Checklist · Wills, Estates, Probate & Succession
Estate-planning intake questionnaire (United States)
An intake for a US estate plan that collects family, assets, and fiduciary choices, and that separates the HIPAA authorization from the state-law questions the lawyer still has to open.
- Kind
- Checklist. Steps or checks to work through and tick off.
- Where it applies
- United States
- AI use
- Yellow You and the tool draft together, with you directing. You check every statement you rely on.
- Law stated as at
- 22 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked on 22 October 2026 against the 2 authorities it cites, for United States.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use at the first estate-planning meeting in a US matter. Complete the state-law section by naming the state and opening its statute. Do not use the answers as a will.
Used for these tasks
- Prepare questions for a will-instructions meeting
- Prepare the will-instructions pack: capacity, undue-influence and family notes
- Prepare death-benefit nomination steps against the fund deed
- Assess family-provision, further-provision or elective-share eligibility from the file
Each task page says how far AI may help with the task and what the lawyer must review.
How AI may be used
A tool may turn the client's own list of names and accounts into rows, and it may mark a state-law row that still has no statute in the file.
AI may
- Enter names, relationships, and asset descriptions the client has already written
- Flag a beneficiary designation the client has not produced
- Flag the state-law section when the statute citation is blank
- Point to the HIPAA authorization when a provider would have to disclose protected health information
AI must not
- Must not draft a will, a trust, or a deed from these answers
- Must not state a witness count, a notary rule, an elective share, or a homestead rule
- Must not decide that the client has capacity
- Must not add a perjury statement or a jurat
The lawyer checks
- Every asset row names how title is held, from a document or from the client's statement marked as such
- The HIPAA row is either "no provider disclosure" or a pointer to the signed authorization
- The state named is the client's domicile, and land is listed by the state where it sits
- The state-law section cites a statute the lawyer opened, or it stays blank
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Read the full text
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- 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.
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