It’s really surprising when you get past the advertised price and discover the true cost charged to obtain everything needed to have a complete and comprehensive living trust. In most cases, the actual cost is two to three times more than the so-called advertised price. Many accomplish this by advertising a price for just one document, but to purchase all the needed documents for a complete estate plan, the price just seems to go up and up and up. Let’s take a look at the true costs of a comprehensive living trust portfolio from a variety of companies and analyze which are truly the best living trust services.
Living Trust Price Comparison
Advertised Price Vs. Actual Price
National Association of Family Services | LegalZoom | Trust&Will | Law Firms* |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
Advertised Price | $599 | $329 | $599 | $2,000 |
Married Couples |
| $50 | $200 |
|
Pour-Over-Will |
|
|
|
|
Living Will |
|
|
|
|
Powers of Attorney |
|
|
|
|
Attorney Advice |
| $199 | $200 |
|
| Deed Preparation (Principle Residence) |
| $328 | $500 |
|
Printing & Shipping |
| $59.95 |
|
|
Notarization |
| $150 | $150 |
|
| Settlement Assistance for Beneficiaries |
| Not Included |
|
|
Actual Total Cost | $599 | $1,115 | $1,549 | $2,000 |
It is commonly said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, in comparing the cost for a complete estate plan package, the grid above is worth anywhere from $500 to $1,500 in savings when creating a living trust portfolio. But, it is also said that you get what you pay for. Let’s take a look at how the services are rendered.
Living Trust Service Comparison
What’s Included With Each Living Trust Service?
National Association of Family Services | LegalZoom | Trust&Will | Law Firms* |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Convenient In-Home Service |
|
|
| No |
| Simplified Process |
| No | No | No |
| Complimentary Property Deed Search |
| No | No | No |
| Attorney Consultation |
| No | No |
|
| Attorney Drafting & Customization |
| No | No |
|
| Attorney Oversight & Execution |
| No | No |
|
| Notary Service |
| No | No |
|
| Free Amendments (Changes) |
| No | No | No |
| Settlement Assistance For Beneficiaries |
| No | No |
|
Actual Total Cost | $599 | $1,115 | $1,549 | $2,000 |
*Average Law Firm Living Trust Services.
“LegalZoom” And “Trust & Will” Overview
National Association of Family Services | LegalZoom | Trust&Will |
|
|---|---|---|---|
Advertised Price | $599 | $329 | $599 |
Married Couples |
| $50 | $200 |
Pour-Over-Will |
|
|
|
Living Will |
|
|
|
Powers of Attorney |
|
|
|
Attorney Advice |
| $199 | $200 |
| Deed Preparation (Principle Residence) |
| $328 | $500 |
Printing & Shipping |
| $59.95 |
|
Notarization |
| $150 | $150 |
| Settlement Assistance for Beneficiaries |
| Not Included |
|
Actual Total Cost | $599 | $1,115 | $1,549 |
It’s surprising to learn that for over $1,000 these two companies are do-it-yourself programs. Yes, at that price they do include access to a lawyer to answer questions, but that’s not representation. You get 30 minutes of legal advice per matter, and that’s it. If you desire full oversight, legal advice, customized document preparation, and supervised execution, you have to pay even more fees to a “network” attorney. Those fees are offered at a 25% discount off the attorney’s usual and customary rate and can cost hundreds of dollars per hour.
Using these do-it-yourself programs is not easy, even with the attorney advice option. There are a lot of legal terms to learn, such as trustor, trustee, successor trustee, etc. What is the issue of the beneficiary? Yes, “issue” is a legal term and something that has to be considered when selecting beneficiaries. Is there a difference between the successor trustee and the executor of the Will? Can a beneficiary also be named the trustee and successor trustee? What is funding a trust and how is it done? How do special gifts, such as jewelry, heirlooms, property, or vehicles get to specifically named beneficiaries? How can advanced planning within a trust be useful for a blended family with children from prior marriages? Is a mobile home funded and how? Are there tax ramifications setting up a living trust, and if so, what are they and how are they avoided? Can a person who lives in another state or country be named as the successor trustee? This is just the tip of the iceberg. If you don’t know the answers to these questions, and a whole lot more, you will most likely be spending hours and hours of your time trying to learn all this stuff. You’re not a professional. What if you get it wrong? These documents cannot be changed when it comes time to use them. If there’s a mistake, a family could end up paying dearly or find themselves in court in a battle costing thousands of dollars for a judge to determine the outcome. This is the reality of living trust “do-it-yourself” programs.
