AI for estate planning and probate
Ultramarine Work reads the wills, trust instruments, account statements and court filings in the matter folder and returns the design memo, the instrument set, the inventory, the fiduciary accounting and the 706 tie-out.
Trust-review-memo.docxExampleReview of the Hartwell Revocable Trust and Its Three Amendments
1. Disposition of the residence
Article 6.2 of the 2019 trust leaves the Lake Road residence to Margaret outright. The second amendment restates Article 6 but holds the residence in further trust under Article 9, which the third amendment deleted. The two provisions cannot both operate, so Article 6 should be restated.
2. Successor trustee
The first amendment names Daniel Hartwell as successor trustee, while Article 11.1 still names First Coastal Trust Company. The amendment replaces Article 11 in full, so Daniel controls, but the certification of trust in the file still shows the bank and should be updated.
CheckedTwo conflicts found. The third amendment’s signature page has no notary block, which the attorney should review.
How it works
- 1
Open the matter folder
Add the governing documents and amendments, deeds, account statements, prior gift tax returns, your court’s probate forms and the firm’s drafting templates, in whatever form they sit in the matter folder.
- 2
Say what you need
Ask for an inventory with date-of-death values, the look-back analysis, the 706 tie-out, the three-way reconciliation or a first accounting. Whatever you ask for comes back as a file that cites the statement or page behind every line.
- 3
Review, then sign and file
It flags what it could not tie instead of guessing. You make the allocation and distribution calls and decide what gets filed or goes back for another draft. The execution instructions are yours to check against the statute.
Ask it for
“Read the 2019 revocable trust and its three amendments, and list every inconsistency between them, section numbers included.”
Trust-review-memo.docx“Build the probate inventory from these bank and brokerage statements and the deed, at date-of-death values, and state how each asset passes.”
Estate-inventory.xlsx“Tie out Form 706 Schedules A and B to the date-of-death statements and the appraisals, and list every asset with no valuation source.”
706-tieout.pdf“Run the 60-month Medicaid look-back over these five years of statements, flag every transfer for less than fair market value, and give the dates and payees.”
Lookback-analysis.xlsx“Prepare the monthly three-way reconciliation for the IOLTA account, matching the adjusted bank balance to the trust ledger and every client ledger.”
IOLTA-rec-0331.xlsx“Check the Hartwell engagement for conflicts across our client list and the family’s entities, including former spouses and fiduciaries.”
Conflicts-clearance.xlsx
Inside the Trusts & Estates mode
Estate planning documents
Drafts the design memo and the full instrument set, then checks every cross-reference between articles before anything goes to the client.
Trust and estate administration
Statements, deeds and court papers become the administration checklist, the inventory, the creditor notices and the principal and income accounting.
Elder law and guardianship
It runs the 60-month look-back, drafts guardianship and conservatorship petitions, and puts the Medicaid payback into first-party special needs trusts.
Fiduciary and estate returns
The 1041 and 706 worksheets carry the DNI, capital gain allocations and basis tracking, and every number ties to a statement for the CPA to review.
Client intake conflicts and engagement
Opening a matter means checking the family and its entities against former clients, then drafting an engagement letter with the terms the conduct rules require.
Legal billing and trust accounting
The IOLTA three-way reconciliation follows the cadence your state bar sets, and bills go out in LEDES format under the client’s guidelines.
Court filing and docketing
It counts probate deadlines from the appointment and publication dates under your state’s rules and keeps the docket through final distribution.
Legal memos and briefs
The memo on decanting, elective share or trustee removal and the response to a will contest both pull their facts from the record.
Legal authority verification
It verifies the cases, statutes and record documents behind a memo or brief, and says plainly which authorities it could not confirm.
- Office skills
- Excel, Word, PowerPoint, PDF
- Tools
- Read, edit and write files, Search files, Run code, Search and read the web, View images
- Connectors
- SharePoint, Google Drive, Gmail, and additional custom connectors
- House style
- Your fonts, layouts and rules, on every file
Who it’s for
Estate planning, probate, trust administration and elder law attorneys and their paralegals, in small firms and large-firm private wealth groups.
Questions
Does it invent citations or clauses?
It does not invent them, because it is set up to name its sources. The skills tell it to cite the file, statement page or authority behind every number, and to flag what it could not find. Another skill checks the authority a memo relies on. Nothing guarantees accuracy, so you check the authorities and the drafting before anything leaves the firm, because a case that reads well and does not exist is how sanctions happen.
Is using AI on client files a Rule 1.6 confidentiality problem?
It can be, so the call belongs to your firm, not the tool. The app changes files only in the project’s folder, and the content it works on goes to Paper Instruments’ servers for processing. ABA Formal Opinion 512 treats client information going into generative AI as a disclosure Rule 1.6 governs, and rejects boilerplate engagement clauses as consent. Whether that holds up under your state’s rules is your firm’s decision.
Who is responsible if the fiduciary accounting is wrong?
You are, because the fiduciary signs the account and the court holds the people who prepared it to account, not the software. The app drafts the accounting schedules. It sorts transactions between principal and income and leaves a note on every transaction it cannot trace. Your review is about the allocation calls rather than retyping statements. If a beneficiary objects, you answer from the record the file points to.
Where does our client data go?
Ultramarine Work changes files only in the project’s folder. When a request needs it, it can read files elsewhere on your computer, never passwords, keys or app data, and you can turn that off in settings. The model runs on Paper Instruments’ servers, so the content it works on is sent there to be processed. Paper Instruments is SOC 2 Type II, and our security and compliance details are on our compliance page.
Can it handle my state’s execution formalities?
Yes, when the folder holds your state’s statutes, your court’s probate forms and the client’s prior plan documents, because it drafts against those documents rather than assuming standard clauses. The mode carries state-specific execution instructions. Execution formalities, witness requirements and notice periods are where errors bite hardest, so check them against the current statute before anyone signs.