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A Will is a Will. Comparing one Will to another is an “Apples to Apples” comparison. Isn’t it?
Aren’t they all the same? Is a $200 Will the same as a $2,000 Will? The real answer is an emphatic NO! A Will is NOT a Will. Not even close. Not even an “Apples to Oranges” comparison. More like the “Apples to Rolls Royce” comparison.
You see, there are Wills, and then there are WILLS. But aren’t they the same thing? No way! The first group is garbage. The second is detailed, specific, and accurate. The first kind creates problems. The second kind solves problems. The first kind is cheap when you buy it and costs you money when you need it. The second kind costs you money in the short-term but saves you money in the long run.
Think of a cheap Will like buying a knock-off purse on the streets of New York City. Even if it’s pretending to be a Louis Vuitton bag, you know it’s not one, and it won’t hold up like one as time goes on. The fake will fall apart if you grab the handle too hard, but the real deal will hold together no matter how much you stuff into it.
Most of the time, clients that spend $200 on Will think they are getting a good deal but they are actually getting ripped off. They paid $200 for something as useless as empty pages, so they paid $200 for 15 cents worth of scrap paper. The documents don’t address current rules, don’t address real estate, don’t speak to digital or online accounts, and don’t have contingency plans built-in. They don’t speak to estate planning transfers between spouses or your wishes regarding dementia care. As I said, it's junk.
Case in point: I’ve been seeing an online service popping up on my Facebook page offering “estate plans for $200”. That sounds like a good deal, right? Sure, until you read the fine print. The website was filled with bad information. First, they claim to be nationwide, but the site doesn’t have lawyers doing the drafting for each state and uses the same documents for each. Next, they have basic information about every state, and the information they had on Massachusetts was dead wrong! For example, it stated that a Massachusetts Will does not need to be notarized. That is 100% incorrect. Next, their site guarantees your money back if a lawyer reviews your documents and says they are ineffective. In other words, they have no idea if whether or not their documents are even legal! Just cut out the middleman and flush $200 down the drain.
It’s not always true that you “get what you pay for”, but when it comes to estate planning, that old axiom is proven again and again. A bargain basement estate plan is cheap for a reason – because it’s garbage. While yes, I do think that you get what you pay for when it comes to an estate plan, note that just because something is expensive, doesn’t make it good. I’ve reviewed documents that were very expensive and found they can be just as terrible as cheap documents. Don’t let price be the deciding factor – instead, find a law firm that shares your same ideals (See our Core Values, HERE) and has the requisite knowledge and experience. For example, our knowledge is demonstrated all over our website, with our books, reports, videos, and other materials.
The truth is that a simple Will is okay for some people. For the most part, people that have under $25K in assets, don’t own a home and don’t have kids, can get away with a simple Will, for at least part of their lifetime. But it’s dangerous to think that a “simple” Will is good for everyone. Read our free report about the Dangers of the Simple Estate Plan, HERE.
There’s a big difference between a document that costs $500 versus an estate plan from Monteforte Law that costs in the thousands. What is the difference and what is the value that our plans bring?
First, we’ve never seen a cheap Last Will provide much value at all. People think of a Will as “giving out my property after I die”. And sure, that’s what a Will does, but estate plans are much different. When we see a client, we aren’t just looking to disburse their assets after they pass away. That’s just a small piece of what our plans do!
While every client is different, most of our clients have similar goals, those being (1) pass wealth to their children and families with as little being eaten up by estate taxes as possible and (2) protecting assets from long-term care costs. Our Monteforte Law Wealth Preservation System™ helps us to evaluate and recommend the best possible plan to help achieve our clients' goals.
Our job isn’t just to disburse assets after death. We want to solve the problems that most people, including “simple” estate planners, haven’t even thought of! We deal with several issues, both after death and during the client’s life. The benefits to our clients are:
- Minimizing exposure to estate taxes – most people don’t even realize how much they could owe in estate taxes, and it’s usually in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars!
- Allow pur clients to nominate someone to make healthcare decisions and financial decisions for them if they cannot do so for themselves, especially in the case of illnesses like stroke or dementia.
- Leaving a legacy to their children and family.
- Protecting their wealth from long-term care costs.
- Preserving the equity in their home, which is most people’s biggest asset, against nursing home costs and Medicaid liens.
- Passing wealth to their beneficiaries in the manner they choose, be it through multiple timed distributions or a lump-sum.
- Keeping Uncle Sam’s hands out of their beneficiaries’ pockets!
- Passing a business on to family or other beneficiaries.
- Positioning assets now that will help them qualify for long-term care benefits later.
- Providing an easy way for us to manage their estate plan as the laws change and as their life changes.
It’s our job to come up with the best plan for each client. The advice we a give about what type of plan to create is just as important, if not more so, than the plan itself. Choosing what documents to use, what kind of Trust to create, and how best to protect our clients’ assets are the most important things we do here. The legal advice we give about what kind of plan we create is the key to it all. We look at what type of plan will reduce taxes, protect assets, pass on and preserve wealth, and plan for long-term care. There’s a lot that goes into making recommendations to a client, and we have mastered that process. Using our Strategic Planning Session in conjunction with the Monteforte Law Wealth Preservation System™ is the best way to determine what kind of plan is right for you.
Our PLEDGE to YOU is: whatever the cost of your estate plan, we will save you at least FIVE TIMES that amount in estate tax savings and the value of protected assets.
How do you know if you need something beyond the simple plan? If you need a law firm that specializes in these documents, as opposed to going to a general practitioner? How do you know if you’re a fit for our firm?
Here’s a checklist to help you:
- Do you earn more than $100,000 per year?
- Do you own a home?
- Do you own a business?
- Do your assets, including the value of your home and the value of life insurance death benefits, total over $1 Million?
- Do you have a Trust?
- Are you the trustee or beneficiary of a Trust?
- Do you have children under age 21?
- Do you want to avoid estate taxes?
- Do you want to control the way your assets are left to your family?
- Do you want to protect your home from long-term care in a nursing home?
- Are you applying for MassHealth long-term care benefits, either by in-home care through a frail elder waiver, or facility-based care in a nursing home?
If you answered yes to at least three of those questions, then you should be consulting an attorney with specialized knowledge.
What to do then? First, be prepared to spend money on your estate plan, to get it done right. A cheap plan can leave you exposed to taxes, probate, creditors, can leave your home open to nursing homes and long-term care liens, and can leave a real mess for your family to clean up. At the same time, don’t assume that a plan is good just because it’s expensive. Instead, look at the drafting attorney, and see what kind of experience he/she has: Are they top lawyers in the field? Do they publicly speak on the subject? Have they written books or articles? Do they have free educational materials? Do they have a set of core values by which they run the practice? The answer to all of these questions should be YES before you write a check. To learn more about hiring a lawyer, watch our video, What Makes A Lawyer A Specialist, HERE.
