On legal documents, most everyone uses some kind of form. For example, the trust I used for myself took well over 80 man hours of work to develop. I couldn't charge clients for 80 hours of work every time they want a trust - nobody would pay it, including me. So the only way to make that a viable business is to make it into a reusable form and charge a much lower flat fee until I have eventually recouped my labor costs + profit (plus updating it as new cases and laws come out). To the extent I have to do more labor on it every time it is used (adding clauses someone else wants that I didn't, extending the trust to more beneficiaries, etc.), I have to charge someone for that extra work if I don't want to give it away for free.
This is an important part of the legal market to understand in NFA trusts; because there are basically three ways to make money:
1) You offer a simple 1-2 page form for a very low price and sell it to a lot of people. Because you are trying to keep your labor costs low and you can't afford to modify the form for every single customer, you are making it as generic as possible to fit as many potential customers as possible without any changes (think DPMS Sporter AR15). Your only big concerns are that A) it is valid when filled out properly and B) you have zero exposure to legal malpractice claims. Most states impose certain ethical responsibilities on lawyers that make it very difficult for ethical lawyers to get involved in this end of the business. Usually, you can't honor those obligations and compete with places like LegalZoom, Quicken, etc. that just give you a blank form and let the client be their own lawyer.
2) Instead of trying to make a little money on a lot of trusts, you go the other way and offer a high-end custom product (think a custom-built AR15 by MSTN, Novseke or Knights SR15) tailored to a specific client's needs. You are still probably going to use a form document as a base; but it will be modified to suit the customer. You'll also sit down with the client and spend some time understanding his needs, making suggestions, and guiding him through the NFA process and how to stay within the law. This requires a lot more time investment by the attorney but the product you get is designed for you.
3) You offer a slightly more detailed gun trust than 1) that is basically the same identical form document you sell to everyone (but meets the minimum standards in your state regarding ethical considerations) at a midrange price and then offer modifications to that document or additional assistance as an upsell. (This could be anything from some of the "production custom" S&W M&P15s VTAC line to Palmetto State's Premier AR15s). This is the most popular approach but you see everything from blank form trusts that have had the word "gun" added being sold for $200 (which is unethical in my view) to well-done trusts that deal with NFA specific problems while still being broad enough to accomodate most people's needs going for $150. The trouble is, most consumers just don't know enough to understand whether they are getting a good deal on these midrange offerings.
Like rifles, there isn't any one approach that is right for everyone; but you don't want to pay Knights SR15 prices for a DPMS Sporter.
barnbwt said:
-It has actually survived documented probate or legal scrutiny (probate/inheritance are really the more pressing concern, but good luck finding proof your guys' silver words have stood up in court)
Since one of the longstanding uses of a trust is to avoid probate, I doubt you'd want a trust that has been dragged into probate. The whole point in hiring a lawyer is to create a document that survives legal scrutiny. It's like doing your own plumbing - if you hire a bonded plumber and you end up with 3" of water on the floor during work, you know who to blame and who will pay to fix it. If you do it yourself, you know who to blame and who will pay to fix it too
but the outcome is a bit different.
