Legal Insurance
October 25, 2016 9:50 AM   Subscribe

Legal Insurance: Has anyone done a legal insurance plan like MetLaw or Hyatt Legal Plans? My work is offering one and I’m not sure if they are a good value. Details inside.

My wife and I are a same sex couple, which means if we decided to make a family one or more of us will need to adopt a child. We want to make a will, we may want to change our names eventually in a way the marriage forms couldn’t accommodate in New York. I have the following questions:

-Does anyone have personal experience with these plans?
-Are these plans a good deal?
-Are these plans normally a good deal, but because we’re a same sex couple there would be specific issues with our circumstances that meant that what would normally be a boilerplate form would in fact be more complicated for us and we would not end up getting good service from this arrangement?
-What questions should I ask of Hyatt Legal Plans or my HR people before signing up?
posted by edbles to Work & Money (10 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Yes I have used them. I opted not to get this coverage before I needed a will but have had it since having kids. You will get a real live lawyer who can do more than make just a boilerplate. You will be able to choose from several nearby lawyers so if you want to get a list of those hr might be able to do that for you. In addition to will and trust stuff you can also use the legal plan for things like consumer disputes. We found it really handy.
posted by bq at 9:55 AM on October 25, 2016


Best answer: My work offered this and I signed up specifically to get a will done for me and my husband. It was a good deal because will creation was included in the deal and paying for a year of insurance was WAY cheaper than paying for a will creation on our own. I don't have specific experience with same-sex issues, so that would be a great question to ask. The creation of the will involved a lot of naming who you would want to be in charge of certain things, and we listed non-relatives in several areas, so I don't think a basic will would be an issue. Check to see if name changes and other legal issues would be covered by the plan.
posted by LKWorking at 9:59 AM on October 25, 2016


Best answer: The key thing is to get the coverage during the year you think you'll need it. So if you're planning to buy a house or adopt a kid or whatever and they cover that kind of legal work, sign up for the coverage during that year's enrollment period. Then next year, when you don't need it, remember to cancel it.
posted by clone boulevard at 10:28 AM on October 25, 2016


Best answer: I participated in the legal plan offered by my workplace (one of the two you mentioned but I can't remember which one) for a couple years when we had planned legal expenses covered by the plans. We used it for closing on a house and getting a will. We used the same lawyer for both, and it was super easy to use. I only had to give her my SSN, there were no other forms and we never saw any kind of bill. The annual cost for me was about $170. Our lawyer did end up catching something at the house closing which was incorrect and saved us money and probably covered the premium. For our will, it was really, really nice being able to talk to someone instead of just using some pre-done form you can get online.

I say go for it as long as you have planned legal expenses that are covered by the plan and the plan isn't crazy expensive. I'd ask your HR folks for both what's covered by the plan and a list of local lawyers who do the type of legal work you need. They may just point you to the Hyatt site where you can look up lawyers based on the type of law they practice.
posted by noneuclidean at 10:44 AM on October 25, 2016


Response by poster: Okay sign up when you need it seems to be the consensus, thanks folks!
posted by edbles at 11:10 AM on October 25, 2016


The situation is whether you will be able to get one-off legal advice through the service. This insurance is either a web service or a local law firm providing who will depend on the insurance as a way to maintain a fee earning pipeline. If you have to take out a prepaid plan which expires with your role if you are terminated, it may be better to find an alternative insurance or lower priced legal products offering similar prices.
posted by parmanparman at 11:49 AM on October 25, 2016


You have an out-of-the-ordinary situation and are likely to be poorly served by just a random attorney assigned by the "legal insurance" company. Those plans are not magically able to get good legal work for low prices. They get low-priced legal work for low prices (the business model for them is to make money off you paying them a monthly fee, even though you probably don't need legal work every month).

IAAL, IANYL. I have hired lawyers myself for various things (because a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client). I would not even think about signing up for a legal insurance plan.
posted by spacewrench at 12:11 PM on October 25, 2016


Best answer: I am also in a same-sex marriage and we used the legal plan for the following:
- wills (they started with a boilerplate then customized for us; definitely well beyond doing it ourselves)
- minor legal matter
- closing on our first home

It was absolutely worth it and paid for itself many times over. I now work at a company that doesn't offer one, and I've been lobbying them to add it. No reason not to.

I will say that the quality of lawyer you get access to is not the very highest, but for mainly routine stuff like wills and real estate closings, it's totally fine. Most of the time the legal plan doesn't cover anything too complicated anyway, like divorce with children or criminal representation etc.
posted by widdershins at 12:24 PM on October 25, 2016


I have ARAG through work. With the exception of court costs, it's covering every penny of my ongoing same-sex divorce (10 months and counting).

Best $10/month EVER.
posted by mudpuppie at 12:32 PM on October 25, 2016


As a warning to everyone reading this, while employer-provided legal insurance is usually pretty good (but still read the fine print), private market legal insurance or prepaid legal plans are often HORRIBLE. Be very cautious and due your diligence.
posted by MattD at 7:19 PM on October 26, 2016


« Older How do I flowchart multiple decision factors?   |   Need help to grind my salt Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.