June 1st, 2026 |

• Estate Planning
• General

By Attorney Al Spiegel

Reading Time: 3 minutes

With the vast array of information and advice available on the internet, it is common for potential clients to consider whether it is wise to hire an estate planning attorney when so many forms are available online for free. For the following three reasons, those free forms may end up being extremely expensive, and that paid estate planning attorney may end up being the best investment you could make.

1. Online Forms Offer No Accountability

Several years ago, a single client of mine passed away and left her assets to her children. This decision struck no one as odd except for the son of her former husband, who believed that his former stepmother would certainly have wanted to include him in her estate.

This former stepson was so aggressive that he retained an attorney and filed a lawsuit against his stepmother’s son and took the matter all the way to trial, an endeavor that likely cost him well beyond $10,000. At that trial, I was a primary witness because, as the drafter of the document and the legal representative of the stepmother, I could offer testimony as to her competence and her intention to have her forms say exactly what they said. The judge found no merit in the former stepson’s claim and awarded all assets according to the plan I had drafted.

The internet does not provide this service to individuals who choose to prepare their legal documents using online forms. In fact, the internet provides NO services or accountability of any kind to individuals who use its forms. There is no one to ask questions of, no one to verify intentions, and no one to make a claim against in the event something is wrong. In other words, the person using online forms takes all responsibility, legal and otherwise, for the documents that are created, documents that the individual did not understand enough to draft in the first place.

2. Online Forms Offer No Direction (or Correction)

The second problem with online forms is that they will only be chosen and populated based on the information received from the individual preparing them. So, if an individual says they want a will, the internet will spit out some options. Those options may be wills appropriate to various different jurisdictions and various different circumstances, but the internet will not offer any meaningful advice about which is best (or legal). Beyond that, if the will is not actually the document the individual needed in the first place, the internet will offer redirection to the correct document. It will simply spit out the requested item like the vending machine it is.

Such a process assumes that the person selecting the documents knows the documents well enough to select an appropriate one from myriad options. How do we know that assumption is not true? Because those of us who prepare estate planning documents for a living don’t get our forms off the internet. We start with reliable forms from trusted sources and tailor them to fit our clients’ needs.

3. Online Forms Offer No Confidentiality

By far the scariest problem in preparing online documents (even if they are never signed) is the problem of the lack of confidentiality. It is well known that an individual working with an attorney enjoys attorney-client privilege, which protects all exchanges between the two, even if the lawyer is later subpoenaed to testify. Quite to the contrary, any information entered into online forms, including the information of others you wish to assist in the administration of your affairs, should be assumed to be released to the organization that offered the “free” form and anyone else that organization chooses to sell your information to. This should be terrifying to anyone who understands the invasiveness of online organizations or anyone who understands the sin nature at any level.

For all of these reasons, online forms must be avoided. They offer unaccountable, misdirected, and violative interactions for all who respond to their clarion call, so much so that doing no estate plan may in fact be better than a “free” online plan. The best option is to meet with a trusted estate plan attorney and get a wisely-drafted, confidential plan from someone who will stand behind it when you need them to.