Features

• Choose from 40,000 legal documents; protect family and assets
• Create a legal will, living trust, financial power of attorney, and more
• Comprehensive and easy to use with step-by-step interviews
• Automatically reflects specific state laws; cuts legal fees
• Comprehensive onscreen legal manual; expert tech support available

Features

• Step-by-step guidance for filing State tax returns
• Automatically transfers info from 2004 TaxCut federal return
• Access state instructions directly; entry manager for staying organized
• Refund/owe meter monitors amount-due changes
• Option of filing electronically or printing ready-to-file state forms

Features

• H&R Block Premium Tax Tips – Better tips to save you money with more than 25 new topics including Charitable Deductions, Rentals, Dividends, Interest, Capital Gains, and more.
• Home Ownership Tools and Advice – Extra guidance for homeowners with tools for Home Basis, Mortgage Refinancing, and more.
• Investment Tools and Advice – Tax-saving tips and tools for managing your investments, stock gains/losses, deductions, and more.
• Premium Retirement Tools and Advice – Make the most of your retirement savings with our collection of retirement resources and tools.
• Kiplinger Tax and Financial Planning Library – Manage life's biggest financial opportunities with advice from the experts at Kiplinger's.

Features

• Step-by-step guidance for filing Federal tax returns
• Take advantage of the newest tax breaks and save money
• Kiplinger's tax and financial planning library; up-to-date IRS publications
• Retirement savings enhancer; helpful tax-law assistants
• Error Check automatically reviews for common errors

Product Description

Microsoft Money 2005 Premium is the automated personal finance solution, providing consumers with a quick and easy way to view, improve and optimize their finances. Completely rebuilt for simplicity, Money makes handling finances easy with speedy setup, automated tools that reduce the need for manual entry, and adaptable Essential and Advanced features that enable a more personal experience. Following is an overview of the software's new and enhanced features. Money has been redesigned to bring more people into the personal finance category. Everyone’s financial wants are different. For the user who doesn’t want to spend time on their finances but just focus on the essentials, they can easily access their account balances online, have their transactions automatically categorized and instantly see where their money is going. They have ALL their financial information in one place, with minimal to no typing. For those people who like to pore over the details, Money gives you more with its advanced views. Money 2005 –one product, different user perspectives. ... Read more

Features

• Save calculations for later review; print calculations for your own or your client's files.
• Carry a single computer for all your needs without losing your calculator's functionality.
• Calculate the way you prefer: RPN, order and chain input modes; quick access to routine functions.
• Templates appear like mini-spreadsheets, making it easy to verify your information, show clients, and work with colleagues.
• Add on or create your own templates to match the way you work.

Reviews (1)

Solid and User Friendly, Great for Straightforward Situation
BOTTOM LINE: Quicken Lawyer Wills ('QLW') is a great, low-cost alternative to hiring a lawyer to prepare your will, which will run you a minimum of several hundred dollars. It takes just minutes to prepare a will, but its legal manual/support resources are extensive enough for those that want to spend much more time understanding the what/why behind their document.

QLW is published by Nolo Press, a well established publisher of self-help legal books. When creating a will, the software creates all of the legal language for you - you do not write a single word of legalese - and docs are tailored to each state's requirements. To get information from you and have you make decisions about the content/structure of your documents, QLW follows the typical "interview" format - easy to use and informative along the way. My wife and I each created wills in literally 20 minutes (but you probably have to put a bit of forethought into it, especially if you are married).

PROS:
- Ease of use: idiot-proof interview format
- Legal help: good offline manual, good resources at Nolo website
- Clear execution information: tells you exactly how to execute the will
- Address book: enter a person's info (i.e. you spouse) and don't need to enter again in other parts of same doc
- Ease of use for married people: prepare one spouse's will and QLW has a function to flip the names to create the other spouse's will without starting from scratch

COMPETITORS: Kiplinger and Broderbund also publish estate planning software but I've had a chance to look at them (pre-installed on my computer when I bought it) and I'd stick with Quicken.

