AI is becoming an incredibly powerful new tool that many people have embraced to accomplish all sorts of tasks. This can include taking care of certain legal tasks.
Since AI promises to do all sorts of things for you, you may be tempted to try to use it as part of your estate planning process. Unfortunately, this could be a big mistake. There is ample evidence that suggests artificial intelligence is not necessarily ready for prime time, especially when it comes to taking care of important issues such as creating a comprehensive and valie plan for your future.
Here are some of the reasons why you may want to think twice about asking an artificial intelligence program to help you determine what your legacy will look like.
The biggest risk of AI in estate planning: Artificial intelligence in estate planning is far from intelligent
One of the biggest potential issues with using AI for estate planning is that there is no guarantee the plans that are put in place will be correct, accurate, or legally valid.
An article on The Conversation showed that artificial intelligence tools very often do not get things correct when it comes to the legal matters. In fact, some AI programs made up legal cases that did not exist at all and cited them as precedent, pretending they were real cases. One example is in a case called Mata v Avianca.
In 2023, a lawyer in this case submitted a brief to the court that had been prepared with the help of AI. It unfortunately included references to a case in New York that had never happened. AI imagined the entire thing, and the lawyer who turned in the brief did not double-check to make sure it was accurate before the brief was submitted to a judge and was appropriately scolded and sanctioned by the court.
Obviously, if a lawyer missed such a big error, it is entirely possible that you might miss problems with the estate plan that AI creates for you. The result could be that you have a document in place that you think is valid — but that ends up not being enforceable at all. You could lose the chance to actually create a valid will, trust, or other estate planning tool, and your loved ones would be worse off as a result.
Artificial intelligence can only respond to your instructions and it doesn’t know what you don’t know
Another big issue is that AI can only respond to your instructions and you may not know everything you need to create a comprehensive estate plan. For example, if you tell AI to make a will, the artificial intelligence program is not going to tell you if you might be better off with a trust because you are leaving money to minor children or to someone who is disabled and simply transferring those assets via a will could create undesirable complications such as your children being handed a lot of money with no strings attached at age 18, or your disabled loved one losing access to means-tested benefits as a result of receiving a large direct transfer instead of assets being placed into a supplemental needs trust.
You don’t want to use the wrong tools, or make a plan that is not complete or non-responsive to the needs of heirs and beneficiaries. This is why it can be so important to get professional help and advice on estate planning issues rather than to find yourself with a plan that you think is correct and that you believe accomplishes your goals — when really it does not.
Unfortunately, these types of issues are often not discovered until after you are gone, when it will be too late to correct the problems or provide the right solution for your heirs. Since the stakes are so high, you simply can’t trust a technology that is so new and that has already been proved to be prone to errors and hallucinations on important legal issues.
Get the right legal help from a trusted professional
Since AI for legal matters is certainly not ready for prime time, for now, the best way to make sure you have an accurate, enforceable estate plan that does not include mistakes is to get the right legal help from an experienced and qualified estate planning attorney. While AI may advance some day to the point when it is more trustworthy and better able to provide accurate advice on complex issues, that day has not yet arrived.
Our firm is here to help you make an estate plan that actually works for you and your family. You can give us a call at (916) 437-3500 or contact us online for help. We will work with you to evaluate your needs, understand all of the key issues that affect your heirs, and use the estate planning tools that give you the legacy you desire and deserve.
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