Many people who ask me to be their executor commonly make their will using do-it-yourself methods. DIY estate planning can be tricky, so here are some tips on how to maximize the chances your DIY estate plan will actually work.

Our Methodology

We created identical estate plans using 3 popular free DIY will sites. Here is the fictional persona we used:

• John Doe is a solo ager. That is, he's unmarried with no children
• Unless your will is super-simple, you should work with a lawyer. So John's plan is very basic: he'd like to give his estate in equal thirds to two friends and one charity
• John would like to nominate me as his professional executor
• John will hire a lawyer to supervise his signing, as we recommend. Therefore, we did not review each site's signing instructions

We generated John's will on the 3 free sites. Then, my trusted colleague Maureen Pritchard, Esq. and I reviewed the results.

FreeWill.com

Our top pick for DIY will software is FreeWill.com. The site is well-designed, and pleasant to navigate, and John's will had zero errors.

The only caveat is the constant requests for donations. The site was funded by various charities, and they're not shy about asking to be named in your will. We were interrupted several times with prompts asking if John would like to add charitable beneficiaries to his will.

But if you're thick-skinned and can ignore the pushy requests, or if you plan to give to charity anyway, this is a great choice.

Pros

• Very professional product. The will did not have any typos or substantive errors
• Well-designed site. A very pleasant user experience
• Includes health care documents, too

Cons

• Barrage of requests for charitable donations
• Your will includes signatures lines and initials on each page. These are not legally necessary, and feel like overkill

DoYourOwnWill.com

DoYourOwnWill.com is truly a 100% free option for making a DIY will. You don't even have to give you email address (unless you want to save your will). This means that you're not even paying with your personal data.

But, just as in most of life, you get what you pay for. It may be completely free, but it has a few problems.

Pros

• 100% Free. Not even an email required
• Most private option
• Easy-to-follow user-interface
• Includes health care documents, too

Cons

• Several typos in John's will. Despite the typos, the will was substantively fine
• John's burial instruction is written into his will. In real life, this doesn't make much sense, since in many cases no one even looks at the will until after the funeral,.

RocketLawyer.com

RocketLawyer is the most well-known brand on this list but be prepared to be up-sold from their free option to one of their more profitable packages.

It doesn't feel like they spent a lot of effort on this free version. The user-experience is very clunky, and John's will has substantive errors. Maybe the plan is to nudge free users to a better, paid version?

 

Pros

• RocketLawyer is big name in legal DIY
• You may already have a RocketLawyer account and feel comfortable with their platform

Cons

• You must create an account, and it feels like you'll get up-sold a lot
• John's will had a substantive error (the will treated the charity as an individual. Not necessarily fatal, but can cause headaches later during the probate process)
• We couldn't find healthcare documents as part of the free package

There are many DIY estate planning sites out there. We hope that our review and recommendations will help you pick the one that's right for you. To learn more about the process of planning your estate, complete the info below to receive a FREE copy of my best-sellingbook.

FREE Copy of “The Solo Ager Estate Plan” Complete this form to receive your complimentary copy of Anthony’s Amazon best-seller, “The Solo Ager Estate Plan”