Plan Your Estate

While this book is marketed towards those considering their own estate plan, I picked up this book because I recently started working for a law firm that does some estate planning. This book (unlike the more summarized alternatives) provides a great overview of the more common issues and strategies involved in estate planning. While it doesn't focus on the specifics of how to actually execute any of these documents, it's a great starting point and offers suggestions and resources on how you can find more information on the areas/issues most relevant to you. I understand that these suggestions are designed as part of the company's marketing strategy to buy their other books, but I also appreciated that the author was trying to keep the concepts simple and prevent the reader from feeling overwhelmed. I was also very happy with the examples that the author provided to illustrate each concept as it was being taught. This helped the book achieve a more practical feel compared to the other more summarized books on the market. Overall, I would say this book is definitely worth the price. By doing this research up front you will probably save yourself hundreds (possibly thousands) in legal fees.

This book provides a good overview of all aspects of estate planning. I knew basically nothing before reading this book, and was pretty well informed by the time I finished. The book encourages readers to write their own wills without hiring a lawyer. From the information in the book, I decided to try, although there is one aspect of planning my estate that is a bit more complex than the average person's. I bought Nolo's software, only to find that the software didn't handle my situation adequately. I thought about buying the publisher's software for setting up a trust, but my financial advisor strongly encouraged me to hire an attorney. I made an appointment with one who was well-recommended. The results were well worth the cost. He had a simple, creative and no-nonsense suggestion that I never would have come up with. I didn't give this book 5 stars because I feel that it downplays the possibility that the reader might actually need an attorney, thus encouraging people to spend additional money buying one or even two software packages. I do want to thank Amazon for having this book in the rental program, because once your estate is set up, you aren't going to need this book again. Even if you update your will, you'll want updated information. Renting the book allowed me to read it at a reasonable cost.

I suppose I should consider myself fortunate to be able to afford having an attorney from a high-powered firm draw up our estate plan. But years later as laws revise and family situations change, my wife and I realize that she mainly charged us for boilerplate, making several key errors in the process. So when we visit our new attorney, we want to be armed with more than a modicum of knowledge about the subject. We obtained several books on wills and estate planning from our local library, and Clifford's book was the clearest and most comprehensive. So we purchased it. Although we are fortunate that our children and their spouses are amicable and honest, we have other family where disputes have arisen after the death of a kin. Clifford guides you to minimize such situations. He also discusses important matters such as durable power of attorney, various forms of ownership, trusts, insurance, beneficiary designations and a host of other important topics. Our aim was not to write our will ourselves, but to understand the process so that we can make better decisions on how we want our assets distributed after we die. If that is your goal, I recommend the book to you.

Read chapters of this book to help me prepare for my Wills Trusts and Estates exam for my paralegal certificate. Clifford REALLY breaks down the concepts very well and makes them really easy to understand. I passed the exam by the way... thanks in great part to this book.

A good introductory book to give you all the basics on which to do further research and inquiry. It needs more in-depth treatment of the pitfalls of living trust and when a living trust shouldn't be used. An overall chart of set of charts comparing the pro and cons of Wills, Living Trust, and other instruments for protecting assets from probate and contests.

Book is good, but you really need to hire someone.

This book was a great read and outlined many different options in planning an estate. We did hire an attorney to create our trust/will, after reading this book, and we felt very prepared and knowledgeable. I would highly recommend this book!

A good, overall discussion of what everyone should do.....Estate Planning. Even if you plan to have an attorney create any document, this will give you an insight of what will be asked and what you should ask.