A2J Author vs FreeWill

A2J Author lets court, legal services, and law school staff create web-based guided interviews to help self-represented litigants complete court documents. Authors use a graphical flowchart map to arrange dialogue and branching questions. Document tools include a template automator for basic documents and the A2J Document Assembly Tool for creating templates. CALI offers free hosting on A2J.org for interviews and templates intended to assist litigants; organizations can also self-host the A2J Viewer, A2J DAT, and interviews. The system is browser-based, and the project history says version 7.0 opened the source under the GNU Affero General Public License. Authors can create Section 508 and WCAG2-compliant interviews when using the latest Viewer and following the accessibility checklist. The free plan is for legal aid organizations, government entities, courts, and other nonprofits using the software non-commercially, with a registered and authenticated account. HotDocs templates cannot be published on A2J.org. When self-hosting, generating documents from HotDocs templates requires LawHelp Interactive or a HotDocs server.

FreeWill provides web-based tools for making wills and other estate-planning documents. Its questionnaire takes about 20 minutes, and its documents can be used in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Users can make unlimited free edits and re-finalize updated versions. Tools include wills, revocable living trusts, beneficiary designations, financial powers of attorney, advance healthcare directives, and supplemental needs trusts. Users can include charitable gifts in their plans, and FreeWill partners with more than 2,400 nonprofits and businesses. Its nonprofit platform offers staff gift visibility, verified donor contact information, campaign analytics, and alerts for new commitments. Giving support includes donor-advised funds, stock and securities gifts, qualified charitable distributions, and cryptocurrency. FreeWill's plan costs $0.00 per free and requires no credit card; it includes a last will and testament, a California revocable living trust, an advance healthcare directive, and a financial power of attorney. FreeWill says it encrypts data at rest and in transit and does not sell users' personal data. The company cautions that online estate planning may not suit complex needs and encourages those users to seek legal counsel.