Customer Reviews

Quicken Lawyer 2002 Personal Deluxe

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

When our insurance guy recommended an estate planner and told us he would give us a great deal and only charge $1500 for our living trust and wills, we immediately looked to Nolo. Six months ago, they hadn't partnered with Quicken to provide this product so we bought the Willmaker/Living Trust Bundle here on ... They ought to call it a bundle because of what it saved us. It was easy to use, easy to understand, and saved us a ton of money. I can only imagine that the partnership with Quicken has made it even better. I've used their products for years in my business, and I don't think there are any better. Get this and do yourself a favor.

This software is extremely confining. It's difficult (impossible?) to delete documents you've created. It forces all-or-none documents. For example, if you want to indicate your preference for cremation, you MUST indicate where you want your ashes spread/kept. If you want to give someone power over your healthcare decisions, you MUST state specific decisions about life-support - There is no room for simply naming a healthcare proxy, which is a rather simple legal document.

I saw several people bashing this wonderful software (all within a short amount of time, I note), many of which promote a terrible software package called "Family Lawyer," which makes me think Quicken's competitors are doing a bit of negative marketing.

Well let me tell you, I've used both, and Quicken Lawyer far and away exceeded Family Lawyer. First of all, it catches your mistakes, so you won't accidentally make a will out to yourself (like I almost did). Also, I don't no how many times Family Lawyer simply gave me a form and didn't tell me how to use it. Finally, Quicken has an update feature so you get the latest legal changes; the other product didn't tell me to expect changes.

This software saved me hundreds. I first got it when I needed to make a will and a healthcare directive before I had surgery.It was quick, easy and instructive. The program took me through the process step by step. Since then I've created a new will, a financial power of attorney and documents for my personal representative without a hitch. Thanks Quicken!

I am an attorney and I first bought this software package in 2000 in order to save time on many simple and standard documents, a decision that I was ultimately very happy with. However, I recently purchased the revised 2002 version of Quicken Lawyer and found the format to have been changed drastically. It is no longer user friendly, it is not easy to preview documents, there is no flexibility in modifying forms etc. In short, Quicken fixed something that wasn't broken and it is now an awkward and not USER-friendly product. I would not recommned this version of the software. Quicken management, if you read these reviews I highly encourage you to go back to the format of the 2000 edition, it was truly a useful and valuable perosnal and business tool.

I could not use this software to write my will.
I got tired (and poor) from using a lawyer to rewrite my wills.
This software boasted the ability and flexibility.
There were several things I could not do directly:
Leave my pets and some money for their care to someone if I died after my wife.
Designate a back-up executor if my wife predeceases me.
Specifically leave money to my executor for services.
While you may download a draft to a word processor, you get dire warnings not to do so because you may invalidate the will! If you can't introduce what you want, you are advised to go to a lawyer!!
I'm going to use a word processor to retype, with modifications, the last will my lawyer produced. Quicken Lawyer 2002 Personal Deluxe goes in the trash. I lose the money and time I wasted, but I'm wiser and hope that I can pass my experience on.

This software is worth its weight in gold. I'm amazed by the extensive legal help that accompanies every screen, and the fact that the forms are customized for your state. This is clearly well researched and written by attorneys who really care about providing high quality legal documents to consumers.

I also found the program easy to use and very intuitive. Well worth the money!

Sometime between the releases of Quicken Family Lawyer 2001 Deluxe and Quicken Lawyer 2002 Personal Deluxe, Quicken switched from software offered by Parsons to this new version offered by Nolo (I hear this is because Broderbund purchased Parsons).
Nothing personal against Nolo, but the new version has nowhere near the capabilities of the previous one. For one thing, the number of legal documents has dropped from well over 150 to 31. For those of you who are used to the old version and looking for an upgrade, do yourself a favor and go [the Broderbund website.]There you'll find the latest version of what used to be Quicken Family Lawyer. Buying the new Quicken Lawyer 2002 is nothing short of a DOWNGRADE.

Found that if one makes a mistake while entering data one cannot delete the errors. Hence one has to start over then ends up with 2 copies ... one the 'blunder' and one the real copy. Pages print out on copious paper instead of it being on continuous 'feed'. So instead of having only 10 pages one ends up with 20 and having to initial and sign only a few lines on each page. Also found the information requested was very 'state' specific. If one had accounts located outside of the USA one was out of luck being able to enter the address correctly as the program ONLY accepted addresses in the USA.
This is a pain if one has policies or business assets in other countries. I felt it was ... overpriced.

My wife and I did our wills. Nothing fancy, no complicated scenarios. For us it was a snap. Of course neither of us have died. Until then who knows. Worth it in order to avoid paying a lawyer a bundle. I can reccommend it for simple estates.

I was rather disappointed with this purchase and my purchase of the Business version. I would have preferred to have more document templates. I have used the Quicken Lawyer 2003 Business version and they're getting warmer. Perhaps the 2004 version will be great?