AI in Modern Estate Planning: Practical Tools Attorneys Can Use Today

By Ari Bulmash, Director of Estate Planning & Administration at LEAP

Why AI Belongs in Your Estate Planning Practice

Estate planning has come a long way. What was once a painstaking process of six-inch binders filled with forms and clauses, manual drafting, cut-and-paste text, and physical file storage has evolved into a sophisticated, digital-first workflow. Today’s attorneys are equipped with powerful legal software including advanced drafting tools, and now artificial intelligence (AI) is taking estate planning practices to a whole new level.

AI isn’t a passing trend. It’s a practical, proven tool that helps estate planning attorneys work more efficiently, deliver superior service, and reduce the risk of error. From summarizing long documents to helping automate routine communications, AI is already changing the way firms operate—and it’s delivering real business results.

Still, the hesitation to embrace AI is understandable. Attorneys may worry that relying on AI could lead to errors, a loss of control over the legal process, or even ethics violations. The good news? AI doesn’t replace your expertise—it enhances it. When used correctly, it becomes a reliable assistant that helps you deliver faster, more consistent, and more personalized client service.

That said, it’s crucial to uphold your ethical obligations by selecting AI tools that protect client confidentiality. Additionally, all AI-generated outputs must be carefully reviewed and approved by a qualified attorney before they’re shared, filed, or finalized because much like the work completed by humans, AI can make mistakes.

Let's dive into some real examples of how AI can benefit your firm today.

8 Practical AI Use Cases for Estate Planning Lawyers

1. Creating Summaries of Long Documents

Upload a complex will or trust, and AI can generate a plain-language summary, making it easier for attorneys to review and for clients to understand.

You’ve just drafted an estate plan for a couple, meeting their wishes and protecting their legacy, but they want a simple, plain-language summary for inclusion in the package. The process for you or your paralegal to review the documents and prepare that summary is time consuming and tedious. AI can generate that straightforward summary in seconds, even in diagram format—making it a simple matter of reviewing and utilizing.

Why it matters: AI can help speed up document review and improve communication with clients.

2. Reviewing Documents for Missing Information

Prior to the execution meeting, you want to ensure everything is perfect. AI can scan complex documents for missing clauses, outdated language, incomplete designations, or inconsistencies.

Why it matters: AI can help enhance document quality and reduce the risk of errors.

3. Improving Marketing and Lead Generation

The time it takes to generate topics for your blog or social media posts is daunting—nevermind the time it takes to actually draft, review, and perfect the post. AI tools can analyze your website traffic, suggest trending blog topics, help generate content, and even schedule posts across social media.

Why it matters: AI can help grow your practice without increasing your budget or spending your weekend drafting that month’s blog posts.

4. Intelligent Client Intake

Consider the time your office manager, receptionist, or you take to chat with potential clients. Using your firm’s style and preferences, AI-powered online forms and chatbots can collect initial client information, recommend services or documents based on their answers, and help qualify leads. Intake questionnaires can sync directly with your practice management system to eliminate duplicate data entry.

Why it matters: AI can save attorney and staff time while giving potential clients immediate value from their first interaction.

5. Email and Letter Drafting

How many boilerplate emails or letters do you send each day? How often do you dread writing an explanation of a topic you know well, but just do not have the time to draft from scratch? AI can help generate client follow-ups, appointment confirmations, document requests, plan summaries, and more—in seconds. AI can also effectively draft directive letters outlining responsibilities for executors or trustees.

Why it matters: AI can help your firm maintain professionalism while freeing up attorney and staff time. And you spend more time practicing law—not drafting cover letters.

6. Data Extraction and Summarization

A client drops off a stack of financial statements, appraisals, tax returns, and deeds. And now you face hours of reading through and creating the spreadsheet. AI can extract key information and organize it into a summary or spreadsheet—saving hours of manual review.

Why it matters: AI can speed up analysis and support faster, better-informed planning decisions.

7. Voice-to-Document Transcription

Instead of typing out dictations or consultations, let AI convert recorded audio into clean, formatted drafts. Whether it’s client meetings or dictated letters, AI can handle transcription while you focus on research or client interaction. (AI can also read handwritten notes!)

Why it matters: AI can reduce manual note-taking, allow you to focus on meaningful conversations with your clients, accelerate drafting speed, and free you and your staff for more client-facing tasks.

8. AI-Assisted Training and Knowledge Transfer

New paralegal starting? Intern in the office? Let’s face it—bringing on a new staff member is a time-consuming process. While you’re in meetings or busy growing your firm, leverage AI tools to help provide onboarding materials, explain standard procedures, and answer basic process questions—on demand.

Why it matters: AI can reduce the burden on you and your senior staff and help junior team members get up to speed faster.

What AI Can’t (and Shouldn’t) Replace

AI is a powerful tool, but it’s not a substitute for legal judgment, ethical responsibility, and most importantly, client relationships. Everything that your firm creates which relates to your clients’ matters requires attorney review to ensure compliance with ethical standards and to provide thoughtful, personalized counsel to every client. AI-generated content is no different.

Transparency is also important. In some cases, disclosing the use of AI in document preparation may even be required, similar to billing for time attributed to staff in your firm. Ultimately, AI is most effective when it supports—not replaces—the attorney and their team.

Take the First Step Toward Smarter Estate Planning

You don’t need to overhaul your workflow to benefit from AI. Start small with a task like document summarization or drafting an email to a client. From there, you’ll begin to see how small changes can make a big impact on productivity and client satisfaction.

LEAP’s estate planning tools already incorporate powerful AI features to help law firms work faster and more accurately. Want to see how it works?

Book a demo today to explore what AI-enhanced legal software can do for your practice.

About the Writer

Ari Bulmash is the Director of Estate Planning & Administration for LEAP US. Ari spent the early part of his career working as the fiduciary of a large estate in California, where he developed a passion for creative planning techniques and efficient practice management. This led him to eventually become an attorney where he began in litigation and eventually found his way back to estate planning and administration. Using and programming computers since he was 5 years old, he has a passion for technology and employing it to help lawyers build an efficient and profitable practice. Ari oversees a team solely focused on serving the estate planning and administration legal community.