You may already be on a tight budget, which means traditional estate planning feels like an excessive expenditure that you cannot afford. But before you turn to DIY estate planning you might want to consider these five huge errors that were discovered in some of the DIY estate planning software available online.
- Estate Tax Exclusion – It was noted that the year’s exclusion allowance for estate planning was incorrect, which showed an estate owing estate tax that it normally would not owe.
- Ademption – When a person no longer owns a piece of property, but it is listed in the Will, there needs to be ademption terms. Unfortunately, DIY software does not include this.
- Guardian – The online software does not force an individual to select a guardian for their minor children. That means that if they do not know to create this portion of the Will, they will leave it out.
- Omitting Clauses Regarding Disputes – Online software allows individuals to remove the clause regarding disputes between executors. Though this seems pointless, without this clause the courts will have to make decisions regarding any disputes that arise from your executors listed in the documents.
- Powers of Attorney, Living Wills, etc. – The online software does not inform a person that they need to create Powers of Attorney, Living Wills or other important documents. Therefore, if the individual has not done their research, they will omit these documents and could cost their estate a fortune in the end.
DIY estate planning has several pitfalls that have been noted time and time again. Not only can it not help with complex estate issues, but DIY online programs apparently allow individuals to make multiple costly estate planning mistakes.
Stephen A. Unsworth is admitted to practice in both Vermont and Maine, and has more than 30 years of experience in estate planning and business law. His mission is to provide quality estate planning services, including assistance with Living Trusts, Wills, Medicaid Planning, Probate, Trust Administration, Powers of Attorney, Special Needs Planning, and Family Limited Partnerships.
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