Yes, it can be painful to pay for estate planning. Lawyers charge a lot The benefits of a plan are delayed, and you don't live to see them anyway. Who wants to spend big bucks on a plan when times are so tough and the federal estate tax is in flux?Fewer and fewer Americans, it seems. Only 35% had a will in 2009, and only about half had any estate-planning documents at all-a will, a trust or a financial or medical power of attorney, according to a survey by Lawyers.com. That's a drop from previous years.What about do-it-yourself planning? In theory, you can use books or software and websites that spew out documents for free or for a fraction of what lawyers charge. There's a decent argument that doing something on the cheap is better than doing nothing. If you die without a will ("intestate," in legalese), state law will determine how most of your belongings are distributed, and it may not be in the way you'd want.
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