AI and Estate Planning Statistics (2026): 55 Verified Figures With Sources

By Eric Ridley, attorney, Ridley Law. Updated October 2026.

These are 55 statistics on how Americans use and trust AI for wills, trusts and other legal questions, how many lawyers use it, and what courts and bar associations have said about it. Each figure is traced to the organization that first published it, and the survey method and sample size are stated where the publisher gave them. Surveys paid for by companies that sell estate planning products are labeled as such. We review the page every quarter and update it when a source publishes a new edition.

Cite this page: Ridley Law, “AI and Estate Planning Statistics (2026): 55 Verified Figures With Sources,” ridleylawoffices.com/ai-estate-planning-statistics/, October 2026.

The trend in the first two boxes runs against the third and fourth. More people say they trust AI, and almost none want it working without a lawyer checking the result. For the legal side of that gap, see our article on what happens when a will is drafted with ChatGPT.

Do people trust AI for wills and estate planning?

What share of Americans trust AI more than an attorney for estate planning?

30% of U.S. adults said they trust AI more than a human attorney for estate planning in the Trust & Will 2026 Estate Planning Report, up from 20% in 2025.

Trust & Will, a company that sells online wills and trusts, published both reports. It commissioned the 2026 survey, which Talker Research ran online with 5,000 U.S. adults from January 28 to February 5, 2026, with a margin of error of about 1.4 points. The 2025 survey, run by WeAreTalker (now Talker Research), covered 10,000 adults in January 2025. The company says the two samples differ in size and some question wording, so it favors direction over exact point comparisons. Source: Trust & Will, 2026 Estate Planning Report (2026). Source: Trust & Will, 2025 Estate Planning Report: Trust in AI Tools (2025).

How did trust in AI versus a human attorney change from 2025 to 2026?

The share trusting AI less than a human attorney fell from 46% in 2025 to 36% in 2026, and the share trusting it more rose from 20% to 30%, according to Trust & Will.

Answer	2025 survey	2026 survey
Trust AI more than a human attorney	20%	30%
Trust AI less than a human attorney	46%	36%
Trust them the same	34%	[not reported for 2026]

The 2025 “same” figure is reported in the 2025 report. The 2026 report does not give a matching number, so the table leaves it blank. Source: Trust & Will, 2026 Estate Planning Report (2026).

Which generation trusts AI most for estate planning?

46% of Gen Z respondents said they trust AI more than a human attorney for estate planning in 2026, according to Trust & Will.

In the 2025 report the same question produced 34% for Gen Z and 5% for the Silent Generation. The 2026 report excludes the Silent Generation from its main analysis because about 50 respondents falls below its 80-respondent minimum. Source: Trust & Will, 2026 Estate Planning Report (2026). Source: Trust & Will, 2025 Estate Planning Report: Trust in AI Tools (2025).

Do men and women trust AI differently for estate planning?

38% of men said they would trust AI more than a human attorney for estate planning, against 24% of women, in the Trust & Will 2026 survey.

The figures combine “much more” and “somewhat more.” Trust & Will also found 27% of women and 19% of men would trust AI much less. Source: Trust & Will, 2026 Estate Planning Report (2026).

How many people would use AI for estate documents with no attorney review?

Only 5% of respondents said they would use AI to create estate planning documents without any attorney review, according to Trust & Will in 2026.

The most preferred way to make a plan was still working one-on-one with an attorney, at 34% of all respondents. That preference was 41% among Baby Boomers. Among Gen Z, 20% would use AI-assisted document creation if attorney review were required. Source: Trust & Will, 2026 Estate Planning Report (2026).

What worries people about using AI for estate planning?

The top worries in Trust & Will’s 2026 survey were general distrust of AI (28%) and lack of human judgment for unique situations (28%), followed by privacy and data security (26%) and incorrect information or mistakes (26%).

Fraud or scams drew 21% and the risk of creating legal problems later drew 16%. In 2025 the most common concern was control, meaning AI making decisions without human oversight, at 47%, followed by privacy risks at 41% and emotional detachment at 37%. The question set changed between years, so the lists are not a trend line. Source: Trust & Will, 2026 Estate Planning Report (2026). Source: Trust & Will, 2025 Estate Planning Report: Trust in AI Tools (2025).

Are people with no estate plan more open to AI?

18% of respondents with no estate planning documents said they had no concerns about using AI for estate planning, against 6% to 7% of those who already had documents, according to Trust & Will in 2026.

Overall, 56% of U.S. adults in that survey had none of the five core estate planning documents it tracked. For California numbers on who has a will, see our page on how many people have a will. Source: Trust & Will, 2026 Estate Planning Report (2026).

Do people still want a lawyer involved in their will?

What share of Americans want an attorney involved in creating their will?

70% of respondents said they want an attorney involved in creating their will and estate planning documents in LegalShield’s July 2026 survey, up from 39% in a 2023 LegalShield survey.

Survey	Want an attorney involved	Sample
LegalShield, July 2023	39%	1,316 U.S. adults
LegalShield, July 2026	70%	1,850 U.S. adults

LegalShield sells a legal services membership, so it has an interest in this result. The 2023 figure is as LegalShield restated it in 2026. The 2023 sample size comes from LegalShield’s 2023 release. Source: LegalShield, Wills, Trusts & the Great Wealth Transfer (2026).

