LegalZoom Estate Planning Review

LegalZoom Products

As previously mentioned, estate planning is one of LegalZoom’s most popular products. Here is a more comprehensive breakdown of everything you can expect from LegalZoom’s a la carte estate planning products, as well as their Estate Planning Bundle.

Last Will and Testament

A last will and testament allows you to dictate exactly how you want your properties and assets to be distributed after your death. With LegalZoom, you can create a last will and testament in as little as 15 minutes. LegalZoom offers two will options: a Basic Last Will with a starting price of $99 and a Premium Last Will package starting at $249.

The Basic Will package enables you to create a personalized will for your state of choice. This includes a step-by-step guide for creating your will and a 30-day period for revisions. You’ll fill out a questionnaire that helps LegalZoom create a will that lays out inheritance details, specifies who you want as executor of your will, and nominates a guardian for your children, if applicable. You might want to change your will over time after events such as marriages, divorces, or deaths.

The Basic Will also includes a health care directive (which gives medical personnel information about the treatments you want to receive if you’re unable to communicate), financial power of attorney (which designates someone to make financial decisions on your behalf if you’re incapacitated or travel, for example), and a HIPAA authorization (where you specify what entity can disclose your protected health information). Couples can purchase two LegalZoom wills and testaments for $199, and individual and couples’ Basic Wills also come with printing and shipping of one set of the documents.

The Premium Last Will package offers everything from the Basic Will package, plus a review of your will by an attorney, one year of free revisions, and unlimited 30-minute calls with an attorney for one year.

Advance Healthcare Directive

You have probably heard of a living will, sometimes called an advance healthcare directive. This legal document dictates what actions should be taken if your health prevents you from making your own health care decisions. For example, if you become incapacitated after a car accident and require life support, a living will ensures that your doctors know whether you want to remain on life support, and if so, for how long.

A health care power of attorney (POA) is similar to a living will, with one important difference. Rather than specifying what medical actions should be taken if you are incapacitated, a health care power of attorney gives the decision-making power to a designated individual. In essence, this document allows you to appoint a person to make medical decisions on your behalf if you are unable to do so.

Sometimes called a medical power of attorney, this designated person can speak for you not only about what treatments you want, but can refuse treatments you have deemed too painful or expensive, for example. Or they can specify which doctors and specialists you prefer and where you would like to receive treatment. You can appoint more than one person as a health care POA, and you can specify which health care POA will take care of different aspects of your care if you are incapacitated for whatever reason.

LegalZoom’s advance healthcare directive comes with a living will and health care power of attorney. Plans start at $39 for the Basic Healthcare Directive Plan and $49 for the Premium Healthcare Directive plan. The basic plan includes a living will, health care POA, secure online document storage, and unlimited document revisions for 30 days. With the Premium Healthcare Directive plan, you get everything in the basic plan, plus a review of your documents by an attorney, unlimited calls with an attorney for two weeks, and attorney advice for your family.

An advance healthcare directive document can decrease stress on loved ones. They will have instructions from you about the medical care you want to receive if you’re unable to communicate those wishes about your health care.

Living Trust

A living trust allows you to benefit from a trust now and plan how your trust will be managed for its future beneficiaries once you’re gone. It is one of the best ways to keep your trust out of a probate court and fast-track payouts to family members or other beneficiaries. If you make your Living Trust with LegalZoom, you have two options: Basic Living Trust ($399) and Premium Living Trust ($549).

The Basic Trust includes:

• Living trust
• Pour-over will
• Advance healthcare directive
• Financial power of attorney
• HIPAA authorization
• Certificate of trust
• Schedule of assets
• Bill of transfer
• 30 days for revisions
• Printing and shipping of one set of documents

Financial Power of Attorney

Like a health care power of attorney, a financial power of attorney document hands decision-making powers over to a third party. You can choose whom you want to make important financial decisions on your behalf if health problems, travel, or deployment prevent you from making these decisions on your own.

Again, LegalZoom offers two solutions: Basic Power of Attorney ($30) and Premium Power of Attorney ($49). The former enables you to create and revise a financial POA that conforms to the relevant laws in your state, while the latter allows you to do the same with up to two weeks of unlimited 30-minute calls with an attorney and legal advice for your family.

LegalZoom doesn’t provide much information up front about the “legal advice for families” aspect of their Premium Power of Attorney services plan, so it might be a good idea to ask for more details before purchasing. They do, however, provide a helpful database of sample POA documents when you select your state from a drop-down menu. 

Your POA can make decisions on your behalf that apply to:

• Real estate
• Personal property
• Stocks and bonds
• Retirement plans
• Government benefits
• Family care, including pets
• Legal actions

Estate Planning Bundle

LegalZoom’s Estate Planning Bundle can help you save money if you want more than one of the company’s estate planning services. The types of documents and services you get will depend on the bundle you choose.

You can create a Basic Will Estate Plan for one person ($99) or the Premium Estate Will Plan for $249. Estate plans for couples include a Basic Will for two that costs $199, or a Premium Will for two, which costs $349. Alternatively, you can create a Basic Trust Estate Plan for one person ($399) or for two people ($499). A Premium Trust for a couple starts at $649.

With the Basic Will Estate Plan, you can make a last will or living trust, appoint a financial power of attorney, make a HIPAA authorization, and create a health care directive. Each of these documents can be revised 30 days from the purchase date of the bundle.

The Premium Will Estate Plan includes all of the elements of the Basic Will Estate Plan plus an attorney review of your documents, legal advice for your family, one year of free revisions, and unlimited 30-minute calls with an attorney for one year.

