{"id":13848,"date":"2025-04-19T23:23:30","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T23:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prizmlaw.com\/site\/?p=13848"},"modified":"2025-05-12T16:01:59","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T16:01:59","slug":"estate-eval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prizmlaw.com\/site\/2025\/04\/19\/estate-eval\/","title":{"rendered":"A System for Stress-Testing Estate Plan Docs with A.I. Language Models"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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A System for Stress-Testing Estate Plan Docs with\nA.I. Language Models<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Quick Summary<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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<\/g><\/svg><\/div>Wills, trusts, and other estate planning documents must anticipate countless future possibilities, making it challenging for attorneys to mentally simulate all potential scenarios.<\/span><\/div>
<\/g><\/svg><\/div>This article describes a potential system that uses A.I. language models to generate dozens to hundreds of client-specific hypothetical scenarios, then evaluates document performance against stated client estate planning priorities to expose gaps or risks.<\/span><\/div>
<\/g><\/svg><\/div>Risk assessment helps identify edge cases where the document may fail to achieve client goals, such as changes to family composition, individual health circumstances, or changes to estate asset composition or value. <\/span><\/div>
<\/g><\/svg><\/div>The tool serves as a quality assurance supplement to attorney review, improving document robustness while enhancing client and attorney education about potential risks.<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Introduction\n<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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I’m a practicing estate planning attorney in San Diego, CA. However, before I began my legal practice, I spent over 10 years writing software. I tend to approach my practice constantly asking how I can leverage my technical skills to deliver better service to my clients. In my previous posts<\/a> I explored the unique opportunities natural language processing (NLP) tools can provide in the legal context. Here I’d like to share details of a specific internal project I’ve been building for myself for the past few months.\u00a0<\/p>

Estate\u00a0Planning attorneys \u00a0face a unique challenge: we must craft documents that anticipate countless future possibilities. When drafting a will or trust, we’re essentially creating a legal time capsule designed to withstand unforeseen circumstances that may arise years or decades later.<\/p>

The traditional approach relies heavily on:<\/p>

  1. Attorney experience and memory of past client situations.<\/li>
  2. Checklists and templates that cover common scenarios.<\/li>
  3. Legal precedent and case studies.<\/li>
  4. Manual review processes that are time-consuming and imperfect.<\/li><\/ol>

    Even the most experienced attorneys struggle to mentally simulate all potential future scenarios, from family dynamics to asset changes to health situations. As a newer attorney, I\u2019ve also been looking for ways to create a systematic check of the documents I create.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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    The Power of Language Models<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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    A.I. language models such as those that power systems like OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT, Google\u2019s Gemini tools, or Anthropic\u2019s Claude offer a potentially powerful approach to this problem. These A.I. models can:<\/p>

    1. Process and understand complex legal documents in their natural language form<\/li>
    2. Generate realistic hypothetical scenarios based on client information<\/li>
    3. Evaluate how well a document addresses each scenario<\/li><\/ol>

      While they do have some reasoning limitations (discussed below), unlike traditional rule-based software, these models can understand nuance and context in legal language, making them very useful for this application.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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      Technical Architecture: How the System Works<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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      Let me walk through the key components of my internal tool and a high level before going into some details below:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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