If all you are concerned about if getting an NFA item into your hands and could care less what happens to that item after you die, then using Quicken or a form trust still leaves at least these issues to be concerned about:
1. Quicken never updates its language. If one of its forms is later proved invalid in a court battle, you won't even know it happened, let alone know what language needs to be changed in the trust.
2. The Quicken form trust includes an incapacity provision. This allows the person named here to take control of all of your NFA stuff in the event you become incapacitated. You are going to want to pay special attention to how difficult or easy it is for you to be declared incapacitated under form trust terms.
3. Quicken often gives generic advice that negates some of the benefits of a trust. For example, Quicken will tell you to register a trust at the county courthouse. In Texas, this isn't necessary and makes your NFA items (and trust) a matter of public record - which negates one of the advantages trusts have over LLCs.
Quicken can be an appropriate way to set up an NFA trust assuming that you don't plan to place very many valuable items in the trust (suppressors or maybe SBRs), can keep the number of people involved with the trust to an absolute minimum, trust the people around you not to screw each other and you over, and have very basic legal needs.
If you are actually concerned about who gets what after you die, then a form trust is far from ideal but will probably work assuming your relatives are all honest and have good relations with each other that they value more than your stuff.
If you are thinking about putting any type of machinegun in a Quicken trust, that is just a bad idea. Even a cheapo Cobray costs $5,000. Spending $600 is cheap insurance to make sure you don't lose an investment that is only going to increase in value as long as the 922(o) is around.
demigod said:
Nonsense. No different than anyone who drafts it themselves. If it were practicing law, then Legalzoom.com would not exsist.
That is absolutely practicing law in Texas. I can't speak for other states; but I'm pretty sure it is practicing law without a license in the majority of them. The reason Legalzoom.com and legal forms exist is because while it is illegal for OTHER people to practice law without a license, it is quite legal for you to play at being your own lawyer - just like you can be your own plumber, barber, bartender, doctor, etc. without having to go out and get any of those respective licenses.
This is also why software like Quicken, LegalZoom, and legal form books all come with the prominent "Consult a lawyer in your state" warning on them - to avoid problems with being charged with unlicensed practice.
Frankly, I don't have any big problem with unlicensed people practicing law. It is a lot cheaper to do it right the first time than it is to go back and correct the mistakes after people are fighting over them. There is a lot more money to be made in the latter for lawyer - and self-help legal forms are a never-ending bounty of that kind of work.