Can AI help us run a probate and estate administration file?

Yes, for the parts of estate administration that are document handling and arithmetic. An estate file is a large pile of statements, valuations, policy documents and correspondence from different institutions, and a great deal of fee earner time goes on reading it, listing it and adding it up. AI can do a useful share of that work and show where each figure came from. The judgement calls, the tax positions and the decisions about distribution stay with the person who signs the work.

What an estate file actually looks like

Most probate matters are not legally complicated. They are administratively heavy. A typical file collects:

• date of death balances from several banks and building societies, arriving over weeks
• share certificates, nominee statements, dividend vouchers
• pension and life policy correspondence, often with different reference numbers for the same person
• property valuations, title documents, utility accounts and council tax correspondence
• funeral invoices, care home accounts, credit card statements and other liabilities
• the will, any codicil, and correspondence with executors and beneficiaries

The work is not hard to understand. It is hard to keep straight. Figures arrive out of order, institutions write back with partial answers, and the schedule you assembled in March needs rebuilding in June when a forgotten account surfaces.

That is precisely the kind of work where a tool that reads every page and names the page it took each figure from earns its place.

What AI can do well on an estate

Pull the asset and liability details out of the papers. Ask what date of death balances the file contains, for which accounts, and with which institution, and you should get a list with a page reference against each entry. Where the file holds a letter that gives an interim figure rather than a date of death figure, that distinction matters and should be visible in the answer.

Build a draft schedule. A first-pass schedule of assets and liabilities, each line traceable to the document it came from, is quicker to check than to compile from scratch. Checking is still required. The point is that checking a referenced draft takes a fraction of the time of building the list yourself.

Do the arithmetic with the working shown. Totals, apportionments, interest running from a date, residue after specific legacies: these are additions and subtractions that a fee earner should not be doing in their head at the end of a long day. A total you can trace back line by line is worth far more than a total you simply have to trust.

Answer questions about correspondence. Did we ever get a reply from the pension provider? What did the bank say about the joint account? When did we first write to the beneficiary who has gone quiet? These questions usually mean twenty minutes of scrolling.

Say what is missing. On an estate, the gaps are the risk. An unanswered enquiry, a valuation never obtained, an account mentioned in a statement but never chased. A tool that tells you what the papers do not contain is doing something more useful than a tool that produces a tidy answer regardless.

Prepare routine drafts. Letters to asset holders, chasers, and updates to executors are formulaic and still have to be written. A draft for review is a fair starting point.

What stays with the fee earner

Several parts of estate administration are judgement, not document handling, and should not be delegated to a tool at all.

Valuation is one. Whether a property valuation is defensible, whether chattels need a professional valuer, whether a shareholding in a private company has been properly assessed: these are decisions a qualified person makes, sometimes on advice.

Tax is another. The treatment of gifts, reliefs, exemptions and the position across an estate is advice, and the responsibility for getting it right sits with the firm. Use AI to assemble the figures and to read official guidance at the source. Do not use it as the author of the tax position.

Construction of the will, questions about capacity or undue influence, and anything contentious between beneficiaries are also firmly off the list. So is the decision to distribute.

And the file's own deadlines and reminders stay in the firm's diary system. A calculation shown on screen is a cross-check, not a diary entry.

Confidentiality on a family matter

Estate files are unusually sensitive. They contain medical history, care arrangements, family disagreements and the financial details of people who are not your client. Several beneficiaries may be pressing for information they are not entitled to receive.

So apply the same discipline you would on any other matter. Know where the papers are held and processed. Know that the material is not being reused outside your firm. Keep access inside the firm limited to the people working on that estate, and do not assume that being senior is a reason to see a file. If an executor or a beneficiary asks whether AI has been used, answer plainly: it helped organise the papers and the figures, and a solicitor checked and signed the work.

Where Alesis fits

Alesis answers questions about a matter from the matter's own papers and names the page each answer came from; if the papers do not say, it says so. It counts key dates and figures with the working shown, each step carrying the rule that allows it, and says the firm's diary system still governs. Documents are read page by page, so any page it could not read is flagged rather than skipped, and when it cannot find support for a point it says what is missing instead of guessing. It prepares drafts for a qualified person to review and sign off, and it does not provide legal advice.