Form Wills are wills you can fill out and download from the Internet. They seem like a cheap and easy way to have some form of estate planning done.

Unfortunately, lots of problems can arise from using them. These include where someone you did not want to inherit your assets at all can inherit the assets if you make a common mistake when using a form will.

First, a will alone is often insufficient for proper estate planning, and a form will can provide a false sense of security.

Families with minor children or more complicated distribution choices can really benefit from a trust. Also, a will doesn’t help you in situations where a power of attorney or medical power of attorney would be required.

Second, the form you fill out isn’t flexible, doesn’t know what your needs are, and can’t prevent you from making costly mistakes, which occur with frightening regularity with form wills.

This video helps explain some of the problems using form wills:

Contact us to learn more about the problems with using a form will and how to get effective estate planning done that meets your needs.