mirror will

A Mirror Will is often used by married couples and is in fact two separate Wills. Each spouse names the other as the main beneficiary and there is an alternate plan in case the couple of both involved in a common disaster. The Mirror Will is a sound estate planning strategy, and should not be confused with a joint Will which attempts to described the estate plan of two people within the same Will. A Joint Last Will and Testament is generally a bad idea and rarely used today.

Online Will services – comparing LegalZoom with USLegalWills

Everything written in this article is correct as of August 29th 2018. Prices, services and review ratings change. We will attempt to update this post if there are material differences to the information presented here.

Comparing LegalZoom with USLegalWills.com – Executive Summary

Looking for an alternative to LegalZoom for writing your Will?

You may not have time to read this complete article, so here are the key points;

  1. Both LegalZoom and USLegalWills.com have been offering Will writing services for nearly 20 years now. The longevity of both companies is an important consideration when choosing an online Will service provider.
  2. In terms of the core Will writing service, USLegalWills.com has more options and more flexibility. It includes features like Pet Trusts, Lifetime interests trusts, a specific section on charitable bequests and Mirror Wills. There are no features in the LegalZoom service not available at USLegalWills.com
  3. USLegalWills.com is AT LEAST half the price of LegalZoom. When you take into consideration additional features like updates over time, USLegalWills.com is a fraction of the cost of LegalZoom (unlimited updates to all of your documents for 10 years is $34.95 at USLegalWills.com, at LegalZoom updates cost you $29.95 every single time you want to make a change!). There are also no ongoing subscriptions at USLegalWills.com and never any need to cancel a recurring payment.
  4. USLegalWills.com specializes in estate planning documents which means that customer service know estate planning, and the additional tools on the website are all geared towards estate planning. LegalZoom also specialize in business incorporation, trademarks and intellectual property service.
  5. USLegalWills.com have created a suite of services to support your Will. These include naming a keyholder to access your documents after you are gone, documenting your assets for your Executor through the MyLifeLocker service, uploading files to a digital vault for your loved ones, even writing messages to be distributed after you have passed away. LegalZoom only offer the downloaded documents and nothing else.
  6. Why is LegalZoom bigger? because they took a different corporate strategy in raising $800M of venture capital investment over the last few years. This gives the company a massive advertising budget. USLegalWills.com is privately held. This means that it is not driven by profitability and returns to investors, so we offer a fair service for a fair price. But this also means that we do not have $800M to spend on marketing!

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A Joint Will, Mutual Wills, Reciprocal Wills explained

We get this question almost every day; “I would like a will for my husband and I. This is only letting me do one will. How do I get a joint Will that will allow us to give what we have to each other?

Joint Will

Couples have several options when writing a Will together. Among them are:

  • A Joint Will;
  • Mutual Wills;
  • A Reciprocal Will or Mirror Will.

Defining a Joint Will and Mutual Wills

A Joint Will is a single document that allows for a couple to combine their Last Will and Testament. Normally, one partner inherits the entire estate when the other dies. When the second partner dies, the estate will be handled as agreed to by both partners. Continue reading →