Legal Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the estate planning industry. AI offers powerful tools to streamline operations, enhance client services, prepare substantive documents and legal strategy, and stay competitive in an evolving landscape.

This comprehensive guide explores how AI can revolutionize your estate planning practice, from automating document creation and conducting extensive research to predicting outcomes and managing client communications. We’ll first cover terminology, technology, and use cases for you to identify ways to incorporate AI into your practice. Then we’ll cover how to select a vendor and asses their data security practices to make sure you select the tool that’s best for your firm and your clients. Whether you're looking to boost efficiency, improve accuracy, or provide more personalized services, this article will equip you with the knowledge to leverage AI effectively in your estate planning practice.

1. Leverage AI: Automate Documents, Conduct Large Amounts of Research, and Predict Outcomes

AI is a powerful tool that can help in the substantive practice of law for estate planning attorneys. Review the use cases below to see how you may be able to incorporate AI into your own practice. 

Document Automation

In estate planning, consistency and accuracy are crucial, especially as estate planning attorneys are managing sensitive and often high-stakes information and transactions, including asset transfers, tax planning, and healthcare directives. To assist the practice, rules-based estate planning software can automate the creation of legal documents, including wills, trusts, deeds, power of attorney, and healthcare directives, ensuring predictable, consistent, and accurate deliverables every time. Rules-based software is designed to generate, review, and manage legal documents by following a predefined set of rules or templates. This software allows users to automate repetitive tasks such as drafting contracts, agreements, or forms by inputting specific data, which the system then uses to populate and format predefined templates. 

By using AI-enabled software, like Gavel's automated [probate] forms, lawyers can trust that anyone in the firm using the software is starting the drafting process with the correct template document for document preparation, and that the documents are accurate, compliant with current laws, and tailored to the specific needs of each client. Gavel also offers pre-built workflows in various legal areas to automate estate planning forms, requiring no setup, which is particularly beneficial for estate planning practices.

Document Drafting and Customization

AI can review large batches of information and use this for drafting and customizing legal documents. In addition to rules-based automation, AI can generate first drafts of documents as well. This is really helpful for estate planning attorneys, who may be drafting documents like wills, trusts, and deeds from scratch based on client-provided information. 

AI has the ability to review and synthesize large batches of information, including the firm’s existing document sets, allowing it to understand document patterns and suggest appropriate clauses based on the nature of the document or jurisdiction. This can be helpful if no existing template document exists, or if a customized clause is needed, such as a state-specific estate tax provision.

In this instance, AI not only speeds up the drafting process but also ensures that the documents are tailored to meet each client's unique needs. AI can also help compare documents so that attorneys can identify gaps or missing terms in documents.

Legal Research and Analysis

Given its exceptional ability to identify patterns and relationships, AI tools can quickly review and analyze large volumes of legal texts, case law, and statutes, identifying relevant information for estate planning lawyers. This reduces the time spent on research and ensures that no critical detail is overlooked. AI also provides the tools for attorneys to enhance their analysis, identify persuasive arguments, and add unique value to matters.

This may be especially helpful for estate planning attorneys researching estate tax provisions or probate proceedings, and preparing court filings for probate-related litigation. Instead of spending hours reviewing case studies, attorneys can rely on AI to conduct this first important step so that attorney time can instead be spent on synthesizing that information and using it to advise clients and prepare documents. 

Predictive Analytics 

AI can assist in predicting potential outcomes based on historical data. For estate planning, this might involve analyzing past cases or financial trends to inform decisions about tax implications and future financial planning. With ongoing use and a comprehensive data set, AI has the ability to continue to improve its performance and make more accurate predictions with each use.

AI can also use prior data and patterns to help attorneys assess a client’s specific situation to provide tailored legal advice. For example, AI tools can also analyze a client's financial situation, asset distribution, and potential tax liabilities to suggest optimal estate planning strategies. This helps lawyers provide more informed and personalized advice to their clients.

Compliance Monitoring

AI can help ensure that documents comply with current regulations and legal standards. It can also monitor changes in the law and update documents as needed to maintain compliance. Compliance monitoring in estate planning-related documents ensures that estate planning attorneys stay informed of the latest changes in tax law, probate rules, and fiduciary duties. Such capabilities may be found in stand-alone compliance tools or as a feature in many document review or automation software. 

Such tools minimize the risk of errors by flagging non-compliant clauses or omissions in estate planning documents and allow attorneys to focus on strategy and client interactions while AI handles the bulk of regulatory monitoring.

2. Simplifying Client Communication and Interactions 

Information intake

AI can streamline the client intake process by automating the collection and organization of client information. AI-powered chatbots, virtual assistants, and intake forms can handle routine inquiries, gather initial information from clients, and even provide basic legal advice. This allows estate planning lawyers to quickly assess a client's needs and develop a suitable plan without spending excessive time on data entry. It can also help ensure that information is transferred error-free from client to attorney. With attorney time spent on valuable legal work, both attorneys and clients are provided a better experience. 

Client communication

A large part of being an attorney requires explaining difficult concepts to clients. For estate planning attorneys, this may include explaining types of trusts, the probate process, or complex asset protection strategies. Leveraging AI to summarize difficult concepts can help attorneys share information in more digestible and accessible ways, improving attorney client communication. 

