It’s not easy thinking about Wills because doing so forces you to confront your mortality and that one day you will die. However, if you do not take care of this very important piece of business, the State will take care of it for you. In every state there are rules that dictate what will happen to your assets in the event of your death. Unfortunately, they may not match what you’d choose to do with it (chances are they don’t). Creating a Will is one of the most important and significant actions you can do for your finances and shouldn’t be put off. The preparation of Wills is big business too and can cost quite a large sum in lawyer fees, but there’s a way to significantly cut your costs - Suze Orman’s Will & Trust Kit.

My tentative plan is to create a Will with Suze Orman’s system and then get it reviewed by a lawyer. By having at least a draft, you save a ton of money on the hours that would’ve been spent preparing it. What makes this even better is that the kit is free for a limited time (meaning I have no idea how long it’ll last).

Suze Orman recently gave away her Will & Trust Kit to viewers of her show and you can get it by following these instructions:

1. Go to SuzeOrman.com
2. Click on Will & Trust Kit in the left sidebar menu
3. Click on the orange Gift Code button and enter “people first“

And now you have access to the Suze Orman Will & Trust Kit absolutely free.

Account Signup

Account signup was a cinch and took about ten minutes (but I type fast). You’ll have to put in a bunch of information such as your name, SSN, DOB, gender, address, phone, marital status, spousal/partner information (if necessary), value of assets, and answer a few questions about trusts. The system is very TurboTax-like in how it asks you questions rather than simply listing choices.

Throughout the screens, there is audio that you can listen to for additional information and guidance. There each only a few minutes long and I found them very informative. If you’re not in the mood to listen (or you can’t), you can also read a transcript of the audio underneath it.

Handling Personal Information:
With respect to personal information, you have three options to choose from when you first setup your accountL

Complete Save & Protect: All information you enter will be automatically saved.

Limited Save & Protect: The program will not save Social Security numbers or Dates of Birth; all other information will be saved.

No Save & Protect: None of the information you enter will be saved. Each time you use the Kit you will need to re-enter all information.

I chose the second option, Limited Save & Protect simply because I don’t know how secure Suze Orman’s site is. I trust companies like H&R Block and Intuit with that information when I prepare my taxes because they’ve been around longer but I don’t know about Suze Orman (her site does appear secure and I honestly have no doubts about it). Plus, it saves everything except Social Security and Date of Birth, those are easy enough to enter as needed.

Revocable Trust or Only a Will?

Here’s where the “TurboTax” like walkthrough during account signup comes in handy. About 80% through, there’s a question as to whether you want a Revocable Trust or Only a Will? Knowing nothing else and had I been given no guidance, I probably would’ve chosen Only a Will because I don’t know what a Revocable Trust is. However, based on net estate value and guidelines for my state (and other factors), I’ll want a revocable trust in addition to a Will (anyone with over $30,000 of assets in Maryland is recommended to use a revocable trust).

Documents

Following the account signup, I was presented with a list of four documents I’ll need to produce:

• Advanced Directive & Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care
• Revocable Trust
• Will
• Financial Power of Attorney

I don’t know how many documents there are in total but I suspect Advanced Directive & Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, Financial Power of Attorney, and Will are shown to everyone; Revocable Trust is shown to those who feel their individual characteristics warrant it. (plus, there’s a menu up top and there isn’t much room for any other documents to be listed!)

Will

For the sake of brevity, I’ll only discuss how the Will part works but the creation of the other documents works in the same way. When you click on the Will tab you’re directed to a page that lists all the pieces of a Will. The will consists of the following five parts:

1. Will - “A will is a legal document that states where you want your assets to go after your death and what you want done with your remains.”
2. Letter to Your Executor - “If you want certain items of personal property to be given to specific people, you can simply write a letter to the Executor of your will about your wishes.”
3. Final Instructions Form - “Use this form to let your loved ones know your wishes regarding your funeral, burial, or cremation.”
4. What to Do When Someone Dies Checklist - “Review this checklist now and when the unexpected occurs you’ll know the necessary steps to take to make the proper final arrangements for your loved one.”
5. Funeral Cost Worksheet - “Funerals and burials are among the most expensive purchase older people make. When the time comes to make funeral arrangements, if you only contact on funeral home you may pay too much for services. To help you compare the costs of up to three different funeral homes, we have provided this calculator.”

