A Need for a Will? Often, There’s an Online Way

WHEN John Chuang of South Pasadena, Calif., became a father in 2005, he and his wife, Sulynn, knew that they needed a will. But Mr. Chuang, 38, didn't want to pay hundreds of dollars to a lawyer to draw up the document. So he turned to an online service that helps people fill out their own legal forms.

For about , the service, called LegalZoom, gave Mr. Chuang an online questionnaire about his last wishes. Completing it took about 30 minutes. A LegalZoom employee later reviewed Mr. Chuang's answers and turned them into a will, which Mr. Chuang received about a week later.

"I don't like lawyers. I think they're extremely overpaid," Mr. Chuang said. "With all the services on LegalZoom, I don't see myself using a lawyer for anything, unless it's a lawsuit."

Recently, the increasing sophistication of software and services for estate planning, combined with growing consumer comfort with online financial management, has led to a boom in homegrown estate planning.

Between 2005 and 2006, downloads of Quicken WillMaker Plus increased nearly 33 percent, according to Nolo, the publisher. LegalZoom says sales of its estate planning documents are up 73 percent this year from last. And We the People, a storefront franchise that helps people fill out legal forms, has grown to 110 locations in 23 states from 25 locations in 2000, according to the company.

Estate planning costs vary widely depending on where you live and how complex your estate is. Wills prepared by a lawyer often cost 0 to ,000, said Alan Rothschild, an estate planning lawyer in Columbus, Ga., and a vice chairman of the American Bar Association's section of real property, trust and estate law. Living trusts typically cost even more.

These fees may seem high to young families, who typically have little cash to spare but a compelling need to name potential future guardians and make financial arrangements for their children.

"We don't have tons of extra money we're leaving to charity or anything," said Kim Muir, 32, a mother of two preschoolers in Culver City, Calif. "We just need something written down." She and her husband, Michael, were appalled to find lawyers asking 0 just for an initial consultation. So they created their own will and documents for financial and medical powers of attorney using Suze Orman's Will and Trust Kit, which they bought for .99.

For middle-income families, the high price of legal advice can provide a convenient excuse to put off something that nobody wants to think about anyway. Only about half of people earning less than ,000 a year have a will, compared with about 64 percent of people with higher incomes, according to a 2005 Gallup poll.

"Lawyers have not traditionally done a good job of serving the middle class," said Michael P. Downey, a partner at the law firm Hinshaw & Culbertson in St. Louis, who teaches legal ethics at Washington University.

Estate planning is an obvious area for financial do-it-yourselfers. "Generally speaking, wills and trusts are private documents," says Liza Hanks, author of "The Busy Family's Guide to Estate Planning." That means that in all 50 states, they are valid even if you don't hire a lawyer to draft them. This is also true of what Ms. Hanks calls the "not dead yet" documents: medical directives and powers of attorney.

You do need to follow the signing instructions carefully: wills almost always require two witnesses but no notary, while all trusts and some medical directives and powers of attorney need to be witnessed or notarized, sometimes both, depending on the state.

Because LegalZoom, Quicken WillMaker and other estate planning tools provide detailed signing and notarizing instructions, customized to each state, and because notarizing is usually affordable, these requirements don't pose much of a barrier to do-it-yourselfers.

None of these documents need to be officially filed with a court until they are used. But it is a good idea to give a copy of your medical directive to your doctor and let your family know where you have stashed your will, trust or other estate-planning documents.

All of these documents - not just wills - are becoming easier to create at home.

Quicken WillMaker Plus (.99 at www.nolo.com) added living trusts in 2002 and medical powers of attorney in 2006. Other online software sites focus on specific aspects of estate planning. Living Trusts on the Web (www.livingtrustsontheweb.com), which started in 2006, charges 9 for an individual's trust, 9 for a couple's.

Bob Wacker, a financial planner in San Luis Obispo, Calif., says several of his clients have created trusts with Living Trusts and "seem to have good results," though he notes that those clients had relatively simple needs.