Sheldon Lazarow

Online legal services have made it easier than ever to create a will or trust from your couch, in about an hour, for less than the cost of a dinner out.

And for a very narrow set of circumstances — young, unmarried, no children, minimal assets, completely straightforward situation — a basic online document might provide some protection.

For almost everyone else, it is a gamble. And the people who pay the price when it fails are not you. They are the family you were trying to protect.

What Online Services Actually Provide

Online estate planning services — LegalZoom, Trust & Will, and similar platforms — provide forms. Questionnaires that generate documents based on your answers.

They are not attorneys. They cannot give you legal advice. They cannot tell you when your answer to a question is going to create a problem you haven't anticipated. They cannot adjust for your specific family situation, your state's specific laws, or the particular dynamics that make your situation different from the generic template.

They provide documents. Whether those documents actually do what you need them to do is a different question — and one that typically doesn't get answered until the document is needed and it fails.

The Ways Online Estate Plans Commonly Fail

Failure #1: Not Properly Executed Arizona has specific requirements for how estate planning documents must be signed and witnessed to be legally valid. The execution requirements for a will are different from those for a trust, which are different from those for a power of attorney or a healthcare directive.

If any of these requirements are not met — wrong number of witnesses, witnesses who are also beneficiaries, notarization that doesn't comply with Arizona requirements — the document may be invalid. A court may refuse to honor it.

This is not a technicality. This is the document not working.

Failure #2: Not Funded This is one of the most common and most costly mistakes with online trusts.

Creating a trust document is only the first step. For a trust to work — for it to actually avoid probate and transfer assets to your beneficiaries — the trust must be funded. This means your assets must be formally transferred into the trust: your home must be deeded into the trust, your financial accounts must be retitled, beneficiary designations on life insurance and retirement accounts must be coordinated with the trust.

An online service creates the trust document. It typically cannot help you fund it. Many people complete the online process, receive their trust document, and believe their estate planning is done — when in fact their house is still in their own name, their bank accounts are untouched, and their trust would accomplish almost nothing.

Failure #3: Missing Arizona-Specific Provisions Arizona is a community property state. It has specific laws about how marital property is treated, how assets are characterized, and how transfers work. An online template designed for general use across 50 states may not account for these specifics.

It may also not account for Arizona's particular requirements for powers of attorney, healthcare directives, or the specific language required for certain provisions to be enforceable.

Failure #4: Not Updated Life changes. You have another child. You get divorced. A beneficiary dies. You move to a new state. You acquire significant new assets. You have a falling out with someone you'd named in your documents.

An online document sits in a file. It does not update itself. And the people who create it often do not think to go back and update it — because there's no attorney relationship reminding them to.

An outdated estate plan can be as problematic as no estate plan. A document that still names an ex-spouse. A trust that doesn't account for a child born after it was created. A guardian named for your children who has since moved abroad.

Failure #5: No Real Plan A form asks you questions and generates documents based on your answers. It cannot tell you whether the answers you gave reflect the plan you actually need.

It cannot tell you that naming your children as equal beneficiaries may create a conflict because one of them has special needs and an outright inheritance could affect their government benefits. It cannot tell you that leaving your home directly to your children when you die may trigger a tax consequence that a trust would avoid. It cannot tell you that your life insurance beneficiary designation contradicts what your trust says.

These are the things an attorney discovers by understanding your full situation — not just your answers to a form.

What a Failed Estate Plan Actually Costs

When an estate plan fails, the cost is measured in family conflict, probate fees, court proceedings, and relationships.

A trust that was never funded goes through probate anyway — erasing the entire purpose of creating the trust. A will that was executed incorrectly may be contested or invalidated. A power of attorney that doesn't meet Arizona requirements may be rejected by the bank or the hospital.

And the family — already grieving, already stressed — is left to sort out a mess that the document was supposed to prevent.

The difference in cost between an online form and a properly prepared custom estate plan is a fraction of what a failed estate plan costs in probate fees and family conflict. And it is nothing compared to what it costs in peace of mind.

What Custom Estate Planning Looks Like Here

At the Lazarow Law Firm, estate planning begins not only with a questionnaire, but with a detailed, thoughtful conversation

Mr. Lazarow meets with you personally, asks the questions that a form cannot ask, and listens to the answers that change the plan. He designs a plan specifically for your family — not a template — and drafts every document himself, with the legal precision that 50 years of practice provides.

He has also spent years as a trial attorney handling many types of litigation. He has seen, firsthand, the ways estate plans fail and the damage they cause. Every plan he drafts is reviewed through that lens.

When you leave, you understand every document you've signed. You have a complete written booklet explaining each one in plain English. You have a thumb drive with everything on it. You have specific instructions for how to use your documents when they're needed.

And you are given specific, clear and easy instruction on how to fund your trust. And, if you have any issues doing that we are here to help.

If You Have an Online Estate Plan

If you already have an estate plan — whether you created it online or had it drafted years ago — it may be worth having it reviewed.

Estate plans that were created without proper legal guidance, that were never funded, that haven't been updated in years, or that were drafted before significant life changes may not be doing what you think they're doing.

A review takes less time than you think. And the peace of mind of knowing your plan actually works is worth considerably more.

Serving Tucson and All of Southern Arizona

Lazarow Law Firm, P.L.C. serves clients throughout Tucson, Oro Valley, Marana, Green

Valley, Sierra Vista, Bisbee, Benson, Douglas, Nogales, Florence, and all of Southern Arizona.

📞 (520) 623-5856 ✉ [email protected]m 

If you have questions about your existing estate plan — or you're ready to create a real one — call us. The first conversation is free.

Sheldon Lazarow is a Tucson estate planning attorney with 50 years of legal experience, including years as a civil trial attorney handling estate litigation. Lazarow Law Firm, P.L.C. | 25 E. University Blvd., Tucson, AZ 85705.