving into the area of experts. Estate planning is certainly the domain of estate planning and elder law attorneys, and when you attempt to do that yourself, as with home improvement, you should use extreme caution. If you don't have the information and the knowledge and the expertise, you can run into catastrophe, right, right.

Speaker 2: 1:58

Yeah, and it's usually that what the old adage is you get what you pay for. So if your intention is to avoid having to pay an attorney or having to pay a professional to get professional results, you're not going to get professional results trying to do something that's completely outside your area of expertise and knowledge. I can speak for myself. I've been practicing law 20 years over 20 years but just joined McIntyre Elder Law last year and I thought I was a pretty well-versed attorney in real estate. But moving over to the estate planning realm, I don't know about you, Jordan, but I learned something new every single day.

Speaker 2: 2:42

There are so many nuances to estates, trusts, estate planning wills, and these things are not obvious.

Speaker 2: 2:50

These are not things that anybody would figure out, Just Google it.

Speaker 2: 2:57

I say very often when we're meeting with clients or out talking in the community please don't try to do this yourself. This is something that really requires you to stop. Slow down, hire a professional, make sure you do it right and again, if you do it right and you do it thoughtfully with a seasoned and experienced estate planning attorney, those documents could last you 10 years, 20 years, maybe forever. Maybe that's the only estate plan you ever have to do in your life and it lasts you for the duration. So if you think about that in context of the investment that you're going to make, I think most people would say it was well worth it. Not to mention, you have that peace of mind knowing, hey, I got this done by a professional, Everything's buttoned up, it's all going to be good to go, and the alternative is doing it yourself on some Google form and not realizing that it isn't going to work until it's too late or until somebody has already passed away, and then there's nothing you can do to fix it.

Speaker 1: 4:05

Right, we're talking about protecting assets, preserving people's legacies, passing things on. That's kind of what we do as estate planning attorneys. And if you want to make sure those things happen, right, they need to be done properly and they need to be done while you have the capacity and while you're alive and while you can do it. And a lot of the problems in estate planning documents like Jane just kind of hinted at will won't be discovered until it's too late, right, until the person is deceased. And so we're trying to, you know, navigate their estate and we're realizing that either it wasn't done properly, it wasn't done clearly, or people might disagree about what your intentions were.

Speaker 1: 4:42

So there's a lot of roles that an estate planning attorney plays, one of the first ones and it's, it's simple, but I don't know that it's obvious, right, is that kind of? We kind of play a role as a counselor of law. You know we have experience and expertise in handling these situations, so we can kind of see the whole picture. A lot of times, right, you might be worried about what happens to your assets after you pass away. You know who inherits them. But we also might need to talk about, you know, long term care planning or guardianship, so you might have a special needs, a child in your family or someone that you take care of, and we want to make sure that the person who drafts those documents sees the whole picture and can foresee the future problems, the future issues, the future things that need to be resolved now to avoid getting stuck or falling into a pitfall.

Speaker 2: 5:27

There's so many topics that people have no idea that they don't even know to ask. The question I'm sure you see that too, jordan is that people will come in and say I want a will, and that's kind of the thing people are most familiar with, but then when we counsel them and talk them through the powers of attorney, the will, maybe they need a trust. There are so many different estate planning devices that we use and that we recommend to clients to help them, and we really customize it to their situation. You're not going to get that with a DIY form.

Speaker 1: 6:03

No, and you won't get advice. You know you can pass assets. A lot of people have a will and they want their stuff to go to who they want, but they don't even realize that that will needs to go through probate. They want, but they don't even realize that that will needs to go through probate. And there's ways that you can set up your estate plan to pass your stuff automatically outside of probate. You know, with beneficiary designations or other tools and strategies and that's something that you know, an attorney would be able to advise on whether it's not only how to do it, but whether it's the right or wrong decision for you.

Speaker 1: 6:28

You know I mentioned special needs planning a minute ago, right, if you're you know, leaving funds or assets to a special needs child, for example, or a sibling with special needs right, those need to be put into a, trust needs to be created and other. You know special needs planning needs to be done and if it's omitted, right, that could be disastrous. You could end up kicking that person off their benefit. You know, doing exactly the opposite of what you wanted to do not providing for them, but restricting their resources.

