Computerized Probate Committee Report
| Publication year | 1985 |
| Pages | 1607 |
| Citation | Vol. 14 No. 9 Pg. 1607 |
1985, September, Pg. 1607. Computerized Probate Committee Report
Many new developments that occurred in the computer industry in 1983 started what soon became a rapidly developing trend toward the use of personal computers (microcomputers) by probate attorneys in planning and administering their client's estates. Although there were only a few good probate software packages available in 1983,(fn1) substantial interest in such software had been expressed at that time.(fn2)
In the fall of 1983, the CBA Probate Council of the Probate and Trust Law Section formed the Computerized Probate Committee ("Committee"). The Committee was established to identify areas of Colorado probate practice in which personal computers might be helpful, as well as the types of software packages that might be available.(fn3) During its first year, this is what the Committee spent most of its time trying to accomplish.
As the Committee's work progressed, a consensus was reached that it should concentrate its initial efforts on identifying software that could be purchased and used in a lawyer's office on a personal computer rather than on systems requiring the use of mainframe computers or systems located in other cities. Also, a low priority was given to looking at software that was designed to prepare estate planning documents because most Colorado firms already had in place some sort of automated word processing capability that could do this. At that time, judging by the responses received to the suggestion of putting the 1983 revised versions of the "orange book" forms on floppy disks, the equipment being used was too varied or personalized to lend itself easily to a common software package that would be worth exploring further.
The Committee identified the following areas of probate practice (in addition to document preparation) as readily lending themselves to the effective use of personal computers: (1) estate planning calculations and presentations; (2) indexing systems for client documents and follow-up contacts; (3) fiduciary accounting systems, preferably ones conforming to the National Fiduciary Accounting Standards Project(fn4); (4) securities valuations; (5) docket and tickler control systems; and (6) software capable of preparing federal estate and federal and Colorado fiduciary income tax returns.
Other identified areas of interest included Internal Revenue Code § 2032A special use value calculations, business evaluations, charitable trust calculations and the automated preparation of probate pleadings and checklists.
It became evident in late 1984 that the most significant hurdle probate lawyers faced in deciding whether or not to computerize their law practices was finding a way to evaluate the available software packages adequately before purchasing them and the related hardware equipment. At this time, the Software Evaluation Subcommittee of the G-2 Technology and Economics In Planning and Probate Committee of the ABA Probate Section was actively pursuing very similar objectives.(fn5) However, the Colorado Committee felt that the need to identify and evaluate such software was too urgent to await the ultimate outcome of the ABA's efforts.
In the winter of 1984, the Colorado Committee decided to obtain working copies of and evaluate first-hand as many probate software packages as possible. This decision was due in part to the fact that many software vendors were unwilling to allow potential purchasers to evaluate their software in advance, had trial periods which were too short to allow for adequate evaluation or required prepayment of a fee (usually...
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