National Association of Family Services | LegalZoom | Trust&Will |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Convenient In-Home Service |
|
|
|
| Simplified Process |
| No | No |
| Complimentary Property Deed Search |
| No | No |
| Attorney Consultation |
| No | No |
| Attorney Drafting & Customization |
| No | No |
| Attorney Oversight & Execution |
| No | No |
| Notary Service |
| No | No |
| Free Amendments (Changes) |
| No | No |
| Settlement Assistance For Beneficiaries |
| No | No |
Actual Total Cost | $599 | $1,115 | $1,549 |
Disjointed Services
Services to create a living trust estate plan rendered through both LegalZoom and Trust & Wills are scattered and disjointed. The do-it-yourself documents are created online through their website. As you work your way through the documents, what if a question arises? You have to stop and schedule a time to speak with the advice attorney (if payment was made for this additional service). It may take hours or even days to speak with the advice attorney and get your answers. What happens when another question arises? You have to stop once again and schedule another appointment with the advice attorney. These companies promote their quick service, but that’s pretty much if you are one of the few that already know all the answers. It can possibly take days or weeks to complete a do-it-yourself online living trust. It can be daunting.
Neither of these companies provide deed transfer services. LegalZoom farms out its service for a hefty fee as previously mentioned. This is unfortunate as property, such as a principal residence, needs a newly drafted and recorded deed in order to protect it through a living trust. Since it’s farmed out, there is no attorney oversight to insure the drafted deed is properly prepared. Even with paying for the deed service, LegalZoom still requests property deeds to be located, scanned and uploaded to a Google Drive folder. That’s quite a bit of work for a service that costs hundreds of dollars to begin with. And here’s a shocker, if a deceased spouse needs to be removed from the deed, it’s another $328 for an affidavit terminating joint tenancy.
A living trust estate plan is also strewn with documents that require notarization of signatures. Neither of these companies mention notarization in their advertising, nor that it’s an additional cost to their advertised price. As a matter of fact, neither company provides notary service. Trust & Wills only provides a list of referred notaries, and LegalZoom suggests going to the UPS store and pay them to notarize the documents.
Local Attorneys Overview
National Association of Family Services | Law Firms* |
|
|---|---|---|
Advertised Price | $599 | $2,000 |
Married Couples |
|
|
Pour-Over-Will |
|
|
Living Will |
|
|
Powers of Attorney |
|
|
Attorney Advice |
|
|
| Deed Preparation (Principle Residence) |
|
|
Printing & Shipping |
|
|
Notarization |
|
|
| Settlement Assistance for Beneficiaries |
|
|
Actual Total Cost | $599 | $2,000 |
Local estate planning attorneys are everywhere. Except for the average cost, local attorneys are an excellent choice for creating a living trust estate plan. The attorney can offer legal advice for the best course of action in creating the legal documents to accomplish a family’s specific needs. The documents are customized and drafted with full oversight of the attorney, ensuring they are completed as directed. And, most law firms provide notarization and funding assistance upon completion of the documents. The only true drawback of local attorneys is the cost. On average the cost for a complete living trust portfolio, including the preparation of one property deed, is $2,000. Additional property deeds commonly run for $250 each. The cost to maintain documents over time through local attorneys is usually exorbitant as well. Amendments (or future changes) can often be a substantial price, ranging anywhere from $200 to $500 or more per change.
