I got a marketing email this week from a DIY estate planning app. It was written to convince people like my clients that they don't need people like me.
It started with "$3,000 for a Trust, You overpaid." Then: "That expensive process produces the same core documents that we generate in under an hour."
This is one of the most dangerous emails I've seen. Here's why.
The documents are the cheapest part of what I do. A trust is 80 pages of paper.
What you're actually paying for is the hour where I catch the IRA beneficiary designation that contradicts the trust. The blended family issue nobody mentioned on the questionnaire. The adult child who should not inherit outright. The trust protector provisions that make administration work after death. The succession provision for trustees who no longer can act. The protections from divorce, creditors, or bankruptcy.
Software captures your answers. I question your answers. Those are not the same product.
The email claimed: "An attorney charges for time. We charge for outcomes."
The outcome of software is a PDF. The outcome of planning is that when you're incapacitated or gone, everything actually works. And a licensed human with malpractice insurance is accountable if it doesn't.
When a DIY trust fails, it fails after you die. The app's customer service line is not showing up to probate court with your family. Better yet, the financial advisor that sent you to software to draft a trust is not showing up to probate court either.
"Attorneys rarely prompt you to update your documents."
That's an argument for hiring a better attorney. Not for hiring no attorney.
"It's not a workaround. It's the smarter path."
Here's the thing: a trust that isn't funded is worth exactly $0. Software doesn't retitle your accounts, deed your house, or fix the asset everyone forgot. The most expensive estate plan is the cheap one that quietly fails when nobody's left to fix it.
$3,000 buys you 20+ years of a plan that works and a person who answers the phone. It buys the conversation where we catch mistakes before they become problems. It buys the thoughtful trust design that gives your family flexibility instead of rigid instructions that break under real-world pressure.
Software can't do that. And when it fails, you won't be around to fix it.
If you're considering estate planning, don't let a marketing email convince you that cheaper means smarter. The real question isn't what you'll pay today. It's what your family will pay later.
Reach out if you want to talk about what actual planning looks like.
