LegalWills vs Vanilla
LegalWills
legalwills.comVanilla
justvanilla.comSide by side
| Figure | LegalWills | Vanilla |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | — |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 14 | 3 |
| Spec score · Estate Planning Software | 8.2 (#6) | 6.8 (#24) |
| Company history | The About Us page says LegalWills has over 26 years of experience and identifies Tim Hewson and Henry Raud as co-founders. | Founder Steve Lockshin founded Vanilla in 2019 to simplify and automate estate planning for financial advisors and attorneys. |
| Founded | 2000 | 2019 |
| Headquarters | Ottawa, Ontario, Canada | Bellevue, Washington, United States |
| Integrations | Partner materials describe link, embed, and fully white-label/API integration options for insurers, advisors, charities, and other organizations. | Vanilla lists eMoney, Black Diamond, Orion, Addepar, Plaid, and Salesforce among its integration partners, and says it offers API access for custom integrations. |
| Support | Support is offered through email, live chat, and toll-free telephone assistance, with a 30-day money-back guarantee advertised on country sites. | Subscription support includes onboarding, training, ongoing technical support, and access to in-house specialists for complex cases and document abstraction services. |
Plans
LegalWills
- MyFuneral$19.95, paid once
- MyLivingWill$19.95, paid once
- MyLivingWill™$19.95, paid once
- MyMessages$19.95, paid once
- MyVault$19.95, paid once
- MyLifeLocker$29.95, paid once
- MyPowerOfAttorney$29.95, paid once
- MyPowerOfAttorney™$29.95, paid once
- MyExpatWill (U.S.)$49.95, paid once
- MyWill$49.95, paid once
Vanilla
- AdvancedPriced on request
- EnterprisePriced on request
- ExpertPriced on request
In their own words
LegalWills
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.