Speaker 2: 6:53

Yes, and causing them or their guardian to have to go in and spend additional funds on legal documents or getting their affairs in order because what you did actually put them in a worse position. What you did or didn't do puts them in a tougher position. Yeah, so it can actually where. In general, setting up an estate plan is to protect yourself and your loved ones. If you try to DIY and go on Google or LegalZoom or one of these outlets and get a form to fill in, it can actually cause damage and set you or your loved ones up for litigation, which is five or ten times more expensive than doing your estate plan correctly and with a professional in the first place.

Speaker 1: 7:40

Yeah, if handled incorrectly, I can almost guarantee it's going to result in two things litigation, or simply someone who you didn't want to get your stuff get your stuff right, or having authority that you didn't want them to have. The idea and Jane mentioned it once or twice already is the phrase peace of mind. I don't believe you can put a price on that. I think it's worth knowing that your intentions are going to be carried out even after you're gone. They're going to be protected while you're alive and that the people who rely on you or you know you provide for are going to continue to be provided for and be able to rely, you know, on getting stuff from you that you told them you were going to leave them, whether that's home or whether that's money in an account.

Speaker 1: 8:22

And also, you know I talked about being a counselor earlier and kind of sitting down with people and understanding the full picture and being able to hear them out and ask the right questions. You know another issue that comes up and we mentioned litigation a few times right, what if a conflict arises about your will or your trust? You know what you wanted to happen. Who was supposed to get what you know attorneys can often be, you know, often be an important witness to not only your intentions but your capacity when you drafted those documents, and it leaves someone around to advocate for you and for your intentions, who is in the room with you drafting those documents, having conversations with you, understanding your desires and putting that plan together with you.

Speaker 2: 9:01

Yeah, that's so important and we've seen in our litigation practice. I've seen various circumstances either where we were the drafting attorney or there was another drafting attorney. And as attorneys, when we meet with clients, we keep notes, we keep our mental impressions, and so those can really come into play to help in the litigation to determine all kinds of issues. That again, it's just going to be non-existent if you're just filling out a blank form. There isn't going to be anyone. There isn't going to be anyone that kept notes, it's just going to be you. Going to be anyone. There isn't going to be anyone that kept notes, it's just going to be you. And if you're incapacitated or dead, you're of no help to the people who are trying to interpret what you meant.

Speaker 1: 9:45

Right, and we've been talking about, I think, more complex issues or problems, like you know, specific areas of estate planning, like special needs planning or, you know, probate. But I think, just in general, you know you'd want to be able to sit down, you'd want to be able to have that conversation with someone who understands everything and, at the core, you know, most simple level, want to make sure that the document is drafted and executed properly. You know you need witnesses, you need to be notarized. A lot of people handwrite additions to their will and things like that and they think you know I wrote it on there and signed it. It's good to go.

Speaker 1: 10:17

You know you definitely want to sit down with an attorney and make sure that exactly what you want to happen is happening, and not only that, but have that attorney ask you the right questions and kind of issue spot and enforce it. You know a lot of times clients will want to leave things to all their children and they think that all their children is pretty self-explanatory. You know maybe you have stepkids, maybe you have adopted kids, maybe you have kids who aren't your biological kids but you call your kids because you raised your nephew, things like that. You know you want to be clear with your intentions, want to use the right language. Ultimately, you want to go to a professional for this, the same way you would for like I said earlier plumbing or electricity in a home improvement project, because when the consequences can be so severe, you definitely want to make sure that it's done properly so that you can have that peace of mind.

Speaker 2: 11:04

Yeah, I compare it more akin to, like you know, doing surgery. Are you going to DIY your own surgery or are you going to go to a professional? Like you just going to start, you know, slicing away and do your own surgery? Of course not. You're going to go to a medical doctor, You're going to go to a surgeon. So I think these need to be on the same par with. That type of this is not an outpatient procedure. This is something you really want to make sure you're having a professional work on.