GET A LAWYER IF: While QLW functions well as an advisor, guiding you through the specific provisions within a will, it has its limits and is candid enough to admit it during the interviews/tutorials. Get a lawyer for situations like: you expect to owe federal estate taxes ($1.5 million limit in 2003 and going up rapidly), you own a small business or you expect to have a messy family situation upon death (i.e. an ex-spouse or children that don't get along) or live in a community property state.

THINK ABOUT QUICKEN LAWYER PERSONAL: If you have the sense to prepare a will and are in a life situation to start preparing a will, you probably could stand to have a few other basic estate planning documents like a living will/healthcare directive and a power of attorney (especially if you're married). So for a few bucks more, I might check out Quicken Lawyer Personal instead which will do all of this plus prepare a will for you (see my review of Quicken Lawyer Personal for more info). ... Read more

Product Description

Microsoft® Money 2005 Standard There's so much more to life than managing finances. Microsoft Money 2005 Standard makes it simple to see where your money is going by automatically consolidating all your transactions in one convenient place. It's like an always-current snapshot of your spending and budget. Money has answers to all your financial questions, so you can get on with your life. Money has been redesigned to bring more people into the personal finance category. Everyone’s financial wants are different. For the user who doesn’t want to spend time on their finances but just focus on the essentials, they can easily access their account balances online, have their transactions automatically categorized and instantly see where their money is going. They have ALL their financial information in one place, with minimal to no typing. For those people who like to pore over the details, Money gives you more with its advanced views. Money 2005 –one product, different user perspectives. ... Read more

Features

• Add on or create your own templates to match the way you work.
• Carry a single computer for all your needs without losing your calculator's functionality.
• Calculate the way you prefer: RPN, order and chain input modes; quick access to routine functions.
• Templates appear like mini-spreadsheets, making it easy to verify your information, show clients, and work with colleagues.
• Save calculations for later review; print calculations for your own or your client's files.

Product Description

Microsoft® Money 2005 Deluxe Microsoft Money 2005 Deluxe includes everything in Money Standard; plus, it gives you all the help you need to improve credit and reduce debt, organize taxes, and automatically consolidate all of your transactions in one intuitive place. With online connections to more than 5,000 financial institutions, Money 2005 Deluxe makes balancing personal finances effortless. And with Money’s customizable Home Page, you can easily see the finances that matter most to you—from current account balances to where you're spending your money to your cash-flow forecast. Money has been redesigned to bring more people into the personal finance category. Everyone’s financial wants are different. For the user who doesn’t want to spend time on their finances but just focus on the essentials, they can easily access their account balances online, have their transactions automatically categorized and instantly see where their money is going. They have ALL their financial information in one place, with minimal to no typing. For those people who like to pore over the details, Money gives you more with its advanced views. Money 2005 –one product, different user perspectives. ... Read more

Features

• Set up a full budget, or compare actual spending to financial plan
• Personal finance solution with award-winning Portfolio Manager
• Automatically consolidates online bank and credit card information
• Essential tools for improving credit and organizing taxes
• Provides current account balances and transactions in one place

Features

• Integrated, editable notes means you don't need to carry a manual.
• Calculate the way you prefer: RPN, order and chain input modes; quick access to routine functions.
• Included templates designed for business, finance and statistics.
• Synchronize templates to keep your data up-to-date on your handheld computer.
• Save calculations for later review; print calculations for your own or your client's files.

Reviews (1)

This software is great!
This software is great! You no longer have to get bills in the mail! Receive, review, pay and organize all your bills online! I highly recommend this software. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Extremely Useful with or without Existing Online Banking
Paytrust.com is one of the most useful online services in existence. While most Internet savvy users will have online bill payment capabilities through their banking institution, Paytrust allows for RECEIPT of detailed bills at a designated mailbox in Sioux Falls, SD (sorry, there is only one location at this time). These bills are either scanned in or, if the merchant has electronic billing, sent electronically to Paytrust. They are then viewed by the user on the web site. With the separate and distinct mailing address, the service provides address privacy.

