Chapter 12 Lawyers

• Library: Estate Planning Basics (Nolo) (2022 Ed.)

CHAPTER 12: Lawyers

Will You Need a Lawyer?

Working With a Lawyer

Hiring a Lawyer to Review Your Estate Planning Documents.....188

Finding a Lawyer

Doing Your Own Research

Must you hire an attorney to do all of your estate planning competently? You surely know my answer by now. As I've stated often in this book, with good self-help materials, many people can handle all their own estate planning work. Others will decide that they do need an attorney, for one or more sensible reasons. Then the concern becomes finding a good lawyer, for a fair fee.

Will You Need a Lawyer?

Every estate plan involves some legal documents—at least a will, usually a living trust, health care directive, durable power of attorney for finances, and perhaps other papers. Ask yourself whether you're willing and able to do some or all of the legal work for your estate planning. If you answer no, then you'll need to hire a lawyer. (Of course there's nothing wrong with this approach; it's your money and your time.)

On the other hand, if you are willing to do your own legal work, and you have a relatively simple estate plan, you should be able to prepare the documents you want without hiring a lawyer. The key is that phrase "relatively simple." Roughly, it means having a straightforward beneficiary plan and an estate that won't be liable for estate tax.

You may, understandably, remain doubtful about preparing your own documents. Perhaps you feel that you can understand the basic concepts but are dubious about actually preparing the papers. Indeed, many people are so intimidated by estate planning that they fear that without a lawyer they'll do something wrong, and that their property won't be distributed as they wish.

The fact that so many people worry that estate planning requires a lawyer surely shows how fear-ridden our legal system has become. To dispel some of this fear, let's look realistically at what's involved when you prepare a will or living trust. The core transaction is usually quite simple: People just want to leave their property to whom they want to get it after they die. What's inherently complicated about that? Nothing. Indeed, as I've already noted, many people can state in a sentence or two what they want.

EXAMPLE 1: I want all my property to go to my wife, Yvonne Kamner, or if she dies before I do, to be divided equally among my three children.

EXAMPLE 2: I want my house and all my other property to go to my sister Charlotte O'Malley. If she dies before me, I want my property sold and the money divided equally among the Red Cross, the Audubon Society, and CARE.

EXAMPLE 3: I want half the value of my property to go my husband, Bill Tarver, and the other half divided equally between my children, Christopher Reilly and Mona Reilly Jamison.

Do not believe the lawyers or estate planning books that tell you it's crazy to do your estate planning yourself. Preparing a...