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DIY-ing to e-Plan

By Stanley P. Jaskiewicz and G. Thomas Williams
July 30, 2008

For sure, the lure of lower prices and self-service convenience have produced a revolution in many sectors of our economy, forcing entrepreneurs in these sectors to re-evaluate the services they offer, or reprice them to fit new delivery models.

Still, despite these revolutions, not many people would have expected that sophisticated estate planners would suffer from the slings and arrows the Internet has imposed on travel agencies, record shops and print journalism.

Professional services requiring insight and judgment ' and application of sophisticated expertise on a case-by-case basis ' seemed immune to the e-commerce onslaught. After all, no one wants to trust the future welfare of one's family and affairs to a device that makes the phrase 'computer problem' a redundancy. And why would people who need to spend thousands of dollars on estate planning even think about trusting an online service just to save a few dollars ' even if only to pass on post-mortem thoughts from the grave?

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