For legal professionals
Estate planning family tree
A client's family drawn as a tree across the generations, with every kind of parent and partner, the executors, trustees and beneficiaries, and the estate or trust they belong to, saved as a PDF for the file.
An estate planning family tree shows everyone in a client's family, how each person is related and the years they lived, so you can see who a will or an estate affects. In PrimeTask you build it around the client, generations up and down, link executors, trustees and beneficiaries, and save it as a PDF for the file.
Updated · Checked with PrimeTask 1.0.6 · PrimeTask Team
The problem
A family usually reaches the file as a page of notes: children from two marriages, a step-son, a grandchild named in the will. Someone is easy to miss, and it's hard to show the client what you've understood.
A drawn tree shows the gaps at a glance, and the client can check it in the meeting.
What it uses
Five parts, one connected system
Each card opens its docs article in a new tab, for the detail behind the steps.
Family and Circles
A client's family tree, two generations up and down
Docs for Family and Circles (opens in a new tab)PrimeCRM Settings
Legal practice: Family, Trust and Estate, executors and trustees
Docs for PrimeCRM Settings (opens in a new tab)Company Details
An estate or a trust kept as a client, with its people
Docs for Company Details (opens in a new tab)Contact Details
Each person's page, with their family and connections
Docs for Contact Details (opens in a new tab)CRM & MCP
Family details kept from your AI agent until you allow it
Docs for CRM & MCP (opens in a new tab)Step 1
Turn on Family for the Space
PrimeCRM Settings (opens in a new tab)Open Settings, expand PrimeCRM Settings and choose the Space. Under How do you use your CRM?, click Legal practice.
It turns on Family, adds the client types Trust and Estate, and the connections Executor and Testator, Trustee and Beneficiary. To turn on Family alone, open Relationships between people in the Contacts tab.
Step 2
Start the tree from your client
Family and Circles (opens in a new tab)Open the client's page, and in Family click Family tree. The chart opens with the client in the middle.
Click an empty Add Parent place above them, or click someone and choose Parent, Partner, Child or Sibling, then type a name. People already in your CRM are listed, so nobody is added twice.
Step 3
Record every kind of family
Building a family tree (opens in a new tab)Click someone to set each parent's kind: Birth, Adoptive, Step, Foster or Guardian. Each partnership is Together, Separated, Divorced, Widowed or Annulled.
For a half brother or sister, choose Sibling and pick the parent they share under Through. Double-click a parent to put them in the middle and add the generation above.
Step 4
Name the executors, trustees and beneficiaries
Contact details (opens in a new tab)Click a person, and under Add a connection type a name and pick Executor, Trustee or Beneficiary. The connection shows on both people's pages, each the right way round.
An executor who isn't family, such as a friend or a professional, is added the same way as a new person.
Step 5
Keep the estate or trust as a client
Company details (opens in a new tab)Add the estate or the trust as a client, with the type Estate or Trust, and add its people to it: the executors, trustees and beneficiaries.
Switch the chart to Circles, and each person's circles include the estate or trust, with everyone else in it.
Step 6
Save the tree for the file
Save the tree (opens in a new tab)In the Family view, click Save the chart and choose Save as a PDF or Save as an image. The whole tree is saved under the person's name.
Add the PDF to the matter's files, so the family as you recorded it stays with the matter.
Step 7
Decide who sees family details
CRM and your AI agent (opens in a new tab)Family details are private, even from your AI agent. It reads them only after you turn on Read family and circles under Family and Circles in the External Integrations card.
Before a Space is shared, PrimeTask says how many people in it have family details, because everyone who can open a shared Space sees them.
The checklist
The whole list
For each client's family:
- The client's parents, partners, children and grandchildren, and their brothers and sisters
- Each parent's kind, and each partnership's status
- Half brothers and sisters through the parent they share
- Executors, trustees and beneficiaries connected, family or not
- The estate or trust kept as a client, with its people
- The tree saved as a PDF in the matter's files
- Your AI agent's family permission off unless it needs it
Important. In a shared Space, everyone who can open it sees the family links and dates recorded there, and turning Family off later doesn't take back what they already have. Keep a confidential family in a Space only you use.
Variations
Make it yours
Three ways to change the setup to fit how you work.
Birthdays and the years someone lived
Connections of your own
Your words for the family
Reuse
Save it for next time
Set it up once, and start the next one from it.
A family meeting template
Questions
Common questions
It shows at a glance who is in the family and how each person is related, including children from earlier marriages, step and adopted children, and grandchildren. Gaps show up, and the client can check the tree in the meeting.
Yes. A person can have two birth parents and up to two others, such as an adoptive parent, a step-parent or a guardian, four in all.
No. It records the family, the people around it and your notes, and saves the tree as an image or a PDF. Drafting and court forms stay in the tools your firm uses for them.
Not until you allow it. It reads family details only after you turn on Read family and circles in External Integrations, and its other tools never show them.
Yes. Family and Circles are part of PrimeCRM, which needs Pro. The free trial includes them, so you can build a client's tree before you buy.
Related
More setups like this
Other jobs, set up the same way.
Law firm CRM
Clients, matters and every call and meeting in one CRM on your own computer, set up for a law firm in one click, with meeting notes from your own templates and next steps as tasks.
How to organize legal case files
Every email, scan and PDF comes in through one folder, is filed to the client, the matter or the call it belongs to, and is found again by name, label or date.
How to keep client information confidential
Client details kept on your own computer, locked when you step away, encrypted when you sync them with a password, and shared with an AI agent only as far as you allow.
Set this up with your own work.
The free trial runs for 14 days and includes Pro.