It's been nagging at me to get a will and trust done. I tried last year and had two bad experiences. One lawyer sent us a written letter stating what time and day our appointment was. When the big day came we took off from work and headed down to their office. Then we found out they had doubled booked themselves and already took the other people in. They were so inflexible they refused to make room on their schedule. Uh oh, we think, so no going with them.
The second lawyer took several hundred dollars as a deposit and then gave us a draft full of mistakes, including using the wrong names (looked like a sloppy cut and paste job, left someone else's name in). We never finalized anything. Even if we called attention to and corrected the mistakes in the first draft, we had no confidence that there weren't mistakes that we didn't know about or that the lawyer wouldn't produce more mistakes in a second draft.
So we've been burned twice and now a bit jittery about starting the process again. I've narrowed the selection down to two people who were recommended to me. Lawyer #1 is named Steve. Steve is very cheap, only $700 for a will trust package plus medical directives and power of attorneys for a couple. An accountant at my office gave me the reference. The accountant used to be a CFO at a financial planning firm, and he says that's the name they used to refer people to. He says that the people who go tell him that Steve's very efficient and gets the job done. I drove by his office. It's not what you would think of for a lawyer's office. In an industrial/commercial area, small wait room with fold out poker chairs.
Lawyer #2 is named Samuel. Samuel's prices are $2,000, about average for this area. Samuel was referred to me by a friend. Actually, he did not refer me to Samuel, but to the law office in general. He says he used to go to the founding lawyer at this office, but feels anyone in it would be competent. My friend is very level-headed and has been chosen as an executor 3 times. He says he's actually used a will and trust from Samuel's office after people have passed, and he started the will and trust did what it was supposed to.
Part of me says that if you don't have unusual needs wills and trusts are relatively easy for a lawyer to put together and perhaps we don't need to pay a couple thousand. We definitely aren't wealthy and don't have any unusual circumstances like only giving beneficiaries items contingent on completing college.
The other part of me says that we should spend the money to get the known product. Samuel's firm has done product that my friend has put to the test. And we don't want to save money only to get a will and trust that doesn't work.
So does anyone have other thoughts? I realize I'm the one who will have to choose, but I'm wondering if there's valid points I haven't thought of yet.
The second lawyer took several hundred dollars as a deposit and then gave us a draft full of mistakes, including using the wrong names (looked like a sloppy cut and paste job, left someone else's name in). We never finalized anything. Even if we called attention to and corrected the mistakes in the first draft, we had no confidence that there weren't mistakes that we didn't know about or that the lawyer wouldn't produce more mistakes in a second draft.
So we've been burned twice and now a bit jittery about starting the process again. I've narrowed the selection down to two people who were recommended to me. Lawyer #1 is named Steve. Steve is very cheap, only $700 for a will trust package plus medical directives and power of attorneys for a couple. An accountant at my office gave me the reference. The accountant used to be a CFO at a financial planning firm, and he says that's the name they used to refer people to. He says that the people who go tell him that Steve's very efficient and gets the job done. I drove by his office. It's not what you would think of for a lawyer's office. In an industrial/commercial area, small wait room with fold out poker chairs.
Lawyer #2 is named Samuel. Samuel's prices are $2,000, about average for this area. Samuel was referred to me by a friend. Actually, he did not refer me to Samuel, but to the law office in general. He says he used to go to the founding lawyer at this office, but feels anyone in it would be competent. My friend is very level-headed and has been chosen as an executor 3 times. He says he's actually used a will and trust from Samuel's office after people have passed, and he started the will and trust did what it was supposed to.
Part of me says that if you don't have unusual needs wills and trusts are relatively easy for a lawyer to put together and perhaps we don't need to pay a couple thousand. We definitely aren't wealthy and don't have any unusual circumstances like only giving beneficiaries items contingent on completing college.
The other part of me says that we should spend the money to get the known product. Samuel's firm has done product that my friend has put to the test. And we don't want to save money only to get a will and trust that doesn't work.
So does anyone have other thoughts? I realize I'm the one who will have to choose, but I'm wondering if there's valid points I haven't thought of yet.
For a lot of lawyers the cost will be dependent on how complicated it is/how many hours they put into it. 
