Unauthorized Practice of Law for Estate Planning Document Preparation

[scagnt83]

So you have to be an attorney in order to draft and file legal documents for other people.

How is this a shock to anyone?

 

[DHK]

So you have to be an attorney in order to draft and file legal documents for other people.

How is this a shock to anyone?

Some believe that you can be an "estate planning liason" for a software platform that it won't appear that you're giving "legal advice". All they believe they're doing is selling access to estate planning software and collecting on a share of the fee for doing it. Lots of platforms out there on it.

I've found that the most knowledgeable agents on this are also the most conservative and won't touch these platforms. They may refer the client direct to LegalZoom or Nolo forms, but they aren't helping with the forms in any way.

I also had to remind some agents recently who really don't like attorneys (probably due to the pitch of these software platforms) that "caring isn't a law license." "Experience and observation isn't a law license."

 

[scagnt83]

Some believe that you can be an "estate planning liason" for a software platform that it won't appear that you're giving "legal advice". All they believe they're doing is selling access to estate planning software and collecting on a share of the fee for doing it. Lots of platforms out there on it.

I've found that the most knowledgeable agents on this are also the most conservative and won't touch these platforms. They may refer the client direct to LegalZoom or Nolo forms, but they aren't helping with the forms in any way.

I also had to remind some agents recently who really don't like attorneys (probably due to the pitch of these software platforms) that "caring isn't a law license." "Experience and observation isn't a law license."

I understand.

Some agents feel they need to be "more than an agent" to market themselves.

Funding the Trust is just as important and takes just as much expertise as drafting the Trust.

I've referred to low cost or free legal services before.

But a referral is much different than selling access or doing the forms myself.

 

[Allen Trent]

Wills can be easily contested (regardless of who prepared them) but influence can certainly be questioned.

This sounds kind of like an opinion on a legal matter. You are gonna look great in an orange jumpsuit

 

[DHK]

This sounds kind of like an opinion on a legal matter. You are gonna look great in an orange jumpsuit

Won't ever happen. I won't be influencing someone's decisions and choices as they do their "self-prepared" legal documents. Yet, that's what some insurance agents do with these programs.

Plus, considering whom I get my legal advice and counsel from, I'm well out of trouble. (Let's just say that not only would he be considered 'board certified' in estate planning as I shared in an earlier post, he helped write the questions required for board certification.)

 

[scagnt83]

While on the topic of "bad legal advice" anyone noticed the recent IRS litigation against RPT Plans?

The Defendant (business owner) got off on a technicality.

But the IRS will fix that (they issued guidance incorrectly).

Once that is fixed. RPT is dead.