InterActive Legal vs LegalZoom Estate Planning

InterActive Legal offers automated document drafting software for estate planning and elder law. Its product range covers wills, trusts, powers of attorney, health care documents, trust administration forms, agreements, and client communications. Essential Estate Planning is designed for clients of modest wealth, while Wealth Transfer Planning focuses on clients with significant wealth. Elder Law Planning addresses elder law and special needs planning. Firearms Trust Planning includes a single-grantor revocable NFA Trust and related ancillary documents. The online system runs in a browser and supports Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Chromium Edge, Brave, and Opera. It works in Windows, Mac, iOS, and Linux environments and has been tested on Android tablets. Documents are produced in .docx format, but the word-processing toolbar is supported only in Word for Windows. The Legacy installation requires a supported Windows version, Microsoft Word, and HotDocs Player. Online customer data is stored encrypted on AWS servers, and browser-to-server transfers use TLS 1.3 and SHA-256 encryption. Users may opt into multi-factor authentication using a third-party authenticator app. Pricing is available on request.

LegalZoom Estate Planning creates online estate documents from answers to a questionnaire. Every estate plan includes either a last will or living trust, plus a financial power of attorney, healthcare directive, and HIPAA authorization. A will can name asset recipients and guardians for minor children. Trust plans add documents such as a pour-over will, certificate of trust, schedule of assets, and bill of transfer; LegalZoom says a living trust can help a family avoid probate court. Customers view documents in their LegalZoom account, review them alone or with a lawyer on a call, then print and sign. Premium Will and Premium Trust include attorney document review and unlimited 30-minute attorney calls for one year. LegalZoom says its last wills have been accepted in all 50 states. The service is web-based, paid, and has no free plan. Basic Will costs $99, paid once; Premium Will $249, paid once; Basic Trust $399, paid once; Premium Trust $549, paid once.