5 reasons to hire an estate planning lawyer
In an age where you can find Last Will and Testament templates for free online - just fill in the blanks! - the Ohio Revised Code is posted online in its entirety, and there are a wide variety of do-it-yourself resources available to answer many of your questions, it seems almost extravagant to hire an attorney.
Not to mention that the lawyers who tell you that you need them have skin in the game. It’s understandable why people are often hesitant, even leery of lawyers.
But here are 5 reasons you should put that fillable template down and at least consider hiring a lawyer to plan your estate:
LAWYERS ASK QUESTIONS. It can be really annoying, you may not understand where an attorney is going when they pose a question to you. But it is literally a lawyer’s job to know what questions to ask. Think of it like this; a tailor or seamstress takes your measurements, puts pins in your clothes, and asks how it looks in order to fit you for alterations. A lawyer works the same way. They ask questions so that your estate plan can be tailored to address your concerns.
LAWYERS KNOW THINGS, AND KNOW OTHER PEOPLE WHO KNOW THINGS. Once your attorney has your measurements, just to continue the metaphor, the lawyer knows how to do the actual tailoring. They know how to snip away or sew in pieces to put your estate plan together to assure it won’t fall apart when you need it. And the nice part is when you have a lawyer and they don’t know how to do something, they have a huge network of people they turn to for help. Lawyers are - and are required to be - lifelong learners.
LAWYERS CAN HELP YOU TO PRIORITIZE. Like a tailor, lawyers will look at what you have, what you want to fix about what you have, and then make some recommendations about how to accomplish it. Lawyers work on a variety of estates, they have a lot tricks up their sleeves and a lot of perspective. Like a good tailor, lawyers give you options.
LAWYERS KNOW HOW IT ALL FITS TOGETHER. An estate plan is, like a good coat, made up of different sections of fabric. There is no one piece of the coat that will cover you entirely. Lawyers, like tailors, understand how these pieces fit together and can ensure that all the pieces come together seamlessly, and without a bunch of unnecessary fabric sticking out. And finally…
LAWYERS FIX THINGS. Not every garment is worth repairing - this is true - but for those really important articles that you have come to rely on, a good tailor can save you from having to find a lesser replacement. Lawyers can do the same thing. They can take a broken estate plan and fix it. Or, they can at least tell you whether or not it can be repaired, and offer some guidance as to how to proceed.
No template I’m aware of can do all that.