Estate Planning Contacts in LiraDocs

LiraDocs provides robust options for managing Estate Planning contacts efficiently. Below are the best practices for adding and managing contacts related to Estate Planning matters. If these methods don’t suit your firm, reach out for further customization options.

1️⃣ Additional Parties Not Listed in LiraDocs

If you don’t see a specific party in the Estate Planning Matter type, you can easily add it through Matter Settings:
📌 Navigate to Matter Settings (click the gear icon).
📌 Add or remove parties based on your firm’s needs.

Example: If you have a potential witness for the signing of a Will, you can use Authorized Contact to keep track of them.

2️⃣ Beneficiaries in Estate Planning

To manage Beneficiaries in an Estate Planning matter:
📌 Specify each beneficiary’s relationship to your client (e.g., spouse, child, charity).
📌 Edit their role (right-click on contact > Edit Role & Legal Description).

This ensures that all beneficiaries are accurately represented in your estate planning documents.

3️⃣ Representing Couples

When representing couples, LiraDocs recommends the following approaches:
📌 Separate Contact Cards: Add Client 1 and Client 2 as separate contacts for easier document automation (e.g., using Replace References in templates).
📌 Tied Contacts on One Card: Alternatively, you can tie both clients to one contact card. This approach might be simpler but offers fewer automation benefits.

4️⃣ Managing Multiple Contacts in One Matter

For clients involving multiple parties, such as family members or trustees, LiraDocs allows you to:
📌 Link Contacts Together in the matter for seamless tracking.
📌 Customize Contact Roles according to their involvement in the estate plan (e.g., trustee, executor, attorney).

For more details on best practices for managing multiple contacts in estate planning, refer to the full guide on managing multiple contacts.

5️⃣ Authorized Contacts

If there’s a unique party to track (like a witness or a legal representative), use Authorized Contacts:
📌 This helps track individuals who might not be directly involved in the estate plan but play an important role (e.g., witness for the will signing).