I drafted my will four times this week — not because I was obsessed with the macabre, but because I wanted to test how computer-generated wills would fare under human scrutiny. I confess that I didn’t have a will before I set out on this exercise, so I was a pretty good test case. Also, I was willing to endure what turned out to be a tedious exercise. So here’s what I did: After testing four programs, I asked an -planning lawyer to look over the final drafts for errors or potential issues. Only after I tested all of the online services and analyzed their differences did I really feel as if I had a solid handle on the options available to me and what might be missing. That’s not to say that three of my four weren’t perfectly fine legal documents.

But even though they seemed easy to draft, I still needed a lawyer to help decode some seemingly standard clauses and their consequences in my home state of New York. I’ve detailed some of those differences, and the potential consequences, below: QUICKEN WILLMAKER PLUS 2011 This program felt like the most substantial, given the sheer amount of information it provided throughout the form-filling process. Because the program is actually written by Nolo, which publishes do-it-yourself books and software for legal matters, it appears that Nolo is drawing from its. If you have a question about a specific issue, like how to choose an executor, you can dive into its easy-to-read legal manual. And before you choose whom to leave your property to, the program encourages you to take inventory of what you own and describes what type of property actually passes through a will — an important point because items like, ’s and policies do not (they go to the beneficiary named on the policy).

Several lawyers pointed out that you might run into problems if you didn’t properly coordinate all your assets. For instance, if you have minor children listed as the beneficiaries on your insurance policy, but you want their money to go into a trust, which is in the will, then you need to name that trust as the beneficiary on the policy.

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Credit Robert Neubecker Ms. Twomey also said that I left it up to New York State to decide how to pay estate taxes. That aside, the Quicken will seemed fine for the most straightforward situations: I want to leave my assets to my spouse, then my children or some other assortment of relatives. It was also cheap; the program costs $41.99 and includes other legal documents that complete the estate plan, including a health care directive and financial power of attorney. Quicken also asked how I wanted to pay estate taxes, something I couldn’t answer with confidence. It quickly became clear that anyone worried about these issues should consult a lawyer. And before you rule yourself out of that category, consider that the state estate tax is levied on assets above $675,000 in New Jersey and $1 million in New York.

That could potentially affect middle-class families whose modest homes and accounts have appreciated over several decades, or even someone with a large policy. LEGACYWRITER This was the only that allowed me to account for future children. This is a neat feature for expectant parents, though another program said it left out the option because it could raise complicated legal issues.

LegacyWriter also allows you to put the children’s money in trusts to be released over time. Still, it took me a couple of tries to figure how to get the program to name a third layer of alternate heirs, beyond my husband and potential children. According to the first draft I created, if my husband didn’t survive me and we had no children at the time, my assets would be divided among my heirs as defined by state law. Twomey pointed out, “Does anyone filling out these forms know who their heirs are? It’s different under every state law, and what layman is going to know that?”.

Advertisement She also questioned the way the will defined descendants. Samehadaku Naruto Shipuden Episode 330. In this will, children born outside of marriage, and raised outside the family home, would not be considered descendants (like John Edwards’s love child).

That may not apply to most people, but what happens if you want your grandchild — the one raised by your son’s former girlfriend — to be included? “My concern is not so much that it is in there, but who is going to explain it to you?” Ms. Taxes could also be a potential issue. The LegacyWriter will instructs that any inheritance-related taxes owed on most assets passing outside the will — like the I.R.A. Or 401(k) — will be paid by assets passing through the will (perhaps a home). So if you leave your home to your children and forget to make them the beneficiaries of your I.R.A., they may end up paying any estate taxes owed on the I.R.A.

“A lot of times, we would provide that taxes paid for property passing outside the will be paid from those assets,” Ms. The program was easy to use, and its short explanations provided the answers I needed.

It costs $19.95 and allows you to update your will free for 60 days. For $34.95, you also get financial and medical powers of attorney and a living will. LEGALZOOM Co-created by Robert Shapiro, a lawyer who was part of O. Simpson’s defense team, offered brief but instructive pop-up boxes throughout the questionnaire, along with a breakdown of how others answered a question.

Twomey, a partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, found some holes in all four of the computer-generated wills. Credit Ruby Washington/The New York Times Similar to LegacyWriter, this will instructed that all taxes be paid from money or property assets passing through the will, which could be a problem in some situations. “What has happened is that the spouse’s money can be eaten up by the taxes owed on assets passing outside the will,” Ms.

Twomey said, “even in cases where you are not talking about people of major league wealth.” I chose a package that $91.95, which includes shipping (it mails you a copy of your documents) and a year of free revisions. If you join the Legal Advantage Plus plan for $12.99 a month, you can have a lawyer licensed in your state review the documents. BUILDAWILL I had some technical trouble with this I can’t confirm whether it was my error or a technical glitch, but it didn’t really matter because the result was the same.

My four-page will did not include information on who gets what. Nor did it warn me that I either skipped an entire section or didn’t save it. I appreciated its instructional tips, but only after speaking with Ms. Twomey did I realize what was missing. The program costs $19.95 and another $9.95 for storing the will.

Advertisement Even after you finish drafting your will, several lawyers told me, you have to be careful to properly conduct the will-signing ceremony. In New York, for instance, after signing the will, the writer must declare out loud, in the presence of at least two witnesses, that the document is indeed his will. And if the writer fails to do so?

“The will is invalid,” said, a lawyer at Holland & Knight in New York. The instructions on all the programs I tested were generally clear, though Quicken was by far the most specific, followed by LegacyWriter. BuildaWill, on the other hand, made it seem as if I needed a notary to sign my will, though I did not. But you do need a notary to sign the self-proving affidavit, an optional form that lawyers recommend you complete.

That way, your executor doesn’t have to round up your witnesses after you die. LegalZoom didn’t include that form with the will, though the other programs did. People with more complicated situations have encountered other problems with online wills. Kathryn Stebner, a lawyer in San Francisco, said a client helped her uncle prepare a will and living trust on LegalZoom before he died of cancer. The uncle’s financial institutions wouldn’t accept the trust documents, and he wasn’t able to complete his living trust before he died, Ms. Stebner said.

The woman filed a class-action lawsuit against LegalZoom in June, contending that the company engaged in the unauthorized practice of law. Chas Rampenthal, general counsel for LegalZoom, said the company had never been found guilty of those charges, “despite inquiries and lawsuits instigated by lawyers that are threatened by what they perceive as competition.” Of course, humans are also fallible, and some lawyers said they had seen poorly written wills drafted by professionals. But a computer program can’t ask you about your family relationships or tease out complex dynamics, like your daughter’s rocky marriage. Still, the biggest risk might be summed up by, a lawyer in McLean, Va., who said that one client came back to him after looking at a software package and said, “I don’t know what I don’t know.”.

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