If you live in Palm Beach and have searched for an estate plan, you have probably seen two prices: $99 for an online template and a quote from a local Florida attorney. The gap looks large until you compare what each actually delivers, how long it takes, and what it costs your family later. Here is the cost-and-timeline breakdown.
What a DIY plan costs up front and later
Online will kits typically run from free to a few hundred dollars, and you can finish in an afternoon. The catch is that Florida has strict execution rules. Under Florida Statutes §732.502, a valid will must be signed by the testator and by two witnesses, all present together. Many out-of-state templates miss this, and a will that fails the formalities is simply void. The cheapest document can become the most expensive problem when your family discovers it in probate.
Where templates miss Florida-specific law
Generic forms rarely handle the rules that matter most in Palm Beach County. Florida’s homestead protection (Art. X, §4) limits how you can leave your primary residence if you have a spouse or minor child, and a DIY will that ignores it can produce an unintended result. The elective share (Fla. Stat. §732.2065 and following) gives a surviving spouse a claim to roughly 30% of the elective estate, which template wills do not address. None of these are visible to someone filling in blanks on a website.
Timeline: how each path actually moves
A DIY document is fast to create but does nothing to speed up administration. A Florida attorney engagement usually runs two to four weeks from intake to signing for a standard plan: an initial meeting, a draft, a revision round, and a supervised signing with proper witnesses and a notary. That extra time buys a plan that funds correctly and survives review by a Palm Beach probate court.
The probate cost difference
This is where the math turns. Florida offers summary administration for smaller estates (generally under $75,000 in non-exempt assets or where the decedent has been dead over two years) and formal administration for everything else. Formal administration requires a personal representative, attorney involvement, and court supervision over many months. A clean attorney-drafted plan with a properly funded revocable trust (Chapter 736) can keep assets out of probate entirely. A flawed DIY will often forces the family into formal administration, where attorney’s fees, filing costs, and delay erase any up-front savings.
When DIY can be reasonable
If you are a single Palm Beach renter with modest accounts, no real estate, and clear beneficiary designations on every account, a simple will plus updated beneficiaries may be enough. The picture changes the moment you own a home, have a blended family, hold an LLC, or want to avoid probate. At that point the document is not the hard part; the strategy is, and that is what an attorney provides.
Getting the value of professional advice
The honest comparison is not price for price. It is total cost across both your lifetime and your family’s administration, plus the risk that a defective document fails when no one can fix it. For most Palm Beach homeowners, a properly executed plan that anticipates homestead, the elective share, and Florida’s probate process is the cheaper option once everything is counted.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Florida estate planning rules are specific and fact-dependent. Consult a licensed Florida estate planning attorney before deciding how to structure your plan.
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