National Drive-Thru Day: Why There is No "Value Menu" for a Good Will

By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi
National Drive-Thru Day: Why There is No "Value Menu" for a Good Will
By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi
July 24, 2026


Today is July 24th, which means it is officially National Drive-Thru Day. It is a celebration of the ultimate American innovation of convenience. We’ve all relied on them. You pull up to a speaker, read off a standardized menu, hand over a few dollars, and a minute later, a paper bag is handed through your car window. It is cheap, it is fast, and it satisfies an immediate need.  Parenting two teenagers who run cross country as well as track means we have our fair share of trips through the Culver's drive-thru.  It's fast and relatively affordable.  But it's not exactly a quality meal for two athletes. 

We are living in the digital age.  Are you bombarded with social media ads for online will kits or do you receive email offers from a nonprofit you donate to that wants to give you a "free will"? In the internet era, it is incredibly tempting to treat your legal life the exact same way as feeding starving kids after a running event.  You want something fast and affordable.  With a quick search, you can find dozens of websites offering "Drive-Thru Legal Documents." They promise that for a small fee and ten minutes of clicking boxes, you can download a standardized Will or Power of Attorney template, print it out, and check "estate planning" off your to-do list.

Cheap and fast might be nice when it comes to a late-night craving following a sporting event. But when it comes to protecting your life savings and your family's future, quality isn’t just key—it’s everything. The problem with a generic online legal form is that it is built for the "average" person living in an "average" state. But laws are not standardized nationwide. They are state specific.  Wording, powers, and duties vary between borders.  Moreover, your family is not a carbon copy of anyone else's.  When you buy into a drive-thru estate plan, you are taking on some massive, unseen risks:
  • Do you live in a marital / communal property state? There are nine of them in the Nation, and I live in one, Wisconsin. Generic, fill-in-the-blank legal wills generated by a tech company may likely lack critical language addressing marital property; 
  • Execution is key to creating a legally binding document. How many witnesses does your state require?  Does the will need to be notarized? If not signed properly, you run the risk of a judge tossing out your will and the entire estate being controlled by state statutes (known as the intestacy statutes) which may be in conflict with your wishes; 
  • Quick and simple estate plans will not educated you about the process of probate.  When I work with clients I spend a substantial amount of time correcting their myths and misconceptions about estate planning and probate.  The most common one is that a will avoids probate.  Wrong.  A will does not avoid probate, it facilitates probate by telling the court who you want to handle your final affairs and distributing a sub-set of your property, specifically "probate" property (assets that do not have a co-owner or beneficiary form).
Your family, your assets, and your legacy are entirely unique. They deserve a custom-built strategy designed by a professional who knows you, knows your goals, and knows Wisconsin law. This National Drive-Thru Day, leave the fast-and-cheap approach to your dinner plans—and give your estate plan the quality care it deserves.  For those with limited means, seek out community legal clinics who can create a custom plan with a side of education.  There are options out there!  



Remember, a blog is not legal advice. It is meant to spark thought and reflection. It is best to speak with an attorney in your home state for advice specific to your situation. Thanks for reading, and be well. Help power most posts with the Buy Me a Coffee icon!

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