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SOFTWARE REVIEW
WealthCounsel Document Assembly System, V. 5.5,(C) is a software solution for the automated assembly of estate planning documents. (Beginning in January 2003, this program will be known as WealthDocs.)
Wealth Counsel includes a series of Practice Systems that automate the drafting of the following common estate planning documents:
Will Practice System: Wills with and without tax planning, ancillary documents, client portfolios, and conduit trusts to receive distributions of qualified retirement plan benefits.
Living Trust Practice System: Living trusts, ancillary documents (pourover wills, powers of attorney, property agreements), funding instructions and summary letters, client information and interview questionnaires, and implementation checklists.
Family Limited Partnership Practice System: Family limited partnerships, ancillary documents, implementation checklists, marketing materials, and client document portfolios.
Irrevocable Trust Practice System: Irrevocable life insurance trusts, intentionally defective grantor trusts, gifting trusts, and ancillary documents (client portfolios, Crummey notifications, and letters of instruction).
Charitable Practice System: Charitable remainder trusts and ancillary documents (client portfolios and letters of instruction). (The publisher intends to furnish also in 2003 charitable lead trusts, private foundations, and testamentary charitable distributions.)
Split-Interest Practice System: Qualified personal residence trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts, grantor retained unitrusts, and grantor retained income trusts.
Wealth Counsel uses HotDocs as its document assembly engine (Hot Docs V. 5.3 was installed with the Wealth Counsel version that is reviewed here). HotDocs must be set up with your version of Microsoft Word as the default word processor. Any version of Microsoft Word 97 or later is acceptable. The installation creates a WealthCounsel toolbar in Microsoft Word that includes a number of utilities to assist in editing and formatting the documents once they are assembled.
The assembly process runs from within HotDocs. After the client information and planning choices are entered, Wealth Counsel assembles the document being prepared and displays it in Microsoft Word.
The Wealth Counsel subscription includes access to the WealthCounsel Knowledge Base maintained on the WealthCounsel website. The Knowledge Base makes available for download alternative document provisions, forms, research materials, suggested practice tips, and a variety of practice tools (such as Power Point presentations, Visio templates, spreadsheets, and marketing materials) furnished...