Is a DIY will good enough for now?

A DIY will might feel like a smart placeholder to hold you over until you get your official plan in order. But “temporary” plans almost never get updated before your life outgrows them, and the consequences are serious. Building your estate plan right the first time is often less expensive in the long run.

If you’re considering a DIY will (or if you’ve already made one), you’ve taken a step most people haven’t. According to the Pew Research Center, only about one in three U.S. adults have an estate plan. You’re facing a subject most adults avoid, and that’s commendable no matter how you go about it.

But in nearly 20 years of estate planning law, I’ve watched too many DIY wills fail at the critical moment, for a wide range of reasons: missing signatures, templated language that doesn’t suit the decedent, or poorly thought-through choices, often with consequences the families are left to untangle.

Many of the clients I work with built a DIY will as a stopgap solution. They wanted to get something basic in place, and create the “real” plan later. In my professional opinion, that logic often creates more problems than it solves. “Later” rarely comes, and in the meantime you have a false sense of security, believing your family is protected by the plan you built.

In this article, I’m going to make the case for creating your estate plan right the first time. The process won’t get any easier or cost any less if you put it off, and the downsides of sticking with a DIY plan (or no plan at all) are significant.

First, the pros: What DIY wills typically get right

The single best thing a DIY estate plan does is to force a decision most people avoid. To build one, you have to sit down and work through the big questions, like who will raise your kids, who inherits what, and who should handle the process on your behalf. 

The major online platforms also understand the basic legal requirements in most states, which is why these documents often look complete to non-attorneys.

The cons: Where DIY plans fall short

In my practice, I work with some clients who show up with a DIY plan in hand. I’m always glad they started, but more often than not, these plans have serious gaps you’d have to be a lawyer to identify. A website can’t understand the implications of specific details in your life, like your family dynamic, your small business, your rental properties, and your other assets in the same way a human-to-human conversation can. 

The top 7 problems with DIY wills

#1: Missing signatures

Many people generate an online will and then never sign it. I’ve heard of several cases where a couple had drafted a plan through a legal website when their oldest child was born, and then forgot to sign it. 

By the time they realize their mistake, they often have one or two more children. If something had happened to them in the meantime, it would have triggered a legal nightmare, with no legal plan for who would raise the children or inherit their assets.

If your documents aren’t signed, they don’t exist in the eyes of the law.

#2: Invalid documents

Georgia has specific rules for a will to be considered valid, and a big one is this: Your will must be signed in front of two competent adult witnesses. Writing your wishes down and signing off on them yourself is not enough.

I once worked on a probate case where the deceased had created a DIY will, signed it, and told their loved ones where to find it. They thought they’d done everything right. But when the family brought it to me to file, I had to tell them it wasn’t valid; it had been signed, but never witnessed. Probate dragged on for months longer than it should have, and the assets were distributed differently than the person intended, but there was nothing anyone could do. 

The court can’t honor a will that doesn’t meet Georgia’s legal requirements, no matter how clear their intentions were.

#3: Not aligned with your intentions

Even a properly signed and validated will can fall short of what you originally wanted. Distributing assets between family members is rarely as cut-and-dried as it looks on paper. Most families need more nuance than you can find in a template. 

For example:

• A child who isn’t financially ready for a lump sum payout may need structure around what they receive and when, but a will can’t do this.
• A loved one with special needs may be your beneficiary, but an outright inheritance could disqualify them from government benefits. 

Templates don’t ask these types of questions, so they can’t solve for them. 

#4: Missing documents

Most DIY plans produce a will and nothing else, but a will does nothing while you’re alive. If you’re incapacitated (for instance, if you have an accident, stroke, or serious illness), a will is useless. 

What you need then is a financial and medical power of attorney, an advance directive, and a HIPAA authorization. DIY plans routinely leave all of these out. An experienced estate planning attorney is familiar with these documents and others that might apply to your specific situation.

#5: Skipped steps

We’ve already talked about Georgia’s requirement for a will signing to be witnessed before it’s considered valid, but there are other expensive DIY mistakes related to process. Someone might build something as complicated as a trust online, sign it, and then never fund it. Funding a trust means you’re transferring assets into it: your house, financial accounts, and any other assets the trust should own.

An unfunded trust is like an empty box; it’s built to hold your assets, but with nothing inside, it can’t do anything at all. Those assets will pass through probate as though the trust never existed.

