Family, elder & estate planning law
Turn good consultations into signed engagements—without carrying the signature chase, the questionnaire chase, and the reassurance calls yourself.
Deptly helps family, elder, and estate planning firms turn more consultations into signed engagements and executed plans — and carries the engagement follow-up, the questionnaire and document chase, and the client updates and plan-review scheduling in between — while legal advice, conflict decisions, and every question of law stay with the attorney.
Part of Boutique Legal Services
What does Deptly do for family, elder & estate planning law?
Deptly is a managed service for family, elder, and estate planning practices. It answers new inquiries and books consultations while you're in meetings or court, follows every engagement agreement to a signature, chases questionnaires, deeds, and signing dates until the plan is executed, keeps family-law clients updated between filings, and brings past plans back for review — inside the practice software you already run. Legal advice, conflict decisions, and every question of law stay with the attorney.
Sound familiar?
Five moments from the way this work actually runs — not because anyone is careless, but because the loop depends on whoever is busiest.
The wills consult three Tuesdays ago ended with 'this is exactly what we need.' The engagement agreement went out that evening and has sat unsigned ever since — because following up is nobody's actual job.
Your paralegal has requested the trust questionnaire three times. The couple is lovely, motivated, and completely stalled on the guardianship page — and every gentle nudge costs her twenty unbillable minutes.
A client calls the front desk for the third time this week asking whether the judge has ruled yet. Nothing has changed — but nobody told her that, so she's sure something is wrong.
The voicemail is from a daughter in Ohio about her mother's care here — the house, a rehab discharge on Friday, what Medicaid will mean. She's calling three firms from the facility parking lot, and she'll retain the first one that calls back with a plan.
A finished trust package has waited five weeks for a signing appointment because it needs the couple, two witnesses, and a notary in one room — and 'we'll find a date' hasn't survived a single week since.
Why this happens
In a consult-driven practice, revenue doesn't arrive when the consultation goes well. It arrives when the engagement is signed, the fee is paid, and — in estate planning — the documents are actually executed. Between those points sit waiting states the client owns: the signature, the questionnaire, the deed, the signing date. Clients stall not because they've changed their minds but because the decisions are heavy — who raises the kids, who gets the house, who pulls the plug — and putting off heavy decisions is human. Meanwhile the one person positioned to nudge them is billable in a conference room all day.
Family and elder matters add an emotional layer the estate side mostly escapes. A client mid-divorce or a family in a Medicaid crisis needs to hear from the firm regularly, or silence starts to read as neglect — so they call, and the calls interrupt the attorney, and answering them burns the hours that were supposed to be drafting. The follow-up work is high-stakes but genuinely administrative: perfect to hand off, dangerous to script carelessly. Which is why it defaults to the attorney, and then, on the busiest weeks, to nobody.
And the practice's most natural repeat revenue — the plan review every few years, the update after a birth, a death, a divorce, a move — depends entirely on outreach nobody has time to run. None of this is disorganization. Every one of these loops needs a patient, persistent closer whose only job is to keep it moving. In most firms that closer doesn't exist, so the loops stay open.
What Deptly handles here
Three complete responsibilities — each with a trigger, the actions carried, the escalation point, and what done actually means.
Responsibility 1
Follow every consultation to a signed engagement
- Starts when
- A consultation ends well — an estate plan quoted from your flat-fee schedule, a family or elder matter ready for your retainer agreement — and the prospective client leaves to 'talk it over.'
- What Deptly does
- Sends a same-day recap in your voice: the plan and fee exactly as you quoted them, what happens after signing, and the engagement agreement ready to sign
- Follows on the cadence you approve — patient with a couple deciding on their wills, prompter when a filing window or a care transition makes waiting costly
- Answers the routine questions that stall signatures — what documents they'll need, how the flat fee or retainer works as published, how long drafting takes — from answers you approve
- Logs every touch in your practice management system, so no prospective client quietly cools off in an inbox
- Collects the retainer or flat fee per your policy the moment they sign, and sends the intake questionnaire with the document checklist the same hour
- Comes to you when
- Questions of law — 'can my son contest this,' 'will I lose the house' — are captured word for word and routed to the attorney, never answered. Fee negotiations and payment plans beyond your published terms come to you as a quick yes-or-no.
Every consultation ends as a signed engagement with the questionnaire already out, a recorded no with the reason, or a scheduled future check-in — and the weekly brief shows which.
Responsibility 2
Chase the questionnaire, the documents, and the signing date
- Starts when
- An engagement is signed and drafting is waiting on the client — the questionnaire half-finished, the deed not located, the beneficiary details 'coming this weekend' — or a finished plan is waiting on a signing appointment nobody has set.
