Rating: 
Summary: Feeling great about my coffee house now!
Review: As a entrepreneur opening a coffee house, I was a bit worried because frankly I didn't know ANYTHING about starting my own business. All the paperwork, where to get money, how to get permits and all that. But this software is like a library of information (it includes six business books, I believe), and it helps you fill out forms one field at a time. I feel really organized and on top of things now.
Rating:
Summary: Solid, User Friendly, Great for Straightforward Situations
Review: BOTTOM LINE: Quicken Lawyer Personal ('QLP') is a great, low-cost alternative to hiring a lawyer to prepare your basic estate planning document, which will run you a minimum of several hundred dollars. It takes just minutes to prepare a will, but its legal manual/support resources are extensive enough for those that want to spend much more time understanding the what/why behind their documents.QLP is published by Nolo Press, a well established publisher of self-help legal books. QLP begins by walking you through a number of typical life-stage situations (i.e. young w/ no kids, married w/ kids, etc.) and comes up with a list of suggested documents and along the way explains why you might need each of these documents. When creating a particular document, the software writes all of the legal language for you - you do not write a single word of legalese - and docs are tailored to each state's requirements. To get information from you and have you make decisions about the content/structure of your documents, QLP follows the typical "interview" format - easy to use and informative along the way. My wife and I each created wills, healthcare directives and powers of attorney in about an hour or two. PROS:
-Ease of use: idiot-proof interview format
-Legal help: good offline manual, good resources at Nolo website
-Clear execution information: tells you exactly what each document needs to be put into effect (some need notarization, some need just witnesses)
-Address book: enter a person's info (i.e. your spouse) and don't need to enter again in other parts of same doc or other docs QLP is primarily estate planning software. It has a few of the most important ancillary documents (Child Care Agreement, Limited POA for Finances), but Kiplinger's Home Attorney and Broderbund's Family Attorney have a full complement of general use form documents. However, if you look through these lists, most are either not really necessary (Trip Permission Slip you can write yourself on scrap of paper or school gives it to you) or are better left to professionals unless you know exactly what you are doing (i.e. residential real estate sales contract and home services contract - too much legalese in there to just print, drop your name in and sign!?). COMPETITORS: As mentioned above, Kiplinger's Home Attorney and Broderbund's Family Attorney have a more extensive list of docs (many of which you'll never need IMHO). Home Attorney came preloaded on my computer so had a chance to try it -- not nearly as user friendly, kind of clunky and actually makes you edit the document to enter your name, county, etc - this scares me. Don't have Family Attorney so can't comment on its ease of use, sorry. If you really need a ton of general use forms, get Home Attorney or Family Attorney - otherwise stick with Quicken. GET A LAWYER IF: While QLP functions well as an advisor, telling you when you might need certain documents or even specific provisions within documents, it has its limits and is candid enough to admit it during the interviews/tutorials. Get a lawyer for situations like: you expect to owe federal estate taxes ($1.5 million limit in 2003 and going up rapidly), you own a small business or you expect to have a messy family situation upon death (i.e. an ex-spouse or children that don't get along) or live in a community property state.
Rating:
Summary: Solid and User Friendly, Great for Straightforward Situation
Review: BOTTOM LINE: Quicken Lawyer Wills ('QLW') is a great, low-cost alternative to hiring a lawyer to prepare your will, which will run you a minimum of several hundred dollars. It takes just minutes to prepare a will, but its legal manual/support resources are extensive enough for those that want to spend much more time understanding the what/why behind their document. QLW is published by Nolo Press, a well established publisher of self-help legal books. When creating a will, the software creates all of the legal language for you - you do not write a single word of legalese - and docs are tailored to each state's requirements. To get information from you and have you make decisions about the content/structure of your documents, QLW follows the typical "interview" format - easy to use and informative along the way. My wife and I each created wills in literally 20 minutes (but you probably have to put a bit of forethought into it, especially if you are married). PROS:
-Ease of use: idiot-proof interview format
-Legal help: good offline manual, good resources at Nolo website
-Clear execution information: tells you exactly how to execute the will
-Address book: enter a person's info (i.e. you spouse) and don't need to enter again in other parts of same doc
-Ease of use for married people: prepare one spouse's will and QLW has a function to flip the names to create the other spouse's will without starting from scratch COMPETITORS: Kiplinger and Broderbund also publish estate planning software but I've had a chance to look at them (pre-installed on my computer when I bought it) and I'd stick with Quicken. GET A LAWYER IF: While QLW functions well as an advisor, guiding you through the specific provisions within a will, it has its limits and is candid enough to admit it during the interviews/tutorials. Get a lawyer for situations like: you expect to owe federal estate taxes ($1.5 million limit in 2003 and going up rapidly), you own a small business or you expect to have a messy family situation upon death (i.e. an ex-spouse or children that don't get along) or live in a community property state. THINK ABOUT QUICKEN LAWYER PERSONAL: If you have the sense to prepare a will and are in a life situation to start preparing a will, you probably could stand to have a few other basic estate planning documents like a living will/healthcare directive and a power of attorney (especially if you're married). So for a few bucks more, I might check out Quicken Lawyer Personal instead which will do all of this plus prepare a will for you (see my review of Quicken Lawyer Personal for more info).
