You may notice that the legal document section of your local office supply store has kits available for estate planning and living wills. Many websites claim to offer flat rate, low cost, fill in the blank legal documents for estate planning. This may make you think that you can have a DIY estate plan. While some things can be done on your own, enlisting the help of an experienced Ohio elder law attorney is the only way to be sure all of your needs are met.
Here are some common problems associated with DIY Estate Planning:
- Documents including Living Trusts, Last Will and Testament, Advance Health Directives, Living Wills and Powers of Attorney need to be state-specific. The fill in the blank documents you can find online rarely have all of the needed verbiage for Ohio.
- Each situation is unique. You will need to have specific provisions added to your documents that meet your unique needs
- Often, DIY documents have conflicting or ambiguous provisions that can prevent your needs from being met in an emergency.
- Estate planning documents created from kits are the leading cause of estate and trust litigation, which adds significant stress and financial burden to your loved ones.
