What Quicken WillMaker & Trust Actually Gives You, What It Costs, and Who It Fits
Most people who search for a Quicken WillMaker & Trust review are standing at the same fork. On one side is an estate planning attorney who will charge somewhere between $1,000 and $5,000 to draft a will, a trust, and the powers of attorney that go with them. On the other side is a piece of software that promises those same documents for the price of a nice dinner. The real question underneath is fair and simple: will the cheaper option actually hold up when your family needs it?
I built Memorial Merits after watching how often grieving families get steered toward decisions they cannot afford, and I have sat on this side of it myself. During my Navy service, a blood clot put me in a position where I had to write down what I wanted for the people I love, faster than I ever expected to. That is why we review estate planning tools the way we do here, honestly, with the family in mind first. Quicken WillMaker & Trust is a Memorial Merits partner and we earn a commission if you buy through our links, but that does not buy a soft review. What follows is the real picture, including the people who should not buy it.
Quicken WillMaker and Trust is attorney-drafted estate planning software from Nolo, the best-selling name in the category for more than 50 years. It costs $109 to $219 as a one-time purchase, then $39.99 a year to keep the documents updatable.
- What you are comparing it against: An estate planning attorney charging $1,000 to $5,000 to draft a will, a trust and the powers of attorney that go with them.
- What you actually get: Wills, living trusts and the surrounding documents in one purchase, online with Starter or on your own computer with Plus and All Access, with no account you keep paying for.
- Why buy-once matters here: The annual fee only buys continued updatability. The documents you produced stay valid whether or not you renew.
- Who it suits: A straightforward plan for a family that knows roughly what it needs and wants the drafting handled rather than the thinking.
- The one family we point elsewhere: This page names it directly rather than selling to everybody, which is the part a software vendor’s own site will not do.
The short version is that Quicken WillMaker & Trust is the most established name in do-it-yourself estate planning for a reason, and for a large number of families it is genuinely all they need. It is also one-time software with real limits that matter for a specific kind of household. Below is exactly what you get, what it costs in 2026, how the process works, and the one type of family we point somewhere else.
- What Quicken WillMaker & Trust Actually Gives You, What It Costs, and Who It Fits
- What Quicken WillMaker & Trust Is, and Who Makes It
- What You Actually Get
- Everything Your Family Needs, in One Download
- What Quicken WillMaker & Trust Costs in 2026
- The Same Documents, Without the Attorney’s Invoice
- How Quicken WillMaker & Trust Works
- Who Quicken WillMaker & Trust Is Right For
- Who Should Look Elsewhere
- Ready to Protect the People You Love?
- So, Is Quicken WillMaker & Trust Worth It?
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Attorney-drafted software from Nolo, the best-selling name in the category for more than 50 years.
- One-time price from $109 to $219, then $39.99 a year to keep documents updatable.
- 35+ documents in one purchase: will, living trust, healthcare directive, powers of attorney, and more.
- Not built to store, update, and deliver your plan over time; for that, a living vault is the better fit.
Will these documents hold up? Nolo’s attorneys keep every WillMaker template current with your state’s law, and the program prints your state’s signing instructions with each document.
One evening at the kitchen table, a guided interview, and a will and living trust printed with the signing instructions for your state on top. These are the same document types an estate attorney drafts, paid once at about a tenth of the attorney fee. If you want the plan stored and delivered to your family later, LVED does that.
What Quicken WillMaker & Trust Is, and Who Makes It
Quicken WillMaker & Trust is made by Nolo, a legal publisher that has produced do-it-yourself legal products for more than fifty years. That history matters. The documents are drafted and kept current by Nolo’s licensed attorneys to meet the requirements of your state, and WillMaker has been the best-selling estate planning software in the United States for decades. When you create a will or a trust inside the program, you are completing attorney-written templates through a guided interview, not typing into a blank page and hoping it is valid.
What You Actually Get
A single purchase covers far more than a will. Quicken WillMaker & Trust builds a full estate plan: a last will and testament, a living trust (individual, or shared for couples), a healthcare directive and living will, a financial power of attorney, transfer-on-death deeds in the states that allow them, and final arrangement documents that record your wishes for burial or cremation. Around those core documents sit more than thirty additional forms, from promissory notes to pet care agreements, covering the smaller legal moments most families hit at some point. In total it is 35 or more documents from one program.
