A Real ChatGPT Will Reviewed: Seven Costly Flaws

Full analysis

Estate planning attorney John Ross reviewed an actual will created entirely by ChatGPT by a man in his early 80s. The document contained a series of serious legal errors: it was drafted as a joint will (one document covering both spouses), which Texas estate law authority Stanley Johansson has written is 'absolute malpractice' to draft because it creates enormous uncertainty about whether the surviving spouse can later change it. The will listed children's home addresses and phone numbers — information that becomes public court record when a will is probated. It required heirs to appear at a 'formal reading of the will' to receive their inheritance — a Hollywood fiction that does not exist in real legal practice, meaning the forfeiture condition attached to it is unenforceable. It named an 'executor' rather than an 'independent executor,' a Texas-specific distinction that would make probating the will significantly more expensive. It claimed a Lady Bird deed (a type of deed that transfers real estate outside of probate, bypassing the will entirely) had been executed concurrently with the will, which was false — and even if true, terms in a will cannot control assets that transfer outside of probate. The will also lacked a self-proving affidavit (a notarized attachment confirming the witnesses signed properly), meaning the actual witnesses would have to be tracked down and brought to court. When the same ChatGPT was asked to review the document, it rated it a 2 out of 10 and gave litigation avoidance a score of zero.