I’ve been asked about DIY/do-it-yourself Wills with sufficient regularity over the years that I decided to cobble together some points-to-ponder for those considering this for their estate planning. [By the way, the term “lawyer”  as I use it here is intended to include regulated qualified paralegals.]

Some inquiries are open-ended, others posed as a premise/belief, and more than a few seeking comment on a statistic (often unsourced or unverifiable, or drawn from a survey by a DIY Will service) stating or intimating that many/most people don’t ‘need’ a lawyer to prepare a Will. Though technically correct that one is not compelled to hire a lawyer, this misdirects attention away from the benefit of a proper legal review. And while it’s also true that relatively few Wills and estates encounter serious legal problems, it is both dangerous and faulty logic to confuse that with the risk/probability of issues arising in an individual circumstance.

When things go wrong, the fallout – for the people most importantly, and secondarily for the property – could range from inconvenient to inconceivable. While I won’t suggest that every such endeavour is destined for disaster, and acknowledge that in ultimate hindsight a particular DIY Will may have been adequate, I can’t in good conscience “recommend” a DIY approach.

The world has certainly come a long way from the paper-only fill-in-the-blank stationers’ forms of decades past. Whereas those forms left the user very much on their own, today’s online services can guide users through both information entry and document production in a much more interactive way. Even so, it remains the user’s responsibility to follow the service’s instructions. As a mechanical exercise, that’s arguably just a matter of being conscientious. However, a given user may actively or subconsciously treat some aspects of those instructions as being open to interpretation. For example, full disclosure will invariably be requested, but the user could still inadvertently or intentionally downplay or withhold details that are thought to be too small, too remote from the person, too far in the past, too unlikely to be discovered (maybe due to being too embarrassing), or too unlikely to materialize in future. Rather than having to vocally confirm responses and reply to follow-up probing questions while looking their lawyer in the eye, the user will have produced something that rests on an imperfect foundation at best.

Few (if any) online services have a qualified lawyer who conducts person-to-person reviews of entries with the user to determine whether the generated documents truly fit individual circumstances, or provides catered advice on what alternative/additional steps and strategies may be warranted. In fact, the best assurance an online DIY service can likely give is that if you follow their execution instructions, you will have a legally enforceable Will. But the limitation with ‘enforceability’ as a success criterion is that a Will is but one part of estate planning, though of course a critically important part.

The wider scope of estate planning is about taking care of the important people who depend on you (including yourself), now and in future, and when you’re no longer around. Fulfilling that care-imperative commonly involves using, sharing, and transferring property, and conferring legal rights and powers upon others – sometimes now sometimes later, sometimes outright sometimes with strings attached, sometimes by Will and sometimes in other ways. So, the priority is not simply to have a legally enforceable Will, but to have a practical plan and process with coordinated components that are both legally informed, and yes … legally enforceable.

In a retained lawyer situation, that conversation allows for options to be suggested, explored, opined-upon and recommended. This is not a journey that follows the same straight path for everyone, fits neatly into an entry box on a form, or exists within a predetermined list on a service’s database. That’s not to say that a lawyer-prepared Will will be airtight, but it will have the benefit of the lawyer’s training and experience applied in context. This significantly reduces the elements of mystery and chance that can come out of an impersonal and unadvised process.

For many people, a face-to-face professional engagement also provides greater confidence and comfort, as compared to contact-in-the-ether that may lead to lingering unease that things are probably okay. That ‘probably’ is itself probably not too satisfying given that a Will is in many ways the most important document that a person will create in their lifetime – or alternatively that they fail to create, or fail to create properly.

Finally, it is understandable and appropriate for cost to be a consideration, but it is far from the main concern, and definitely should not be viewed in isolation. First in terms of timing/recurring cost, preparation of estate planning documents is a relatively infrequent activity, perhaps revisited every half dozen years or when compelled by joyous occasions like a birth or when tragedy unfortunately strikes. Secondly as a value proposition, it’s far more important that a person’s needs are met than for it to be the cheapest option available. Third and related to the preceding point, low-cost is sometimes expressed along with the sentiment that ‘something is better than nothing’, but that is an arbitrary measurement and risky suggestion. The apparent deal of a low-price service could fall short of needs, or worse yet could lead to a result that is counter to what is appropriate. Ultimately, a Will takes effect on death, meaning that the deceased will never know or have the opportunity to correct for a flawed, but legally enforceable Will.

Please keep all this in mind as you consider what will best serve you and the people whom you are protecting and providing for in your estate planning.