There is a lot of attention being given to simple, DIY Wills at the moment. Save on the hefty legal fees, do it in 20 minutes and know that your family is safe. That sounds too good to be true, right?
I have a few problems with these adds and this approach to Estate Planning, including that -
Death is not simple
Estates are not simple
Wills are not simple
Completing a simple Will can give someone a false sense of security and they will probably stop planning for or thinking about their death at that point (as the advertising tells them that they have provided security for their family)
What I find most interesting about the advertising for these services is their more recent focus on how simple it will be, and being done in 20 minutes or less. There are many things that you could do to give your family security or peace of mind in 20 minutes. I will give you some suggestions below for what you could do in 20 minutes or less that will actually give your family security or peace of mind.
Preparing a DIY Will kit does not give your family that security or protection, and there is nothing simple about preparing a Will. Lawyers do not make Wills complex, estates are complete, death is complex and so Wills are complex.
Twenty minutes or less
Here are some things that you could do in 20 minutes or less that will actually provide peace of mind or security for your family, that are free, include -
Update your superannuation details (no you don’t know how many superannuation accounts you have) - read more here
Set your legacy contacts on your phone, your emails and your social media - read more here
Go around and check the batteries in all of your smoke alarms, torches, and your radio
Check the places that become fire hazards if they are not cleared out regularly (like lint in the dryer, filters in the fan above your stove, drip trays in any cooking devices)
Start a list of key documents or information that your family might need
Check the tyres on your motor vehicle - more on that here
Things that you can do in 20 minutes that are not free (cause DIY Wills are not free) include -
Buy that smoke alarm/fire blanket/fire extinguisher for that spot in the house that you have been thinking about. Do it online and then it is done.
Set up an account with BillWill where you put in all the bills that your family will need to deal with one day, and save them a significant amount of time and money. You can find out more about that here
Buy a mobile phone holder and charge cord for your car, if you don’t already have one. If you already have one then go and check that it is properly installed, if it is difficult to use when you are driving then figure out a safer alternative.
If you haven’t taken CPR or first aid training recently then do some research and book yourself in for a course. If you have done it find that manual and give yourself a refresher.
Do you have any other ideas to share with everyone? I would love to hear them.
If you want to do it on a budget
Amongst my many unpopular opinions is that money is a convenient scapegoat for putting off planning for your death. I think in reality that a lot of people who say it is expensive are actually fully aware of just how much is involved in preparing a proper, complete Estate Plan. I think the Australian refusal to discuss death makes it difficult to suddenly dive into a series of emotional and important decisions about your death, and I know that local solicitors are providing very inexpensive Wills packages (without then contracting out of providing you with legal advice). Despite the availability of cheap solicitor’s Will, DIY Will kits for $35 at Australia Post and charities running free Will days roughly half of Australians do not have Estate Planning documents.
If you do want to do a cheap, discount Estate Plan then please do not use these DIY legal service providers. The most budget way to do an Estate plan is to purchase a paper DIY Will kit, and a paper death planner.
You can still get DIY legal Will kits at Australia Post (see here). I assure you that you are not getting a better product because the document has been reviewed by a third party who has never met you or had a conversation with you, as some more expensive DIY operations promise. The conversation with you is key, understanding you and your situation is key. Checking whether someone correctly answered a question, when you did not ask the question and have never met the person giving the answer is a fool’s errand.
The person who created the DIY legal Will kit at the post office has never met you or had a direct conversation with you, and they have also thought long and hard about the types of questions to ask you, and how much information to give you in that kit. Why is the online process better? More importantly to me, you know that the DIY kit from the post office is done without legal advice. You won’t make any assumptions about it, you know that from the outset.
What is a death planner?
The other thing that you should do is have a death planner or death book or letter of wishes. If you Google “letter of wishes” you will find a lot of content on this topic, and the importance of this document. I won’t reinvent the wheel but I will give you a brief explanation.
Families spend a lot of time getting upset about things like what you wanted for your funeral, or whether or not you still own an asset that in most cases you probably sold but one beneficiary is convinced that it still exists and is quite upset that no one is doing anything about this asset. There are disputes over personal items (like who gets the original photos) rather than economic decisions. I honestly believe that most Estate litigation is either caused, or made worse, by the number of small arguments like this that occur in the weeks following your death, arguments that could be avoided if you had a death book. The issue is that no argument, when someone is deep in the throws of grief, is a small argument. Help your family out. Give them some information that will help them at this time. Arguments that happen because people have very little information and very high emotions.
Do you know where your insurance contract is for your house? Do you know what the ID number is for your superannuation account? Do you know when your motor vehicle registration is due? If you cannot quickly, simply answer these questions then how much time will your family spend figuring this out?
Any well prepared death book or letter of wishes will step you through information like this. You can get all kinds of death planners like this one or this one or this one. These give your family the information that they need that is not really legal but they will need it once you have died. Of course if you prepare an Estate Plan with me then a Letter of Wishes will be part of our process, but if you aren’t preparing an Estate Plan with me then please make sure that you do something like this.
Don’t do it on a budget though
I want to be super clear that I am not recommending that you try to do an Estate Plan on a budget. This is not only because I am a lawyer and I have to warn you, but also because as an Estates lawyer I see how much money Estate lawyers make from poorly prepared Estate Plans. I assure you we make WAY more money on those poorly planned matters than we make from the fees we charge on preparing a proper Estate Plan.
I want to be realistic though, and I know that some people won’t have the time or the budget right now to do a full and complete Estate Plan. I know that you are tempted by the promises of the online DIY legal Will kit and the advertisements that seem to promise you will get legal advice (but if you pay attention to them, do they promise that?) I know the lower cost point and the promise of 20 minutes is enticing.
After 20 years of doing this I have seen some horrendous DIY Wills using these Australia Post kits but they are horrendous because the person didn’t understand what they were writing into the Will, just like you won’t understand what you are typing into that online form. Both the DIY Will and the post office Will take about the same amount of time to complete. Both assume way too much knowledge of a non lawyer. In one of those situations you will know that you are not getting legal advice, you will pay less, and therefore you will have money left over to do a death planner which may go a long way to reducing some of the stress, cost and delay for your family.
So you really should do a proper Estate Plan, with a lawyer, even if that lawyer is not me. If you want a referral for a lawyer who I know who has a lower price than me I am happy to give it. If you want to know more about what is involved in working with me then you could use the Book Now link at the top of the page to book in a free 15 minute Quick Chat, or use the email address at the bottom of the page to reach out.
If you want to know what the cost will be you can find more information about that under the “About” tab but word of warning, you are looking at thousands, not hundreds. I am passionate about proper, in depth Estate Plans, I don’t do Simple Wills.