Competing with Suze Orman & Legal Zoom
If you want to have a will or even a trust, there is no reason in the world that you have to come to me or another estate planning attorney. Go online to Suze Orman's website or to Legal Zoom, follow their prompts and soon you will have the beautiful legal document they promise (and at a fraction of the cost of an attorney). I know one attorney who bought trust creation software at a dollar store for $1.00 (plus tax). So why am I still in business? Why do people still pay my "exorbitant" fees?
My fees for basic planning may run $2,000 or $3,000 more than what is available in the do-it-yourself world. People are not paying my fees because they want to help me out. There are not that many people who are willing to write a $2,000 check because they think I'm a nice guy and they'd rather give me the business than pay that Suze Orman woman $40.00. (Or give dollar general $1.00) What would make someone willing to part with so much more money? One of my recent clients gave me the answer.
Mr. Client/Friend has researched online and I was impressed by his understanding of how business structures should be set up. In fact, he used Legal Zoom to create an LLC and based on our conversations (I've never reviewed the documents.), I think he probably did fairly well with them. Then he told me that he wanted to be sure his personal planning was done right. The reason he came to me is because he wanted Peace of Mind. Looking back, I think that is the reason most of my clients have sought my counsel.
I hear the radio adds for Legal Zoom and see Suze Orman on TV and on the Internet. Their messages are compelling and their prices are cheap. The documents produced are beautiful and filled with all the right legal clauses . . . for someone. The question is, "Do the clauses fit the person they are being applied to?"
I have heard from attorney after attorney about people coming into their offices with a self-help trust. It is fortunate when the person who created the trust is the one who brings it in instead of the child who wants to know why their home is being sold etc.... If the "grantor/trust maker" has already died, it is often too late to fix a trust that does not meet their goals and circumstances. Sometimes the programs just can't get to really know what your circumstances are and understand the questions that must be asked. Often you don't know there are any problems until it is too late.
Legal documents are tools. One day I was watching a man put doorway trim in my home and it was so well done that I had to comment. I told him how nice it looked and told him that I had put up trim in a prior home and it hadn't looked nearly as good. His only response was, "What do you do for a living?"
You see, I had all of the same tools and I had enough knowledge that I felt I could do it myself. However, there was no substitute for the knowledge and experience of a person who actually does know how to do it. The difference was that I could see where I messed up (even if I didn't know why or how to fix it) but with legal documents you don't know if it contains dangerous language unless you have a competent professional review it.
Why some attorneys won't review your estate planning -- It's really simple. If they tell you that the trust you created using the Nolo software and workbook is as good as what they would have charged you for themselves to do, then 1) They wouldn't have done a good enough job to begin with and your talking to the wrong attorney and 2) they are on the hook and likely to be sued if the trust blows up and your children want to know why it didn't work how it was supposed to when that attorney said it was just fine.
I will review revocable living trust documents and other planning documents because I can usually spot the deficiencies and tell you about the problems you face. Your trust may have been state-of-the-art when it was first created but if you haven't kept it up to date I can generally find something wrong with it. I will generally not amend it, however. It would cost more for me to review it all, create enough amendments to fix your problems, and make sure that the amendments didn't conflict with any other language in the estate plan than it would for me to just redraft the documents correctly from scratch. This way I know that everything will work together seamlessly and I can update it for you annually with much less effort. You will even get a discount for the work you have already done to put a trust in place.
Another reason Estate Planning attorney's drafting wills and trusts are still in business is because they also do a lot more. When was the last time Suze Orman talked about drafting a Charitable Lead trust that would leave everything to your heirs estate tax free after helping your charity for a few years. How does Legal Zoom do in putting together a team that will help your family develop governance documents that will support a plan that will last for 100 generations instead of being spent in two generations as is standard?
How will you be able to pass on the values and character traits using software from a box? (I bet you didn't even know you could do that type of planning did you?)
