Kiplinger's WillPOWER

Rating:
Summary: Crashes constantly
Review: I agree with many of the other reviews here. I have Windows ME and this thing constantly crashes. Obviously not an up to date program. No updates or even a FAQ is available on their website. Save your money and save the headaches.

Rating:
Summary: Does not work with Windows 2000
Review: I am pleased with much of this product so far, but I am dissatisfied that it does not work with Windows 2000. It is great for preparing a basic will. It also offers many other legal documents. I especially like the Living Trust for establishing a plan for your children they lose both parents. There is another product called Kiplinger's Home and Business Attorney, which retails at [$]. It seems to include the WillPower functionality as well as much more. I might recommend that you consider it instead.

Rating:
Summary: Does not work with Windows 2000
Review: I am pleased with much of this product so far, but I am dissatisfied that it does not work with Windows 2000. It is great for preparing a basic will. It also offers many other legal documents. I especially like the Living Trust for establishing a plan for your children they lose both parents. There is another product called Kiplinger's Home and Business Attorney, which retails at [$]. It seems to include the WillPower functionality as well as much more. I might recommend that you consider it instead.

Rating:
Summary: If only I didn't own a home...
Review: I have installed and uninstalled this thing five times on my PC. It seems to work fine unless I input something about owned property. Once I do that, it crashes and won't restart. There's NO real help in the program and NO online support. Save yourself $30, many wasted hours, and a big headache by buying something else.

Rating:
Summary: Wasted Money
Review: I understand the limitations of these will writing programs. They are intended for simple, yet legal wills, that rely on standard text. I didn't have any special needs. I merely wanted to leave everything to my wife.
The program is split into three sections - Plan Wizard, Estate Manager, and Will Writer. Plan Wizard is an interview that allows you to document all of your assets and debts.
Estate Manager appears to only allow you to append the portfolio you just created. You can't actually change anything existing in the portfolio. You can only add stuff to it. I noticed some spelling errors in my portfolio. Since Estate Manager doesn't allow you to make changes, I went back to the Plan Wizard, made the changes there and did a save. Nothing. The changes did not take. Apparently the wizard is a one-shot deal.
Then I tried to use the Will Writer. I couldn't get it to work. I was expecting another interview like that in the Plan Wizard. Nothing. No buttons or menu commands. No pop-up menu. Thinking I was missing something really obvious, I clicked on Help. Nothing. I could not get help to work. I went to their web site and the only support offered was an email address. There's no software updates, no FAQ's, no system of support at all.
I expected a lot more than this from a product bearing the name of Kiplinger's. This piece of junk won't even let you exit the program without saving the file (which it doesn't actually do).
WillPower uses software technology at least 7 years old. It is plagued with errors. Do you really want to trust the future of your estate to this?
A seal on the box claims that it is 100% guaranteed or your money back. I'm going to find out whether that claim actually holds true...

Rating:
Summary: Used to create will
Review: This product is pretty easy to use. I had no trouble.
Created the will, and saved myself a lot of money.

Rating:
Summary: A Piece of Junk
Review: This program is a piece of junk. Once I input my personal data and click "finish", the program crashes. There is no help and the web technical support function is the usual condescending "reinstall the program and reboot your computer", as if the user is an idiot like the people who designed this program. There is no way to email tech support. Save your money.

Rating:
Summary: Save Your Valuable Estate $$$ By Not Buying This Junk
Review: This program looks like it was designed in 1973. I go through the rigamarole, and the thing crashes. Every time. This program is totally outdated. I'm on a Mac, OSX.

Rating:
Summary: cannot upgrade, cannot convert
Review: Willpower is acceptable, as far as its function goes. It provides a scheme for detailing your assets, and a boilerplate Will and Last text. It's not clear, however, that the scheme couldn't be done comparably with a spreadsheet. In addition, the Will and Last text often needs editing, for the legal language is convoluted so it can be massaged by a computer program to handle the cases checked.

However, Kiplinger provides NO UPGRADE from one year's Willpower to another, something which you'd think would be important as laws change. I was talked into buying a completely new version, which I did. Guess what: The new version has NO MEANS OF IMPORTING INFORMATION from the older version. That means you have to enter all your property all over again.

The lack of a means of importing information is why I rated this at One Star. Otherwise it'd get a Three Stars.

I'm on the hunt for a third-party conversions program. I may write one myself.