Mumbai, Nov 8, 2023
Integrating AI’s transformative potential into estate planning holds the promise of enhancing efficiency in serving clients, but the indispensability of qualified and experienced estate planners remains undiminished.
SNEHA MAKHIJA, Head of Wealth Planning, Products & Solutions, Sanctum Wealth
The global landscape appears to have been thoroughly transformed by the changes ushered in by the Intelligence Revolution. There is both excitement and apprehension about the future transformations likely to unfold in every sphere of human life aided by new artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT. Within the legal community, discussions have broadened their scope to include a critical examination of AI’s capacity to create estate plans.
Estate Planning is about safeguarding and distributing an individual’s wealth after their lifetime and managing their financial obligations and assets in the event of incapacitation. Let us delve into the potential influence of AI on estate planning:
1. Data Entry and Management: Devising an estate plan involves gathering data and organising a wealth of information and documents to formulate a comprehensive strategy. AI has the potential to play a valuable role in rapidly and accurately processing and categorizing this information, significantly enhancing the efficiency of working with data.
2. Identifying Trends: AI holds the potential to analyse massive amounts of data, thereby assisting estate planning advisors in identifying valuable trends and insights that can inform strategic decisions for their clients.
By drawing from historical data and patterns, AI may analyse past cases to identify potential issues such as contentious family dynamics, asset distribution conflicts or likely complications due to cross-border laws. Such information empowers estate planners to adopt a proactive approach to formulate strategies and undertake scenario planning to address these challenges preemptively.
3. Improved client – estate planner interactions: It is fundamental to gather client information regarding their family background, profile, asset holdings, etc., that would assist in understanding the client and his requirements. AI chatbots may collect such essential information, thereby saving time and helping estate planners prepare for meetings more effectively, improving the quality of client interactions.
As artificial intelligence continues to exert its influence on the legal landscape, it becomes imperative to find an equilibrium between AI technology and the expertise and discernment of an estate planner. Estate planning, given its inherently personal and emotionally charged nature, necessitates a thorough understanding of a client’s unique goals, circumstances, and motivations by an estate planner, a task that AI tools cannot replace. Furthermore, estate planning is a multifaceted process that involves complex considerations spanning taxation, both domestic and cross-border legal regulations, and intricate financial matters, all of which demand specialised knowledge and expertise.
In addition to this, the nature of estate planning inherently involves handling sensitive and confidential information. While AI tools offer a sense of security, there remains the ever-present risk of data breaches and cyber-attacks. Integrating AI’s transformative potential into estate planning holds the promise of enhancing efficiency in serving clients, but the indispensability of qualified and experienced estate planners remains undiminished. Consequently, the future of estate planning lies in striking a delicate balance between these two indispensable elements.
For more information, please visitwww.sanctumwealth.com
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