Q: Is Freewill a reputable service for a straight-forward will and trust? I only have one beneficiary.

A: Nothing beats an attorney giving you personal service tailored to your needs, because mistakes are very expensive in this field. BUT, yes, FreeWill is reputable and honest.

A: You will get a form template document from any online company. If your situation needs trust language that doesn’t come as part of their standard forms, I don’t know how the online companies would handle that. Perhaps they charge an extra fee or perhaps you just don’t get the best language possible.

For example, if you have an adult child who receives government benefits because the “child” (adult) is disabled, naming that child as a beneficiary of your trust could easily result in the child getting kicked off the government program after you pass away. In that case, when the disabled child runs out of the inheritance money, the child will need to re-apply to the government and hope he/she gets back on the government benefits — which isn’t as easy as it may sound. This is just one example of how I’ve seen things go wrong when people have used online companies.

Another thing I regularly see is people who don’t have experience drafting and/or reading trust language literally guessing which box to check in an online form and creating issues that could have been avoided. I have cleaned up enough messes over the years that I tell people this: If you know what you are doing and won’t be guessing about anything when filling out the online forms, you might be OK using an online company. But if you don’t and there is no lawyer working with you to ask questions about what you report to the online company, you will be setting up a trust at your own risk. And remember estate plans deal with EVERYTHING YOU OWN, so that’s one heck of a risk.

Be sure to read the disclaimers on the website of the online company. Most online companies say they have no liability and rely 100% on what you tell them. So, if you don’t know what you’re doing, it can be a crap shoot.

For those who are skeptical and say they don’t need a lawyer to help them, I ask if they know the legal definition of the word issue. That usually convinces them I’m not being a stereotypical used car salesperson and sincerely wanting to help them get good advice and counsel. Best wishes!