AI in Estate Planning: All Questions, No Answers?

Examining an abstract landscape

To maintain the requisite knowledge and skill, a lawyer should keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology, engage in continuing study and education and comply with all continuing legal education requirements to which the lawyer is subject.

ABA Model Rule 1.1, Comment 8

Table of Contents

1. Development 1: Attorneys Lose the Information Battle

2. Development 2:  AI Gets Trained on Attorney-Drafted Documents

3. Development 3:  At Least One High-Profile Data Breach

4. Conclusion

As I type this article, I am getting ready to head up to Vail to co-present at the 44^th Annual Estate Planning Retreat for the Trust and Estate Section of the Colorado Bar.  Unlike the usual educational content of this newsletter, however, my subject is much more forward-looking.  Along with the Hon. Elizabeth A. Weishaupl (Ret.), we will be discussing the current landscape of artificial intelligence (AI) and an attorney’s ethical duties – both in the practice of law in general, and in estate planning specifically. 

The problem with presenting on AI in today’s landscape is that giving you firm guidelines is difficult.  It is like blindly aiming a telescope into the daytime sky, hoping to somehow see a particular orbiting satellite. 

What I can tell you, however, is that AI is not the problem in isolation.  It simply compounds structural limitations in the practice of law that already exist, some of which have persisted for years.  This article represents my attempt to show you where I think we are going, especially in estate planning, but with the caveat that this is all educated speculation. 

The one thing I can definitively tell you, however, is that this article is the product of my own thoughts and observations.  It is not prepared by AI.  I have no intention of using AI to prepare content on this newsletter, now or in the future, in part because I am a Luddite but also because I don’t yet trust the accuracy of AI when it continues to frequently hallucinate cases and guidance.

Here are the three developments I see coming down the pike, however. 

Development 1: Attorneys Lose the Information Battle