Rating: 
Summary: Support ended after just a year and a half????
Review: I am an owner of Quicken Lawyer 2002 Personal Deluxe, which according to Amazon is just ONE VERSION BACK from this one. When my computer went south last week, I bought a new one and installed QLP2002. When I went to use the automatic web update of the software, I was informed that "This version is no longer supported, and Web Update is not available... we recommend that you upgrade... for only $29.99." While, yes, I'm sure that legal things do change, they do not change that much, and I find it reprehensible that Nolo has revoked patches they had previously made available. Imagine any other manufacturer doing that -- "sorry, Office 2000 is no longer supported, so you can't download the patches we previously made available to you. Either use Office 2000 with none of the bugs corrected, or pay $400 for Office 2003." Ridiculous. So, while I did like the software, the lack of any longer-term support is a real turn-off for me.
Rating:
Summary: No long-term support?
Review: I am an owner of Quicken Lawyer 2002 Personal Deluxe, which according to Amazon is just ONE VERSION BACK from this one. When my computer went south last week, I bought a new one and installed QLP2002. When I went to use the automatic web update of the software, I was informed that "This version is no longer supported, and Web Update is not available... we recommend that you upgrade... for only $29.99." While, yes, I'm sure that legal things do change, they do not change that much, and I find it reprehensible that Nolo has revoked patches they had previously made available. Imagine any other manufacturer doing that -- "sorry, Office 2000 is no longer supported, so you can't download the patches we previously made available to you. Either use Office 2000 with none of the bugs corrected, or pay $400 for Office 2003." Ridiculous. So, while I did like the software, the lack of any longer-term support is a real turn-off for me.
Rating:
Summary: Support ended after just a year and a half????
Review: I am an owner of Quicken Lawyer 2002 Personal Deluxe. I had to reinstall the software when my computer quit. I bought a new one and installed QLP2002. When I went to use the automatic web update of the software, I was informed that "This version is no longer supported, and Web Update is not available... we recommend that you upgrade... for only $29.99. It is an outrage that Nolo has revoked patches they had previously made available. The lack of any support is the reason I will NEVER purchase another Quicken Lawyer product.
Rating:
Summary: Great product!
Review: I bought this product and have been *very* happy with it. I was able to do wills for both my wife and I in the matter of an afternoon for less than [$] bucks. I found the interface of the program extremely user friendly and easy to understand. Also, it is loaded with legal info about all kinds of stuff including legal definitions of terms, which I found useful since most legal jargon is unreadable by me. It is just a fantastic product all around.
Rating:
Summary: Easy to use
Review: I bought this program because a lawyer friend suggested that I go to a web site he liked to find will forms for the simple wills I wanted made up for myself and my husband. That web site suggested this program and the other reviews here made me comfortable with buying the program. I went through the process to write two wills this morning and it was amazingly simple to do. You are asked questions, and if you don't know the exact answers you have the ability to go back at a later date to fill in anything you needed to research. The finished will comes with printed instructions on how to go about signing it and getting it witnessed, and why you need to do what you need to do. This is all very well organized.
Rating:
Summary: Easy to use
Review: I bought this program because a lawyer friend suggested that I go to a web site he liked to find will forms for the simple wills I wanted made up for myself and my husband. That web site suggested this program and the other reviews here made me comfortable with buying the program. I went through the process to write two wills this morning and it was amazingly simple to do. You are asked questions, and if you don't know the exact answers you have the ability to go back at a later date to fill in anything you needed to research. The finished will comes with printed instructions on how to go about signing it and getting it witnessed, and why you need to do what you need to do. This is all very well organized.
Rating:
Summary: No support?
Review: I bought this software a few months ago but didn't get around installing it until today. When I tried to register the software I got the message that the software is no longer supported! I was asked to call an 800 number to get a discount on an upgrade. This is the first time I ever ran across a name-brand software package that discontinues support before the software is even one year old! While I may still use the software I found it appalling that the publisher of this software dares to force customers to pay for an "upgrade" immediately upon installation of software that they just purchased.
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