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Today I finally got my hands at something I have been planning to do for a long time - writing my Will. It is not a very pleasant topic to talk to and not very popular either. It is estimated that more than half of Americans don’t have a written Will.

I will go over things I found in the process and will summarize them in this blog post. Do you have a Will? Take the poll at the end of this blog post and leave your own tips in the comments. Thanks!

Do you need a Will?

The common believe among my peers is that you don’t need a Will unless you are filthy rich. It is true that a Will allows you to define how your assets will be distributed after you die but there is one more very important aspect that a Will serves. If you have small children, a Will allows you to appoint a guardian for them. If you do not have a Will, a court will decide who your children’s guardian should be. This become very crucial for first generation immigrants because their parents (who would normally become guardians) are often not in the US and sometimes don’t even speak English, which may complicate things a lot.

Before you start

Besides the Last Will there is also Living Will which defines things like whether you would like to be kept on artificial life support if you become permanently unconscious. A power of attorney is another important document. It gives someone you trust the legal authority to act on your behalf. Some websites offer these documents for an additional charge.

A joint Last Will by a wife and a husband is not common. Usually each spouse creates his/her own Will that mirror one another. A notary is not required in order to create a legal and valid Will and your Will does not need to be filed with a court or any other agency. You need two witnesses (three in Vermont) to make your Will into a legally binding paper.

Think about who you will appoint as a primary and alternate executor for your Will. It has to be a person you trust but should not be anyone who inherits from your estate.

Louisiana’s laws regarding Wills differ from the rest of the states and because of that it is not supported by some online tools.

Which website to use?

I have examined three websites, each offers an online tool that lets you compile your Will free and you only pay at the end when you are ready to order the actual document - very similar to how tax preparation tools work.

LegalZoom offers entire a range of legal documents with a Wills being one variety. Their online tool offers the most comprehensive solution among the websites I considered for the task. It is the only website that supports Louisiana state and offers extra clauses like for the case when both spouses die simultaneously, or for adding a shelter trust.

In addition when prepared at LegalZoom your Will will be reviewed by a the stuff for common errors and omissions. This is not a legal advice you will get if you go to a lawyer but still some peace of mind that you have not made a stupid mistake.

The price is $69.00 for a standard package, $99.00 for a package with unlimited revisions, and $119.00 will buy same-day preparation and express delivery via e-Mail.

BuildaWill was my second choice. While the number of options is not as extensive as with LegalZoom, the online interface is the best among the three. I loved the preview mode that allowed me to see how the information I enter is worded on the actual Will. The preview mode helped me understand the meaning of some of the forms I had to fill out.

BuildaWill doesn’t offer Living Will or Power of Attorney and you are out of luck if you live in Louisiana. However the price is much lower than that for LegalZoom, just $19.95 for the standard and $29.90 for the premium (with unlimited revisions) package.

LegacyWriter has very basic user interface with the least options offered for Will writing among the three tools I looked at. I do not recommend using it unless yours is no frills typical case. Writing your own Will is not very complicated but you do need some basic assistance to avoid common errors, something BuildaWill is not very good at.

The price is the same as with BuildaWill ($19.95 and $29.90) but you will get at the end a document that you can edit (versus a read-only PDF file for BuildaWill). In addition LegacyWriter offers Living Will and Power of Attorney for an extra change but I have not looked at these.

After you are done

Once ready, choose a place where you want to store your Will. It needs to be accessible by others - a safe deposit box is not a good choice. Make and sign more than one copy.

Go back and review your will whenever there is a change in your assets or in your family. Getting married or divorced may automatically revoke your will in certain states.

For more information go to Estate Planning Guide which is a very concise 13-page document explaining what is typically involved in preparing to write your Will.