FreeWill Review 2023
FreeWill.com services have been available since 2017. This company offers free documents to make a will, living will, living trust, and financial power of attorney. The forms are easy to fill out and can be created in under 20 minutes. FreeWill.com has a Trust Score of 4.8/5 on Trustpilot. However, this service is only suitable for simple cases, as their templates are very general.
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Pros and cons
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Editorial Notes
If your will is simple and straightforward, you can create it with FreeWill free of charge. However, you will need to consult your attorney and make sure it is legal in your state.
It will only take you about 20 minutes to create a legal document online with FreeWill. All you need to do is fill out a questionnaire and print out the forms. To make your documents official, you will need to sign them in-person with your witnesses. Keep them in a safe, but easily accessible place. In case you would like to create a more complicated will that does not fit into the template, you again might need the help of an experienced attorney. FreeWill has a network of attorneys to review the forms under the laws of the follow’s jurisdiction, but not in every state.
Credibility: Is FreeWill legit?
| Established in | 2017 |
|---|---|
| Registered in | New York, NY |
| Google Rating | n/a |
| BBB grade | A+ (NOT BBB ACCREDITED) |
FreeWill Co., a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation, offers free online services that provide legal forms and legal information. However, this is not a law firm and cannot be used as a substitute for a lawyer’s advice.
FreeWill is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau and does not have any Google ratings or reviews, which makes it hard to judge about its credibility.
Is FreeWill safe? Is FreeWill secure?
FreeWill encrypts all the data that you enter on their website. Your personal information is backed up and encrypted using AES-256 GCM encryption with root keys stored in an HSM. FreeWill uses modern, secure SSL/TLS settings and HTTP headers to ensure you can safely and securely browse their site. All these protocols make FreeWill a safe and secure site that makes every effort to protect your data from unauthorized access and misuse.
FreeWill Services and Pricing
FreeWill offers all of its services for free. Apart from the charitable giving component (optional), there is no cost for any of their services.
On FreeWill.com, you’ll find the following services:
| Services | one-doc | Package | Subscription |
|---|---|---|---|
| Last will and testament | |||
| Living will * | |||
| Living trust | |||
| Financial Power of Attorney |
Last Will and Testament
Revocable Living Trusts
Advance Healthcare Directives
Financial Power of Attorney
Attorney Support
FreeWill: Strengths
FreeWill: Weaknesses
Compare FreeWill
| Payment structure | No fees |
|---|---|
| Free trial | No |
| Guarantees | No |
| States covered | All states |
| Attorney Support | By referral |
| Attorney Cost | Determined by attorney |
Anyone who starts looking for an online will-making service has their work cut out for them, as there are well over a dozen companies offering services in this niche. Some companies offer comprehensive but often very expensive packages with many documents, others sell individual documents, and a number of companies even offer free estate planning forms. Likewise, some companies provide free attorney support and lots of additional features while others have bare-bones offers that virtually anyone can afford. So how can you figure out which company offers a service that suits you? Just start with the Compare section in our online will maker reviews and see how each company fares against its competitors on key characteristics.
Number of Documents Offered
FreeWill offers a small but comprehensive selection of documents for people in need of estate planning services. They include a last will and testament, living will, living trust, and financial power of attorney. While these documents will likely be enough to fulfill your basic estate planning needs, you may need to find another company if you want to create other documents, such as medical power of attorney or guardianship documents for your pets and children.
Payment Structure
FreeWill is one of the few companies that provide free estate planning documents for all of their customers. This is an amazing opportunity for people who can’t afford to create a paid will online or hire an attorney. However, free estate planning documents do have some downsides, so you should consider all options carefully when making your choice.
Guarantees
As the company’s name suggests, all documents offered by FreeWill are free. As a result, this will-maker doesn’t provide any refund guarantees.
Attorney Support
In addition to offering all their documents completely free of charge, FreeWill also provides their customers with a list of approved FreeWill fellows whose services you can purchase. These are attorneys who can help customers with complicated estates who aren’t able to make their documents online without the help of a professional. If you are looking for a local attorney you can trust, you can check the FreeWill fellows page on the company’s website.
Free Document Update Period
Since you don’t need to pay anything for creating estate planning documents on the FreeWill website, you can make new forms as many times as you want when you need to amend them. If you need to change your beneficiaries or add new property to your will, you can do it free of charge as frequently as necessary.
Phone App Availability
Unfortunately, FreeWill does not offer an app that you can use to complete your estate planning forms. However, you can opt to fill out the necessary forms using a computer, or you can use a mobile browser on your tablet or smartphone to access the company’s website. If app availability is a significant factor for you, you can opt for one of FreeWill’s competitors.
Ease of Use
| Instructions | Yes |
|---|---|
| Output format | |
| Turnaround Time | Instant |
| Platform | Web |
| Updates | Unlimited |
For a free service, FreeWill is remarkably easy to use. Apart from some minor formatting hiccups, the data entry process is simple and straightforward. So long as you have all the proper documentation in front of you, you can be done in under 20 minutes.
For the most part, FreeWill streamlines the will creation process via easy-to-click prompts. For a legal document that handles end-of-life decisions, it almost seems too easy. If you get stuck at any point, this service’s outstanding customer service will help you out of your rut.
Unique Functions Offered by FreeWill
In addition to offering Last Will & Testament creation, FreeWill also offers other document creation services. These include:Community Forum
An Extensive Glossary
A Regularly Updated Blog
FAQ
Bottom Line
Not everyone has thousands of dollars to spend on lawyers. Fortunately, the internet has made free legal document creation not only possible but also easy and affordable. Thanks to FreeWill’s partnerships with non-profit organizations, they are able to offer will creation and other estate planning document services for free.
However, before using their service, you need to verify that creating this type of will is legal in your state and that everything you would like to include in your will fits FreeWill’s template.
One thing that you should understand is that FreeWill.com isn’t for everybody – they don’t cover many complex will creation topics. But, if your situation isn’t complicated, they can save you stacks of cash.
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