Gathered Here vs LegalWills

Gathered Here is a web service for end-of-life planning and arrangements, including wills, funeral comparisons, celebrants, headstones and probate. Its EveryWill platform lets people create an online will for free in about 10 minutes. A will can include executors, guardians for children and pets, beneficiaries, gifts, personal messages and final wishes. To make it binding, users download and print the completed will, then sign it with two witnesses. Joint wills for partners are not supported. EveryWill says its free service is funded by charities, with charitable bequests optional, and that information is encrypted and stored in the user's region. The site lets people search for funeral directors by area and compare prices and customer reviews. It lists over 10,000 itemised funeral prices as indicative estimates that may vary. Other services include connecting cremation customers with funeral directors in its network, probate assistance, and a headstone service that can provide three local quotes at no obligation. The listed probate service costs what you agree with the maker, with a fixed fee quoted upfront. Support options include email and live chat.

LegalWills is a paid web and API service for preparing Wills, Powers of Attorney and Living Wills. Its MyWill wizard asks plain-language questions, then formats a document for the user’s local jurisdiction. U.S. services cover every state except Louisiana. Documents become legal only after printing, signing and witnessing as required. Beyond core documents, LegalWills offers funeral wishes, final messages, personal-record storage, secure file storage and Keyholder access. Members can appoint up to 20 Keyholders to unlock selected information. Accounts support two-factor authentication; the site says data in transit uses 256-bit SSL encryption and stored information uses RSA encryption. Credit-card details are used for purchases but not stored by the company, and daily database-server backups are reported. Support is offered by email, live chat and toll-free phone, with phone hours listed as 8am to 8pm EST daily. The White Label API lets partners embed these services, set their own prices and process payments. MyWill costs $49.95, paid once, including one year of updates; other listed one-time plans cover health-care and financial powers of attorney.