Yes, Total Legal is legit. TotalLegal.com is operated by Pro Se Planning, Inc., a company with an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau,1Better Business Bureau. Pro Se Planning Inc BBB Business Profile and it has been selling self-help legal documents online for years. The real question is whether “legitimate” means “right for you.” Total Legal generates documents from your answers to an online questionnaire, but it does not review those answers, does not give legal advice, and does not guarantee the finished document will work for your situation.2TotalLegal. Terms of Use For simple needs, that is fine. For anything complicated, it’s a problem.
Who Runs the Site and What It Actually Does
Total Legal is a product of Pro Se Planning, Inc., which also operates DivorceWriter.com.3TotalLegal. About Us The business model is straightforward: you answer questions online, the platform assembles a document from your responses, and you either download the finished file or receive a printed copy by mail. The company’s mailing address is in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and support runs primarily through email at info@TotalLegal.com.4TotalLegal. Contacting TotalLegal
That’s the “legit” part. The company exists, it’s accredited, it delivers what it sells, and it has a visible track record. The A+ BBB rating reflects responsiveness to complaints rather than customer satisfaction, but it does mean the business is real and reachable when things go wrong.
What Total Legal Explicitly Does Not Do
Read the terms of use before you buy anything. Total Legal states plainly that it is not acting as your attorney, that its employees cannot provide legal advice, and that using the site does not create an attorney-client relationship. The platform does not verify whether your answers are legally sufficient or whether the resulting document complies with the laws in your state. The company’s own terms acknowledge it cannot guarantee that all information on the site is current.2TotalLegal. Terms of Use
In practical terms: the software builds a document from your answers, and one wrong answer changes the entire result. No attorney reviews the output to catch inconsistencies, outdated references, or state-specific defects. If you misunderstand a question about how property should pass, the document will faithfully reflect your mistake.
What It Costs
Total Legal sits at the budget end of the online legal document market. As of 2026, individual document prices include:5TotalLegal. Prices
- Last Will and Testament: $39
- Power of Attorney: $29
- Living Will: $19
- Medical Power of Attorney: $29
- Bill of Sale: $19
- Name Change: $39
- Quitclaim Deed: $39
- Warranty Deed: $39
- Rental or Lease Agreement: $29
- Promissory Note: $19
Business formation runs on two tiers. A self-file option for LLCs and corporations is free, where you prepare the documents yourself and handle the state filing. Full-service formation costs $99 for either entity type, with state filing fees collected separately at checkout. Those state fees typically run from $50 to $520 depending on jurisdiction. Add-ons include an S-Corporation election upgrade for $49, an EIN for $69, and registered agent services at $99 per year.5TotalLegal. Prices
There’s also a subscription called the TotalLegal Plan at $9.95 per month or $89 per year.6TotalLegal. TotalLegal Plan Members can create documents at no extra charge and get a Document Storage Vault with no size limits. The math works if you need several documents at once; a will, power of attorney, and living will purchased individually total $87, roughly the same as a year of the plan. For a single document, pay the one-time fee.
Keep in mind that Total Legal’s price is only the document generation fee. Notarization, state filing fees for business entities, county recording fees for deeds, and court filing fees for name change petitions are all extra and can easily exceed the document’s purchase price.
Read the Subscription Terms Before You Sign Up
This is where even a legitimate company can cost you money. The TotalLegal Plan agreement states that fees are based on services purchased rather than actual usage, that payment obligations are non-cancelable, and that all fees paid are non-refundable.7TotalLegal. TotalLegal Plan Agreement You owe the subscription fee whether or not you use the service.
That is stricter than the general refund language on the company’s about page, which says dissatisfied customers can get a full refund with business services excluded.3TotalLegal. About Us The subscription agreement is the controlling document for Plan members.
Canceling requires signing into your account and selecting the cancellation option at least one day before the next billing date. No partial-month refunds or credits are issued for unused time.7TotalLegal. TotalLegal Plan Agreement Set a calendar reminder before renewal if you’re testing the service.
What Customers Actually Report
Reviews on third-party platforms tend to highlight ease of use, speed, and low cost. Users consistently describe the questionnaire as simple and fast, with many completing documents in under an hour.
The complaints are more revealing than the praise, because they point to limits you might not expect. Some users found they couldn’t save their progress and had to finish in one sitting. Others ran into form constraints, like caps on the number of heirs a will could accommodate. A recurring frustration involves unclear instructions about witness and notarization requirements, which are the steps that actually make a document legally valid. A few users reported unexpected charges after interacting with paid features, which lines up with the strict subscription terms above.
Don’t Confuse It With “Total Legal Resource Group”
A separate company called Total Legal Resource Group, based in St. Louis, Missouri, shows up in some searches and causes confusion. It is not BBB accredited, carries no BBB rating, and is flagged as out of business.8Better Business Bureau. Total Legal Resource Group BBB Business Profile It has no connection to TotalLegal.com or Pro Se Planning, Inc. Reviews or complaints about “Total Legal” that mention legal clinic services or in-person representation likely refer to this defunct entity, not the document website.
When Total Legal Is the Wrong Choice
Total Legal works well for genuinely simple situations: a straightforward will leaving everything to a spouse, a basic LLC, a bill of sale for a used car, a residential lease between two cooperative parties. The moment real complexity enters the picture, the savings aren’t worth the risk.
Hire an attorney instead if any of these apply:
- Blended families, where children from a prior relationship need protection alongside a current spouse. A simple will usually can’t accomplish that; you likely need a trust.
- Significant assets or real estate in more than one state, which triggers probate in each state.
- Business ownership with partners, where your estate plan has to coordinate with your operating agreement and any buy-sell provisions.
- Any matter where another party might object, such as a name change involving minor children or a deed transfer with a potential title dispute.
- Estates large enough to face federal or state estate tax, or any situation involving gift tax planning.
Something else worth knowing: a document generator can’t flag issues it doesn’t ask about. A beneficiary designation on a retirement account that conflicts with your will, a transfer-on-death deed that would work better than a quitclaim, a bequest that combines real estate and personal property in a way that voids the gift in some states — none of that gets caught by a questionnaire.
A lawyer-drafted will typically runs $300 to $1,000 or more, which is many times what Total Legal charges. For simple documents with clear facts, the savings are real and the service delivers. For high-stakes or complicated situations, a flawed document that fails in court costs far more than the attorney would have.