DIY Trust Disaster Waiting To Happen

I occasionally go on Reddit and respond to posts in the r/estateplanning section. This time, it was to help warn someone about trying to do their own trust by getting a form online. Unfortunately, they didn’t know what they didn’t know, and despite the pleas of commentators suggesting that they get a lawyer, they took exactly the wrong lesson.

They were trying to do their trust on their own. They got a basic trust downloaded from a service, but they were in Massachusetts and were sure that they needed to add some provisions.

The first comment was right on point, "Use a lawyer man. It sucks, it's expensive but for big important things it's nice to have some sound legal backing."

This is true!

It's like, I can repair a few things around the house, but I'm not going to start messing around with say, electrical work. There's too much of a chance of some very big issues, just like a DIY Trust.

A Massachusetts attorney was one of several replies they received and he noted, "Part of why one pays an attorney to draft is so that one understands what terms are in the trust and answer one's questions. A trust can be difficult to understand otherwise."

Listen to the entire video about other comments for a DIY trust, because believe it or not it actually gets worse!