From writing college dissertations to planning weddings and making movies, Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are changing the world, one prompt at a time. While asking AI to improve your writing style or design attractive presentations is understandable, people are now also asking it to help draft a will or trust documents. Their logic: AI is all-knowing, faster, and cheaper than engaging an estate-planning professional.
However, trusting an algorithm with your loved ones’ future can be riskier than you realize.
How AI Can Help in Estate Planning
Fair enough, AI tools can quickly gather and simplify information, making them great for general research on any subject, including estate planning.
For instance, you can use Artificial Intelligence tools to gain basic knowledge of the estate planning process – the general procedure, required documentation, estate planning terminology, the meaning of a Will or a Trust. It can also help you understand what questions to ask or discuss with a professional estate planner.
It can prepare you for what to expect during the estate planning process by prompting questions such as who you will bequeath your property to, who will make medical decisions on your behalf in case of incapacitation, who will handle finances, etc. But while these prompts give you an idea of the decisions you will soon need to make, consulting AI to make those decisions for you could land you in a soup.
What AI Can’t Do
Estate planning involves careful thought, legal and financial decision-making, and emotional balance. While artificial intelligence can help clarify the basics of the process, it cannot provide the human insight needed to shape and implement your estate plan.
Lack of Local Legal Expertise
In Canada, every province has its own rules about probate, asset management and transfer, trust administration, healthcare directives, spousal rights, etc. AI can give you a generic outline based on broad legal principles, but it can’t help with province-specific laws. As a result, any estate planning documents you draft using artificial intelligence may have serious loopholes, leaving your loved ones to face legal and financial issues in the future.
Lacks Personal Context
AI does not understand the dynamics of human emotions and relationships. Add to this the various permutations and combinations you must manage and distribute your estate, depending on the asset type and beneficiary needs. Uneven distribution of the estate among beneficiaries, properties spread over multiple states, transfer of business ownership – these are all circumstances that need tailor-made strategies, which only an experienced estate planning professional can give.
What a Professional Can Do and AI Cannot
An AI response is only as good as the prompt you give it. A professional, on the other hand, can understand your needs and plan your estate effectively. They can guide you on when to use a Will or a Trust, what kind of Trust, what to communicate to beneficiaries and trustees, how to avoid conflicts among family members, and much more. They can also ensure your estate plan aligns with your other financial accounts, bank accounts, and insurance plan and does not create legal complications.
A knowledgeable estate planner can also guide you on assets that need special consideration, such as ancestral property or a family business.
Most importantly, an estate planner can observe and identify strained relationships, or assess a beneficiary’s willingness, decision-making capacity, and judgment, and advise you accordingly so your estate stays protected at all costs. AI cannot gauge this insight into human traits.
Risks of Using Specific AI Prompts for Estate Planning
As mentioned above, AI responds to your questions. The more specific your question, the more specific its answer will be, and therein lies its greatest risk.
In a recent criminal case in the US, a person named Bradley Heppner used an AI platform to draft detailed reports and legal arguments with facts to build his defence strategy. He later hired an attorney and shared this information with them, too. However, when the trial began, the court dismissed Heppner’s attorney’s plea to keep this information private under attorney-client privilege.
Why? Because the AI platform’s privacy policy states that the company collects user inputs to train its AI models, and that it may disclose the data to third parties or government authorities. Thus, all the information Heppner had collected was public data and could be used as evidence against him by the State.
While the legal implications in the case do not apply in Canada, and neither are we discussing criminal cases, these AI platforms aren’t limited to the US. Thus, any sensitive information about family dynamics or financial concerns you feed into the AI tool is highly likely to become public and to be accessed, stored, and potentially misused at any time.
How to Use AI Responsibly in Estate Planning
With such high risks, how can you use AI cautiously to learn the ropes of estate planning? Here is a list of AI do’s and don’ts before asking anything about your estate.
Do’s:
- Use only for basic research on general concepts or questions such as “What is a Trust?” or “How is a Trust different from a Will?”
- Use it to understand what to ask and discuss with an estate planner.
- Disable settings that allow AI to gather personal information about you and your preferences and build a user profile. Go to your AI settings and toggle off the Memory and Activity saving features. Also, opt out of any data training or model improvement offers from the tool.
- Always cross-check any information you get from AI with an estate planner before acting upon it.
Don’ts:
- Do not use real names, dates, dollar figures, addresses, or any other sensitive information about yourself or your family while using AI.
- Do not upload any documents.
- Do not share any communication from your family or ask AI to “simplify” any advice from your estate planner.
- Do not ask AI for advice on emotional problems or conflicts with family.
- Do not use the AI tool to draft a detailed and final Will, Trust documents, or any other estate planning documents.
Remember, everything you ask AI is stored somewhere, even if you delete all the activity from your device and memory. So be cautious while formulating prompts.
The Heavy Price Your Estate Pays for AI Estate Planning
AI learns from the data we feed it, including wrong or outdated data. Hence, believing that the AI tool never makes mistakes is wrong. AI can make errors in language and technical terms, and it may even miss provisions or include contradictory clauses in the same document. If not verified by a professional, such documents can create major problems for your loved ones and lead to mismanagement of your estate, not to mention the high costs of trying to rectify the mistakes.
Contact Black and Gill LLP in Etobicoke to Help You with Estate Planning
While AI tools may seem quicker and cheaper, they cannot replace the astute guidance, years of experience, and accountability of a professional estate planner. Talk to a professional estate planner to help you design a structure that protects your estate, meets your financial objectives, and complies with federal and state tax laws. To learn more about how Black and Gill LLP can provide you with the best accounting and estate planning services, contact us online or call us at 416-477-7681.