National Association of Family Services | Law Firms* |
|
|---|---|---|
| Convenient In-Home Service |
| No |
| Simplified Process |
| No |
| Complimentary Property Deed Search |
| No |
| Attorney Consultation |
|
|
| Attorney Drafting & Customization |
|
|
| Attorney Oversight & Execution |
|
|
| Notary Service |
|
|
| Free Amendments (Changes) |
| No |
| Settlement Assistance For Beneficiaries |
|
|
Actual Total Cost | $599 | $2,000 |
National Association of Family Services Overview
Usually, the lower price has the least services and value, but in this case, it’s just the opposite. Years ago, the National Association of Family Services (“NAFS”) took the time to thoroughly analyze the entire process a customer must endure to create a family living trust. As suspected, NAFS found there were many inefficient, unnecessary, and time-consuming steps. Interestingly, NAFS discovered the consumer paid the price for this inefficiency, only to end up in many cases confused with what they purchased and how it works. Do-It-Yourself programs did reduce the cost overall, but at a significant risk since they are not created with the full guidance, advice and direction of an experienced estate planning attorney.
Before Henry Ford, hardly anyone owned a car. Cars were built one at a time. It took a long time to build a car and they were expensive. Well, Henry Ford developed the assembly line and produced a lot of cars and the cars were much less expensive. Before you knew it, there were cars everywhere and they were just as good of quality as the cars built one-by-one. NAFS discovered local attorneys down the street still produce legal documents one-by-one. It’s inefficient and costly. Now, NAFS didn’t create an assembly line, but it went and organized professionals such as attorneys, notaries and others to work together in a more efficient less costly manner. As a result, NAFS is able to provide families access to documents and services that are just as good as the attorney down the street, but at a significantly discounted rate along with great lifetime services. These improvements also allowed NAFS to greatly improve the customer experience, removing confusion and simplifying the steps a customer must go through to obtain the documents to protect their family’s wealth.
Estate Planning Attorneys & Streamlined Service
In creating a living trust, NAFS has now provided over 17,000 of its customers access to an estate planning attorney. There is no paperwork gathering through this process (such as property deeds, copies of bank statements, etc). Customers are only asked to complete a simple one-page questionnaire in preparation for their consultation with the attorney. During the phone consultation, the attorney will ask some questions and customers are free to ask as many questions as they need. At the end of the consultation, both the attorney and the client agree exactly what the client wants to happen, such as who gets the inheritance and how much. The attorney then drafts the customized documents, prepares any property transfer deeds and provides a copy for review to the customer. Once approved, the law office ships the finalized documents to the customer, along with supervising the execution and notarization of signatures. This streamlined process is completed on average in just two weeks. However, a customer may slow the process down if they need more time to make decisions about their estate or for any other reason. The customer is in full control of what gets done and when. There is no confusion. There is no pressure. There is no stress whatsoever in this process. In the end, the customer has confidence in their estate plan, and that it was properly prepared by an experienced attorney.
As mentioned previously, there is no paperwork gathering required. Deeds to property are public records. Therefore, the law office will obtain copies of all property deeds directly from the county recorder in which the property is located. There is no additional fee for this service, regardless of where the property is located as long as its within the United States. One property deed is included in the $599 price, and it is only $100 extra for transfer deeds prepared for any additional property owned.
Customer Service
NAFS maintains a full customer service staff available by phone Monday through Friday. The department is staffed by non-attorneys, but who are very qualified at answering most all general questions. As a result, most all inquiries are resolved immediately and efficiently for both the customer and NAFS. In lieu of a phone call, the department can communicate via email to customers who have that preference. Any questions regarding legal advice about a customer’s specific situation are handled directly by the law office.
Best of the Best
NAFS views its role, in essence, as an advocate for its customers. It exists to make sure the legal and notarization services are performed in a timely and cost-effective manner. It exists to make sure the customer experience is exactly as advertised.
If you would like to learn more about NAFS, the process it has developed for its customers to obtain a complete living trust portfolio for a flat fee of only $599, and why since 2008 over 17,000 customers have entrusted their estate planning needs to NAFS, you may right now to watch our free and also educational video.
