# A legal AI workspace for trusts and probate firms Source: https://mikeforlaw.com/practice-areas/trusts-and-probate Updated: 2026-10-13 Trusts and probate firms use Mike to read a decedent's records, build asset inventories, track deadlines and notices, and draft petitions, letters and accountings from the file. Every figure and statement links to the page it came from, so an attorney or fiduciary can check the record before anything is filed. Administration is paperwork spread over many months: account statements, deeds, claims, notices, receipts and the governing documents themselves. Mike reads the trust or will, extracts who must be told and what must be done, and keeps the facts of the estate organized as the file grows. Cuanto Labs installs Mike for your firm, connects it to the folders where your estate files already live, and loads your own petitions, notices and accounting formats. Estate records, with their account numbers and family details, stay inside your firm's own installation. ## What Mike does for your practice - **Governing document summaries.** Mike reads a will or trust and its amendments and lists who the fiduciaries and beneficiaries are, what each is to receive, which powers apply and what conditions or deadlines the document sets. Every item cites the article and page it came from. - **Asset inventories.** Use Tabular Review to pull owner, account type, date-of-death value and beneficiary from every statement, deed and title record into one sortable inventory. Attorneys use it to separate probate assets from those that pass outside the estate. - **Notice and deadline lists.** From the governing documents and the court's papers, Mike builds a list of the people entitled to notice and the actions and dates that follow, so the administration checklist starts from the file and not from memory. - **Petition and letter drafts.** Ask for a petition, a notice to beneficiaries or a status letter to the fiduciary, and Mike drafts it in your template from the facts in the file. Drafts arrive as Word documents, and revisions come back as tracked changes. - **Accounting support.** Mike reads statements, receipts and invoices and sorts them into the receipts and disbursements categories your accounting format uses, with a source for every line, so the fiduciary's accounting can be reviewed against the paper. - **Contested matter research.** Mike searches published case law on questions such as capacity, undue influence, trustee duties and construction of ambiguous terms, reads the opinions, and checks each case it cites against CourtListener before the answer appears. - **Claims review.** Mike reads creditor claims against the estate and compares them with the decedent's records, listing claims the documents do not support so the attorney can decide what to allow or contest. ## How we set it up for your firm - **Your estate folders, connected.** We connect Mike to the drive or document system where your administration files live, so attorneys ask about an estate without uploading documents twice. - **Your petitions, notices and forms.** We load the petitions, notices, letters and checklists your firm uses in administration, so drafts come back in your format and follow your process. - **Inventory and accounting templates.** We build the review templates that turn statements and receipts into the inventory and accounting tables your firm and your court expect. - **Your court's rules and sources.** We connect the statutes, local rules and research sources your firm already uses, so Mike works from the requirements of the courts where you file. - **Fiduciary report formats.** We load the status letters and account summaries your firm sends to executors and trustees, so periodic reports come back in the layout fiduciaries already know. ## Questions attorneys ask ### Can Mike manage an estate from start to finish? No. Mike is a research and drafting workspace, not an administration system. It reads documents, builds inventories and tables, and drafts petitions and letters for an attorney to review. Filing, deadlines and court appearances remain with your firm, though Mike can keep a list of the steps and dates drawn from the file. ### Can it help when a trust has several amendments? Yes. Mike reads the original and every amendment together and reports which provisions were changed, replaced or left in force, with the page for each, so you are not reading five documents to find one clause. The attorney still decides how the instrument is construed, and every statement links to its source. ### Does Mike know probate law in my state? Mike searches published case law and reads the opinions it cites, and we can connect the statutes, local rules and research sources your firm subscribes to. It does not replace an attorney's judgment about your jurisdiction. Every citation links to its source so the attorney can confirm it before relying on it. ### Can Mike separate probate assets from non-probate assets? It tables each asset with its title, beneficiary designation and date-of-death value, citing the statement or deed, so the attorney can see which assets pass under the will or trust and which pass by designation or joint title. Whether an asset is probate property is a legal conclusion that stays with the attorney, and Mike flags records that are missing or unclear. ### Can we share information with the fiduciary? Accounts are for your firm's people. Mike produces Word documents, spreadsheets and letters that you send through the channels you already use, such as a draft accounting or a status report. Whatever leaves the installation is whatever your attorney chooses to send. Your attorney decides what the fiduciary sees and when, and the drafts stay editable Word files until they are sent. ### What if the documents are old scans or handwritten? Mike reads scanned pages after text recognition and says which pages it could not read instead of guessing. Typed wills and trusts read well. Handwritten codicils and old deeds are less reliable, so Mike marks them for a person to read, and the attorney should check any provision that turns on such a page against the original. ## Related - [Estate planning](https://mikeforlaw.com/practice-areas/estate-planning) - [Elder law](https://mikeforlaw.com/practice-areas/elder-law) - [Family law](https://mikeforlaw.com/practice-areas/family-law) ## Book a call Book a 30-minute call at https://meet.mike.cuantolabs.com or email office@cuantolabs.com.