Estate planning is one of the few practice areas where the attorney’s mistake may not surface for decades. A missing beneficiary, an overlooked retirement account, or a failure to document the client’s testamentary capacity can lie dormant until the client passes away — at which point the error becomes permanent, the client cannot clarify anything, and the heirs have standing to sue.
The intake form is the first line of defense. Not the engagement letter. Not the estate plan itself. The intake form — because it is the document that determines what information the attorney has when they begin drafting. If the intake form fails to ask the right questions, the attorney proceeds on incomplete information, and incomplete information in estate planning is where malpractice claims are born.
Here are the 15 fields every estate planning intake form must include, why each one matters, and what happens when it is missing.
The 15 essential fields
1. Full legal name (including aliases and former names)
This sounds obvious, but “full legal name” in estate planning means more than what appears on a driver’s license. It includes maiden names, prior married names, names used on deeds or account registrations, and business aliases. Real property and financial accounts are often titled in prior names. If the will refers to “Jane Smith” but the deed to the vacation home is in “Jane Kowalski” (a maiden name), you have created an ambiguity that the executor will need to resolve in court.
The intake form should have fields for legal name, maiden name, and all other names used on any asset, account, or legal document.
2. Marital status and history
Current marital status is the starting point. But estate planning also requires marital history — prior marriages, divorces, annulments, and any surviving obligations from those relationships. A prenuptial agreement from a prior marriage may affect how assets can be distributed. A divorce decree may contain provisions about life insurance beneficiary designations that the client forgot about but that are still enforceable.
This field should capture: current status, date of current marriage, number of prior marriages, and whether any divorce decrees or prenuptial agreements exist.
3. Children and dependents (all of them)
This means every child — biological, adopted, stepchildren, and children from prior relationships. It also includes any other dependents the client supports, such as elderly parents, disabled siblings, or grandchildren in the client’s care.
The malpractice risk here is omission. If the attorney drafts a will that does not mention a child, the omitted child may have standing to challenge the will as a pretermitted heir under state statute. Even if the client intentionally wants to disinherit a child, the intake form must document that the child exists — so the attorney can include proper disinheritance language rather than silence.
4. Document type checkboxes
Estate planning is not one document. It is a package that may include some or all of the following: last will and testament, revocable living trust, irrevocable trust, power of attorney (financial), healthcare proxy or medical power of attorney, living will or advance directive, HIPAA authorization, and guardianship designation for minor children.
The intake form should include a check-all-that-apply grid listing each document type. This ensures the attorney and client are aligned on the scope of the engagement from the first meeting. It also creates a record if the client was offered a healthcare proxy and declined — protecting the attorney from a later claim that the proxy was never discussed.
5. Existing estate planning documents
Does the client have a prior will? An existing trust? A power of attorney that is still in effect? The intake form must ask, and the client must be asked to bring copies. Drafting a new will without reviewing the old one risks contradictions. Drafting a new trust without knowing whether an existing irrevocable trust holds assets risks a plan that does not account for assets already in trust.
6. Real property inventory
Every parcel of real property the client owns, co-owns, or has an interest in. This includes the primary residence, vacation homes, rental properties, vacant land, timeshares, and interests in family-owned real estate. For each property, the form should capture: address, how title is held (sole, joint tenants, tenants in common, trust, LLC), approximate value, and any mortgages or liens.
Title designation matters enormously in estate planning. Property held as joint tenants with right of survivorship passes outside the will. Property held as tenants in common passes through the estate. If the intake form does not capture how title is held, the attorney may draft a will provision that conflicts with the actual title designation.
7. Financial account inventory
Bank accounts, brokerage accounts, retirement accounts (401(k), IRA, Roth IRA, pension), annuities, and any other financial accounts. For each, the form should capture: institution name, account type, approximate value, and — critically — the current beneficiary designation on file with the institution.
This is the field most commonly missing from generic intake templates, and it is responsible for a disproportionate number of estate planning malpractice claims. Retirement accounts and life insurance policies pass by beneficiary designation, not by will. If the will says “everything to my wife” but the 401(k) beneficiary designation still names an ex-spouse, the ex-spouse gets the 401(k). The attorney who failed to ask about beneficiary designations may be liable for the discrepancy.
8. Life insurance policies
Life insurance deserves its own section, separate from financial accounts, because of the beneficiary-designation issue and because life insurance interacts with estate tax planning. The form should capture: carrier, policy type (term, whole, universal), face value, owner, insured, and current beneficiary designations.
