Why You Shouldn't Use AI to Create Your Estate Plan
Digital technology is ubiquitous in nearly every corner of the world, and companies of all sizes are exploring innovative solutions for time-consuming and cost-intensive processes. Unfortunately, this pursuit has resulted in the creation of the online legal services market — a cottage industry giving everyday people the impression that they don’t need a lawyer to prepare important legal documents.
Cue the rise of AI legal document generators. Advertised as free or low-cost alternatives to lawyers, these companies promise to streamline the legal process in ways that can grossly misjudge the intricacies written into the rule of law.
Poorly drafted contracts generated by platforms like LegalZoom, Rocket Lawyer, and FP Alpha can result in legal disputes. These AI contracts can be rife with flaws, from ambiguous phrases to contradictory terms. In the realm of estate planning, such deficiencies can lead to prolonged and costly probate disputes, family discord, and, ultimately, ineffective directives that don’t honor the deceased’s true intentions.
This article explores the pitfalls of DIY estate planning. AI can do a lot, but it cannot adequately interpret delicate family dynamics, protect your beneficiaries from claims of undue influence, or account for unforeseen tax and legal implications.
Prevent Family Discord With a Solid Estate Plan
Contradictory clauses are a hallmark of poorly drafted estate plans. Much like any contract, an estate plan outlines your intentions for property and asset distribution. Just as clauses in a contract dictate agreements, the provisions in your will or trust direct your assets and wishes.
When provisions in the same document contradict each other, the people you intended to protect may struggle to interpret your goals, leading to family infighting and costly trust and estate litigation to resolve the matter.
Beyond the technicalities of contract drafting, effective estate planning requires a thoughtful understanding of complex family dynamics. This is where AI estate planning and basic online contract generators ultimately fall short. The value of working with qualified last will and testament lawyers lies in their ability to assess your unique family situation. An attorney with experience drafting wills and estates will sense the individuals’ personalities and consider how a specific clause in a contract will impact their existing relationships.
An attorney with experience in drafting wills and trusts considers who will be left behind and how distributions or responsibilities might exacerbate already tenuous family dynamics — for instance, sibling issues. As adults, rivalries and resentments stemming from longstanding sibling issues can worsen with grief. Depending on your family dynamic, who you select as a trustee or power of attorney could introduce discord, which your estate planning attorney may be able to anticipate and account for.
Undue Influence Threat and Capacity Challenges
A key difference between lawyers who handle wills and an AI chatbot is their ability to assess a client’s true intent and capacity. An AI chatbot can only process information, but a wills and estate attorney is more than a legal document preparer. The best estate planning attorney also protects clients from undue influence, meaning when a person acts without free will, and testamentary incapacity.
As we age, the risk of either issue impacting your Colorado last will and testament increases. When an elderly family member creates a Rocket Lawyer will or a living trust online, they immediately open the door for a fight over the document’s validity. Attorneys who handle wills can sense if a client truly understands what they are doing or if they are being pushed in a particular direction. An internet service provider, on the other hand, may not be useful in proving that no one was in the room at the time of the online legal document’s creation, nor would the service be liable for ensuring such conditions are met.
When researching how to make a will in Colorado or an online trust, meeting with an attorney for a living trust provides a much stronger legal foundation, making it much harder to challenge the document’s validity.
Online Contract Generators Overlook Nuanced Tax Implications
Even beyond these three core issues, online legal services may also miss crucial estate planning factors that a qualified inheritance attorney would catch. For instance, your attorney may be able to consult you on your estate’s tax implications. Estate planning involves considerations like:
Should a retirement account in a trust be named as a beneficiary?
What are the IRA withdrawal tax consequences or 401K withdrawal tax implications for beneficiaries?
What are the differences in capital gains for beneficiaries, and what are the considerations for inheritance tax?
For the average person, these are not questions an AI assistant is equipped to answer in the context of your situation. And given that certain types of wills and trusts can trigger specific tax implications for beneficiaries based on their structure or provisions, your heirs could run up against a number of tax burdens that a wills and estate lawyer familiar with Colorado tax laws could effectively navigate.
The accessibility of AI for legal document preparation has certainly changed the landscape for dealing with bad contracts; however, while AI programs might assist in document summarization, they cannot replace the judgment, experience, and personalized advice that wills and trusts lawyers can offer.
It’s Not Too Late to Cancel Rocket Lawyer
Online legal services with AI outputs might seem like a cost-effective solution upfront, but they can result in greater expenses and emotional distress for your loved ones down the line. The judgment, experience, and personalized advice that estate planning lawyers can offer cannot be replaced by AI programs.
There is simply no substitute for working with an actual attorney as opposed to a bot, as it provides a much stronger legal foundation and makes it much harder to challenge the legal document. Estate planning aims to alleviate future problems for your beneficiaries, not exacerbate them. Whether you are starting fresh or need trust and will reviews, consulting with our lawyers for wills and estates in person is the most prudent path.
Let Us Be Your Will and Trust Lawyers
At Robinson & Henry, our dedicated attorneys understand the intricate details of estate planning and can assist you in creating documents that truly reflect your wishes. We offer the human element, strategic thinking, and personalized attention that AI and generic online services simply cannot. Whether you need a legal document review for an existing trust or to start fresh, an online legal document review service won’t cut it. Please don’t leave your legacy to chance; empower it with professional legal counsel. Call 303-688-0944 to schedule a case assessment.
