Linda, a widow in Plano, decided one evening to finally get her will done. She opened an AI tool, answered a few questions, and twenty minutes later had a polished document. It left her house to her two kids equally and named her daughter as executor. She printed it, signed it at the kitchen table, and asked her neighbor to sign as a witness. Then she tucked it into a drawer, relieved to have it handled.
Two years later, Linda died. When her daughter took the will to court, the problems came out. It had only one witness, and Texas requires two. It also said nothing about the rental property Linda bought after she wrote it.
The simple plan Linda thought she’d made left her family facing extra time in court, added expense, and the real possibility that Texas default rules, not Linda’s wishes, would decide who got what.
As AI becomes more widespread, we’re hearing stories like this more frequently.
AI tools can draft a will in minutes, and that speed is tempting. You type in a few details, and out comes a document that looks official and sounds like a lawyer wrote it.
But looking right and working right are two different things. An estate plan only matters at the moments when you can’t step in to fix it: when you become incapacitated or when you die. By then, any mistake is your family’s problem to solve.
We use technology nearly every day in our practice, and we think AI is a remarkable tool. Still, there are real risks to relying on it to create your estate plan.
Here are the ones we see most often.
1. AI Can Get Texas Law Wrong
Estate planning law is state law, and it varies a lot from one state to the next. Most AI tools are trained on information from all over the country. They don’t always know which rules apply to you, and they rarely tell you when they’re unsure.
Texas has its own way of doing things. We’re a community property state, which affects what you can leave to whom. Texas also has its own statutory forms for things like powers of attorney and medical directives.
AI tools are also known to “hallucinate,” which means they state things with confidence that simply aren’t true. In a casual conversation, that’s an annoyance. In a legal document, it can undo your entire plan.
2. A Document Isn’t Valid Just Because It Exists
A will has to be signed the right way to count. In Texas, a typed will generally needs to be signed in front of two qualified witnesses. To avoid extra hassle in probate, it should also include a self-proving affidavit signed before a notary.
AI can hand you the words, but it can’t supervise the signing. If a step gets missed, your will may not be accepted by the court. Your family could end up in a much longer, more expensive probate process, or your property could pass under Texas default rules instead of your wishes.
3. AI Only Knows What You Think to Ask
An AI tool answers the question you type. It doesn’t know what you left out, and it won’t notice what you didn’t think to mention.
That matters, because the most important parts of a plan often come up only in conversation. You might have a blended family, or a child who struggles with money. A loved one may rely on government benefits that an inheritance could put at risk. You may own a business or rental property, or have a retirement account with an outdated beneficiary. And if you have minor children, you need a clear plan for who would care for them if something happened to you tomorrow.
An experienced lawyer asks the follow-up questions that uncover these issues. A chatbot fills in the blanks with generic language that may not fit your family at all.
4. Your Private Information May Not Stay Private
To build an estate plan, you have to share some of the most personal details of your life. Your assets and account balances. Your family relationships. Your health. Sometimes, family conflicts you’d rather no one else knew about.
When you type that into an AI tool, you may not know where it’s stored, who can see it, or how it might be used. And unlike a conversation with your attorney, a chat with an AI tool is not protected by attorney-client privilege. Before you share sensitive details with any platform, it’s worth reading its privacy policy closely.
5. Mistakes Surface When It’s Too Late to Fix Them
Here’s the hard truth about estate planning errors: you usually won’t find them. Your family will, after you die or become incapacitated, at the exact moment they’re grieving or overwhelmed.
There’s no one to call when an AI-drafted document fails. No one who knows your family, understands why you made the choices you did, or can step in to help your loved ones through the process.
A plan also isn’t a one-time task. Your life changes. Laws change. Assets come and go. A document generated once and saved to your desktop won’t keep up on its own, and over time it can quietly drift out of step with your life.
Where AI Can Help
We’re not saying you should avoid AI altogether. It can be a great starting point. You can use it to learn basic estate planning terms, understand the difference between a will and a trust, or make a list of questions to bring to your lawyer. Taking stock of your assets and thinking through your wishes ahead of time is always helpful.
The key is using AI to get ready for planning, not to replace it.
Planning That Fits Your Life
Your estate plan is about the people you love and the life you’ve built. It deserves more than a fill-in-the-blank document.
As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we take the time to understand your family, your assets, and what matters most to you. We start with a Life & Legacy Planning Session®, where we walk through what would happen to your loved ones today and what you’d like to happen instead. From there, we build a plan that works under Texas law and keep it current as your life changes.
AI can give you a document in minutes. What it can’t give you is confidence that your plan will work when your family needs it most. Before you trust something this important to a chatbot, let’s talk. We’ll help you see what your current plan, or the lack of one, would mean for the people you love, and what it would take to get it right.
For more on Texas estate planning, and to learn about estate planning lawyer Tom Misteli and The Misteli Law Firm, visit www.mistelilaw.com.
