The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: I'm a red panda on October 12, 2016, 07:19:45 AM
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Does anyone have advice about electing coverage for legal matters through work?
We would like to have a will created, and since we have significant (especially considering life insurance) assets, it would need to include a trust for our expected-daughter.
I've been told this is fully covered, except filing fees or any third party fees. The annual cost of the plan is $200; and I assume a lawyer would cost more than that.
Is there a catch?
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So you pay $200/year?
That seems like quite the catch to me?
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So you pay $200/year?
That seems like quite the catch to me?
From what I can tell asking around having a lawyer do a will, living will, and a trust would cost significantly more than that.
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The $200 is definitely a lot cheaper than what you would pay for those items directly from an attorney. Could you ask your coworkers to see if any of them that signed up for this have used it and what their experience was? It seems to me like you could sign up for it and get those things done and not sign up the next year and then only sign up for it in the years when you are planning on redoing your will, living will, and trust.
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It seems to me like you could sign up for it and get those things done and not sign up the next year and then only sign up for it in the years when you are planning on redoing your will, living will, and trust.
That's the plan.
This is the first year our company has offered it, so I doubt anyone has experience with it.
My previous company's have all offered it, but I never signed up and never asked anyone.
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The catch is that if you want an attorney with real experience in these fields or if your situation is at all different from the most typical will, you won't find anyone who can actually help you. These plans pay very little to the attorney. You are basically buying someone to hand hold you through filing copy/paste boilerplate documents and possibly be on the hook in the future through their own malpractice insurance if an obscenely reckless error is made (as opposed to DIY legal forms).
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My company offered a similar plan through Hyatt Legal. We definitely got our money's worth from our small monthly payment ($8 as I recall). For that I was able to set up a trust, and get a will, advanced directive, and powers of attorney set up. In subsequent years I was able to get all of the above revised to account for recent changes in the law. The plan covered the full costs of an attorney with plenty of experience.
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$200 per year seems a bit pricey, but has a break even of approximately 5 years, if you do a will, living will / power of attorney, for 2 adults. Even better if you have a complex situation for an estate plan (step children, divorced, lots of money, trust etc).
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I thought about doing it a few years back, but was told it was only good for the employee, and not the family. Therefore it wouldn't cover the wife's will and POA. For those who have done it, is this the case? or is the wife covered under the plan as well?
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I thought about doing it a few years back, but was told it was only good for the employee, and not the family. Therefore it wouldn't cover the wife's will and POA. For those who have done it, is this the case? or is the wife covered under the plan as well?
I think it depends on what your employer offers. Mine specifically says employee, spouse and dependents.
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$200 per year seems a bit pricey, but has a break even of approximately 5 years, if you do a will, living will / power of attorney, for 2 adults. Even better if you have a complex situation for an estate plan (step children, divorced, lots of money, trust etc).
Do you have to do it yearly though? Once the will is made, if I have no additional dependents, how often do I really need to revisit it? So if I only get it next year, then not again- it's just $200.
I don't know where "lots of money" really gets involved. We are talking more than a million, less than 5 million.
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I'd be concerned that you're going to get what you pay for. $200 isn't very much money to the lawyer.
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I'd be concerned that you're going to get what you pay for. $200 isn't very much money to the lawyer.
I assume it is 1) subsidized by my company and 2)they assume most people who elect the benefit will never touch it.
But I agree. I guess I'm wondering is a lawyer who participates in this service good enough that it would be good enough to do my will. It seems to me it is too complicated to do it myself.
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$200 per year seems a bit pricey, but has a break even of approximately 5 years, if you do a will, living will / power of attorney, for 2 adults. Even better if you have a complex situation for an estate plan (step children, divorced, lots of money, trust etc).
I used MetLaw for just this purpose. Setting up a trust can easily run $3,000 in my area. If you're planning on drafting a will/trust in the very near future and have access to MetLaw then it's a great deal. You can always cancel it next open enrollment period.
The lawyer isn't paid just $200. That's your premium for the year. This is like insurance, where the $200 is the premium you pay and the lawyer gets reimbursed for his time from MetLaw.
Mike
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If I had $1M+ in assets I wouldn't blink at spending a few thousand on an attorney to make sure everything related to the trust is taken care of properly. I always assumed those workplace policies were just essentially referral services where you get a number to call if you get arrested for a DUI or whatnot so you're not picking an attorney out at the jail. That being said, you could probably sign up for it and still get your $200 worth even if they just do the POAs.