Financial Advisor
HomePCBy Marie D'Amico
As the owner of a technology marketing and consulting firm in Palo Alto, California, 32-year-old Michael Tchao retains an attorney to review all his important business arrangements. But when he needed a formal residential lease agreement last year for his new roommate-tenant to sign, he sought assistance from legal software instead. "I have a really great lawyer," Tchao said, "but I don't want to use her for everything." With a program called LegalPoint, Tchao was able to easily generate a well-written residential rental agreement on his own, saving his lawyer's time for more pressing business concerns. He was pleased to see that the software even seemed to watch out for his interests in much the same way that a good attorney does, giving him advice and bringing to his attention points he hadn’t previously considered.
For example, the document included an inspection checklist, attached as an exhibit to the agreement, of the status of his home's furnishings and specified the extent to which the renter was responsible for damage to these furnishings. Because Tchao is often out-of-town, it is important that his roommate-renter take proper care of Tchao's possessions. "I never really thought about these issues before because I've known and trusted my previous roommate for years," Tchao said. In addition, the rental agreement clearly stated that Tchao was not responsible for his renter's belongings--and the software helpfully reminded him, in the explanation section, to tell his renter to seek renter's insurance.
Most people engage in everyday financial transactions such as selling a car, renting an apartment or lending Aunt Sophie some money without the benefit of legal documents. Even though these arrangements are governed by the laws of the state in which you live, in a litigious society such as this you should make an effort to further protect yourself. With a lawyer-on-a-disk program costing between $10 and $230, you can produce formal, legally valid documents for most of your personal financial transactions--from bills of sale to promissory notes--that give you the safety-shield you need. The workmanlike documents these programs produce are useful in almost every state, as the laws governing these kinds of standard contracts vary little from state-to-state. Louisiana, however, has its own special contract rules, so if you live there, have an attorney review any computer-generated documents.
Jack of all Legal Trades
LegalPoint, Personal Attorney and Quicken Family Lawyer are all generalist packages that provide a wide array of customizable legal documents on various subjects. Personal Attorney and Quicken Family Lawyer operate similarly. You select a document you need to complete, such as a lease agreement; the products then lead you through a list of pertinent questions and you fill in the blanks with answers. For example, you'll be asked for the number of tenants to reside in the property and whether the lease automatically renews at its expiration. Personal Attorney even provides an example answer in the proper format for each question, such as the proper date or amount of rent format.
Each query is accompanied by comments that briefly describe the significance or legal relevance of both the question and answer. After you've completed your answers, both products verify the file is complete, prompt you for any forgotten answers and then print out the document. If you're unsure which legal documents might be helpful to you, both products will interview you and, based upon your responses, suggest a list of helpful legal documents.For a single individual, Quicken Family Lawyer suggested completing a simple will or living trust, a medial power of attorney, and an organ donation form, amongst other helpful documents. LegalPoint operates differently from the other two programs. While Personal Attorney and Quicken Family Lawyer only let you see a completed document after you’ve gone through the Q-and-A process, with LegalPoint you start right off with a view of your document in LegalPoint and do not go through a Q-and-A session. LegalPoint’s approach is more helpful, because it gives you a better appreciation of the place each answer you supply plays in the overall document. Decision points--LegalPoint’s term for the information you must enter--and legal explanations of various clauses or paragraphs in each document are color-coded. Double-clicking on either of these brings up an explanation of the data the program is requesting or the legal relevance of a particular sentence. LegalPoint boasts the most comprehensive legal explanations of all the products. For example, LegalPoint explains the legal implication behind a severability clause is to try and reform an agreement if one clause is found invalid, the other products don't explain this legalese.
In addition, unlike the other two products, LegalPoint lets you modify any document at any time without importing it into a word processor and without first completing it. Tchao, for example, needed to make changes to LegalPoint’s built-in residential lease agreement because his rental arrangement was a bit non-standard; he wasn't renting his entire home but only one bedroom and bathroom. LegalPoint allowed him to alter any word in the document to suit his situation.Even though these packages make an effort to cover a majority of personal financial transactions, they do sometimes fall short in providing all the legal documents you may someday need. For example, soon after Tchao rented the rooms in his home, he sold the 1993 Honda Civic he uses for personal, non-business purposes without benefit of a written bill of sale. That’s because LegalPoint includes only a general agreement for the sale of goods, which can be customized to sell a car if you know the specific laws applying to automobile sales, but not one that specifically covers selling an automobile If you don't know automobile law, Personal Home Attorney and Quicken Family Lawyer provide a bill of sale customized for motor vehicle sales, and Quicken Family Lawyer makes sure to even request the car's current mileage. Why? The program’s correct answer, "Federal law requires that the mileage of a motor vehicle be stated upon transfer of ownership."
