This post is a follow up to my article a couple of week ago "Purchasing Estate Planning Documents over the Internet Vs. Hiring an Attorney".
The Do It Yourself Estate Planning advocated by Suzie Orman and Legal Zoom and Quicken are just not worth it!
While persons having "simple" estates and in California what I mean by that is they do not own any real property and the GROSS value of their estates is less than $150,000, may be able to get away with using a do it yourself kit, the possibility of not getting it right is not worth the savings of a couple of hundred of dollars.
Wills in all states have very specific criteria on the language that needs to be used and the way they are signed. Just as importantly, Wills only apply to assets (meaning property and accounts) that do not have a valid beneficiary designation. Failure to understand these concepts and not following the strict formalities in signing your estate planning documents result in those documents being invalid. This could very well result in your loved ones fighting over your plan and/or having to spend thousands of dollars to go to court to straighten everything out.
See the American Bar Association's Real Property and Probate Sections' task force report on Do It Yourself Estate Planning: http://goo.gl/7OFVV
Just as importantly such Do It Yourself Plans do not address what happens if you need long term care before you die!
Most people would much prefer to preserve at least some of their property for their spouse and children rather than spending it all on long term care costs in the last years before they die.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says that people who reach age 65 will likely have a 40 percent chance of entering a nursing home. About 10 percent of the people who enter a nursing home will stay there five years or more.
The cost of a nursing home care in California ranges from a minimum of $6,000 to upwards of $9,000. Medicare may pay for the first 20 days and will partially, but rarely pay for the next 100 days (co-pay of $145/day). Doesn't it make sense to seek the advice of an experienced elder lawyer to deal with these issues rather than leaving it to chance?
At the Casiano Law Firm - we know elder law and how to create estate plans to address concerns over long term care issues, nursing home costs, irresponsible children, children with special needs among many other issues. We do not use forms for a one size fits all plan. We do have a variety of plans so that our clients can decide, after an explanation of various options what they need or don't need and the plan is priced according to the options a family chooses. In other words our clients get to choose the price they want to pay!
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