{"id":3214,"date":"2013-09-23T12:32:11","date_gmt":"2013-09-23T18:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bgs.com\/?p=3214"},"modified":"2013-09-23T12:32:11","modified_gmt":"2013-09-23T18:32:11","slug":"the-disadvantages-of-diy-estate-planning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/23\/the-disadvantages-of-diy-estate-planning\/","title":{"rendered":"The Disadvantages of DIY Estate Planning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>These days it seems like there are thousands of DIY legal forms on the Internet. To believe some websites you don\u2019t really need a law degree to practice law\u2014you just need the right \u201ctemplate!\u201d<br \/>\nBut attorneys need special training and licensing for a reason. The law can be a tricky thing, especially when it comes to <a href=\"https:\/\/bgs.com\/areas-of-practice\/estate-planning-law\/\">estate planning<\/a>.<br \/>\nIf you do something incorrectly while writing your will then you could end up costing your heirs a great deal of time and money trying to fix your mistakes. Legal language is written in a very precise way. It\u2019s meant to eliminate ambiguity and to address specific issues that you might not think of. Something that seems very clear to you may not make any sense at all to your heirs or the court.<br \/>\nYour DIY will could also leave your last wishes vulnerable to a challenge from your relatives. Ultimately, your will could be discounted as invalid, and it would be as if you\u2019d never written one at all.<br \/>\nAttorneys also know how to ask you the right questions. This ensures that you address everything that you need to address. It ensures that you don\u2019t miss anything important. There are parts of your estate that you probably don\u2019t think much about on a day to day basis. It would be easy to omit them in your will.<br \/>\nIf you want to save a little money then do some preliminary research on estate planning. Get a few books from the library. Go to your lawyer prepared: have a list of topics that you want to talk about and issues that you want to address. This means you won\u2019t spend as much of the attorney\u2019s time since he won\u2019t have to explain everything to you.<br \/>\nWith that point made it is more important to do your will correctly than cheaply. Don\u2019t trust your will to the dubious wisdom of the Internet. Call BGS, Minneapolis-area attorneys with over 75 years of experience, and put together an estate plan that your heirs can live with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These days it seems like there are thousands of DIY legal forms on the Internet. To believe some websites you don\u2019t really need a law degree to practice law\u2014you just need the right \u201ctemplate!\u201d But attorneys need special training and licensing for a reason. The law can be a tricky thing, especially when it comes to estate planning. If you do something incorrectly while writing your will then you could end up costing your heirs a great deal of time and money trying to fix your mistakes. Legal language is written in a very precise way. It\u2019s meant to eliminate ambiguity and to address specific issues that you might not think of. Something that seems very clear to you may not make any sense at all to your heirs or the court. Your DIY will could also leave your last wishes vulnerable to a challenge from your relatives. Ultimately, your will could be discounted as invalid, and it would be as if you\u2019d never written one at all. Attorneys also know how to ask you the right questions. This ensures that you address everything that you need to address. It ensures that you don\u2019t miss anything important. There are parts of your estate that you probably don\u2019t think much about on a day&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Disadvantages of DIY Estate Planning - Barna, Guzy &amp; Steffen, LTD.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/23\/the-disadvantages-of-diy-estate-planning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Disadvantages of DIY Estate Planning - Barna, Guzy &amp; Steffen, LTD.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"These days it seems like there are thousands of DIY legal forms on the Internet. To believe some websites you don\u2019t really need a law degree to practice law\u2014you just need the right \u201ctemplate!\u201d But attorneys need special training and licensing for a reason. The law can be a tricky thing, especially when it comes to estate planning. If you do something incorrectly while writing your will then you could end up costing your heirs a great deal of time and money trying to fix your mistakes. Legal language is written in a very precise way. It\u2019s meant to eliminate ambiguity and to address specific issues that you might not think of. Something that seems very clear to you may not make any sense at all to your heirs or the court. Your DIY will could also leave your last wishes vulnerable to a challenge from your relatives. Ultimately, your will could be discounted as invalid, and it would be as if you\u2019d never written one at all. Attorneys also know how to ask you the right questions. This ensures that you address everything that you need to address. It ensures that you don\u2019t miss anything important. There are parts of your estate that you probably don\u2019t think much about on a day...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/23\/the-disadvantages-of-diy-estate-planning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Barna, Guzy &amp; Steffen, LTD.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-09-23T18:32:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"William F. Huefner\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"William F. Huefner\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/23\/the-disadvantages-of-diy-estate-planning\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/23\/the-disadvantages-of-diy-estate-planning\/\",\"name\":\"The Disadvantages of DIY Estate Planning - Barna, Guzy &amp; Steffen, LTD.\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-09-23T18:32:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-09-23T18:32:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5160d7f49057d6be4766f51a9fad8ba8\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/23\/the-disadvantages-of-diy-estate-planning\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/23\/the-disadvantages-of-diy-estate-planning\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/23\/the-disadvantages-of-diy-estate-planning\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Disadvantages of DIY Estate Planning\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Barna, Guzy &amp; Steffen, LTD.\",\"description\":\"Attorneys at Law\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5160d7f49057d6be4766f51a9fad8ba8\",\"name\":\"William F. 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If you do something incorrectly while writing your will then you could end up costing your heirs a great deal of time and money trying to fix your mistakes. Legal language is written in a very precise way. It\u2019s meant to eliminate ambiguity and to address specific issues that you might not think of. Something that seems very clear to you may not make any sense at all to your heirs or the court. Your DIY will could also leave your last wishes vulnerable to a challenge from your relatives. Ultimately, your will could be discounted as invalid, and it would be as if you\u2019d never written one at all. Attorneys also know how to ask you the right questions. This ensures that you address everything that you need to address. It ensures that you don\u2019t miss anything important. 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