- What Deptly does
- Chases the intake questionnaire gently and persistently on your cadence, breaking it into smaller asks when a client stalls — the guardianship section this week, the asset list next
- Requests and tracks the specific documents each matter needs — the deed for the trust transfer, statements for a Medicaid lookback, the prior divorce decree — with a running outstanding list per file
- Books the signing appointment the moment you approve the drafts, coordinating the clients, your witnesses, and the notary against your real calendar
- Confirms signing day ahead of time with a plain what-to-bring list — IDs, the original deed — so the appointment executes instead of rescheduling
- Narrates the quiet stretches, so clients hear 'drafts are with the attorney, here's what happens next' instead of wondering whether the file is moving
- Comes to you when
- A client stalled because the family disagrees — about a guardian, a trustee, an inheritance — is flagged to the attorney rather than nudged again; that pause is legal work, not a reminder problem. Anything a client says that would change the plan goes to you verbatim.
Files stop aging in the drafted-but-unsigned pile: every open matter shows what it's waiting on, who was asked, and when — and plans leave the office signed, witnessed, and notarized on a date that actually happened.
Responsibility 3
Keep clients steady — and bring plans back when life changes
- Starts when
- A family-law matter goes quiet between filings, a retainer balance crosses your threshold, or a plan you drafted years ago comes due for a review — on the schedule you set, or after a life event a client mentions.
- What Deptly does
- Sends the administrative updates you approve after filings and hearings — received, submitted, what happens next — so silence never reads as neglect
- Answers routine reassurance calls from your approved answers and logs the substantive ones for the attorney, so 'has the judge ruled yet' stops interrupting your drafting
- Watches retainer balances and follows replenishment per your billing policy — consistent and unembarrassed, never raised for the first time mid-crisis
- Runs plan-review outreach on the schedule you set, inviting past clients back in when a plan is old enough — or when they told you about the move, the birth, the sale
- Asks satisfied clients for the review that brings the next family in, timed to the moment the plan is signed and the relief is real
- Comes to you when
- An upset client, a hardship conversation, or anything beyond your approved administrative language comes straight to you with the thread attached. Whatever a client discloses during outreach — a death, a divorce, a diagnosis — is flagged to the attorney, never handled by template.
Clients hear from the firm before they have to ask, retainers are replenished before work has to pause, and the weekly brief shows every plan due for review — contacted, booked, or flagged for you.
One job, before and with Deptly
The same signal, followed all the way to a verified outcome instead of waiting on whoever is busiest.
Today
- Thursday, 11:30 AM: a couple leaves the wills-and-trust consult saying 'this is exactly what we need.' You quote your flat fee, and the engagement agreement goes out that evening.
- A week passes. You're in hearings and drafting; your paralegal means to follow up Friday, but Friday has a filing deadline.
- Week three: the wife emails one question — whether the fee covers retitling the house. It lands between two client crises and gets answered four days later.
- The moment cools. They had the meeting, felt the relief of deciding, and the unsigned agreement quietly becomes a someday item in a kitchen drawer.
- Ten months later you hear they did their wills with a firm near her office. Your consultation did the convincing; the follow-up never happened.
With Deptly
- Thursday, 11:30 AM: the same consult, the same 'let us talk it over.'
- That evening they have a recap in your voice: the plan as quoted, the flat fee, what happens after signing — and the agreement ready to sign.
- Monday the wife asks whether the fee covers retitling the house. Deptly answers from your approved fee schedule within minutes and logs the exchange.
- Tuesday they sign. The fee is collected per your policy, the questionnaire and document checklist go out the same hour, and the deed request is already on the chase list.
- When the questionnaire stalls on the guardianship page, a gentle nudge breaks it into one small ask — and it's done by the weekend.
- Drafts approved, Deptly books the signing with your witnesses and notary. Thursday at 3:00 the plan is executed — and the weekly brief shows it, plus the two other open consults, each with its next touch scheduled.Closed loop
Start from the outcome you want
The same responsibilities, prioritized differently depending on what you are trying to change first.
Sign more of the consults you already run
For a consult-driven practice, growth is mostly recovered leakage: the inquiry answered while the moment is live, the engagement agreement that gets a follow-up instead of a memory, the drafted plan that actually reaches a signing date. Deptly answers and books new inquiries while you're in meetings or court, follows every quoted plan and retainer agreement to a decision, asks happy clients for the reviews that bring the next family in, and reaches back out when old plans come due — so the practice grows on consultations you already ran.
Practice law during the day, not run the office at night
When the attorney is also the intake desk, the document chaser, and the status line, drafting starts at 8 PM. Deptly carries that layer: consultations booked and confirmed against your real calendar, questionnaires and records chased on a patient cadence, routine reassurance calls answered from language you approved, retainer replenishment and overdue invoices followed per your billing policy. What reaches you is the legal work and a short weekly brief — the administrative shift is already done.