The Basic Trust Estate Plan package is similar, but instead of a last will and testament, you can create a living trust. This package includes everything in the Basic Will package but also includes a pour-over will, schedule of assets (a list of everything you have that’s of value), and a bill of transfer, which is a document that transfers personal property that might not have a deed or a title into the trust. As with LegalZoom’s other products, the Premium Trust Estate Plan includes everything in the Basic Trust Estate Plan with the additions of attorney review of your documents, legal advice for your family, and one year of unlimited 30-minute calls with an attorney.

Since a living trust takes legal precedence over a will and can be edited over your lifetime, it is not necessary to have both. This means you can choose a plan that best suits the requirements of your estate and still get all of the essential documents you need. If you need more than one estate planning document, we recommend the bundle, as it offers the best value.

LegalZoom Pricing

To better understand the costs of using LegalZoom, here are all of the prices for each estate planning service:

Customer Support

LegalZoom won’t answer questions via phone or chat without first getting your name and email address, which is frustrating if you’re trying to research whether LegalZoom services are right for you. It was much easier to get questions answered on Trust & Will’s website. Compared to Rocket Lawyer, LegalZoom’s services and prices are more straightforward. If you are a customer, LegalZoom offers various support options based on the kinds of services you use and the help you require.

Regardless of your plan type, you can contact customer support via the online chat tool, phone, or email. You can also write to the address provided in the Help menu (if you are already a member of LegalZoom). The LegalZoom support staff is often praised for the attentive care it provides to its large base of customers.

How to Create LegalZoom Estate Planning Documents

Creating LegalZoom documents is relatively straightforward. Though the exact information you need to provide varies with each type of document, the process remains uniform for most documents. Let’s say you want to create a last will and testament for yourself. First, you will need to create a LegalZoom account and sign in. For this part, you will just need to provide some basic identification and contact information.

From here, you can choose to start a new will. This is where you will need to enter your name, the names of your heirs, and your wishes. More specifically, you will need to answer questions in the following categories:

• Family (beneficiaries in your will)
• Gifts (assets to be distributed)
• Representatives (personal representative, executor, or administrator of the estate)
• Special considerations (additional wishes you want to include)

Lastly, you will purchase and finalize your plan. Keep in mind that you will still have 30 days to revise your will if needed (or up to one year with premium plans). While this sounds like a great benefit, it is also indicative of how slow processes can be with LegalZoom. It could take anywhere from a week to over a month to generate relatively standard documents.

Again, the exact steps you will follow vary based on the type of document(s) and the plan you choose. However, LegalZoom provides you with step-by-step guidance to make sure that everything meets the standards required by law in your state.

LegalZoom Online Reviews

Many users complain about the upselling and wait times on LegalZoom. Even if you just want to create a living will, you will likely be offered several options to pay more for services that you may or may not need. You might have to wait several weeks just to get the documents you’ve purchased. These issues are commonplace among legal service companies, but LegalZoom gets much of the criticism because it is one of the largest providers.

Some online reviewers claim that LegalZoom customer service representatives refused to cancel recurring charges. One reviewer posted what appeared to be screenshots of her chat exchange with LegalZoom customer service in which she was told that she could not cancel her subscription without first contacting her Secretary of State for help. Others complained that LegalZoom made mistakes in their documents and were unhelpful or slow to correct them. There are many positive reviews as well. People say LegalZoom helped them make straightforward legal documents that saved them hundreds on attorney fees.

Comparing LegalZoom to the Competition

LegalZoom is not the only provider of online legal solutions. There are plenty of other online legal services companies, but many of them specialize in business formation. There are far fewer companies that have a wide range of products and services for individuals, particularly when it comes to estate planning. Some of LegalZoom’s top competitors in estate planning include Rocket Lawyer, LegalShield, and Trust & Will.

When it comes to the breadth of services, few companies can compete with LegalZoom. Once you sign up for LegalZoom, you can form an LLC, get tax and accounting advice, and plan your estate (just to name a few services). And if you stick with the Basic plans, LegalZoom can be a little cheaper than some online estate planning services.

It’s important to make sure you understand each company’s policy regarding ongoing or subscription fees. Although LegalZoom lists a basic will for a $99 fee, you can’t purchase services unless you click a box agreeing to an automatic annual renewal rate of $199. For comparison, LegalShield is a subscription service that starts at $26.95 a month, which is $324 a year. And although it might sound like you can probably create a basic will with Rocket Lawyer’s free seven-day trial period, they’ll bill you annually for $239.88.

There is a free online will provider: DoYourOwnWill.com. Although document creation is free, they may not be legally binding in your state, and they do not put you in touch with attorneys who can answer questions. You’ll need to have your documents notarized as well.

Like LegalZoom, other companies offering estate planning services charge extra fees to speak with attorneys. For example, Trust & Will estate planning services are straightforward, offering the same will or trust documents (will, power of attorney, healthcare directive) as LegalZoom for $199. Access to an attorney costs an additional $100. Trust & Will offers the choice of paying $19 a year if you want to update your documents and provides tools to log and track your assets. We liked that Trust & Will made it easy to opt out of the annual membership fee and that its chat feature with a bot provided instant answers to questions regardless of whether we had an account with them. (One of our relatives does have an account with Trust & Will, however, so we were able to get information about their services from a recent customer.)

Fortunately, LegalZoom stands above most competitors when it comes to customer service. In the past, LegalZoom did not have as many dedicated agents to help with customer inquiries. The company has since increased the size of its support staff to become one of the best in the industry for high-quality customer care.