OnlineEstatePlans v. Legalzoom 

Thank you again for coming to my site.  I've built this site and my online process because I see a great future in estate planning due to the high volume of people reaching retirement age that need high-quality comprehensive attorney drafted estate planning services.  Statistics show that an overwhelming majority of Americans do not have powers of attorney or even a will/trust.  Why?  I think the reason is two-fold:  1) traditional law offices are cost-prohibitive as they typically charge anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 for a trust based plan; and 2) estate planning requires us to face our own mortality and make tough decisions.   Since planning is hard to do and the cost is high, people either put it off or ignore the problem altogether. Moreover, because of these barriers, many have opted to take matters into their own hands by availing themselves of low-cost online Legal Document Assistants (aka "LDA's") like Legalzoom.  However, I invite you to consider carefully the differences between an LDA and my law firm.  Let's take a look.

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OnlineEstatePlans: 

  • Is a law firm dedicated to estate planning. 
  • Always reviews your online form prior to drafting your documents.
  • Provides you with attorney-client privileged (i.e., confidential) communications from start to finish.
  • Provides legal advice from start to finish. 
  • Is accountable for legal advice. 
  • Assists you in making informed legal decisions. 
  • Cannot provide same-day service upon form submission because it will actually be reviewing your data before drafting your documents. 
  • Charges $895.00 for a married client trust based package (Click Here for Plan details). 

Legalzoom: 

  • Is NOT a law firm, but rather is California Legal Document Assistant ("LDA") (see below for more detail).
  • Cannot review your online form for mistakes, because doing so would be the unauthorized practice of law. Therefore, you are stuck with your decisions whether good or bad UNLESS you pay extra, go outside of Legalzoom and hire an attorney to review you documents.   Why hassle with that when you can have an attorney from start to finish?
  • Does not provide attorney-client priviliged communications because they are not a law firm. 
  • Cannot provide legal advice. 
  • Is NOT accountable for any negative result ensuing from your decisions. 
  • Charges approximately *$850.00 for a married client trust based package with same day service (please note that the $850.00 would NOT include additional costs incurred by outside legal review).

In reality, you are comparing apples with oranges when comparing OnlineEstatePlans v. Legalzoom.  LDA's, like Legalzoom, are only permitted under the California Business and Profession Code to provide "self-help services at your direction."  Sound familiar?  It should, because the Cal. B&P Code requires them to disclose that exact phrase in all of their advertisements.  But what does "self-help at your direction" mean?  I've laid that out for you above on this page.  

There are stories after stories of those gambling on doing it themselves through LDA's with terrible results.  I've personally cleaned up disasterous business and estate plans. That is not to say that everyone has bad results with LDA's.  Moreover, not every so-called "estate planning" attorney is truely dedicated to estate planning. However, because everyone using an LDA is making their own decisions, at best they can only hope their plan is right and they have no recourse for the results of their own decisions.  Don't you want to know...your plan is right?  

I'm banking on the fact that you do.   And why not?  Why spend years accumulating and conserving  your estate and then spend so little time and resources on distribution and incapacity planning?   

Put my experience to work for you (Click HERE for my bio) and hire a truely dedicated estate and business planning attorney.   

  • You don't need to spend thousands of dollars on your plan.
  • Keep in mind that many LDA's were created by large firm attorneys.   
  • Don't take the risk of doing it yourself. 

Buy confidence at a reasonable price.  That's what we sell.