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Aipedia: Will writers and estate planners
AI tools can generate care-fee and asset protection trust recommendations in seconds, but the will writer is responsible for whether the plan is suitable and honestly explained. Plans that fail can leave elderly clients and their families with unexpected costs and complaints.
Part of: AI in Will writers and estate planners
In short
Some will firms sell lifetime trusts and other arrangements marketed as protecting assets from care fees, and AI may be used to produce the recommendations. A local authority can treat assets given away to avoid care fees as still belonging to the person, so a plan sold as protection may not work. Clients are often older and may be vulnerable. The codes require clear written recommendations, vulnerable-client care and competence. Complaints and claims in this area can be costly, and cover usually depends on the policy wording and how the service was declared.
Care-fee planning combines wills, lifetime trusts, property transfers and sometimes financial products. Firms use AI to take a fact find and generate a recommendation report, to produce client-friendly explanations of how a trust works, and to draft the trust deed and transfer documents. Sales teams may also use AI to write marketing copy and follow-up messages.
The output can read as persuasive and certain. That is the problem in an area where the honest answer is often that a plan may not achieve its aim, and that its main benefits may be other than care-fee protection.
SWW Code clauses 4.1 to 4.3 require clear information and a written summary of instructions, recommendations and prices, and clauses 5.4 and 5.5 cover vulnerable clients. Clause 6.3 requires the member to confirm the client acts freely and has capacity. IPW Code clause 5.3 requires the client to act freely and understand the service, and clause 2.6 forbids work beyond the member's competence. An AI-generated recommendation sent to a client is the firm's recommendation and must meet these standards.
Where a plan involves investment or insurance products, FCA-regulated advice may be needed. Consumer law also applies to how the service is marketed and sold.
When a local authority assesses whether someone must pay for care, it can treat assets the person gave away to avoid care fees as if they still owned them. Whether that applies depends on the facts, including the person's purpose and the timing. An AI tool that describes a lifetime trust as "protecting your home from care fees" without explaining this risk may lead to a complaint that the plan was mis-sold. Generative tools trained on marketing material are particularly prone to repeating such claims, so the risk warning has to come from the adviser, not the tool.
Illustrative scenario: an elderly couple receive an AI-generated report recommending they transfer their home into a lifetime trust to protect it from care fees. The report mentions deprivation of assets in one line at the end. A few years later one of them needs residential care and the local authority treats the home as their capital. Their children complain that the plan was sold as protection, the fees were wasted, and the trust has made selling the house more complicated. They seek a refund and compensation.
Capacity and pressure issues are common too, because adult children often arrange and attend the meetings; see AI, capacity and undue influence.
Claims that a care-fee plan was negligently recommended or drafted may fall within will-writer PI, subject to the policy terms. Some wordings exclude or limit claims for return of fees, mis-selling, financial advice or the failure of a scheme to achieve a tax or financial result, and insurers may ask specific questions about care-fee planning. If the service is not described on the proposal form, cover may be disputed. See does will writer PI cover AI errors and, for trust drafting generally, AI trust drafting and IHT planning.
For vulnerable-client practice in financial advice, see AI and vulnerable clients.
Apex arranges PI for estate planners offering lifetime trust work and can check how your policy treats care-fee planning. See AI in will writing and estate planner insurance.
Not reliably. A local authority can treat assets given away to avoid care fees as still belonging to the person. Whether it does depends on the facts, so any plan sold as protection must explain this risk clearly.
Only with close review. AI tends to write persuasively, which can overstate benefits. The codes require clear written recommendations, so a qualified person should approve each report and check its risk warnings.
No, but age, illness, bereavement and reliance on family members can all make a client more vulnerable. SWW clauses 5.4 and 5.5 require members to take care with vulnerable clients, so record what you noticed and what you did about it.
It depends on the wording and on whether the service was declared. Some policies limit fee refunds, mis-selling or financial advice claims. Ask your broker to check how your policy treats this work.
Tell us about your firm and the work you do. A broker will review how your current PI treats AI-assisted work, or arrange new cover. No fee for a quote. Or call 0117 325 0027.
Start a PI quote Request a callbackApex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered in England and Wales, company number 07014570. This page is general information about how AI is used in the profession and how insurance may respond. It is not legal, regulatory or insurance advice on your circumstances, and it does not guarantee that cover will be available or on what terms.