As you can see, some of the documents are documents you need to create while others are simply useful tools. The will creation menus were quite thorough in what it asked from whether you wanted a traditional Will or a blended family will, how you wanted your remains treated (cremation/burial/donation? embalming?), selecting an executor & an alternate, cash gifts, personal property gifts, contingent beneficiaries, and a few other questions.

After about a dozen questions and ten minutes, I had a draft version of my will. The draft was slick and took advantage of the fact that I was viewing it in a browser because all the important parts were hyperlinked. I could click on it and change information as needed.

But you’re not done… for it to be valid, you need to print it, sign it, notarize it with a witness, and do all the legal legwork involved in making it a valid legal instrument. However, I bet you it’s a lot cheaper to start with this draft than it would be to sit with an estate lawyer and have them ask you these questions. Here’s the first paragraph of the product’s disclaimer (emphasis theirs):

This product provides information and general advice about the law, but laws and procedures change frequently and they can be interpreted differently by different people. For specific advice geared to your specific situation, consult an expert. No book or form of other published material is a substitute for personalized advice from a knowledgeable lawyer licensed to practice law in your state. THEREFORE, CONSULT YOUR ATTORNEY.

So, I would start with this and then talk to an estate attorney to finalize. Heck, it’s free and lawyers are never free.

This offer has ended.

Oprah is giving away free digital copies of Suze Orman’s Women & Money until 8pm (7pm Central) tonight (February 14th). (Direct download link) A Spanish translation of the book is available as well.

This book is copyrighted. You may view and download the file, but you may not copy the file or share or forward it to any other person.

What do Suze Orman, Robert Kiyosaki, David Bach, and every other personal finance expert out there have in common? They don’t know you but they know exactly what’s wrong with you and how to fix it. Suze Orman thinks you’re a moron, that you need tough love, and that those 0% financing offers from Ford are awesome. Robert Kiyosaki says that you suck like his poor dad (who isn’t real), you should aspire to be like his rich dad (who also isn’t real), and that you should buy one of his books. David Bach thinks, without the indignation that comes with a Suze orman, that you should get out of your own way and make things automatic. I think you should ignore personal finance experts… all of them.

You might think this is a self-serving Devil’s Advocate post - and it is, because personal finance bloggers aren’t experts. Then again, bloggers don’t treat you like crap and tell you how you need a wake-up call (that’s Suze), bloggers just write about themselves and invite you to check out how normal and bad at personal finance we are. Experts? Heh, totally different animal… here’s why you should ignore them.

Cater To The Masses

This isn’t really their fault, it’s a product of the marketing machine that drives their popularity. On the web, you have folks who talk about themselves and by nature fall into a small niche. You have the family of six, you have the bloggers battling debt (or just finished), you have a fee-only certified financial planner (JLP has never ever written a post selling his services), you have the husband-wife tandem, and you have a whole host of other blogs that fall into one niche or another. None of those sites are trying to be everything, they’re only trying to be themselves and therein lies their popularity. When you graduate, you perhaps find the debt bloggers and the tandem bloggers to be your thing. As you get older, you might find the family of six or the CFP blog more your style. With so many options, you can find one that works for you.

Too General

Since they cater to the masses, usually their advice is too general to be of true value. I’m not saying that bloggers are better in this case, I’m just saying that experts aren’t going to give you the level of advice that you need. I’m also not saying you should run out to a financial planner and pay for advice, I’m recommending that you ignore the big names in the bright lights and read articles written by folks who aren’t so keen on hearing or reading themselves. Read from the perspective that you’re reading valuable information that may not be valuable for you. Don’t read from the perspective that you’re going to do the next thing that comes out of an expert’s mouth. Experts in any field are wrong often enough that listening to them 100% of the time will result in disappointment.

Accessibility

A product of their popularity is the fact that experts simply aren’t accessible. You can certainly try to ask them a question but the reality is that an answer won’t be thought out and personalized. If anything, you might get it read on-air and get a simple 30-second response (or a 5 minute chastizing). Why is accessibility important? It’s not tremendously important but if you have a specific problem and you want to hear an experts opinion, the likelihood of them happening to answer that problem is zero.

Was that a compelling enough argument against experts? Maybe, maybe not, please let me know. Think I was too harsh of Suze Orman? (I don’t think I was as harsh as she generally is) Think David Bach shouldn’t have been lumped in with the experts? Fire away!