LegalPoint, in general, has less personal documents than its competitors because its orientation is towards small businesses, but it remains useful at home. All three products act as helpful "ticklers,"--by merely browsing through the list of provided files, they remind you of documents you might want to complete. Admittedly, the documents aren’t on a par with the work of a good attorney--for instance, most documents employ multiple verbs when just one will do, for example, instead of sell, they will use sell, assign, transfer, and convey, an old-fashioned legal drafting technique. The documents don't always adhere to uniform contractual statutes, either. For example, in a bill of sale, you usually wish to sell your article "as is," without any warranties. To be legally valid, the law clearly states that the "as is" clause must either be in bold or all in capital letters; failing to do so can subject you, the seller, to liability by the buyer. Both Personal Home Attorney and Quicken Family Lawyer failed to write their "as is" clauses in capital letters, so if you choose these programs you should alter their bills of sale in your word processor. (LegalPoint properly follows the statute in its general bill of sale and agreement for sale of goods.) Therefore, if you're engaging in a financial transaction for significant sums, you might spend a half hour of an attorney's time to review your file.
Niche Specialties
All the general legal products discussed above contain estate planning documents such as wills, living wills, powers of attorney and trusts. The gold standards for all of these documents, however, are WillMaker (see Taking Care of Household Business, Nov. '94) and Living TrustMaker, both from Nolo Press . Both products provide valuable two-hundred page descriptions in their manuals of the legal ramifications of trusts and wills; at most, the general products provide perhaps a page of legal explanation. With either product, you also get a two-year free subscription to the company’s newsletter, which describes changes in the law and other legal issues. Living TrustMaker allows you to make a trust, name yourself and your spouse (if you have one) as co-trustees and place your assets in it. The benefits of a trust are many--for one thing, you keep absolute control over your property, even though it’s technically owned by the trust. You can also revoke the trust at any time. If you die, your spouse need not probate your estate, go to court or file any documents--as he or she would have to do with a will--to obtain title to your assets. If you are incapacitated, your spouse can handle your assets without a power of attorney--that’s because as co-trustee, he or she has full power to manage your property. Even with a trust, however, most attorneys recommend that you and your spouse execute backup wills to insure that any asset you forget to place in the trust is properly inherited.
Living TrustMaker is easy to use. Terry Ross, a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel who now owns a Sir Speedy Printing Franchise in Plattsburgh, New York, found out how easy when he learned he needed bypass surgery two years and go. Concerned that he would be incapacitated for some time by the operation, he sat down with Living TrustMaker and, within an hour-and-a-half, had put together a trust to benefit his wife, Mary, and teenage son, Kyle. While he fortunately sailed through surgery and was soon out of the hospital, he felt better knowing his family was prepared for any contingency.
Everyday Correspondence
Besides general and niche legal assistance, other software programs provide help with everyday financial correspondence. Personal Advocate, for example, offers about 40 commonly written letters to personal credit, consumer and government agencies, as well as supplies a database of about 2,000 relevant contact names and addresses. Whether you need a letter to appeal a denial of Medicare benefits, to challenge a denial of credit, to demand child support payments or simply to request a copy of your birth certificate, it's all there. Personal Attorney and Quicken Family Lawyer provide about a dozen such letters but no contact addresses.
The letters are strictly common-sense affairs that can save you time and the effort of trying to write in the formal tone required for financial or legal related matters.
Final Notes
Whether you’re putting together a bill of sale or writing a will, don’t keep the only copy of any legal agreement only on your PC. Your important personal and business legal documents also should be printed and stored in a safe place, such as a safety deposit box. Make sure to leave instructions with more than one person about how to locate these files so that they can be easily found by others if necessary. Software products such as Personal RecordKeeper and Personal Home Inventory can operate as legal assistants, helping you inventory and categorize your property for inclusion in legal documents.
And remember that while legal software can help you in many personal financial concerns, it can’t always help you with matters that involve substantial sums of money, such as a divorce or unsettled areas of the law, such as employment issues. For those types of concerns, you'll need to consult a real, live attorney from the start. Judicious use of these products, however, can help you save time and money on your legal expenses and help you engage in everyday financial transactions, backed up by a legal gladiator who just happens to come in a box.
Legal Software Products:
California Incorporator
A software package based on the book sold to 100,000 California
users. Its value is not in the program but in the 200-page legal
manual which describes California incorporation documents and
their legal ramifications. Its user interface is solely
black-and-white and text-based (no graphics) and needs
significant updating to get into the '90s. $129 (DOS),
Nolo Press
, (800) 992-6656, (510)
549-1976.
LegalPoint
This product is the same as Small Business Attorney,
described below, and will soon be renamed. Do not buy both. $49
(Windows), Teneron Corporation, (800) 529-5669, (913) 385-2800.