Speaker 1: 11:30

Yeah, when things change people are born, people die, people get married, you have more grandkids. Now you want to be able to go back to that attorney and have a follow-up conversation and say, hey, here's what changed in my life. How do we change my estate plan? How do we alter this now to account for this new change in my family or this change in my health? You want to have an attorney in your corner. You want to have an ally in your estate plan advocating for you and advocating for your wishes. And you don't get that with legal zoom, you know. You don't get that by printing something offline and filling in blanks. You get that by sitting down with an attorney who knows what they're talking about, who knows what they're doing, meeting with them, explaining your wishes, asking them questions, answering their questions and informing an estate plan that works for you. We say it all the time right, estate planning is not a one size fits all deal, right?

Speaker 1: 12:19

It's very personal, it's very customized and it's a professional service, and if your only concern, you know, the only benefit of going to a DIY provider, going online and doing it yourself, is the cost, um, we, we said it earlier, jane mentioned it specifically. Right, the cost of litigation, or the cost of facing that problem, uh, both in time and stress, um, and in money, is going to be greater than being in your corner and having peace of mind, and that's ultimately why I think, um, you know, do it yourself might be the way you go, um, but I certainly don't think you're going to get the peace of mind or the expertise that you'd get from an attorney.

Speaker 2: 12:59

Yeah, yeah. And I think too that in estate planning a lot of people their goal is to protect their assets Particularly, the number one thing people want to protect is their home, the place where they live, the place where they sleep at night. So think about the value of your home. It's probably, you know, a few hundred thousand dollars. So are you willing to spend a couple hundred dollars to protect something that costs several hundred thousand dollars? Yes, when you look at it like that, it is kind of a no brainer. You're like, hey, I want to make sure my house passes to my husband or wife or my children. Make sure it happens, don't leave that up to chance. I argue it is worth a few hundred dollars to make sure especially those larger assets are done properly.

Speaker 1: 13:48

And you don't want to leave your spouse and your kids and these people that you care about. You don't want to leave them a problem to fix after you're gone.

Speaker 2: 13:56

Yeah, the difference between people who have made a good plan with a professional ahead of time versus people who have not made a plan at all or done kind of a DIY. It's night and day. Night and day. That's all I can say is the people who have a good estate plan in order when they pass their loved ones, of course, are grieving, but there's a plan in place that's carrying out that person's wishes who passed away. The flip side is chaos. Nobody knows what's going on. It's expensive, you've got to go through probate and there's a lot of confusion. People don't know what to do or what they wanted. So we want to try to help you all avoid that chaos and confusion.

Speaker 1: 14:36

I think those are the key words. I was going to say plan and confusion. Right, if you sit down with an attorney, if you discuss these issues ahead of time, you can plan for them. You can plan for the possible problems that are going to rise and the things that you'll need to account for ahead of time, versus having to solve them right, having to deal with crisis or chaos on the back end and confusion. You want to avoid those things Crisis, chaos, confusion. Let's avoid those.

Speaker 1: 14:57

Yes, so whether you, you know, have tried to do your own estate plan, you have a DIY plan, you have some documents that you printed offline and filled out yourself or drafted yourself, and you want us to look at them and, kind of, you know, give you advice on why they might not be best or what the potential pitfalls or holes we see in those are. You know we'd love to review those with you, sit down and talk to you. Or, if you haven't taken a stab at it at all and you're like, yeah, this is something that I need and I definitely don't want to do it myself, you know we would love to talk to you as well. You can make an appointment with any of our attorneys at McIntyre Elder Law by calling 888-999-6600 or going online at mcelderlawcom scheduling. We have an office in Charlotte, in Shelby and in Hendersonville, north Carolina. We have attorneys who sit down every day and have these conversations and would love to you know figure out your estate plan together versus making you do it yourself.

Speaker 2: 15:55

Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 15:56

All right. Well, thank you, gain. I enjoyed this conversation and, hopefully, we gave you some good advice on how to handle this going forward.

Speaker 2: 16:02

Hope, so Hope. We see less and less DIY out there. So does the American Bar Association. Yes, yes, I'm sure All right.