Do it nice or do it twice. Unfortunately, some people do not discover the problem until it is too late. That is why it is important to get your estate plan right before you either lose capacity or are no longer here to amend your plan. And AI is not how you do it right.
People have been trying to avoid the use of an attorney in writing their estate plans with varying methods throughout the years: the holographic (handwritten) wills, late-night TV advertisements, online forms, now AI.
I get it, legal fees can be expensive. But without understanding what you are signing, you are opening your estate up to interpretation and likely future litigation, which will assuredly be more costly in the future. The point is that estate planning is not just document generation. It requires legal judgment, state-specific knowledge, and careful attention to family, property, tax, and incapacity issues that AI often misses.
AI has been known for missing state-specific laws or even hallucinating law. By hallucinating or misstating law, the portions with such information would be invalidated anyway.
Additionally, AI is not able to identify life’s complexities as required to draft an efficient estate plan. It is worth having a trusted advisor to guide you through the logical designations and considerations such as tax implications, property designations, titling assets, funding, and incapacity planning. It is important to choose someone who understands the intent of creating an estate plan. This helps to protect yourself as much as to guide and protect loved ones thereafter.
Furthermore, testamentary and incapacity documents have strict rules for signing and validating these documents. Without an attorney there to guide you through the process, even if you have something that may appear to do the job, it may not be valid due to lack of compliance. Formalities matter because estate planning documents often are not tested until the signer can no longer explain what they intended. If witnesses, notarization, capacity, or execution requirements are mishandled, the people left behind may be forced to litigate over a document that was meant to prevent conflict.
Leave your loved ones with a gift: a well-drafted estate plan. This will help to protect yourself, limit ambiguity, and reduce the need for future litigation. It is best to meet with a person who understands the complexities of the law and emotions tied to family and property. So, cut out your AI therapist and AI attorney, and opt for a warm-bodied, real-life attorney who can help you through life and death’s complexities.