The reason the will and the trust work together is practical. A living trust lets your major assets pass to the people you choose without probate, the public court process that, according to the American Bar Association, commonly runs about sixteen months and consumes three to eight percent of an estate’s value before anyone inherits a thing. The will is where you name guardians for minor children, something a trust cannot do, and it catches anything you did not move into the trust. WillMaker creates both, which is why most complete plans use the two together. For families mapping out what a full plan should cover, our own published research on estate planning essentials and family protection strategies and our guide to estate planning fundamentals go deeper on how these documents work together.
Quicken WillMaker Documents Included in Each Edition
You have seen the full list: the will, the living trust, the healthcare directive, the powers of attorney, and the thirty-plus forms around them. Quicken WillMaker & Trust puts all of it in a single purchase you complete at home, on your own schedule, with state-specific instructions at every step. If your situation is straightforward, this is the fastest honest path to a real, valid estate plan.
What Quicken WillMaker & Trust Costs in 2026
Quicken WillMaker & Trust is sold in three one-time tiers. The Starter plan (Nolo’s current name for the edition older reviews call Basic) is $109 and covers the core documents, the will, healthcare directives, financial power of attorney, and final arrangements, along with Nolo’s legal manual. The Plus plan is $149 and adds the living trust, transfer-on-death deeds and the full library of additional forms. The All Access plan is $219 and includes everything in Plus plus an extended form library and premium guides. Starter runs online only; Plus and All Access add the downloadable desktop software. Every tier comes with one year of free document revisions, legal updates, and customer support.
After the first year, keeping your documents revisable costs $39.99 per year, though any document you have already created and signed stays valid whether or not you renew. Set against an attorney’s $1,000 to $5,000 for comparable documents, the savings are the entire appeal, and for a straightforward estate they are real. If you are still deciding which documents you need in the first place, our will vs trust decision tool gives you a clear answer in about two minutes.
| Plan | Price | What’s Included |
|---|---|---|
| Starter (formerly Basic) | $109 one-time | Will, healthcare directive, financial power of attorney, final arrangements, and Nolo’s legal manual; online access only |
| Plus | $149 one-time | Everything in Starter, plus the living trust, transfer-on-death deeds, the full library of additional forms, and the desktop download |
| All Access | $219 one-time | Everything in Plus, plus extended forms and premium guides |
| After year one | $39.99 / year | Keeps document revisions and legal updates active; documents you have already signed stay valid either way |
Edition names and prices verified at Nolo on September 24, 2026. Nolo now calls the $109 edition Starter; older listings and reviews call it Basic.
Quicken WillMaker Cost vs Estate Attorney Fees
An attorney charges $1,000 to $5,000 to draft what Quicken WillMaker & Trust includes for a one-time $109 to $219. For a straightforward estate, you are paying for the same kind of documents, drafted by Nolo’s attorneys, at a fraction of the price. The cost of waiting is the part that gets expensive.
How Quicken WillMaker & Trust Works
The program runs on a plain-language interview. It asks about your family, your assets, and your wishes, then assembles each document in your state’s required format. Most people finish a basic will in thirty to sixty minutes and a fuller plan that includes a trust in a few hours, and you can save and return as you gather information.
When you are done, the program gives you state-specific signing instructions, and this is the part that matters most. A document is only valid if it is executed correctly, which usually means signing in front of the right number of witnesses and, for some documents, a notary. That number changes by state, and we list the notarized will rules in every state with the statute behind each one. If you create a living trust, it only works once you actually move assets into it, a step called funding that the software explains but cannot do for you. Follow the instructions exactly, and the documents are legally binding in your state. One limitation to know up front: the software is not available in Louisiana or in U.S. territories.
