How to be our own lawyer websites like Legalzoom and Nolo are making do-it-yourself estate planning as accessible as the Internet.

As tempting as it may be to do-it-yourself, doing it yourself can be as bad — if not worse — than doing nothing at all. Here are some pros and cons of do-it-yourself legal guides and a word of warning about when a call to an attorney.

BONEHEAD SOFTWARE

Do-it-yourself software programs promote drafting your own will. Even so, what a software program cannot do is consider your family's unique goals or state of affairs. Nor can the software weigh the benefit against the burdens in meeting your particular needs.

SURFING THE NET VS TRAPPED BY THE NET

You may believe that creating your own revocable living trust is as easy as downloading one from the Internet. I recently consulted a client who did just that. To her surprise, the document she downloaded had a terrible mistake. It provided, as the Trustor, she would be entitled to all income from the trust assets for life. She naively put herself in a financial bind by disallowing herself right to use to her own assets if she was healthy. Not what she intended – we amended her trust.

Another client nearly disinherited their daughter. They wanted to their entire estate to their daughter. The client wrote that her daughter should receive “all income from principal.” That simple mistake would deny their daughter most of their estate, not the outcome they intended. Instead, the term should have stated their daughter was to receive “all income and principal” from their estate.

IT MAY BE CHEAP, BUT IT'S NO BARGAIN

Something as simple as the wrong word or a missing phrase can cost your families thousands of dollars and result in an outcome vastly different from your intent. So before you rest your family's future — and your own — on a do-it-yourself will or other estate planning tool, consider these words to the wise.

A trust is generally preferable to a will; they are also more complex than wills. So, you won't see as many do-it-yourself kits on the market or Internet, but their numbers are growing. So, as with wills, you should:

BEWARE OF SIMPLE SOLUTIONS FOR COMPLEX PROBLEMS

One of the greatest failings of do-it-yourself legal solutions is that they lull consumers into thinking they've solved a pressing need, when they've done nothing of the sort.

CONSIDER YOUR FAMILY'S SPECIAL NEEDS

Are you divorced or remarried? Are you worried that your daughter's lazy husband will waste her inheritance? Do you have a family run business? Can you trust your 18-year-old son with the money from your $100,000 life insurance policy? Is there a stepchild, close friend or someone else in your life that you'd like to see inherit from your estate? Do you have a child, spouse or aging parent who needs special care you want to ensure they receive after you've gone? Is there an organization, church or community group that you'd like to leave a bequest? Today life is complicated. The cookie-cutter approach to estate planning leaves most families far short of their goals.

MAXIMIZING TAX BREAKS

Do-it-yourselfers are apt to expose their hard-earned wealth to unnecessary taxes, which can seriously eat away at the assets your loved ones inherit.

KEEP IN MIND THE HIGH COST OF FAILURE

You may never know how badly you've messed up your estate plan. Instead, your family may pay the price for years to come. Poorly drafted estate plans can result in unnecessary legal fees. Ambiguities can mean that someone other than those we intended will inherit a piece of our estate. Or worse, we may create an opening for opportunists to stake a claim to assets we've set aside for our loved ones. The result can be unnecessarily expensive and a loss of control over our own fortune.

More about do it your self estate planning - what to look out for and things to know about protecting your estate.