AI for estate planning lawyers: engagement letters, operating agreements and buy-sell agreements in Word

Estate planning is not usually thought of as contract work, but a lot of it is. Every matter starts with an engagement letter. Family wealth often sits in an LLC or partnership with its own operating agreement. Business-owning clients need buy-sell agreements, and their plans depend on those documents saying what the will and trust assume they say. AI can take the first pass on that contract layer so you spend your time on the planning.

Plain answer first: LexDraft does not have an estate planning playbook, and it is not built to draft or check wills, trusts, powers of attorney or health care directives. It has four built-in playbooks: NDA, SaaS MSA, DPA and Services. For the agreements around a plan, such as operating agreements and buy-sell agreements, you run a general clause-by-clause review in Word with the governing-law state selected, plus the rule-based defined-term and cross-reference checks.

Where AI helps in an estate planning practice

• Engagement letters. Joint representation of spouses is the norm, and the letter has to deal with it: how confidences are shared between the spouses, what happens if their interests diverge, and when the lawyer must withdraw. ABA Model Rule 1.7 governs the conflict, and many lawyers also follow the ACTEC Commentaries on the Model Rules. A general review of your template can flag missing scope limits, fee terms and termination language. LexDraft can also draft a services-style engagement agreement from a plain-English description for you to adapt.
• Family LLC and partnership agreements. Transfer restrictions, admission of new members, management succession, capital calls and distributions decide whether an entity actually does what the estate plan needs. A general review flags vague or one-sided provisions, and the cross-reference check is useful on long agreements that have been amended several times.
• Buy-sell agreements. Triggers (death, disability, divorce, retirement, termination), the price formula, funding and payment terms all need to match the clients' plans and their insurance.
• Vendor and data contracts for the firm. Your document management, client portal and e-signature subscriptions are SaaS agreements, so the SaaS MSA and DPA playbooks apply directly.

Contract points estate planners check

• Buy-sell funding after Connelly. In Connelly v. United States (2024), the Supreme Court held that a corporation's obligation to redeem a deceased shareholder's shares with life insurance proceeds does not offset the value of those proceeds for federal estate tax purposes. Review redemption agreements funded by company-owned policies, and consider whether a cross-purchase structure fits better.
• Price restrictions and section 2703. Under Internal Revenue Code section 2703, a price set by a buy-sell agreement is disregarded for transfer tax purposes unless it is a bona fide business arrangement, is not a device to transfer property to family members for less than full value, and has terms comparable to arm's-length arrangements.
• Transfers to trusts. Check that operating agreements permit transfers to the clients' revocable and irrevocable trusts and that the trustee can be admitted as a member, not just an assignee of economic rights.
• Management succession. Who manages the LLC if the founder dies or loses capacity, and how that fits with the durable power of attorney and the successor trustee.
• Divorce triggers. Purchase options when a member's interest is awarded to a former spouse, coordinated with any premarital agreement. See our guide for family law practitioners.
• Beneficial ownership reporting. In March 2025 FinCEN issued an interim final rule removing Corporate Transparency Act reporting requirements for US companies and US persons. Check the current rule before telling clients a family entity has no filing obligation.
• State law. Most states have adopted some version of the Uniform Trust Code, and community property states add their own characterisation issues. Select the governing-law state so the review looks for state-specific red flags, then apply your own judgement.

A workflow in Word with LexDraft

1. Open the operating agreement, buy-sell agreement or engagement letter in Word and open LexDraft in the side panel.
2. Select the governing-law state and run a general review. LexDraft reviews the document clause by clause, flags risky and missing standard terms and grades each finding Critical, High, Medium or Low.
3. Run the defined-term and cross-reference quick checks. They are rule-based, run without AI and finish almost instantly.
4. Accept the word-level redlines you agree with as native Word tracked changes, reject the rest and add your own.
5. Check the planning points above yourself, especially tax and funding. They depend on facts outside the document.

What LexDraft does not do

LexDraft has no estate planning playbook. It does not draft or review wills, trusts or powers of attorney for execution formalities, does not run estate tax or valuation calculations and does not give legal or tax advice. It reviews the Word document in front of you. AI review can miss issues or be wrong, so read every marked-up document yourself.

Using AI ethically

ABA Formal Opinion 512 (July 2024) and many state bars say the same four things: understand the tool, protect client confidences, check every output, and bill fairly for AI-assisted work. Our state-by-state guide to AI ethics for lawyers covers all 50 states and D.C.

Estate planning files are full of financial and family information, so read any AI vendor's data terms before you use it on client documents. LexDraft does not use customer documents to train models; see the security page.

Plans

Start on the Free plan: 5,000 generated words a month, no time limit and no credit card. Professional is $99 a month or $990 a year for 100,000 words a month. Business is $199 a month or $1,990 a year with unlimited words. LexDraft runs in Word 365 (Windows and Mac), Word 2021 and Word on the web, and it does not use customer documents to train models.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. LexDraft does not give legal advice; qualified counsel must review every draft. Spotted something out of date? Email support@lexdraft.ai and we will fix it.