Can You Execute a DIY Estate Plan?

We live in an age when information travels very quickly, and it is really amazing when you look at the rapid explosion that we have experienced with regard to data transfer. If you are 50 years old you can routinely remember a time when you could not find out the score of a Yankee game if it took place on the West Coast the previous night when you were reading your morning paper. Now you can follow the game on your cell phone pitch by pitch virtually anywhere you happen to be on the planet in real-time.

This ability to spread information quickly and efficiently has helped to spawn the DIY craze, and it is true that you can find directions for doing just about anything that you want to do on the Internet. This includes estate planning. So the question is often asked whether or not the layperson can actually use a software program or set of template instructions to draw up his or her own estate planning documents.

To a large extent the matter really speaks for itself. We've all had experiences, particularly when we were young, of really wanting something and purchasing an inferior replica hoping against hope that it would work just like the real thing. It doesn't take long to find out that you do indeed get what you pay for, and estate planning kits fall into this category.

Software that you see on the Internet is not specific to any jurisdiction, and the laws are different state-by-state. Plus, none of these kits are going to analyze your entire financial profile, look you in the eye and ask you what you would like to achieve with your estate plan, and make recommendations based on years of education and decades of experience.

Redecorating the kitchen or planting a garden is one thing and planning your estate is another. Your legacy is too important to trust to a one-size-fits-all software program that may or may not provide you with a legally binding set of documents that are recognized in the jurisdiction within which you reside.

Saul Kobrick is an attorney licensed to practice law in the State of New York and the owner and founder of The Law Offices of Saul Kobrick, P.C. For more information on estate plan and other estate planning services, visit our website.