{"id":3141,"date":"2012-09-09T12:57:32","date_gmt":"2012-09-09T19:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/?p=3141"},"modified":"2012-09-09T12:57:32","modified_gmt":"2012-09-09T19:57:32","slug":"risk-of-diy-planning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/risk-of-diy-planning\/","title":{"rendered":"Do it Yourself (DIY) Estate Planning – Risk Worth Taking?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do it yourself (DIY) estate planning is something I’ve warned families about many times. \u00a0My first personal experience with it was reviewing an “estate plan” done on Legal Zoom. \u00a0You can read about it in this previous blog post<\/a>. \u00a0Then again, you would probably expect me to discourage families from using DIY estate planning products because I’m an estate planning attorney.<\/span><\/p>\n

The question asked by many families is, “why should I hire an attorney when we can do our own estate planning (using online forms, etc.)?” \u00a0That’s a valid question. \u00a0After all, many people change the oil in their own car and fix things around their home. \u00a0Why not create your own estate plan?<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, I recently ran across this Forbes.com article on “What Could Happen if you Write Your Own Living Trust<\/a>,” and am sharing it because it’s not written by an estate planning attorney. \u00a0I encourage you to read the article yourself, as I believe Ms. Jacobs does a great job covering some of the practical downsides of doing your own planning. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The article’s many good points can be summed up in this statement: “The trouble with do-it-yourself planning is that even if your situation seems simple, there are many oddball things a layman wouldn\u2019t think of that can go wrong, especially with wills and trusts. These mistakes can end up costing you or your heirs a lot more than you saved in legal fees.”<\/span><\/p>\n

So, what do\u00a0you<\/em> think? \u00a0If you still want to do your own estate planning, what’s keeping you from working with an attorney? \u00a0Fees? \u00a0Reputation of attorneys? \u00a0Let us know and we’ll help you through those decisions, whether we end up working together or not. \u00a0Call us today at 616-827-7596.<\/span><\/p>\n

Michael Lichterman<\/a>\u00a0is an estate planning and charitable planning attorney who helps families and business owners create a lasting legacy by planning for their\u00a0Whole Family Wealth\u2122<\/a>.\u00a0 This goes beyond merely planning for “stuff” – it’s about who your are and what’s important to you.\u00a0 He focuses on estate, charitable, and asset protection planning for all generations (“young” and “experienced”), the “sandwich generation” (caring for parents and children), doctors\/physicians, nurses, lawyers, dentists, professionals with minor children, family owned businesses, and pet planning.\u00a0 He enjoys creating life long relationships with his clients centered on their family’s values, insights, stories and experiences.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do it yourself (DIY) estate planning is something I’ve warned families about many times. \u00a0My first personal experience with it was reviewing an “estate plan” done on Legal Zoom. \u00a0You can read about it in this previous blog post. \u00a0Then again, you would probably expect me to discourage families from using DIY estate planning products […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-estate-planning"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3141"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3149,"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3141\/revisions\/3149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}