If you argue that your credit card or cell phone provider has electronic billing, Paytrust also eliminates marketing materials from these entities because they will STILL send solicitations and sell your information even after you request omission from their marketing list or use their electronic billing. Not only can you view incoming bills, which banks (as far as I am aware) do not offer, but Paytrust also helps eliminate junk mail. In other words, any junk mail that Paytrust receives in your mail box will be destroyed. "Important" documents such as convenience checks and cards are mailed to an alternate postal address.

The functionality and usability of Patrust are great. The web site is very easy to use and offers both a basic layout for dial-up users and a richer interface for broadband users. After receiving a bill, the users is sent an email notification telling you the payment amount and balance if applicable. You can chose to pay the bill via Paytrust or use means of your choice.

If you travel or move frequently or just hate junk mail, Paytrust can't be beat. Basically, it gives you address privacy with high level of convenience. Say good bye to the direct marketing association.

An absolute MUST for gypsies
I disagree with the post from October 2002. I own MS Money (a fine product), but Paytrust is a completely different animal. And the differences are striking. Paytrust is completely portable. No matter what machine you use, you will ALWAYS have access to your current bills. They're ONLINE. Sure, many vendors will allow you to pay their bills at their websites, but if you have 20 bills, that's twenty websites. Quicken has a bill service, but they ONLY work with companies that are online. What about the bills that aren't? Well Paytrust doesn't care. It can take bills from your gas company, or your loan shark.

Maybe you decide to go in with someone half way on some purchase. It doesn't matter where you are; just find a computer, log on, plug in their information and mail them a check.

And another cool thing that your vendors online won't do for you, is consolidate all of your payments onto one CD and mail it to you (nominal fee). All of your bills, scanned and stored onto one CD for retrieval whenever you want.

I've been a paytrust customer for a few years now and I'll never look back. It's cheap compared to the convenience it brings me.

Oh and did I forget to mention that you can download your Paytrust information into Quicken or MSMoney? All the tools you need to manage your personal finances at home and on the road.

Excellent product
Paytrust makes my life much easier. It is great if you travel a lot and are not home to get your bills. All of my bills get sent directly to the Paytrust billcenter. They scan them, send me an email notification, and then I just logon to the site and tell them when and how much to pay. It's worth it to me not to have a ton of bills laying around on the kitchen table. I never have to buy stamps. I also never balance my checkbook. Using the smart balance feature Paytrust can check my current bank balance and tell me what bills I have pending etc. I have used Paytrust for over a year with no problems. Get it now and simplify your life.

You are paying for what you can do for free??
Why do you need software to pay bills? Most major banks, and 3rd parties, like MSN and Yahoo offer web-based bill pay services. I did buy this when it first came out, and quickly dumped it due to finding out later I could do more by hooking MS Money directly to a bill pay service. ... Read more

Features

• Used by agents, mortgage brokers, loan consultants, appraisers and real estate students.
• Carry a single computer for all your needs without losing your calculator's functionality.
• Calculate the way you prefer: RPN, order and chain input modes; quick access to routine functions.
• Templates appear like mini-spreadsheets, making it easy to verify your information, show clients, and work with colleagues.
• Included templates designed for loans, closing costs, qualification, commissions and general business.

Features

• Integrated, editable notes means you don't need to carry a manual.
• Carry a single computer for all your needs without losing your calculator's functionality.
• Calculate the way you prefer: RPN, order and chain input modes; quick access to routine functions.
• Templates appear like mini-spreadsheets, making it easy to verify your information, show clients, and work with colleagues.
• Save calculations for later review; print calculations for your own or your client's files.