Client intake for wills and estates.

Three very different matters arrive under one word. A person planning a will needs the intake to draw the family and the assets in outline. An executor needs it to record the death, the will and who holds it, and the estate in headline form. A person disputing a will needs it to capture what is being challenged, by whom, and on what account. All three share one risk: every party is family, and families call the same firms. The conflict check has to hold the deceased, the executor and every beneficiary before the firm hears the story. The intake also has to know what it cannot judge. Whether a person has capacity, and whether a will is valid, are questions for the lawyer.

• Which matter this is: making a will or power of attorney, administering an estate, or disputing a will or an executor's conduct.
• For a will: the family, including a spouse, children from any relationship, dependants, and anyone the person means to leave out.
• For a will: the assets in outline, the home, accounts, a business, insurance, and who the person wants as executor.
• For an estate: the deceased's full name and date of death, whether there is a will, who holds the original, and who is named executor.
• For an estate: the assets and debts in outline, and whether any institution has already frozen or released anything.
• For a dispute: what is being challenged, by whom, and what the person believes happened.
• Whether any earlier will exists, and which lawyer, if any, prepared it.
• Whether anyone involved is ill, in care, or losing the ability to manage their affairs, recorded as the person states it.
• What the person wants to happen.

• The deceased, or the person making the will, by full name and any former names.
• The executor, trustee or attorney named in any document.
• Every beneficiary the person can name, and every family member left out.
• The lawyer who prepared any earlier will or power of attorney.
• Anyone who has already retained a lawyer in the matter.
• A business partner, where the estate includes a business.

A person whose health is failing and who has no will, a burial or medical decision that needs an authority nobody holds, assets being moved or accounts emptied, or a challenge the person believes must be brought by a certain date. The intake records what the person says and flags the matter to the lawyer. It never tells the person whether a challenge window has closed, and it never forms a view on anyone's capacity.

• It never says whether a will is valid, or who inherits under it.
• It never assesses whether a person has, or had, capacity.
• It never says whether a limitation period or a challenge window has passed.
• It never advises on moving, gifting or transferring assets.
• It never contacts a beneficiary, an executor or an institution.

The machine takes the statement. The lawyer takes the case.