Also a lawyer and have used Nolo and Suze Orman's online kit.

will maker works pretty good and you can get it from costco.com or in the store

acarducci wrote: The assets/will/everything goes through a process called probate. There will be a significant delay of a few months in getting some of your assets to your son/his guardian. Do you want to avoid this delay? Most of my clients do want to avoid such a delay.

OP said "We don't own a house, and only have money in a money market, TSP, and Roth IRA." Which of those do you think will go through probate, if she designates her child as beneficiary? And what is the benefit of notarizing a will?

I am an estate attorney and am happy to answer someonf the questions that you posted.

You asked: Is it ok to use nolo or legalzoom to create a will? It will hold up, right?
Yes, it is valid, but make sure you sign it and have two witness sign it after watching you sign. Better yet, have it notarized.

You asked: Is this wise? (to use an online will maker software)?
As I posted earlier, it is better than no will at all. However, you never know if there will be family disputes. We would like to think that our families would not fight over money, assets, kids, etc.... but you never know for sure. Also, if something did happen to you and your husband and you left everything to your son, do you know what that entails? The assets/will/everything goes through a process called probate. There will be a significant delay of a few months in getting some of your assets to your son/his guardian. Do you want to avoid this delay? Most of my clients do want to avoid such a delay. Probate is a public process. This means that once your son does inherit predators might be able to take advantage of his recent inheritance. The guardian would be in charge of these assets until your son turned 18 because children under 18 cannot own assets. Then, at 18, your son would get all of the assets outright at 18. Would he be responsible enough to handle these assets at 18? Most kids are not, but I do not know your son and he might be very responsible.

If you would like to email me privately or call me to discuss these matters in more detail, I will make myself available to answer your questions. You can reach me at acarducci@msn.com or by phone at 410-693-7323.

Anthony Carducci, Esq.
Law Office of Anthony S. Carducci, PC

FWIW I am a lawyer and we used Nolo for a will when we didn't want to spend the time/money to use a lawyer. I think Nolo does a good job tailoring their wills to current state law, and they are perfectly adequate for simple situations (and will explain more complicated situations as well). I am more hesitant about legalzoom simply because it seems there is more potential for introducing human error and I know less about them.

After a while we went to a lawyer and I think it was probably worthwhile because we could talk more about alternatives, and set up more elaborate trusts, etc.

Personally, I think it's more trouble than it's worth to put a residence in a living trust, but YMMV.

OP, your financial accounts will pass according to beneficiary instructions, not your will (as long as you have beneficiaries).

I used NOLO or something. But then I couldn't figure out how to transfer my house into my living trust without a lawyer. I wish you could do the WHOLE THING yourself. Everyone I asked said, "Real estate lawyer" or some other lawyer.

We used LegalZoom, mostly because we couldn't really afford an attorney.

FYI, this is addressed in the most recent blog post.

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/weblog/2012/06/15/wills-trusts-faq

Is this wise? We don't have much and would leave it all to each other or our son if we both died. We don't own a house, and only have money in a money market, TSP, and Roth IRA so I can't imagine it would be very complicated.

Is it ok to use nolo or legalzoom to create a will? It will hold up, right?