Estate planning intake software: AI intake that screens wills, trusts, and probate matters and books the consult

Estate planning covers two very different situations under one roof. Half the inquiries are planning ahead: a couple wants a first will, a parent wants a trust for the kids, a business owner wants a succession plan. The other half arrive in the middle of a loss: someone died, and now the family is facing probate or trust administration on a clock, often with grief still fresh. The intake has to tell those apart on the first contact, because a probate matter with a court deadline is urgent in a way a routine will update is not.

The tone matters as much as the facts. A person calling about a will is thinking about their own mortality, and a person calling about probate is grieving. A cold form or a rushed intake specialist loses those callers. Consultations answers every inquiry instantly with a patient, human-sounding conversation, figures out which kind of matter it is, and gathers the picture the attorney needs, at 2am or 2pm, without ever sounding like it is reading a script.

An estate planning intake has to establish the family situation (marital status, children, blended family, dependents with special needs), the rough shape of the estate (real estate, a business, retirement accounts, out-of-state property), and whether the matter is planning or administration. If someone has died, it needs to know when, whether there is a will, and whether probate has started. It also needs any existing documents, an old will, a trust, a power of attorney, and whether the caller already has an attorney.

Consultations gathers these as a conversation, following the thread the caller opens. If they mention a business, it asks about succession. If they mention a child with special needs, it flags it, because that shapes the whole plan. What the attorney receives is a brief that already sketches the family and asset picture, with documents attached, so the consult starts with substance instead of the first twenty minutes spent building the family tree.

Estate planning is dense with legal and tax judgment, and callers often want to be told which plan they need or how to avoid estate tax. Consultations never does. It does not recommend a will over a trust, does not give estate, gift, or tax advice, does not draft any document, and does not tell anyone how to structure their affairs. It identifies the matter, gathers the family and asset facts, collects existing documents, and books the consult.

Every legal and tax judgment belongs to the attorney after a full review. The conflict-relevant questions the firm defines are asked and surfaced, which matters in estate work where the same family can produce adverse parties, but the determination is the firm's. Every detail the caller shares, and estate intake touches the most private financial and family information there is, is consented, private, and owned by your firm.