3. Reducing Administrative Burden with AI

AI isn't just beneficial for legal tasks—it can also greatly enhance the administrative and operational aspects of your estate planning practice. By allowing AI to do the heavy lifting on administrative tasks, attorneys can spend their time on high-level substantive legal work, improving the attorney work experience. They’re also able to spend more time working with and listening to client needs, improving the client experience as well. 

Practice Management

AI-powered practice management software can automate many routine administrative tasks, such as scheduling, billing, and document management. For estate planning attorneys, this can include tasks such as managing and getting notified of court deadlines, automating email follow-ups for existing or potential clients, or generating automated invoices. 

If you’re managing a firm, so much time is spent on administrative tasks. Using AI to automate some of them allows you to focus more on serving your clients and less on managing the day-to-day operations of your practice.

Lead Generation and Client Acquisition

AI can analyze your client data to identify trends and suggest marketing strategies tailored to attract new clients interested in estate planning services. This might mean identifying your ideal client profile, what their needs are, and where to meet them. With insights in hand, it can help with content creation and also automate your digital marketing efforts, track their effectiveness, and adjust strategies as needed. 

For estate planning attorneys, this may include targeting new parents who are interested in ensuring their children's guardianship and inheritance are handled properly in the event of unexpected death and drafting an ‘Estate Planning Checklist for New Parents’ or targeting small business owners, who may be interested in estate planning and drafting a case study of the downfalls of not doing so. Depending on the specific practice, AI can help you identify that client and prepare content that best suits them. 

Financial Management

AI can assist with managing your firm's finances by automatically categorizing expenses, generating financial reports, managing trust accounts, and forecasting future revenue based on current trends. This ensures that your practice remains financially stable and enables you to use relevant data to make informed decisions. 

This is especially helpful for the estate planning practice - attorneys often manage client funds through trust accounts, such as IOLTA, and proper trust accounting is essential to comply with state bar regulations and avoid commingling of funds. Also, estate planning cases may span months, so ongoing billing and financial management are imperative. 

Human Resources

AI can streamline HR tasks such as recruiting, onboarding, and performance management. For instance, AI can screen resumes, identify the most qualified candidates for your firm, and manage employee performance reviews, making HR processes more efficient. As the estate planning firm grows, making sure you have the right attorneys and staff to run and scale your practice is important. 

4. Vendor Selection: Identify Expertise and Security

One of the most important aspects of bringing on new technology is ensuring that it solves your specific problems and meets your unique needs. As a legal services provider, you also want to ensure that you’re protecting the security of your clients’ sensitive information. Here’s how to select the appropriate vendor for your needs.

Vendor Evaluation:  

Vendor Selection 

Before bringing on any new technology, it’s important to understand your firm’s specific requirements and pain points. For example, as an attorney, you may be looking for tax projections and optimizations. Map out how you’d use the tool, and consider who might be using the tool (i.e., attorney, staff, client), in what circumstance, what data you’d need to see, and other functionality questions, like if you’d need to export the results. 

Keep those at the forefront when researching and demoing potential vendors, to ensure that the technology has the requested functionality needed to meet your firm’s needs. In addition to evaluating specific functionality, review the vendor’s expertise, client list (to the extent possible), and level of customer service offered. Read case studies, request trial periods, and seek references to evaluate their performance. Review some of these lists to find the best software in your category! Remember to review both estate-planning specific (i.e., Vanilla or Atticus) and legal software broadly (i.e., Gavel or Clio) to meet your needs. 

Data Security 

As an estate planning attorney, you’re collecting and managing the sensitive and confidential information of your clients, including detailed financial information, health conditions, and personal information, such as social security numbers, email, phone numbers, etc. As such, ensuring data security of any data input into software is of utmost importance. Determine which data security regulations apply to your client base, and ensure that any AI tools you use comply with relevant data protection regulations. This may include the GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA. 

The vendor should provide strong encryption, secure data storage, and regular security audits. Also, inquire about their protocols for handling data breaches and what measures they take to prevent them. Here’s a list of security questions to ask vendors when evaluating a new tool. 

Contract Negotiations 

Negotiate contracts with clear terms regarding data ownership, confidentiality, and the vendor’s responsibilities in the event of a security breach. This will protect your practice and clients’ sensitive information and ensure you comply with relevant data security laws. 

After Purchasing: Ongoing Monitoring

Regularly review your vendors' performance and security practices. As technology evolves, so do potential security threats. Ensure that your vendors keep their security measures up to date and adhere to best practices.

Final Thoughts

AI offers estate planning lawyers a range of tools to enhance their practice, from automating document creation to improving client interaction and managing the business side of their operations. The large-scale analysis, pattern identification, and predictive analytics capabilities of AI allow firms to leverage their data to create even more tailored and precise documents, analyze, risk, and automate routine tasks. By leveraging AI for tasks such as document drafting, client intake, and compliance monitoring, attorneys can increase efficiency and provide higher-quality services to their clients. On the administrative side, AI can help streamline operations, manage finances, and even assist with marketing and HR. All of these benefits can help ensure attorney time is spent on high-level substantive work, improving both attorney and client satisfaction. 

It’s crucial to select the right vendors and prioritize data security to protect your clients' sensitive information. This means, really understanding your firm’s specific needs, use cases, and capabilities to best evaluate vendors. Asking the right security and risk questions will ensure you and your clients’ confidential information is well protected. 

By carefully integrating AI into your estate planning practice, you can stay competitive and offer more value to your clients.