Estate Planning Software for Estate Lawyers

Match the System to the Estate Planning Work

Choose a precedent subscription when you need drafting content, or an integrated suite when you also need matter management and later administration workflows.

By Lawyers’ Wills and Lifetime Planning publications suit firms that want jurisdiction-specific guidance and precedents while retaining their existing matter system. Its website subscription works without LEAP. Downloaded precedents still need your firm’s document storage and approval process. Within LEAP, its precedents can populate from matter data.

LEAP suits firms seeking one system for estate planning, probate and administration. It combines estate matter types with automated precedents and legal accounting. Firms can add their own precedents. Choose this broader approach when the work extends beyond producing planning documents and your team needs a shared matter record.

Smokeball suits firms seeking planning documents alongside practice management and a record of amendments. It populates estate-planning templates from client data and tracks changes against the original matter. Template coverage and legal drafting responsibility need separate attention, particularly where the firm supplies its own clauses.

Option	Instruction capture	Precedent coverage	Approval responsibility	Administration fit
By Lawyers publication	Guided matter plans support taking instructions	Jurisdiction-specific publications and clause libraries	Use the firm’s review process for downloaded drafts	Add the relevant administration publication and matter workflow
LEAP	Reusable client and estate matter data	Automated library plus the firm’s precedents	Assign the supervising solicitor within the matter process	Planning, probate and administration in one suite
Smokeball	Client, beneficiary and asset details within the matter	Planning templates and local precedent profiles	Use amendment history alongside the firm’s sign-off process	Separate estate-administration matter work within the suite

A narrow will template is useful for preparing a working outline. It cannot replace a system that preserves individual instructions and controls the solicitor’s drafting review.

Record Instructions, Authority and Capacity Concerns

Keep the will-maker’s instructions separate from information supplied by a relative, an attorney or another participant. Record each person’s role and the source of each material instruction. The person who books the appointment or uploads a statement might have no authority to approve a beneficiary change.

For example, a daughter supplies her father’s asset list and asks staff to add a gift to herself. Record her request as information from the daughter. Keep the proposed gift unresolved until the solicitor obtains and records the client’s instructions.

The Law Society of NSW’s estate-planning guidance explains that an attorney does not automatically have access to the client’s will. It also addresses the solicitor’s responsibility when capacity to instruct is in doubt. Build permissions around the accepted authority, rather than giving every family contact access to the draft.

Give capacity concerns a separate review status with the observation, its author and the solicitor responsible for deciding the next step. Preserve conflicting instructions and the reason a proposed change was accepted or rejected. A questionnaire response or software warning records an issue for professional assessment. It does not decide capacity.

Control Precedents and Solicitor Approval

Select the jurisdiction and precedent source before staff generate a draft. Record the template version used, any optional clauses and the solicitor who approves changes to those clauses.

By Lawyers separates Wills and Lifetime Planning publications across seven jurisdictions, with a separate Wills publication for the Northern Territory. Its FAQ explains that clause libraries support more specific drafting and that its publications are updated for changes in law and practice. A subscription to one jurisdiction does not describe the content needed for every other jurisdiction.

Smokeball’s Will (WA) support guide describes separate client and will details, including a second client for mirroring or mutual wills. The same guide identifies the Estate Planning (WA) profile as containing non-legally drafted precedents. A localised matter screen therefore needs a separate decision about who owns and approves the drafting content.

An illustrative approval sequence gives staff and the supervising solicitor different jobs:

1. Staff record the confirmed instructions and attach the attendance note.
2. The drafting staff member selects the approved jurisdictional precedent and marks proposed clause changes for review.
3. The supervising solicitor compares the draft with the instructions and accepts or rejects the changes.
4. Staff retain the approved version separately from superseded drafts and record any later amendment as a new review task.

These are workflow requirements for your firm to configure. An edit history alone does not prevent a staff member from sending an unapproved draft. Keep permission to release the document separate from permission to prepare it.

