Memo · Wills, Estates, Probate & Succession
State-specific estate-planning questions (United States)
A memo that lists the estate-planning points that follow state statute, beside the two federal privacy rules that were opened, and that leaves each state citation blank until it is read.
- Kind
- Memo. An internal or advice memo.
- 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 when an estate plan will be signed and the file needs a record of which questions are federal and which depend on a state statute the lawyer has opened. Do not use it as the will, the trust, or a deed.
Used for these tasks
- Prepare the will-instructions pack: capacity, undue-influence and family notes
- Assess family-provision, further-provision or elective-share eligibility from the file
- Map cross-border estate issues: assets, grants and choice of law
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 list the states that appear on the intake, one row per state, and highlight a row whose citation is blank.
AI may
- Copy the domicile and each parcel's state from the intake
- Leave the citation cell empty when the file has no statute
- Repeat a citation only when the lawyer has already typed it into the file
AI must not
- Must not supply a witness count, a community-property rule, or a homestead rule from memory
- Must not treat the federal privacy rules as the rule for signing a will or a deed
- Must not draft the dispositive provisions
The lawyer checks
- Federal rows cite only 45 CFR 164.508 and 160.203
- Each state row is either blank or tied to a statute the lawyer opened on this matter
- Land is matched to the state where it sits, not only to the client's domicile
- The memo is not attached to the will as if it were part of the will
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 available after you log in. It is free. When you log 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.
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