The Real Cost of a “Cheap” or DIY Estate Plan: Why Saving Money Now Can Cost Your Family Later

6 November 2025

Like buying a cheap car, bargain-priced or DIY estate planning can leave your loved ones stranded without protection when they need it the most. Cost is an understandable concern, especially for legal services.  The lowest price, however, often carries the highest and hidden costs in the end – both financially and emotionally. Here’s why a comprehensive Life & Legacy Plan® is worth the investment instead. 

You’re Not Comparing the Same Thing

When someone tells you they can create estate planning documents for less money, they’re often right about one thing: the price. You can absolutely find attorneys who will draft basic documents—a will, trust, power of attorney, and healthcare directive—for a few hundred dollars. You can even find downloadable templates online for under $100 or use AI to draft documents for free.



But here’s the problem: you’re not comparing the same service.

It’s like hiring the lowest bidder to fix your leaky roof. The patch looks fine at first, and you’re pleased with the savings. But when the next storm hits, the ceiling caves in, the drywall buckles, and mold spreads through your home. That “cheap” fix ends up costing ten times more than doing it right the first time.

In short, you get what you pay for.


Estate planning works the same way—except the “storm” doesn’t come while you’re here to fix it. It comes when you’ve become incapacitated or passed away.  By then, it’s too late, and the people you love most are left with a plan that doesn’t work, and no one to turn to for help.

That inexpensive plan with basic set of documents you bought may look fine today, but when life’s inevitable challenges hit—illness, incapacity, or death—it can leave your loved ones with a tangled, expensive and stressful mess that could have been avoided.

This is the difference between building generational wealth and leaving your family with generational trauma and headaches.

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What a “Cheap” Plan Really Includes

If you opt for a low-cost estate plan from an attorney, an online provider, or a form you downloaded, here’s what you’re probably getting:

Cookie-Cutter Documents
You’ll receive a stack of templates with your name filled in and the basics inserted. They won’t reflect your family dynamics, unique assets, or the specific situations your loved ones may face. No software—or lawyer charging rock-bottom fees—can truly capture who you are or what matters most to you.

Assets Stick in Court or Lost Forever
Your legal documents may indicate where you want your assets to go, but no one helps you to transfer ownership by properly titling your assets, update beneficiary designations or track what you own and how that changes throughout life.  Without these steps, your plan can fail completely.  Low-cost or DIY plans skip this essential aspect entirely.


No Protection for Minor Children
If you have minor children, this element is critical. Even if your will names a guardian, low-cost plans rarely include the legal and practical measures necessary to ensure your children are cared for by the people you’ve chosen, in the manner you intend, and with the financial support those guardians will need. They also fail to address critical short-term protections—leaving open the possibility that your children could temporarily be placed in the care of strangers.

If you’d like to understand this issue more deeply, I’d be happy to provide you with a complimentary copy of Wear Clean Underwear. The book explains in detail how most traditional plans fall short for families with minor children or loved ones with lifelong special needs.


Lack of Understanding of Your Options
Many people walk out of a lawyer’s office with documents they don’t fully understand. That’s because the lawyer didn’t take time to explain their options or what their decisions actually mean.  The decisions you make within your plan—such as whether to include asset protection, when it’s appropriate, and why it matters—are among the most important choices you’ll face. You deserve to fully understand those options, yet attorneys offering low-cost plans often don’t take the time (or have the experience) to explain them in a way that ensures true clarity and confidence. Our firm’s approach is different: we provide transparent, flexible pricing tailored to your goals and take the time to guide you through each decision, ensuring you understand the value of every choice.


A One-and-Done Experience
With a “cheap” plan, the relationship ends once you sign the papers. There is no follow-up, check-ins, or updates that need to be reflected in your estate plan as your life changes. Your plan gathers dust until your family needs it—and by then, it’s outdated or ineffective.


No Support for Your Family When the Time Comes
When something happens, your family is left alone to figure out how to use the documents, navigate the court process, and settle your affairs—often while grieving. They’ll spend precious time and energy away from work or family trying to understand what to do next, instead of being cared for and guided through the process.


Missing the Most Important Aspects
What most families really want to leave behind isn’t just money—it’s meaning.  Memories. Guidance.  Words of love.  A cheap plan can’t capture your voice, your wishes, or the values that matter most.  My Life & Legacy Planning process is designed to do just that: it’s a relationship, not a transaction.  It ensures your plan works—and that your legacy includes who you are, not just what you own.

Why It Matters Now

If you’re now thinking, “I want a Life & Legacy Plan but maybe I’ll just start with a cheap plan and ‘upgrade’ it later,” let me know and we can discuss how to get started now with the least expensive plan possible with my office that still provides the benefits of ongoing support, proactive review, and you making choices about your fee with a clear understanding of your options. We can absolutely get started with the simplest, most basic option now and upgrade in the future. 