Summary -- if you really care (even if you are an attorney yourself but don't practice in this area), seek professional counsel who will be able to understand your situation and sit down with you to develop a plan that will achieve your goals. When you have this type of competent counsel behind your plan you never have to ask yourself, "I wonder if I answered that question right."
Best of Blessings
Mark
My fees for basic planning may run $2,000 or $3,000 more than what is available in the do-it-yourself world. People are not paying my fees because they want to help me out. There are not that many people who are willing to write a $2,000 check because they think I'm a nice guy and they'd rather give me the business than pay that Suze Orman woman $40.00. (Or give dollar general $1.00) What would make someone willing to part with so much more money? One of my recent clients gave me the answer.
Mr. Client/Friend has researched online and I was impressed by his understanding of how business structures should be set up. In fact, he used Legal Zoom to create an LLC and based on our conversations (I've never reviewed the documents.), I think he probably did fairly well with them. Then he told me that he wanted to be sure his personal planning was done right. The reason he came to me is because he wanted Peace of Mind. Looking back, I think that is the reason most of my clients have sought my counsel.
I hear the radio adds for Legal Zoom and see Suze Orman on TV and on the Internet. Their messages are compelling and their prices are cheap. The documents produced are beautiful and filled with all the right legal clauses . . . for someone. The question is, "Do the clauses fit the person they are being applied to?"
I have heard from attorney after attorney about people coming into their offices with a self-help trust. It is fortunate when the person who created the trust is the one who brings it in instead of the child who wants to know why their home is being sold etc.... If the "grantor/trust maker" has already died, it is often too late to fix a trust that does not meet their goals and circumstances. Sometimes the programs just can't get to really know what your circumstances are and understand the questions that must be asked. Often you don't know there are any problems until it is too late.
Legal documents are tools. One day I was watching a man put doorway trim in my home and it was so well done that I had to comment. I told him how nice it looked and told him that I had put up trim in a prior home and it hadn't looked nearly as good. His only response was, "What do you do for a living?"
You see, I had all of the same tools and I had enough knowledge that I felt I could do it myself. However, there was no substitute for the knowledge and experience of a person who actually does know how to do it. The difference was that I could see where I messed up (even if I didn't know why or how to fix it) but with legal documents you don't know if it contains dangerous language unless you have a competent professional review it.
Why some attorneys won't review your estate planning -- It's really simple. If they tell you that the trust you created using the Nolo software and workbook is as good as what they would have charged you for themselves to do, then 1) They wouldn't have done a good enough job to begin with and your talking to the wrong attorney and 2) they are on the hook and likely to be sued if the trust blows up and your children want to know why it didn't work how it was supposed to when that attorney said it was just fine.
I will review revocable living trust documents and other planning documents because I can usually spot the deficiencies and tell you about the problems you face. Your trust may have been state-of-the-art when it was first created but if you haven't kept it up to date I can generally find something wrong with it. I will generally not amend it, however. It would cost more for me to review it all, create enough amendments to fix your problems, and make sure that the amendments didn't conflict with any other language in the estate plan than it would for me to just redraft the documents correctly from scratch. This way I know that everything will work together seamlessly and I can update it for you annually with much less effort. You will even get a discount for the work you have already done to put a trust in place.
Another reason Estate Planning attorney's drafting wills and trusts are still in business is because they also do a lot more. When was the last time Suze Orman talked about drafting a Charitable Lead trust that would leave everything to your heirs estate tax free after helping your charity for a few years. How does Legal Zoom do in putting together a team that will help your family develop governance documents that will support a plan that will last for 100 generations instead of being spent in two generations as is standard?
How will you be able to pass on the values and character traits using software from a box? (I bet you didn't even know you could do that type of planning did you?)
Summary -- if you really care (even if you are an attorney yourself but don't practice in this area), seek professional counsel who will be able to understand your situation and sit down with you to develop a plan that will achieve your goals. When you have this type of competent counsel behind your plan you never have to ask yourself, "I wonder if I answered that question right."
Best of Blessings
Mark
posted by Mark A. Galloway at
1:01 PM
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