How Bargain Estate Planning Can End Up Costing the Most
Last week, I spoke with a potential client about my Life & Legacy Planning® process. After walking her through it, she said, “This sounds great, but my friend told me she got a trust for half the price somewhere else.”
I hear this a lot, and I get it—nobody wants to pay more than they have to, especially for legal services. But here’s the truth I’ve seen time and again: when it comes to estate planning, the cheapest option often turns out to be the most expensive mistake.
Here’s why. That “bargain” trust your friend got? It may look fine on paper, but if it doesn’t work when it’s needed most, it could end up costing her family far more than she ever saved upfront.
You’re Comparing Two Different Things
When someone says they can create estate planning documents for less money, they’re usually right—if they think estate planning is just about producing paperwork. You can absolutely find lawyers who will draft a will, trust, power of attorney, or healthcare directive for half the cost of my comprehensive Life & Legacy Planning®. You can even download forms online for under $100—or ask AI to generate them for free.
But here’s the truth: you’re not comparing the same service.
It’s like hiring the cheapest contractor to fix a leaky roof. At first, it looks fine—the patch holds, the price feels good, and you think you saved money. Then the next storm hits. Water pours in. Drywall buckles. Mold spreads. Suddenly, you’re tearing out walls, repairing the foundation, and replacing things you can never truly get back. That “cheap” fix ends up costing many times more than doing it right the first time.
Estate planning works the same way—except the storm doesn’t hit while you can still call someone to fix it. It hits after you’ve become incapacitated or passed away. By then, it’s too late. Your family is left with a pile of documents that don’t work, no guidance, and no one to turn to. The lawyer who drafted them is long gone—or never offered support beyond the paperwork.
A basic set of documents may look fine now, but when life’s storm comes—illness, incapacity, or death—your loved ones could be left with chaos: costly court battles, wasted time, financial strain, and emotional stress.
That’s the difference between leaving a true Life & Legacy plan that builds generational wealth—or leaving behind a legacy of trauma and expensive problems your family never saw coming.
What You Get With A Cheap Plan
When you try to save money on a cheap estate plan—whether it’s from a low-fee lawyer, an online service, or a downloadable form—what you’re getting usually looks something like this:
A set of documents created from standard templates
They’re often filled in with your name, your basic wishes, and the names of your heirs—but they’re not customized to your unique family dynamics, your specific assets, or the real-world scenarios your loved ones might face. The creator of those documents, whether a lawyer who doesn’t really dig into the details of your life, or a software program that can’t, simply doesn’t know enough about you or what matters to you to create documents that will achieve your objectives.
No follow-through on your assets
Your legal documents may tell people where things should go, but they won’t make sure your assets are titled correctly or that your beneficiary designations match your wishes. If those things aren’t aligned, your plan may fail entirely. And, unfortunately, most lawyers' processes don’t involve actually helping you change over title to your assets, update beneficiary designations or track what you own and how that changes throughout life. Lawyers creating cheap plans for your neighbors simply can’t afford to provide these kinds of services, and so their plans fail. You may want to tell your neighbors.
No plan for minor children
If you have minor children in your life, this one is critical. Even if your will names a guardian, cheap plans rarely address the legal and practical steps to ensure your children are raised by the people you choose, in the way you choose, with the financial support your guardians will need. Cheap plans also won’t guard against your children ending up in the care of strangers, even if it’s for a short time. If you want to know more about this, ask me for a copy of the book Wear Clean Underwear, and I’ll gift it to you. It lays out all the details of how most plans fail families with minor children, or those who could be dependent for life with a special needs challenge.
You don’t really understand your choices.
I’ve seen it time and again: people go in and meet with a lawyer, sign documents, and really have no idea what they signed, just trusting the lawyer took care of it. But the lawyer didn’t take care of it, and didn’t even give them all of their choices in a way that was clear and understandable. This is why we have “sliding scale/choose your own fee” pricing that’s based on what matters most to you, not a single fee for a set of documents. The choices you make within your plan, such as whether to include asset protection or not (and when that matters, why and whether it’s important to you) are some of the most critical choices you can make, but you need to be able to understand them and the “cheap plan” lawyers simply don’t know how (or don’t have the time) to explain your options in a way that ensures you understand.
A one-time transaction
Once you sign the papers, the relationship is over. The plan isn’t revisited, your questions don’t get answered, and there’s no system to update anything as your life changes. Your estate plan goes on a shelf or in a drawer, never to be looked at again - until something happens and your loved ones need to try to locate it.
This is significant because if your plan doesn’t resemble your life and assets when you die or become incapacitated, it won’t work and your loved ones will end up with a time consuming and expensive mess.
Ask your friend who got the cheap plan if their lawyer has a process in place for updating their plan over time, proactively, and consistently?
No help for your family when the time comes
Your loved ones are left to figure out how to use the documents, navigate the court process if necessary, and manage assets—often while they’re grieving—without guidance from someone who knows you and your wishes. They will probably spend their nonrenewable resources of time, energy and attention trying to figure out what to do and how to do it, missing work, time with their children, or participating in hobbies that rejuvenate them.
Misses the most important parts of planning
After you are incapacitated or die, your loved ones will desperately wish you’d left behind more - not more money, but more of you. More notes, thoughts, messages, and guidance. They’ll wish they could hear your voice one last time. They’ll wish they understood more of what you wanted for them. And, if they fight, it will likely be about the items of sentimental value they’ll swear you told them they could have.
My Life & Legacy Planning process is designed to be different: it’s more than documents—it’s a system, a relationship, and an ongoing process that passes on your money, sure, but so much more than your financial assets - it passes on what matters most, and ensures your plan works when you and your loved ones need it. A Life & Legacy Plan saves time, energy, attention and money for you, and the people you love.
Why This is Important
If you’re now thinking, “I want a Life & Legacy Plan but maybe I’ll just start with a cheap plan and ‘upgrade’ it later,” let me know and we can discuss how to get started now with the least expensive plan possible with my office that still provides the benefits of ongoing support, proactive review, and you making choices about your fee with a clear understanding of your options. We can absolutely get started with the simplest, most basic option now and upgrade in the future.
And, it’s also critical to remember that we aren’t guaranteed the future. That’s why we plan now. Legacy isn’t created after we are gone. It’s created in the day to day, moment to moment, choices we make now that leave the world a better (or worse) place after we are gone. I work with people everyday who are reeling from the effects of an unexpected death, or who are preparing after a crushing diagnosis. The truth is we will all die, we just don’t know when. But with proactive Life & Legacy Planning, our lives become better and death isn’t something to fear.
If you die with an incomplete, cheap plan in place, it could fail, and your family doesn’t get a do-over. They’re left dealing with financial and emotional chaos - when they’re grieving and least able to handle it.
A good roof isn’t just there for sunny days. It’s built and maintained to handle the worst weather. Your estate plan should be no different.
The Next Step To Take
If you’ve been comparing prices, I encourage you to also compare outcomes. Ask not just, “What does it cost today?” but “What will it cost the people I love later, if it fails?” Peace of mind and false security are two very different things.
As a Personal Family Lawyer® Firm, I help you create a comprehensive Life & Legacy Plan that will work, when your loved ones need it. My process ensures that your assets are protected, you and your loved ones understand the plan, and your plan is reviewed and updated over time—so you never have to worry about a costly mistake derailing your family's future.
Schedule your 15-minute discovery call here, and let’s create a plan that will provide true peace of mind, and stand strong for the people you love most.