Who Quicken WillMaker & Trust Is Right For
According to the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils, roughly 80 percent of American families have straightforward situations that software-generated documents handle well. Quicken WillMaker & Trust fits the large majority of families whose situation is straightforward, a typical mix of a home, accounts, and personal property, with wishes that are not complicated. If you are a married couple wanting wills, a trust, and powers of attorney, a parent who needs to name a guardian for young children, or someone who has simply been meaning to get this done for years, this is a legitimate, attorney-grade way to handle it for the price of the software. It rewards people who are comfortable reading instructions and following them carefully.
Who Should Look Elsewhere
It is not the right tool for everyone, and saying so is the point of an honest review. If your estate is large enough to face federal or state estate tax (the federal exemption sits above $13 million per person, according to the IRS), if you have a child with special needs who requires a trust that protects government benefits, if you own a business that needs a succession plan, or if you have a blended family with the kind of competing wishes that invite a will contest, you are better served by a licensed estate planning attorney. Software cannot weigh those tradeoffs, and forcing it to is where do-it-yourself plans fail. On the smaller end, if you only need a single document such as a power of attorney or a lease, attorney-crafted legal form templates can cost less than full software.
There is also a second group the software leaves behind. Quicken WillMaker & Trust is a one-time product that creates your documents and then mostly steps away. It does not keep your will, passwords, and accounts in a secure vault, it does not automatically deliver your documents and final messages to your family when something happens, and after the first year it charges to keep your documents current. If what you want is an estate plan that stays living, where your documents, financial information, and personal messages sit in an encrypted vault and release to the right people automatically, our primary estate planning pick, LVED, is built for exactly that, and Memorial Merits readers get the only public discount available with code YFY63MX8. If you want a polished, attorney-backed online experience with strong brand support, Trust & Will is worth comparing, and if a low-cost living trust is all you are after, Living Trustify competes hard on price. For a side-by-side view of every option, our estate planning and wills resource lays them out together.
| What Matters | Quicken WillMaker & Trust | LVED | Trust & Will |
|---|---|---|---|
| Will, trust, POAs, healthcare directive | Yes, all included | Yes, all included | Yes, all included |
| Pricing model | One-time, from $109 | Will Plan one-time (about $199 with code), vault renews yearly | Priced per plan, about $199 to $499+ |
| Encrypted digital vault | Not verified in any edition | Yes, 25GB encrypted | No |
| Automatic delivery to your family | No | Yes | No |
| Legacy video and photo messages | No | Yes | No |
| Ongoing document updates | $39.99 / year after year one | Unlimited, included | Varies by plan |
| Discount | None | 33% off with YFY63MX8 | EXCLUSIVE10 (public, not MM-exclusive) |
| Best for | Cheapest complete DIY documents | A living plan that stores and delivers | A polished brand-name experience |
| LegalZoom, for comparison | Basic Will $129 for one person or $229 for a couple, one-time. Pro Will $149 includes Legal Assist, which renews at $25 a month after 30 days unless you cancel. Premium $299. Prices read at LegalZoom on September 24, 2026. Read the LegalZoom estate planning review. | ||
How to Buy Quicken WillMaker & Trust
If your estate is straightforward and you want real documents done without the wait or the bill, Quicken WillMaker & Trust is the trusted, complete way to do it. The hardest part of estate planning is starting. The software handles the rest from there.
Quicken WillMaker Reviews and Complaints: Is It Worth It?
For a straightforward estate, yes. If you want attorney-quality documents without an attorney’s bill, Quicken WillMaker & Trust is one of the most trusted and complete ways to get a will, a trust, and the documents around them done in an afternoon, for a one-time price. It earns its long-standing reputation. The honest caveat is the one above: if you need a plan that keeps working and delivering after the documents are signed, or your situation is genuinely complex, put your money where it fits your need.
Either way, the worst estate plan is the one you keep meaning to make. Fewer than one in four American adults has a will at all, according to Caring.com’s 2025 wills survey, and the cost of doing nothing always lands on the people you love. Whatever tool you choose, choosing one is the part that matters.
See the WillMaker Editions and Prices Quicken WillMaker FAQ Sheet, Printable
Print this one-page FAQ or keep it on your phone for the conversation you will have with family. It covers the essentials in plain language, with a QR code that brings you back to the full review and current pricing whenever you are ready.
Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Quicken WillMaker & Trust
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