Key Estate Planning Documents

There are five key categories of estate planning documents.  These five categories are comprised of: trusts, financial and health care powers of attorney, wills, ethical wills, as well as advanced directives.

Living trusts also require thorough funding to avoid probate.  This introduces another universe of documents that must be prepared and, in some cases, recorded.   Estate documents also require storing for long periods of time.  Keeping track of these documents is very expensive.

Law Offices typically charge $1,000 to $1,500 to do estate plans. More complex cases may run between $2,000 to $2,500, or more, to do estate planning for situations involving second families, special needs, family businesses, sudden illness and the like.  To cut corners and operate like a trust mill, paralegals and unlicensed financial companies charge $495 to $1,000 and use your trust as a “loss leader” to sell financial products, leaving out valuable services like funding the trust with your property. These companies also lack malpractice insurance. They are providing unlicensed, sub-par work, which could lead to expensive litigation later on.

Certainly, when buying an estate plan at $495 you are not going to be talking much about your “hopes, dreams, and desires” for your family or beneficiaries. You will also be doing much of your own asset transfers to the trust, and “the devil is in these details.” At this figure, you get canned documents, not legal representation with a professional relationship, hence, the term—trust mill.