DIY platforms can give you funding instructions, but they can’t follow up to confirm you did it, or draft the deeds that actually move real estate into the trust. (By the way, this is why I believe you should never DIY a trust under any circumstances. A trust is a binding legal contract, sometimes an irrevocable one, and the stakes of getting it wrong are far too high.)

Not sure if you need a will or a trust? Download our free guide.

#6: Mismatched beneficiary designations

A beneficiary designation on a retirement account, life insurance policy, or bank account overrides your will or trust. It doesn’t matter what your will says; the account pays out to whoever is named on the form. DIY plans focus on the will or trust document, and almost never audit the designations you set up years ago. 

#7: Missing Georgia-specific provisions

National platforms write for the broadest possible audience, so state-specific particulars get handled generically or not at all. For instance, in Georgia, real estate does not automatically pass to a surviving spouse or co-owner unless the deed specifically shows right of survivorship or includes a “lady bird” clause. Many people’s houses end up in probate for this reason.

Another tricky one: In Georgia, the self-proving affidavit needs to state the ages of your witnesses. They can be 14 or over, but the affidavit needs to specify how old they are. Most other states (and therefore most online templates) only have you state the age of the testator, so the will is not self-proving.

State-specific laws are always changing and can feel like a minefield of specific rules like these, so it’s always best practice to hire an attorney whose job is to know the law and make sure you build a compliant plan.

What about handwritten wills?

You may have heard that Georgia doesn’t recognize handwritten wills (also known as “holographic” wills). In fact, a handwritten will is legally valid in Georgia if it’s still signed in front of two competent witnesses. An informal, unwitnessed note or letter has no legal standing, no matter how clearly it spells out your wishes. 

That said, a handwritten will is subject to even more margin for error (and more scrutiny) than the DIY template-style wills discussed above, so I don’t recommend relying on one.

Why the “temporary” DIY plan is a trap

DIY plans are one-and-done by nature. People set them up, mentally check “estate plan” off the list, and usually forget they exist until something big happens in their life. That’s what we call a false sense of security. It’s dangerous because a plan drafted before a divorce, a remarriage, a new child, or a major change in wealth can end up actively working against your wishes today. 

By contrast, an attorney relationship has a built-in safeguard these DIY platforms don’t. When your life changes, an attorney can remind you to review your plan and help you update it. A DIY platform has no built-in mechanism for that, so you’re left on your own to keep things up to date—and that’s assuming there are no holes in the plan it created for you in the first place. 

This is why hiring a professional attorney to build your estate plan properly the first time is often far less expensive than redoing a DIY plan. If your family discovers too late that your plan has a technical defect, funding failure, or a mistake like a beneficiary conflict, it can easily cost far more than creating a professional plan would have.

When is a DIY will good enough?

If you are single, have no minor children, own no real estate, hold only simple assets, and have named adult beneficiaries directly on every account, a DIY will can technically meet your needs… for now.

However, most people who fit that description won’t stay there for long. People buy homes, have children, get married, start businesses. “Simple” has a way of becoming “complicated” faster than anyone updates their paperwork. 

I highly recommend hiring an estate planning attorney if any of these apply to you:

• You own real estate
• You have minor children
• You’re in a second marriage or blended family
• You have a child or dependent with a disability
• You own a business
• You haven’t reviewed your plan since a major life change
• You created a trust but aren’t sure whether it’s funded
• Your beneficiary designations haven’t been reviewed in years

The bottom line

A generic online form can’t take the specifics of your family or your life into account, and it lends a false sense of security that can create complications in the long run. 

Wondering if your current plan holds up? Click here to schedule a free call and we’ll let you know. 

Frequently asked questions

Is an online will valid in Georgia?

An online will is valid in Georgia only if it’s signed in front of two competent adult witnesses, the same requirement as any other will. Meeting that bar makes the document legally valid, but “valid” doesn’t always mean “complete.” 

Should I make a DIY trust?

No. A trust is a binding legal contract (sometimes an irrevocable one) and the cost of getting it wrong is high. 

Is a homemade or handwritten will legal in Georgia?

Yes, if it meets Georgia’s requirements, such as being signed in front of two competent adult witnesses. 

Should I do estate planning without an attorney in Georgia?

For most people, no. Even if your situation looks simple enough today that a DIY will might technically hold up, the moment your life changes (think marriage, children, a home, starting a business), that plan is out of date and could work against you. Doing it right the first time, with someone who can help you keep it current, usually costs your family far less than cleaning up an outdated DIY plan later.