LegalZoom

I've had multiple contacts with the people at LegalZoom helping me through the process. I had questions and I called back, and they were easy to get ahold of. The explanation on what it is, what I need to do and what the next step is was very positive. Anytime I had a question or anytime I had a need to know things, I could just pick up the phone and I would reach somebody at LegalZoom who could explain it to me and then tell me what the next steps are.

What LegalZoom have set up is pretty ideal. I plan on making other changes into the future. I'm waiting to see how this business runs and if it is a successful venture, I have every intention to come back to LegalZoom and do another couple steps with them. Not only was I pleased enough with the process that they produced and the services, but to the degree that I have in mind to use them again for other things that I'd like to do with the business. Adding my wife as an equal partner in it, I know that that was offered, and that is something that they can help me with. When we take that step, that's something that I will definitely be coming back to them for. I'm very pleased with what they offer. They have made it very easy for me to go through the process I went through. So, I would definitely recommend.

When I originally did it, I was happy with the language in the will. The original one was straightforward and more like other legal documents that I've done. My other experiences in divorce and real estate were much more straightforward in their language, setting out the terms and I understand they're all using a template and fill in the blank as to specifics. When I updated it this time, it's less straightforward and there are a lot more drawn out legalese stuff that was somewhat confusing in just the first reading. Maybe law has changed in my state to have all this legalese stuff in it. I'm not as comfortable with it. It seems excessive. I'd have to go back and look at the document again. I was just kind of scratching my head when I thought that this is not what my document looked like before. The original will when my kid was still young was where I’d named a guardian in the event of my death. I was satisfied with that experience.

When I could look at my computer, at the changed document, I'm like, “Wow! Something new must have come up.” My printer was broken at the time I made the change and paid the money. I reviewed the document online and downloaded it but I got the packet in the mail. It is still sitting in my big stack of mail that I haven't gone through yet. At the time I received that, I wasn’t dying to go get out in the herd. I've got to assemble a couple of people to witness my signature and go file it. I need to finish the thing and I'm gonna have to get out in public a little bit.

I'm assuming that if I want some explanations of that stuff, when I finally get off my tail and go get this thing filed, that I could call somebody and I could get explanations of some of this stuff. if you're gonna add so much legalese to it, it would be cool if you had a general explanation. So that if I go and look at it again when I'm not so tired and have a million things to do, maybe on second read, it would be better.

They've got to have something like that because at the end of the day, incorporating is the easy part, but there's so much stuff in the background that people don't know unless they research or it comes up. That can get costly for LegalZoom but if they did that, that would be amazing. Thereafter, if somebody wanted to keep that service, maybe they could pay a monthly fee to be able to get phone support and have questions answered. At the same time, having somebody guide you on what you need to know without having to ask the question would also be helpful because some people don't know what they even need to ask to begin with.

Despite that, LegalZoom still offers a lot for the price at the end of the day. The interface isn't that great though and it was not super user-friendly or easy to interpret. It was not bad either but it could be better. When I wanted to log in, it was not really clear about where are the forms you've already filed and where are the future forms. The calendar was a little weird, too. It'd also be nice to be able to have support on the weekends because a lot of businesses are opening on the weekends. I'd love to get questions answered as opposed to waiting a couple of days. But other than that, the hold times have been pretty good and LegalZoom has been great.

LegalZoom is a great place to start, depending on how complicated the person's matters are. If they were looking for a straightforward, non-scary, non-threatening, non-expensive way to dip your toe into a legal matter, I would suggest everyone start with LegalZoom and then follow up with an attorney to help connect the dots if there are things that are confusing.

I had one setback. But it was more of a technical issue with the way things are managed there. I should have expected that working with an online provider like LegalZoom that there wouldn't have a lot of interpretive support. For example, I wanted to start a new company. I plugged in the company name and they said, “Oh, great, your name is available.” So I'm down that whole rabbit hole. Until I learned that in the state that I wanted to incorporate, the name wasn't available. All LegalZoom provided me were, “Sorry, your name isn't available.” They did not provide me alternatives. They did not provide me any information about why my name wasn't available. So that was a huge setback. I ended up setting up a corporation with a name I didn't want.

I've gotta go through the whole process of now dissolving that corporation because LegalZoom took one of the options that I wasn't crazy about without providing any feedback. They moved ahead and got me the name even though it wasn't the one I wanted. So I over expected based on my previous experience for LegalZoom to be proactive and very helpful in that area. It cost me a lot of extra money. I could have just hired a lawyer to do the research. I would have had a bit of a back and forth with that attorney, which would have saved me money in the long run.

I would warn people that even if it is just a slight bit complicated, don't expect too much from LegalZoom. But overall, I'm still better off having worked with LegalZoom on the other two cases. I just wished LegalZoom would have said, “Sorry, can't help you,” or, ”Wow, this is getting a little bit more complicated” on that one case. But there was no human interface there too. So I understood. I understand that it isn’t perfect and that there are limitations.

I'm an independent person with no business, but I was just doing my will and trust, so when I pass away, my son gets my money. So they told me the money has to go in a trust. I didn't know that. But then again, the rep from my bank wasn't sure either. So, my bank is giving me a hard time. They can't even answer me. I called my 1-800 number.

It was disappointing and customer service is not what it used to be. I've seen LegalZoom on TV. I know Robert Shapiro and I'm like, "They look like a reputable company." That was why I went with them. Then like six months ago, I reached out to one of the people and I said, "Hey, can you send me some email? Just read up on it, so I can understand and learn about it. When I'm ready, I'll call you." I called that same guy. He said, "Here's my number." After he got me going, it was like after the third question and they wanted to get paid. Then everybody's very helpful but it seemed like after I had a couple questions here and there, I would contact that same guy and it would seem like I was bothering him. I didn't like that feeling that before I paid, they were very eager to answer any questions that I had. But after, it seemed like I was bothering him. So after that point, I never called back and asked for him or his extension or anything.

The people are good. Somebody always tells you something new that the previous guy didn't tell. I always say, "Is there anything you can think of that I should know or make sure I shouldn't do? Because this is all new to me. Just advice or whatever you can throw my way." Then they sent me out the card, but they put the wrong address. I had the wrong address for my son. They assumed he lived with me. I wish he did, but he doesn't. So I had to call back and I said, "No, that's not it. It's one digit off." The funny thing is, they didn't even ask me for his address. I called back and spoke to another guy, and I said, "Don't you need the address?" He's kind of yes and kind of no. So, I said, "Okay, well then, let me give you the address." Then the card comes, and he didn't even take the address that I gave him, which is where my son lives.

I had a problem and we made an appointment to speak to a lawyer on Monday. So, the guy helped me and he said, "Okay, let me see what she's got available." He said Monday was okay. This was last Friday and I thought that was not too long. He then said, "Oh, no." Come to find out it's the next Monday. So I said, "That's okay. I understand what's going on." But then I got an email from them stating, "Oh, your request that you put in for your attorney, you didn't finish it or you didn't complete it." So, then on Monday I tried to get a hold of the guy has been helping me. I spoke to a different guy who said, "Yeah, you're booked." But then he checked the notes and said, "Oh, I see the note here. They didn't have you booked." Other than those, everything has been completed and the people were very nice and patient with me.