TrustGuard for Attorneys
A detailed overview of how TrustGuard works, how the money moves, and what your obligations and protections are as a network attorney. Read this before deciding whether to join.
What TrustGuard Is
TrustGuard is a client management and document review tool for consumers who already have estate planning documents. Users upload their trusts, wills, powers of attorney, and related documents. TrustGuard parses those documents using AI, generates plain-English summaries, builds post-setup action checklists, runs guided annual reviews, and—when changes are needed—routes amendment work to attorneys in the network.
TrustGuard does not draft original estate plans. It does not provide legal advice to consumers. It does not hold itself out as a law firm or legal service. Every piece of AI-generated content visible to a consumer carries a persistent disclaimer stating that it is not legal advice and that the consumer should consult a qualified attorney before acting.
When a consumer identifies changes they need—through the annual review process or on their own—TrustGuard generates a structured amendment request and routes it to an attorney in the network. The attorney reviews the request, performs the legal work, and delivers the finished amendment. TrustGuard handles the intake automation, document parsing, client communication infrastructure, document delivery, and audit trail around that process. The legal judgment and drafting are yours.
How the Money Works
This is the section that matters most if you are evaluating whether TrustGuard's fee structure is ethically clean under your state bar rules. We have designed it to be straightforward.
Attorney Legal Fees
You set your own legal fees. You collect them directly from the client. TrustGuard does not touch, split, share in, or take a percentage of your legal fees. The fee you charge for amendment work is between you and your client. TrustGuard has no claim on it and no visibility into the amount unless you choose to disclose it.
TrustGuard Platform Fee (Paid by the Attorney)
TrustGuard charges a flat platform fee per amendment processed through the system. This fee covers intake automation, document parsing, AI-generated draft summaries, client communication infrastructure, document delivery, and audit trail. The fee is based on amendment complexity:
| Complexity Tier | Platform Fee |
|---|---|
| Simple | $78 |
| Moderate | $128 |
| Complex | $308 |
| Multi-Document | $398 |
These are flat amounts, not percentages. They do not scale with your legal fee.
Consumer Subscription (Separate Transaction)
Consumers optionally pay TrustGuard approximately $49/year for the consumer-side features: document storage, AI summaries, annual review reminders, and checklists. This is a direct consumer-to-TrustGuard transaction. It is not a legal fee, it does not flow through attorneys, and it exists independently of any amendment work.
To summarize the fee structure: there is no fee splitting on legal work. There are no referral fees for legal work. TrustGuard's revenue comes from platform fees paid by attorneys and subscriptions paid by consumers. The attorney-TrustGuard relationship is vendor-to-professional, not partner-to-partner. This structure is designed to keep the relationship ethically clean under state bar rules, including ABA Model Rule 5.4.
Liability Framework
TrustGuard is not the practicing attorney. TrustGuard does not provide legal advice to consumers, does not draft legal instruments, and does not establish an attorney-client relationship with any consumer. All AI-generated summaries, checklists, review outputs, and amendment drafts carry persistent disclaimers informing the consumer that the content is not legal advice and that they should consult a qualified attorney before acting.
When a consumer submits an amendment request through TrustGuard, the attorney reviews and approves the amendment before it is delivered to the client. The attorney-client relationship is between the attorney and the client. TrustGuard is not a party to that relationship, does not supervise the attorney's legal judgment, and does not warrant the legal sufficiency of the attorney's work product. TrustGuard's role is limited to providing the technology platform that facilitates intake, communication, and delivery.
Data Handling
Estate planning documents contain sensitive personal information. Here is how TrustGuard handles that data.
Storage
Uploaded documents are stored in Vercel Blob with encryption at rest. The original PDF files are stored under randomized keys—original filenames are not exposed in storage paths or URLs. Download access is gated behind authenticated, short-lived URLs.
PII Scrubbing
When documents are parsed, a post-extraction scrubbing step runs before any extracted data is written to the database. Social Security numbers, long account numbers, and full dates of birth are stripped by regex. The AI parsing prompt also explicitly instructs the model not to extract SSNs, full account numbers, or full dates of birth. The scrubber is a backstop for anything the prompt misses.
Attorney-Client Privilege
TrustGuard processes consumer-uploaded documents on behalf of the consumer. When an amendment request is routed to an attorney, the attorney-client relationship is between the attorney and the client. Attorneys should consider their own privilege obligations when communicating through the platform and advise clients accordingly. TrustGuard does not assert or waive privilege on behalf of any party.
Breach Protocol
In the event of a data breach affecting consumer documents or personal information, TrustGuard will notify affected users and attorneys within 72 hours, consistent with applicable state breach notification laws. We maintain audit logs for security events and route PII-related logging through a centralized audit system rather than general application logs.
What Happens When the AI Is Wrong
AI-generated content is not perfect. TrustGuard uses Anthropic's Claude to parse documents and generate summaries. The model can misread document language, miss provisions, or produce inaccurate summaries. This is a known limitation of the technology, and the system is designed with that assumption.
Here is the chain of safeguards:
- AI generates a draft summary. This is a structured extraction of people, assets, and provisions from the uploaded document. It is not legal analysis.
- Persistent disclaimer. Every screen where the consumer sees AI-generated content includes a visible disclaimer: “This summary is generated by AI to help you understand your documents. It is not legal advice. Always consult with a qualified attorney before making changes to your estate plan.”
- Attorney review before delivery. When an amendment request is created, the attorney reviews the structured request and the underlying documents before performing any legal work. The attorney is the final check on accuracy. The client receives attorney-reviewed output, not raw AI output.
- Consumer acts on attorney work product. The finished amendment is the attorney's work, reviewed and approved by the attorney. The AI summary is an intake tool, not the deliverable.
In short: the AI handles intake and summarization. The attorney handles legal judgment. The consumer acts on the attorney's work, not the AI's.
Attorney Vetting
During early launch, TrustGuard is onboarding attorneys through individual review. Each attorney who requests access is reviewed manually before being approved to receive amendment requests. There is no automated self-signup.
We collect your name, email, firm name, and primary state during the access request process. Approval decisions are made on a case-by-case basis. As the network grows, we intend to add more formal verification steps, but we will not claim capabilities we have not built yet.
Questions or Concerns
If you have questions about the fee structure, data handling, liability framework, or anything else on this page, contact Jonathan directly:
We would rather answer a hard question now than have you find out the answer the wrong way later.