Invariably after meeting someone new and getting into a discussion about what I do, I receive this question: “How much does a Will cost?” This is one of the most frequent questions our firm fields and also one of the most challenging to answer. Let’s start with this fact – a Will is NOT a commodity and the process of creating an estate plan should not be the same as picking up a gallon of milk at the supermarket.

So how much does it cost? There are inexpensive Will-drafting software packages for sale in office supply stores (e.g., Office Depot, Staples for about $50), there are relatively inexpensive online Will drafting services (e.g. Suze Orman and Legalzoom kits for about $100) and finally there are many general practice lawyers who will be happy to fill in some form documents and churn out a run-of-the-mill, bare bones, basic estate plan for around $800-$1000. This last group is likely the most dangerous because while you may think that one lawyer is trained the same as another, the reality is that if you broke your arm you wouldn’t go see an ophthalmologist. Even though they’re both doctors, I like you, would rather see the orthopedic specialist than the eye doctor. The same theory applies to your estate plan. You do not want a lawyer who practices mostly in personal injury or criminal law to draft a Will or Trust for you. Yes, we may all be lawyers and legally qualified to practice law, but really how much faith are you going to have in an estate plan written by a lawyer between his appearance at a slip and fall hearing and writing a letter to get someone’s mortgage refinanced. When it’s your family, don’t you want to know that when that cast comes off, the arm will be fixed?

As one of America’s greatest satirist once wrote, “I’ve never met a lawyer who couldn’t write a will.” The fact is that many lawyers will gladly accept your fee and draft a fill-in-the-blanks Will or Trust for you; however, the discount fee you paid ($750, $1000, $1500?) will likely leave you with a worthless stack of papers that you just wasted that $1,000 on. This is why Chhokar Law Group, P.C. is an exclusively estate planning and asset protection firm.

The trouble with all of these fill-in-the-blanks Wills and Trusts is that if you have any special circumstances in your life whatsoever or need any professional guidance, they fail when you need them to work. There are several protections that many families need in place ranging from special needs, divorce/remarriage protections, asset distribution protections (no children should receive a large sum of money via inheritance at 18 because taking that year off to “find themselves” before starting school, just becomes a real possibility). Without a professional estate planning attorney you can be assured that those protections will be absent from your plan. In short, it won’t work!

Another major problem with these options is that there is little to no legal counseling to help you make the best decisions to accomplish your individual goals and objectives. There is nobody there to counsel you when a loved one passes away and you need the estate administered. There is no one to turn to ask the questions about how the assets should change title or what IRS documents you need to have prepared. In fact the attorney who drafted the fill-in-the-blanks Will or Trust will probably charge you for each and every minute of his or her time (billable hours are done in increments of 6 minutes). At Chhokar Law Group, P.C. we never charge an hourly fee for anything, all of your questions are encouraged and welcomed.

An estate plan needs to be a living breathing thing that gets reevaluated periodically and regularly as your life’s circumstances change to ensure that it is still accomplishing what you want, protecting what’s most important to you and doesn’t become a worthless pile of paper. We practice estate planning very differently from most of the other attorneys around here. We enjoy developing meaningful, lifetime relationships with our clients and provide them an exceptional level of personalized service and professional counseling, all in a relaxed and friendly way.

We aren’t the cheapest, nor the most expensive estate planning firm in town. In these economic times there is great temptation to try to save money by shopping around for the best deal. But in the end, you often get what you pay for. We can accept credit card payments, set up payment plans and help make it as affordable as possible. It’s important for us that you know it is far more critical to us that our clients have a plan in place than to leave their families and their estates exposed; the method of payment takes a back seat to protecting our client’s families. We have no desire to be the Walmart of Wills. We have no desire to mass-produce shoddy documents at discounted prices without caring about whether that is really what our clients need. Again you’re planning for life to protect your loved ones and your estate, you’re not shopping for milk.

We will never be the shop you stop in at to pickup a Will on the way home from work. On the other hand, we will be the place you stop to let us know that you’re worried about your daughter’s boyfriend, and you just don’t know, but you’d like to make sure that if you’re not around that she’ll still be protected. We have developed an extensive professional network of financial advisors, bankers and insurance professionals to be able to work as a team to ensure that our clients are taken care of in all facets of their finances.

If this sounds like the sort of legal service you want, please call 858-384-5757 or email us at info@yourtotalesateplan.com.