LegalWills vs LegalZoom Estate Planning

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.

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.