Do-It-Yourself Form Precautions

You're already on the net. Why not save some money and buy a form for a Nevada trust or will? After all, don't all attorneys, no matter how much they charge you, start with a form on their computer?

Here are a few considerations before purchasing an online form:

Years of Experience & Knowledge

Collectively we at Reed & Mansfield have more than half a century of experience as trust and probate attorneys in Las Vegas, Nevada, in understanding and dealing with the problems of wills and trusts. We'll be surprised if we don't ask you important questions you hadn't thought of. A good estate plan is drafted according to individual preferences and the strengths and weaknesses of individual beneficiaries. A form is only a starting point for drawing up estate plans.

There Is No Way to Determine if It Has Been Done Well Until It's Too Late

If you want to save money by installing a burnt out tail light in your car yourself, you'll know right away whether you did a good job. If not, you can always fix the situation by driving the car into a mechanic's shop. But, if you fill in your own will or trust kit you'll be dead before the do-it-yourself job gets tested to see if you left a mess for heirs. By then it will be too late to make any changes. As I am writing this I have about $8,000 billed to an estate worth only about $105,000 and another attorney has a like amount billed because the man who died bought a fill in the blanks will form and the resulting will is so hard to interpret that two of the heirs are fighting over who gets what.

Typically It Is Relatively Inexpensive to Get a Will or Trust Created By an Attorney

We don't charge that much. We charge $1,250 to do a trust for a single person or a couple and all related documents up to one deed putting one item of Nevada real estate into the trust. (This fee does NOT include notary charges--you are free to use yuor own notary--and does not include County Recorder charges of $42 per deed to record deeds transferring real estate into the trust. If you want us to do more than deed transferring Nevada real estate into the trust, we charge $125 per additional deed, not including notary and recording fees. )  The related documents included in our $1,250 fee when doing a Trust are: 1) Pourover Will, 2) Health Care Power of Attorney, and Health Care Directive. We charge $650 to do a Will for one person or $700 to do Wills for a married couple.

Meeting Requirements

Some people buy Will forms. Wills that are not entirely handwritten must be witnessed by two people who swear under oath that they witnessed the Will maker sign the Will. Sometimes Will forms bought by an individual and filled out by him or her are invalid because of this requirement.