Even ChatGPT says you shouldn’t use ChatGPT for Estate Planning
People increasingly rely on Artificial Intelligence for everything from dinner ideas and vacation plans to medical questions and legal advice. So it is natural for people to wonder, “What else can AI do for me?” Can AI such as ChatGPT write your Will or Trust? Is an attorney even necessary anymore?
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Who better to answer such a question than ChatGPT itself. We turned to ChatGPT 5.5, which Open AI describes as its smartest model designed for harder tasks such as legal analysis and multi-step problem solving.
Our question was, “Is ChatGPT currently able to draft strong, customized estate planning documents without an attorney involved?"
After thinking for 28 seconds, ChatGPT answered:
“No - not reliably, not execution-ready, and not without meaningful attorney review.” It continued, “ChatGPT can draft estate-planning documents that look strong … But I would not trust it, by itself, to produce a strong, client-specific legally safe estate plan.”
Chat GPT warned that it cannot reliably perform the attorney’s role because:
• It cannot reliably identify potential issues such as second marriages, disabled beneficiaries, business interests, family conflicts, etc.
• It cannot reliably recommend the most appropriate options for an estate plan, e.g., will vs. trust vs. testamentary trust vs. special needs trust vs. outright distribution, etc.
• It cannot make documents work together so that Wills, Trusts, Power of Attorney, Living Will, etc. are internally consistent and enhance each other.
• It cannot exercise professional judgment about issues such as capacity, undue influence, family dynamics, when to push back and not just draft what the client thinks they want, etc.
• It has no accountability because Chat GPT does not carry malpractice insurance, have fiduciary duties, or stand behind the documents.
In conclusion, Chat GPT made a very convincing argument that it should not be trusted with estate planning.
AI might produce something that looks plausible, but as ChatGPT itself cautioned, the user often will not know what is missing, wrong, internally inconsistent, or poorly executed until incapacity or death - when it is too late to fix.
For a free consultation with a real attorney who will guide you through your options, please reach out to Hillsborough Wills & Trusts.