And, it’s also critical to remember that we aren’t guaranteed the future. That’s why we plan now. Legacy isn’t created after we are gone. It’s created in the day to day, moment to moment, choices we make now that leave the world a better (or worse) place after we are gone. I work with people every day who are reeling from the effects of an unexpected death, or who are preparing after a crushing diagnosis. The truth is we will all die, we just don’t know when. But with proactive Life & Legacy Planning, our lives become better, and death isn’t something to fear. 

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If you die with an incomplete, cheap plan in place, it could fail, and your family doesn’t get a do-over. They’re left dealing with financial and emotional chaos - when they’re grieving and least able to handle it.


A good roof isn’t built for sunny days; it’s made to weather the worst storms. The same is true for your estate plan.


Take the Next Step

When comparing estate planning options, I encourage you to ask not just, “What does it cost today?” but “What could it cost my family later if it doesn’t work?”  Peace of mind and false security are entirely different.

I help families create comprehensive Life & Legacy Plans that do more than prepare documents—they prepare your loved ones.  My process ensures that your assets are protected, you and your loved ones understand the plan, and your plan is reviewed and updated over time—so you never have to worry about a costly mistake derailing your family's future.

Click HERE to schedule your 15-minute discovery call today, and let’s build a plan that provides true peace of mind, protects your loved ones and your legacy.

Reimagining Estate Planning: A Modern Approach to Protecting Families at Legacy Sentry Law.

by Josh Neimark • 6 November 2025
For decades, I’ve worked for my family's funeral business. We emphasized the "fun" in funerals to highlight that funerals are about celebrating the beautiful life of loved ones as they have passed on. Jokes aside, the loss and grieving of a family member are extremely difficult and taxing experiences to go through. Seeing firsthand those who pass away without leaving any guidance in place for their loved ones, this only worsens the toll on those they leave behind. There is nothing more gratifying than serving families in need during such tough life transition.  After law school, I worked for boutique firms litigating against Fortune 500 companies for illegal business practices but ended up working for one of the largest law firms defending the same companies in high stakes class action litigation at $720/hour (or $12/minute!). The work tested me intellectually but felt devoid of purpose and was far from the kind of meaningful practice I’d envisioned – connecting with people and their families, creating lifelong relationships with them and protecting their legacy. Eight years later and after the birth of my third child, I could no longer work up to 80 hours/week while raising a family and the importance of family became even more clear when my friend with two minor children died without an estate plan. I saw the havoc and pain of not having an estate plan wreak on his family as they were dragged through the courts for years and lost hundreds of thousands of dollars due to a lack of financial inventory of his cryptocurrency holdings. So, I left the big law firm to open my own estate planning practice to serve families because I care about what happens to and for the families in my community and ensure that what happened to my friend’s family doesn’t happen to anyone else’s.

10 Guardian Mistakes That Could Put Your Kids at Risk (and How to Avoid Them)

by Josh Neimark • 6 November 2025
Picture this: life takes an unexpected turn, and you’re suddenly unable to care for your children. Every parent’s greatest fear is something happening to them before their kids are grown — and yet, most haven’t taken the right legal steps to make sure their children would be raised by the people they trust most. Many parents assume that naming guardians in their will is enough to keep their kids safe. Unfortunately, that’s not always true. Without a complete guardianship plan, your children could face unnecessary uncertainty, family conflict, or even temporary placement with people you don’t know. If something happened tomorrow, who would care for your kids immediately? Would the authorities know your wishes — or would your children end up in the care of strangers until the courts decided?  You can prevent that outcome. By working with an estate planning attorney who focuses on families, you can put a clear, legally binding guardianship plan in place that protects your children in every possible scenario — and gives you true peace of mind.

How to Keep Wealth in Your Family for Generations

by Josh Neimark • 6 November 2025
Many families focus on building wealth, but fewer think about keeping it. Research shows that a majority of wealthy families lose their wealth by the second generation, and by the third generation, the number climbs as high as 90%. That happens not because parents lack concern for their kids, but because key pieces of planning are missing. Keeping wealth in your family isn’t just about signing legal documents or having a strong investment portfolio. True wealth preservation requires a shift in how you think about inheritance, practical systems that keep your assets accessible, and education that prepares the next generation to be responsible stewards. In this article, you’ll learn three essential elements of building and preserving generational wealth: the mindset shifts that redefine what inheritance really means, the legal and financial strategies that keep assets from slipping through the cracks, and the education process that prepares your children to manage and grow what you’ve worked so hard to build. Most importantly, you’ll see why families who succeed in passing wealth down think differently about what they’re actually leaving behind.