A2J Author vs Trust & Will

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.

Trust & Will is an online platform for creating or updating wills, trusts and other estate planning documents. The Will Plan includes a Last Will & Testament, HIPAA Authorization, Living Will and Power of Attorney. The Trust Plan adds a revocable living trust, pour-over will, schedule of assets and certification of trust. Estate plan creation is available through a free option without ongoing membership; the Will Plan starts at $199 and the Trust Plan starts at $499. Optional Attorney Support costs $299 as a flat fee for one year of phone access to a licensed estate planning attorney, with some state exclusions. Members can review documents and track assets in the iOS and Android app, but document editing and plan updates take place on the website. The company says its plans are state-specific and must be signed and notarized after receipt or download to be legally binding. Trust & Will says it is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice; its forms are not a substitute for an attorney.