9. Business interests
Does the client own a business, partnership interest, LLC membership, or stock in a closely held corporation? Business succession planning is a specialty within estate planning, and the intake form must at least flag whether it is relevant. The form should ask: entity name, entity type, ownership percentage, existence of a buy-sell agreement, and current valuation (if known).
10. Executor and trustee designations
The client needs to name an executor for the will and a trustee for any trust. The intake form should capture the client’s first and second choices for each role, along with contact information. It should also ask whether the client has discussed these roles with the proposed individuals — naming someone who does not know they are being named creates practical problems after death.
11. Guardian designations for minor children
If the client has minor children, the intake form must capture guardian preferences — first and second choice — and any individuals the client specifically does not want to serve as guardian. The form should also ask whether the proposed guardian is aware and willing.
12. Healthcare directive preferences
The intake form should capture the client’s general preferences regarding end-of-life care, artificial life support, pain management, and organ donation. These preferences inform the drafting of the living will or advance directive. The form should also capture the name and contact information of the proposed healthcare agent.
13. Special circumstances flags
The intake form needs check-all-that-apply flags for circumstances that materially affect estate planning strategy:
- Beneficiary with special needs (triggers supplemental needs trust discussion)
- Beneficiary with substance abuse or financial irresponsibility concerns (triggers discretionary trust discussion)
- Blended family (prior marriage children + current marriage children)
- Significant charitable intent
- Non-citizen spouse (affects marital deduction planning)
- Ownership of property in multiple states (triggers ancillary probate discussion)
- Expected inheritance from parent or relative
- Active litigation or pending divorce
Any one of these flags changes the estate plan. If the intake form does not ask, the attorney may not discover the circumstance until the plan is already drafted — or worse, after the client has died.
14. Capacity and undue influence observations
This is an intake-form-only field — it does not appear on the client questionnaire. The attorney or paralegal conducting the initial consultation should document their observations regarding the client’s mental capacity: Does the client understand the nature and extent of their assets? Do they understand who their natural heirs are? Can they articulate their testamentary wishes coherently? Is anyone else present who appears to be influencing the client’s decisions?
These notes are contemporaneous evidence of capacity. If a will contest later alleges lack of capacity or undue influence, the attorney’s intake notes become critical evidence. An intake form without this field leaves the attorney with nothing to point to but memory.
15. Conflict-check parties
Every estate planning file involves multiple interested parties: the client, the spouse, the children, the named executor, the named trustee, the named guardian, and potentially business partners. All of these individuals must be run through the firm’s conflict-check system before the engagement begins.
The intake form should have a dedicated section listing every individual and entity that will be checked for conflicts. This is especially important in estate planning because family members sometimes seek separate representation from the same firm — a situation that creates conflict-of-interest issues if not caught at intake.
How these fields work together
Individually, each of these 15 fields captures a piece of information. Together, they form a complete picture that the attorney needs before drafting anything. The Templateez estate planning intake form includes all 15 fields organized into a structured, three-page layout with proper section grouping, check-all-that-apply grids for document types and special circumstances, and tabular fields for asset and beneficiary inventories.
The paired estate planning client questionnaire captures the client-facing counterparts: the client’s self-reported asset list, their beneficiary preferences, their healthcare directive wishes, and their signed acknowledgment of the scope of engagement.
Related legal intake forms
Estate planning often overlaps with adjacent practice areas. If your firm handles these matters alongside estate planning, the corresponding intake forms ensure consistent documentation across the file:
- Probate — for matters that have moved past planning into estate administration
- Trust & Estate Administration — for ongoing trust management and fiduciary duties
- Elder Law & Medicaid Planning — for clients whose estate plan intersects with long-term care planning and Medicaid eligibility
- Probate Litigation — for will contests, trust disputes, and fiduciary breach claims
- Real Estate — for transactions that arise from estate administration (property transfers, sales)
All 38 legal intake forms are available individually or as part of the Legal Bundle at 47% off individual pricing.
The cost of missing fields
Estate planning malpractice claims are among the most expensive in legal practice, because the damages are measured by the value of the assets that were misdirected. A missing beneficiary designation field that leads to a $500,000 retirement account going to the wrong person is a $500,000 malpractice claim. A failure to flag a special-needs beneficiary that leads to disqualification from government benefits is a claim measured in decades of lost support.
The intake form is a low-cost, high-impact safeguard. Fifteen fields, properly structured and consistently used, prevent the information gaps that create these claims. It takes five minutes to fill out. It protects the practice for years.
Get the estate planning intake form and questionnaire set. View the Estate Planning Complete Set — designed by a licensed attorney with all 15 critical fields, proper privilege footers, and a matched client questionnaire with signed acknowledgments.