Living Trust Maker 2.0
The most comprehensive program to design trusts for you and your family. It includes a user's guide and a lengthy legal guide which defines the legalese used in the documents. It recommends you make a back-up will with WillMaker 5. $79.95 (Macintosh, Windows), Nolo Press , (800) 992-6656, (510) 549-1976.
Partnership Maker
This product contains the basic documents for setting up and operating your business as a partnership. The original copyright date is '88 and unfortunately, its DOS and text-based user interface is dated and requires each response be confirmed with a yes or no. The real value is in the legal guide which also can be bought as a book from Nolo Press for $24.95. $129.95 (DOS), Nolo Press, (800) 992-6656, (510) 549-1976.
Patent It Yourself
This package is built upon the popular book by the same name sold by Nolo Press for $36.95. It describes searching prior art, writing a patent, and responding to the Patent Office. Patents are important documents; I don't recommend filing them yourself but this product provides invaluable information for inventors about the process.$229.95 (Windows), Nolo Press , (800) 992-6656, (510) 549-1976.
Personal Advocate
This program provides templates for about 40 commonly written letters to credit, consumer, and government agencies. The letters are common sense but the database of applicable addresses is quite helpful when you're searching for a responsible agency or office. See below for a list of these addresses available free via the Internet. $29 (Windows), Parsons Technology , (800) 223-6925, (319) 395-9626.
Personal Attorney
This product prepares personal documents and letters for a variety of matters. It's not as inclusive or descriptive as other programs, but it's easy to use and cheap.$9.95, $6.50 shipping (Windows), Meca Software , (800) 537-9993, (203) 256-5000.
Personal Home Inventory
A simple, easy to use package for tracking your home possessions for insurance and legal purposes. It is not as full-featured as other programs but its price is perfect. $19 (Windows), Parsons Technology , (800) 223-6925, (319) 395-9626.
Personal RecordKeeper 3.0
The best record keeper package because you don't merely annotate your assets, you prepare other useful documents, such as instructions for taking care of your pets and property. Each file can cross-reference other files, making searches a breeze.$49.95 (Macintosh), Nolo Press , (800) 992-6656, (510) 549-1976.
Quicken Family Lawyer
Previously known as It's Legal, before the developer, Parsons Technology, was purchased by Intui t, makers of Quicken. It prepares 61 basic personal and small business documents from wills to bills of sale to leases to employment agreements but provides little discussion of the legal implications of any document.$19, (Macintosh, DOS, Windows, disk or CD-ROM), Parsons Technology, (800) 223-6925, (319) 395-9626.
Small Business Attorney
This product is the same as LegalPoint so don't buy both. This product provides over 70 legal documents on a wide array of topics. It contains the broadest range of legal discussion of these areas. Topics are addressed cursorily; other products define specific subjects such as partnerships, patents, trusts, and wills in more depth. $49 (Windows), Block Financial Software, (800) 537-9993, (816) 561-0673, or Teneron Corporation, (800) 529-5669, (913) 385-2800.
WillMaker 5
The most exhaustive will package based upon the best-selling book. It contains the clearest and longest legal manual describing the ramifications of final arrangements, health care documents, and wills, and employs a simple, interview-based user interface.$69.95 (DOS, Macintosh, Windows), Nolo Press , (800) 992-6656, (510) 549-1976.
Note: Before you buy any software, check your computer owner's manual to determine operating system, microprocessor memory, and disk space. Then read the software box or consult a salesperson to be sure the program and your computer are compatible. All prices are suggested or estimated retail.
Sidebar C: Other Helpful Hints
• Nolo Press Technical Help can be found online. America Online, choose KEYWORD from the GO TO menu, type LEGAL, then click OK; CompuServe, type GO LAWSIG; eworld, choose GO TO SHORTCUT from the PLACES menu, then type NOLO; Internet: http://gnn.com/gnn/bus/nolo.
• Parsons Technology Technical Help can be found online. CompuServe, type GO PARSONS or type GO PA at any prompt; GEnie, go to the IBM Roundtable, Category 31 or the Software Library Section 10.
• State Medical Associations: They often provide free, legally valid, and well-written durable powers of attorney for health care decisions. Call them up and ask to be sent one.
• State/County Bar Associations: If you are looking for a lawyer, you local county or state bar association will refer you to a lawyer referral service. They will not give legal advice nor will they refer you to any particular lawyer.
Sidebar D: Online Goodies
Here's a list of free Internet sites supplying some of the information in these software packages.
• Information about the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
€ Online help with writing patents
• Supreme Court decisions from 1990 to present
• Directory of online law firms
• Brief biographies of most lawyers and law firms
• Listing of state agencies, state statutes, state government officials, and more
• Listing of federal agencies and departments, U.S. senators, U.S. representatives, and more.
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