9/1/2026
Estate-planning firms do not need every family and asset detail on the first call. They do need enough information to identify the right next step and give the attorney a usable handoff.
By Attorney Michael Brunman, Co-Founder and CEO of Clerx
Estate planning intake questions identify who is seeking help, the general need, relevant people, jurisdiction, timing, prior documents, and the next step. They are not a substitute for a legal interview.
An AI receptionist should collect only what the firm needs to route and book the inquiry safely. Detailed financial, tax, family, and legal analysis belongs in a secure questionnaire or attorney-led consultation.
That balance matters. Ask too little and the attorney receives an unusable note. Ask too much and the first contact becomes an intrusive interview before the firm has built trust.
Estate-planning prospects may be preparing a first plan, updating documents, responding to a diagnosis, planning for a child, managing a blended family, addressing incapacity, or seeking help after a death. They may not know which service or document they need.
The first interaction should feel calm and structured. A well-designed estate-planning intake process makes the next step clear. ACTEC also recommends preparing family and financial information for the initial attorney meeting, which supports moving deeper detail to a later, secure stage.
The most practical model separates intake into three stages.
An AI receptionist or trained staff member gathers contact details, the general need, relevant names, location, timing, and scheduling preferences. The goal is routing and a clear next step.
After the firm decides a consultation is appropriate, it can securely request family details, existing documents, asset categories, business interests, and planning priorities.
The attorney reviews conflicts, clarifies objectives, evaluates legal and tax considerations, explains options, and determines whether the firm can represent the client.
This staged design is where AI intake for estate-planning firms is most useful. AI supports consistency at the front of the process. It does not take over the legal work.
The wording should reflect the firm's services, jurisdictions, and consultation policy. A practical sequence can include these questions.
Capture accurate spelling, phone, email, preferred channel, and whether the person is calling for someone else.
Ask for the names of a spouse, partner, deceased person, family member, business co-owner, or other central person. This supports firm review, not a conflict decision during the call.
Offer plain-language categories such as a first plan, document update, trust planning, incapacity planning, probate, elder law, special-needs planning, or business succession. Do not tell the caller which legal instrument they need.
Common triggers include a birth, marriage, divorce, diagnosis, move, property purchase, business change, travel, or recent death.
Location helps apply service-area and jurisdiction rules. Flag multi-state assets or a decedent who lived elsewhere for attorney review.
The answer shapes routing and may surface a need for careful conflict review.
A yes-or-no answer is usually enough. Note the approximate year and state, then request copies securely later.
The firm may define prompts for minor children, a blended family, disability, business ownership, multi-state property, international connections, or incapacity concerns. These are routing flags, not legal conclusions.
Ask about hospitalization, travel, a fast-moving health issue, an active deadline, or another firm-defined trigger. Follow the escalation playbook without promising an outcome or response time.
Confirm the preferred consultation format, attendees, and communication method for confirmations.
The first contact usually should not request:
As Clerx's broader guide to what to ask, what to skip, and when to ask it explains, sensitive detail belongs in the right secure and human-reviewed stage.
Estate-planning intake often involves more than one person. A spouse may call for a couple. An adult child may call about a parent. Siblings may disagree about an estate. A prior client may be connected to the new inquiry.
ABA Model Rule 1.7, Comment 27 notes that conflict questions can arise when lawyers are asked to prepare estate plans for multiple family members. An AI receptionist can collect names and relationships for the firm's conflict-review process, but it should not decide whether a conflict exists or whether the firm may represent one person, a couple, or multiple family members.
The intake language should also avoid implying that the caller is already a client. An ABA estate-planning ethics checklist notes that duties concerning information from prospective clients can apply even when no engagement follows. The firm's approved privacy, confidentiality, retention, and conflict procedures should govern the workflow from the first interaction.
Estate planning is often deliberate, but some inquiries are time-sensitive. Firms should define human-escalation rules for situations such as:
The AI receptionist's job is to recognize the firm-approved signal, capture accurate contact information, and route the record. It should not diagnose capacity, determine abuse, interpret a deadline, or promise that an attorney will take the matter.
