Attorney, LegalZoom, or do it yourself?
Online forms can produce a valid document. What they cannot do is decide which documents you need, catch the asset that is titled wrong, or fund the trust.
Short answer
Online services and DIY kits can produce a legally valid Michigan will or trust for a low price, and for a simple situation that may be enough. They fail on the parts that decide whether a plan actually works: choosing the right structure, Michigan specific signing and deed rules, beneficiary coordination, and funding the trust after it is signed.
This is a fair question and the answer is not always the expensive one. What matters is matching the level of help to the complexity of your situation, and knowing which failures cost your family far more later than the plan would have cost you now.
What online services do well
They are inexpensive, fast, and available at midnight. For a single person with no property, no children and straightforward accounts, a simple will produced online and signed correctly is better than having nothing at all.
Where they usually break down
- the software cannot tell you whether you need a trust at all, so you buy whichever product you clicked;
- Michigan signing formalities, witnesses and notarization are left to you, and an improperly signed document is challenged later;
- real estate is not transferred, because a deed has to be drafted and recorded with the register of deeds;
- retirement accounts and life insurance keep paying whoever is named on the beneficiary form, whatever the will says;
- a trust is generated but never funded, so the estate goes through probate anyway;
- nobody reviews the family situation for the issues that actually cause litigation.
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The funding problem is the big one
A trust only controls property that has been titled into it. Buying a trust document online and filing it in a drawer produces a false sense of security: the family believes probate is avoided, and then finds out at the worst possible moment that the house was never deeded and the accounts were never retitled.
The plan is the funding, not the binder
Situations where DIY is a bad bet
- you own a home or any real estate;
- you have minor children and need guardian provisions that hold up;
- a second marriage, stepchildren, or children from different relationships;
- a beneficiary with a disability, an addiction, creditor problems or a difficult marriage;
- a business interest, rental property, or property in another state;
- you expect a family member to be unhappy with the result.
What you are actually buying from an attorney
Judgment about which documents fit, drafting that anticipates what can go wrong, execution done correctly, deeds and beneficiary forms handled, and a person your family can call when something happens. The documents are the smallest part of it.
A reasonable middle ground
If cost is the concern, say so at the consultation. A will based plan with correct beneficiary designations and a deed strategy is often less expensive than a full trust and can accomplish most of what a family needs. That is a better compromise than a DIY trust nobody funded.
Related reading
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This article provides general information about Michigan law. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws and individual circumstances change, so obtain advice about your specific situation before acting.
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