Take more matters without the files aging
More signed engagements used to mean more stalled files — questionnaires nobody chased, signing dates nobody set, clients calling because nobody called them. Deptly grows intake and follow-through together: inquiries answered and booked, every file's outstanding items tracked and chased, clients kept informed between filings, and a weekly brief showing which matters wait on the client, which wait on you, and which plans are due for review. The caseload grows; the drafted-but-unsigned pile doesn't.
What Deptly handles, asks about, and never decides
Every responsibility above runs inside this boundary. You set the rules; anything outside them waits for you.
Deptly handles
Routine work done within the rules you approve.
- Answers new family, elder, and estate planning inquiries by phone, text, and web form — including while you're in consults, mediation, or court
- Books and confirms consultations against your real calendar, with the intake questionnaire and document checklist sent ahead
- Follows unsigned engagement agreements and unpaid retainers or flat fees on your cadence until they resolve
- Chases questionnaires, deeds, statements, and decrees — with a per-matter list of what's still outstanding
- Coordinates signing appointments — clients, witnesses, notary — and confirms what to bring
- Sends approved administrative status updates and runs plan-review outreach on your schedule
Deptly asks first
Anything judgment-shaped waits for your okay.
- Payment plans or fee arrangements beyond your published schedule
- Whether to decline, refer, or wait-list an inquiry outside your practice areas or current capacity
- Any reply to a distressed or upset client that goes beyond your approved language
- Rescheduling that bumps another matter or crowds a court-adjacent day
- Speaking with anyone other than the client — when a spouse, sibling, or adult child asks for information, your consent rules decide
Always human
The decisions that stay yours, always.
- Legal advice and legal judgment — every question of law is captured word for word and routed to the attorney, never answered
- Conflict-of-interest determinations — party names are gathered and logged at intake; the attorney decides
- Drafting the documents and designing the plan — wills, trusts, agreements, and filings are legal work
- Supervising execution — witnessing, notarization, and capacity observations happen in the room, with your team
- Court deadlines, docketing, and all communication with courts and opposing counsel
The full rulebook — approvals, escalation, and audit history — lives on trust and control.
Who this covers
Each one gets the same execution engine — these notes call out what actually changes.
Family law
Divorce, custody, and support matters arrive emotionally charged, often after hours, and sometimes from both sides of the same dispute — so party names are captured for your conflict check from the first call, and nothing substantive is discussed before the attorney clears it. Between filings, the work is steadiness: approved updates after every docket event, reassurance calls answered without interrupting you, and retainer replenishment followed consistently instead of raised mid-crisis.
Elder law
The first call usually comes from an adult child — often in another state, often from a hospital or rehab parking lot — which raises who-may-know-what questions from the start. Deptly follows the consent rules you set about which family members it may update, keeps communication phone-first and patient for older clients, and carries the heavy document requests that long-term-care planning runs on — gently, and on schedule.
Wills & estate planning
A pipeline with three stalls: the unsigned engagement after a good consult, the questionnaire that stops on the hard pages, and the finished plan with no signing date. Deptly works all three — plus the return event most firms never collect: the plan review, invited on your schedule when documents age or life changes, which quietly refills the consult calendar from your own client base.
Trust-based plans & funding
A trust that is signed but never funded fails at the worst possible moment — and funding is follow-through work: the deed retitled, the accounts moved, the beneficiary designations updated. Deptly chases the funding checklist after the signing, confirming with clients and tracking what's done, so plans leave your office complete rather than merely executed. What counts as complete stays defined by the attorney.
Systems we commonly work in
- Phone calls & SMS on your existing business lineConfirmed
- Email & calendarConfirmed
- ClioPossible
- MyCasePossible
- LawmaticsPossible
- LawPayPossible
- WealthCounsel & document-drafting platformsScoped in discovery
Confirmed means standard channels every business already has — phone, text, email, and calendar. Possible means the platform supports what the workflow needs. Anything marked scoped in discovery gets verified during discovery before we commit to it — Deptly works within the tools you already have, as described on how it works.
See the loop close
Every proof item on this site is labeled for exactly what it is.
A drafted trust package finally gets its signing day
Deptly → Attorney
Needs your OKFile review flag: the Hendersons' trust package was approved eleven days ago, but no signing appointment exists. Your calendar has Thursday 3:00 and next Tuesday 10:00 with your notary in the office. Offer both?
Monday 8:50 AM
Attorney
Yes — offer both. And ask them to bring the original deed; we're retitling the house into the trust.
9:15 AM
Deptly → The Hendersons
Good morning — your estate plan is drafted and ready to sign. We have Thursday at 3:00 or next Tuesday at 10:00; witnesses and the notary are arranged at our office. Please bring your driver's licenses and the original deed to the house.
