Estate planning questionnaire to first drafts with Gavel

On every plan, someone takes down family details, fiduciaries and assets, then types them into a will, revocable trust, powers of attorney and health care directive. If a firm prepares 12 trust-based plans a month and a paralegal spends 3 hours keying details into each set, that's 36 hours a month, plus the typos (a misspelled child's name, the wrong successor trustee) that show up at the signing.

Gavel Workflows turns the firm's own Word templates into a questionnaire that clients fill in themselves. Gavel says its conditional logic controls which questions a client sees and which clauses go into the document, and that its AI tool, Blueprint, scans your templates, finds the fillable fields and suggests questions. On the Standard plan the client completes the form before the design meeting: family, prior marriages, guardians, trustees, agents and main assets. The saved answers fill the templates and produce a first draft set. The attorney reviews the answers with the client, makes the planning decisions and edits the drafts, and nothing goes to the client until the attorney has reviewed every page. Gavel fills in templates; it gives no legal advice.

An illustrative example built from typical figures, not a named business.

A two-attorney estate planning firm in Scottsdale, Arizona, prepares about 12 revocable trust plans a month. Its paralegal spends a few weeks building the firm's templates into one Gavel Standard workflow, and clients now complete the questionnaire before the design meeting.

About $940£707€841A$1,357C$1,329 a month of paralegal time, against a $210£158€188A$303C$297 cost. Saving 2 hours 15 minutes on each of 12 plans is 27 hours, at an assumed $35£26€31A$51C$49 an hour. Standard is $210£158€188A$303C$297 a month billed annually or $250£188€224A$361C$353 monthly, with one builder seat and 50 templates. The weeks spent building templates up front are not counted.

1. 1Start with the firm's most common package, such as a revocable trust, pour-over will, durable power of attorney and health care directive, and build those templates first.
2. 2Write the questionnaire in plain language and ask only for what the documents need; leave health details and planning choices for the meeting.
3. 3Test every branch with made-up families (blended family, minor children, a beneficiary with special needs) and compare the output with documents the attorney has already approved.
4. 4Send the questionnaire link after the engagement letter is signed, and offer a phone session to clients who prefer not to fill in forms.
5. 5Have the attorney review the answers with the client, decide the plan and check every generated page before any draft is sent.

• A questionnaire can be filled in by a child or caregiver steering the plan. The attorney must meet the client, confirm wishes without others in the room and assess capacity and undue influence.
• Templates go stale when state law changes. Review them at least once a year, because Gavel will fill an outdated clause as faithfully as a current one.
• Lite is cheaper at $83£62€74A$120C$117 a month billed annually but has 10 templates and no client-facing forms. Standard has one builder seat; a second builder needs Pro at $290£218€259A$419C$410 billed annually.
• The state bar's confidentiality rule applies to the form: check Gavel's security terms, restrict who can see submissions and don't ask clients to upload account statements through it.