More and more West Palm Beach residents are turning to online legal document services to have wills, trusts and more made up quick and cheap. Experienced West Palm Beach probate attorneys know that when these services mess up or you accidentally make an error it can be costly. Why is it worth it to go to an experienced attorney if it costs more upfront? Check out these situations that show how dropping dollars to save pennies is not the way to go.
Scenario #1: The Invalid Will
- Did you know that a will can not be admitted into probate if it is not properly executed?
- That may not seem like a big deal but it is.
- Your will has to have certain formalities or the courts are going to ignore it.
- In fact a properly executed will can be admitted even if you cannot find the will itself the attesting witnesses can help piece together the will.
- But if you have a will where the witnesses did not sign in one another’s presence the court will not even look at it.
- Is that crazy or what?
- You may be out of luck because of a small technicality.
- These are not small to the court though and they are not small in the eyes of experienced Palm Beach probate attorneys.
Scenario #2: Unforeseen Taxes
- So you set up a trust using an online form and now what?
- What if the trust is invalid for some reason?
- More importantly what if it has monstrous tax consequences?
- Legal document websites are not attorneys and they cannot give legal advice.
- Do you know what that means?
- It means they cannot counsel you on the tax benefits of one trust over the other.
- Experienced Palm Beach litigators know that one important aspect of any estate plan is minimizing taxes.
- Are you prepared to make your own estate plan based off the templates of some website?
- Saving some money now could cost your relatives a large portion of their inheritance down the road.
- How large of a percentage?
- If for some reason your estate is susceptible to an estate tax, over 40% above the exempt amount is going to be taken by Uncle Sam.
- Luckily Florida has no such taxes but the Feds do, so watch out.