9:32 AM
Mrs. Henderson
Thursday at 3:00 works for both of us. Honestly, we kept putting this off — thank you for making it easy.
10:04 AM
Deptly
Books Thursday 3:00 in the firm calendar, confirms the witnesses and notary per your signing checklist, sends the what-to-bring list, and sets a Wednesday reminder.
10:06 AM
- Dinbox
Owner brief
Friday 5:00 PM
Three drafted plans were waiting on signing dates this week. Two are booked, one asked to talk with you first about changing a trustee — that call is on your calendar for Tuesday 9:00. No executed plan is waiting on logistics.
More demonstrations live on proof and examples.
Questions owners ask
It's written down before launch. 'When is my signing appointment' and 'does the flat fee cover retitling the house' get answered from language you approved. 'Should my brother be the executor' gets captured word for word, attached to the matter, and routed to the attorney — with the client told plainly that this one is for the lawyer. Deptly never improvises near that line; anything not covered by an approved answer goes to a human instead of getting sent.
Nagging would. What works is patience plus smaller asks: instead of 'please complete your questionnaire' a fourth time, the nudge becomes 'just the guardianship section this week — the rest can wait.' The cadence and tone are yours, and stop rules are honored. When a stall looks like family disagreement rather than busy-ness, it's flagged to the attorney instead of nudged again — that conversation is legal work.
Yes — that part is calendar logistics, which is exactly what Deptly is for. It reads your real availability, applies the witness and notary arrangements you define during setup, offers dates to the clients, and confirms ahead of signing day with a plain what-to-bring list. The execution itself — witnessing, notarizing, observing capacity — happens in the room with your team, where it belongs.
Only administrative content you've approved: the filing was submitted, the next date is set, here's what happens next in the process. Anything substantive is logged verbatim for the attorney and the client is told when to expect an answer. The bigger effect is upstream — when clients get a proactive update after every docket event, most of the 'has the judge ruled yet' calls stop happening at all.
Exactly who your consent rules say — and those are set per matter, by you. Before a matter opens, Deptly can gather information from a family caller and book the consultation without discussing anything substantive. After it opens, it updates only the people you've authorized, at the level you've authorized, and logs every contact. A sibling calling for details they're not cleared to have gets a warm, firm referral to you.
The model is working inside what you already run, not replacing it. Practice management and intake platforms like Clio, MyCase, and Lawmatics are common in the firms we talk to, and your exact setup is confirmed during discovery rather than assumed. Drafting platforms like WealthCounsel stay the attorney's territory — Deptly tracks the workflow around them, like questionnaire status and signing readiness, not the drafting itself.
Yes — and for many firms this is the fastest revenue in the building. You decide which files qualify and what the trigger is: plans past a certain age, or clients who mentioned a move, a birth, a sale. Outreach goes out in your voice, inviting a review rather than pushing one. Anything a client discloses — a death, a divorce, a diagnosis — is flagged to the attorney, because what the plan needs next is a legal question.
Deptly identifies itself honestly as part of your office's intake and administrative support, in a tone you sample and approve before launch. It never holds itself out as an attorney or a paralegal, and it says plainly when a question needs the lawyer. What most callers actually register is simpler: this firm answered at 12:40, asked good questions, and had a consultation booked before the next firm returned the call.
Yes — both models are encoded during setup. Flat fees are collected at signing per your policy, with payment-plan terms only as published. Retainers get threshold watching and consistent replenishment follow-up on your cadence, so the balance conversation happens early and calmly instead of mid-hearing. Anything disputed, sensitive, or hardship-shaped comes to you rather than being pushed by script.
Yes, under rules you set. The 9 PM caller who has finally decided to file, or the daughter calling about a Friday rehab discharge, gets answered, heard, and booked into a real consultation slot — instead of a voicemail beep. If your practice has true-urgency categories, like a protective order situation, those follow your escalation rules and reach a person you designate, immediately.
That swing is the rhythm the work follows. In the year-end crush, intake response, consultation scheduling, and signing logistics carry the weight so the surge converts instead of queuing. In quieter months, plan-review outreach and stalled-file recovery do — which is exactly when reactivating your own client base matters most. Scope assumptions are set in discovery and revisited when your reality changes.
Pricing follows scope — which workflows Deptly carries, how much volume moves through them, and which systems are involved — not a per-seat software tier. Many firms start with a single contained workflow, and engagement follow-up is a common first choice because unsigned agreements are visible, valuable, and easy to measure. The pricing page explains the starting models, and a scoped recommendation comes from a short conversation about your practice.
No pitch, just a straight read
Talk through how this would work in your business
Walk through how the work actually moves in your business and hear exactly what Deptly would carry first — including an honest no if the fit is not there.