Keep Asset and Beneficiary Details Traceable

Store an asset’s reported ownership separately from the evidence supporting that ownership. Link the proposed gift to both the beneficiary record and the approved drafting instruction.

In this illustrative example, Morgan tells the firm that a unit belongs to Morgan alone and is to pass to niece Alex. A staff member records the unit, Morgan’s statement and Alex’s full identity. The title search later shows another registered owner. The solicitor considers the ownership position and corrects the drafting instructions before approving the gift wording.

Keep Morgan’s original statement, the title search and the correction together. Update the asset record and regenerate the affected passage. Record which version the solicitor approved so an older draft cannot silently reintroduce the original description.

An earlier transfer to a family member can create a different question about what happened to the money. Preserve the original statements alongside correspondence explaining the transaction. A separate financial review can examine the transfers and give the solicitor source references for the findings. Keep that analysis distinct from the decision about legal ownership and the wording of the will.

For supporting records, retain the file’s source and the relevant page or transaction reference. A copied amount without its source leaves the next reviewer unable to distinguish a client’s recollection from a bank record.

Separate Planning From Estate Administration

Planning records describe the client’s wishes and circumstances during life. Administration records track the estate after death, including assets, liabilities and distributions.

LEAP’s estates suite covers both stages. Smokeball’s estate-administration product describes probate and letters-of-administration forms, asset inventories and beneficiary communication. These functions suit firms that will manage the later matter as well as prepare the plan.

A planning-only workflow can still retain useful records for that handover. Transfer the accepted instructions and supporting documents with a clearly identified executed will. Retain the earlier asset list as a historical record, then establish the estate’s assets and values for the administration matter. A draft will is not an executed instrument or evidence of a grant.

Keep the nominated executor’s contact record distinct from the authority recorded for the later matter. For the work that follows, the deceased estate guide explains the administration context. Buying wills and estates software for lawyers does not remove the need to establish the correct authority at each stage.

Protect Drafts and Leave With Usable Records

Assess access to the matter and the records you can take out before committing the firm to a platform. Restricted drafting files need controlled sharing as well as a recoverable approval history.

LEAP’s matter-access instructions allow access to be restricted to selected staff. The guide also warns that matter type, client and other-side details remain visible in the matter list. Apply that distinction when naming a sensitive matter. LEAP’s estates page states that its Australian data is hosted in Sydney on Amazon Web Services, with encryption in transit and at rest.

Include external document sharing in the assessment. The recipient needs the right version and authority to receive it. Compare access expiry and revocation with staff permissions, and include hosting location, backup arrangements and document history in the firm’s procurement record.

Compare the Cost of the Required Workflow

Compare licence units and content subscriptions separately. By Lawyers lists its Wills and Lifetime Planning publication at $119 plus GST per month per jurisdiction. Its FAQ gives monthly subscriptions a three-month minimum period and describes additional team-member charges. Those are publication costs, distinct from a practice-management licence.

Smokeball lists Grow from $249 per user per month excluding GST, with practice-area templates and advanced document automation. Its pricing page separates add-ons from the base plan. Price the required users and functions together, including implementation, precedent conversion and training charges stated in the proposed contract.

Compare the renewal term, cancellation notice, export charges and access after termination on the same basis. A lower monthly fee can leave substantial work if the firm must rebuild its clause library or recover documents manually.

Retain More Than the Final PDF

LEAP’s document-export guide describes document and folder exports, with a separate PDF export option. That procedure exports correspondence documents rather than a complete transferable matter database.

Smokeball’s data-export instructions describe CSV exports for matters and contacts. Document exports require a support request and can take up to five business days. Build that lead time into a transfer.

Require an exit package that preserves instructions, file notes and supporting records alongside the final documents. Include an index connecting the approved draft to its sign-off and executed version. A flattened final document preserves its visible wording but loses the structured answers and clause choices needed to explain how it was prepared.

Choose the smaller planning option when the firm’s existing system already preserves that record. Choose an integrated suite when the team also needs controlled matter handling and administration workflows. Make the approval record and a usable export part of the purchase decision.