Once the firm's routing criteria are met, the workflow should make the next step concrete. Confirm the consultation date, time, format, fee if applicable, expected attendees, and what the prospect should prepare. Then send the approved questionnaire or document instructions through the firm's chosen secure process.
A clear consultation reminder and confirmation workflow can reduce confusion between booking and attendance. The reminder should explain logistics and make rescheduling easy. It should not overload the prospect with a second intake interview.
The final first-contact record should be readable at a glance. A useful handoff may include:
The Clerx integration with 8am MyCase can synchronize contacts, cases, call summaries, and consultation bookings. The Clerx integration with Clio supports contacts, matters, call summaries, consultation details, and scheduling handoff. Map fields and ownership before launch so staff know where to review records and exceptions.
A solo can start with one approved question set, one escalation route, one consultation calendar, and one daily review queue. A firm with three to five attorneys may route by office, jurisdiction, service, attorney capacity, or consultation type. In either model, one person should own the playbook.
Clerx can support immediate intake across the Clerx AI Receptionist, website chat intake, and text messaging intake. The questions, tone, routing, scheduling, and escalation rules should reflect the firm's actual practice rather than a generic estate-planning script.
Test realistic scenarios before directing live inquiries into the system:
Review tone, repetition, sensitivity, missing facts, and dead ends. Confirm what happens when the preferred attorney is unavailable or a transfer fails.
The goal is not to maximize the number of questions. It is to improve the quality and consistency of the next step.
Track answer rate, time to first response, intake completion, consultation-booking rate, show rate, percentage of records missing required fields, staff correction rate, escalation accuracy, and qualified inquiry-to-client conversion. Clerx's guide to law firm intake metrics provides a broader measurement framework.
Review a small sample of real interactions every week during rollout. If prospects regularly abandon at the same question, staff keep re-asking the same fact, or attorneys receive too much irrelevant detail, revise the playbook.
AI can support fast response, structured questions, routing, scheduling, reminders, and documentation. Attorneys and trained staff should retain responsibility for:
The safest and most useful boundary is simple: AI creates operational consistency. Lawyers provide legal judgment.
Clerx helps estate-planning firms capture and structure inquiries across calls, website chat, and SMS. Donna can follow a firm-approved intake playbook, identify routing signals, support consultation scheduling, and move the resulting record into connected systems. The firm controls the questions, escalation rules, calendars, and human-review points.
Clerx does not provide legal advice or replace the attorney-client conversation. Its role is to make first response faster, intake more consistent, and the handoff more usable so the firm can convert more of the demand it already generates.
Ask for contact details, relevant names, the general need, location, prior-document status, timing, and consultation preferences. Follow the firm's approved services and routing rules.
Collect what is needed to route and book. Gather deeper family, asset, tax, and document information securely before the attorney meeting.
Usually not. High-level asset categories may help routing, but exact balances and account details belong in an approved secure process.
No. It can collect names and relationships for the firm's conflict-review process. The firm must decide whether a conflict exists and whether representation is appropriate.
Collect both names and expected attendees, then route the record for firm review. Do not assume joint representation.
Common triggers include imminent medical events, possible incapacity, suspected abuse, active deadlines, legal-advice requests, and uncertainty about the client.
Yes. An AI receptionist can provide immediate first response, collect firm-approved information, and offer the appropriate booking or handoff path. Urgent or exceptional situations should follow a tested human-escalation rule.
Yes. Clerx has live integrations with MyCase and Clio. The exact record structure, calendar workflow, and routing should be configured and tested for the firm's process.
Yes. A solo can start with a short approved question set, one calendar, one escalation route, and one review queue. The value is consistent coverage without creating a needlessly complex system.
Track response time, completion, booking, show rate, missing fields, staff corrections, escalation accuracy, and conversion. Review real interactions and remove questions that create friction without improving routing or preparation.
Attorney Michael Brunman is the Co-Founder and CEO of Clerx. He is a former commercial and intellectual property litigator, Harvard MBA '23, former PayPal product manager, and former McKinsey consultant. At Clerx, he helps law firms use AI agents to improve client intake, reduce missed calls, and streamline client communication.
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