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From: leeke@cascade.STANFORD.EDU (Steven D. Leeke)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: WillWriter
Message-ID: <239@cascade.STANFORD.EDU>
Date: Sat, 6-Dec-86 18:42:31 EST
Article-I.D.: cascade.239
Posted: Sat Dec  6 18:42:31 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 7-Dec-86 04:45:52 EST
References: <631@uwmacc.UUCP>
Reply-To: leeke@cascade.UUCP (Steven D. Leeke)
Organization: Stanford University Computer Systems Laboratory
Lines: 42

In article <631@uwmacc.UUCP> dubois@uwmacc.UUCP (AntiNeophilus) writes:
>
>Does anybody know anything about an application called WillWriter?

I have had this program about 9 months and it is helpful for VERY simple wills
(single/married w/ or w/o children and little in the way of complex assets or
distribution).  The company supports all states I believe, but they are from
CA so their coverage there is probably better than most other states.  They
got their start on IBM's.

Now the downside - its is written in Microsoft Basic.  The program is not 
100% HFS compatible, although I have run it under HFS (in RAM).  There are
a whopping number of separate data and runtime files required - a real mess.
The company (Legisoft/Nolo) is not staffed w/ MacWizards.  Perhaps the later
versions are done in a more professional way.  It is hard to use to prepare 
more than one will at a time (i.e. save what I have so far so I can check
the details and then let me work on another will in the mean time).  I have
been able to do this by guessing (it wasn't hard) the file the will info is
stored in and making or substituting other will info files.

For the price (~35.00) it does a reasonable job (although I wish it output text
files rather than going straight to the printer so I could format them in
Write or Word).  I have only used in on the IW (1) and am not sure it works
with the LW.  It comes with a good manual - BUT if you have any doubts about
certain assets, laws in your state, etc., TALK TO A LAWYER!!!!

Finally, one thing to consider is that while a lawyer may cost a bit more (for
a will of comparable complexity to what WillWriter can do) you will have the
benefit of (hopefully) good advice and a definite time frame for producing a
will - having the capability to generate a will with little or no notice
builds complacency - and the job may never get done.

Hope this helps,

Steve Leeke


-- 
Steven D. Leeke, Center for Integrated Systems, Stanford University
    {ucbvax,decvax}!decwrl!glacier!leeke, leeke@cascade.stanford.edu

Disclaimer: I disclaim any knowledge of the above message and its contents.