Checklist · Wills, Estates, Probate & Succession
Checklist: verifying AI-assisted will drafts and handling AI-made or electronic informal wills
Two-part AI checklist: (A) verifying a will draft prepared with AI help before it is signed, and (B) assessing, preserving and proving a deceased's AI-generated, digital or unsigned document as an informal will, with a client warning about DIY AI wills.
- Kind
- Checklist. Steps or checks to work through and tick off.
- Where it applies
- New South Wales, Queensland
- AI use
- Yellow AI can help in set ways. A lawyer checks specific points before use.
- Law stated as at
- 17 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked against the cited sources on 17 October 2026.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use Part A whenever AI assisted with any part of a will. Use Part B when a client brings a will made with an AI tool, a document found on a device or in a chatbot history, or an unsigned or electronic document that may be propounded as a will.
How AI may be used
AI can produce useful first drafts and consistency checks, but errors in wills often surface only after death. Every AI-assisted clause is verified against instructions and NSW law, and AI-made informal documents are evidence to be preserved, not rewritten.
AI may
- Compare an AI-assisted draft against the signed instructions and the firm precedent and list differences
- Flag inconsistent names, gifts, defined terms and residuary provisions
- Draft the client warning about DIY AI wills for the lawyer to approve
AI must not
- Must not be the final check on its own output
- Must not alter, summarise or "clean up" a document propounded as an informal will
- Must not be used to infer the deceased's intention or capacity
The lawyer checks
- Clause-by-clause trace to instructions, and NSW law applied throughout
- Execution formalities and attestation clause
- For informal documents: preservation, provenance and evidence of intention
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Read the full text
The full text is for signed-in accounts. It is free. When you sign in you can:
- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
More in Wills, Estates, Probate & Succession
- Will instructions, capacity and undue influence checklist (NSW, with other state notes)
- Will with optional testamentary discretionary trusts (NSW)
- Probate application pack (Supreme Court of NSW): notice, summons, affidavit and inventory guide
- Notice of intended distribution of an estate (NSW): when and how to publish, and the protection it gives
- Letter of advice on a family provision claim (NSW; claimant or estate)
All precedents for Wills, Estates, Probate & Succession · Tasks and AI use in this area