How many Americans prefer a do-it-yourself online will?

16% of respondents said they prefer a do-it-yourself online solution for their will, according to LegalShield’s 2026 survey of 1,850 U.S. adults.

The same survey found 94% believe a will is important and 46% have one. If you are weighing online tools in California, our page on whether you can use DIY tools to make a will in California covers what the law requires. Source: LegalShield, Wills, Trusts & the Great Wealth Transfer (2026).

How many Americans worry that AI cannot write an accurate or valid will?

58% of respondents cited concern about AI’s ability to create an accurate will, and 58% cited concern about its ability to create a legally valid one, in LegalShield’s July 2024 survey of 1,252 U.S. adults.

55% were concerned about AI protecting their information, and 76% preferred to speak live with a legal professional, in person or by phone. LegalShield describes the sample as balanced by age and other variables to match the U.S. Census. Source: LegalShield, Help over Hype (2024).

How many people use AI for legal questions?

How many Americans have used an AI chatbot for legal help?

65% of adults said they have used an AI chatbot for legal help in a Rev survey of 1,002 U.S. adults fielded December 2 to 3, 2025.

Rev sells transcription software for legal work. It ran the survey through SurveyMonkey and did not weight the data. The margin of error is about 3 points. 43% of respondents said they were comfortable using AI to clarify legal terms, and 38% used it to research general rights or gather information before consulting a professional. 46% of those who had not used AI for legal advice cited accuracy or misinformation concerns. About 23% said they would use AI to prepare to represent themselves in court. Source: Rev, Survey: 65% Use AI Legal Advice, But Accuracy Concerns Remain (2026).

How many U.S. adults use ChatGPT?

44% of U.S. adults said they ever use ChatGPT in a Pew Research Center survey of 5,119 adults conducted February 17 to 23, 2026, up from 18% in 2023.

Year	Share of U.S. adults who ever use ChatGPT
2023	18%
2024	23%
2025	34%
2026	44%

Pew changed the question wording in 2026. From 2023 to 2025 it asked only people who had heard at least a little about ChatGPT. In 2026 it also asked about other chatbots, so the series is not strictly comparable. Source: Pew Research Center, The share of Americans who say they use ChatGPT has more than doubled since 2023 (2026).

How many Americans use AI chatbots every day?

24% of U.S. adults use AI chatbots daily and 51% do not use them at all, according to Pew Research Center’s February 2026 survey of 5,119 adults.

Pew found 20% of adults use chatbots to get medical advice and 10% use them for emotional support or advice. It did not report a figure for legal advice. Source: Pew Research Center, Americans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on Impact (2026).

How many lawyers use AI, and what do the rules say?

What share of legal professionals use AI?

79% of legal professionals reported using AI in Clio’s 2024 Legal Trends Report, up from 19% in 2023.

Clio sells law practice software. It says the report draws on data from thousands of legal professionals across North America, and the release does not give a single sample size. Source: Clio, AI-powered legal practices surge (2024).

What did the American Bar Association say about lawyers using generative AI?

The ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility issued Formal Opinion 512 on July 29, 2024, its first formal opinion on generative AI, saying the duties of competence, confidentiality, client communication and reasonable fees apply to lawyers who use it.

Source: American Bar Association, ABA issues first ethics guidance on a lawyer’s use of AI tools (2024).

What has the State Bar of California said about lawyers using generative AI?

On May 14, 2026, the State Bar of California Board of Trustees approved revised Practical Guidance for the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in the Practice of Law, which replaces the version first published November 16, 2023 and adds guidance on agentic AI.

The revision responds to a request from the California Supreme Court. Source: State Bar of California, Ethics & Technology Resources (2026). Full text: Practical Guidance for the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in the Practice of Law.

Have courts sanctioned AI-fabricated citations in a probate case?

Yes. On July 15, 2026, the Arizona Court of Appeals sanctioned a son who used generative AI to write his brief in a challenge to his mother’s will, after finding that six of the brief’s eight citations were deficient and that it cited two cases that do not exist.

The case is In re Estate of Acciavatti (Ariz. Ct. App. No. 1 CA-CV 25-0606 PB), also captioned Dineen/Shibata v. Kotchka. The court struck the false citations and awarded the personal representative the part of her attorney fees caused by the hallucinated citations. It said a lack of intent to deceive did not excuse the misstatement of law. Arizona is not California, but the decision came out of a will contest, which is the kind of dispute an AI-drafted estate plan can end up in. Read the opinion: Dineen/Shibata v. Kotchka, Arizona Court of Appeals (2026).

Related pages on this site

• AI-drafted wills and the privilege trap in California
• The danger of DIY and AI estate plans
• How many people have a will
• Who can create a will in California, and can you use DIY tools
• California probate statistics
• Estate planning statistics and California guides

Methodology

We started from the original publisher of each number: the survey company, the research center, the bar association or the court. We left out secondhand reports of someone else’s figure. Each page was opened this session and the figure checked against the text. Where a survey was paid for by a company that sells related products, the sentence says so, and we give the sample size and fielding dates the publisher provided. Self-reported online surveys measure what people say, not what they do. Figures from different surveys use different questions and samples and should not be compared as one series. The next review is January 2027. To report an error, write to eric@ridleylawoffices.com.