Under a WSBA-vetted compliance officer and quarterly bar reporting, Legata becomes the first company authorized to deliver estate planning legal services under Washington’s new regulatory pilot.

Legata, Inc. announced today that it has become the first company authorized by the Washington Supreme Court to deliver estate planning legal services in Washington State under a technology-enabled model. The authorization comes through the state’s Pilot Project for Entity Regulation, a supervised framework built specifically to test new models for expanding legal capacity without compromising client protection.

For solo practitioners and small firms handling estate planning, the math has long been unforgiving. Routine matters, such as a simple will or a basic power of attorney, consume the same scheduling and drafting overhead as complex ones, leaving little room to take on new clients without turning others away or working nights and weekends. Legata’s authorization is designed to change that math, not the profession’s role in it.

The Legata platform handles structured intake, document assembly, and plain-language client guidance for standard estate planning matters, freeing attorney time for the judgment-intensive work only a licensed lawyer can provide. Built by estate planning attorneys and operating under direct WSBA-vetted supervision, the platform is intentionally scoped. For complex matters, contested situations, or clients who want direct attorney involvement from the outset, Legata refers clients to licensed estate planning attorneys in its referral network.

“We built Legata because we watched too many good attorneys turn away clients they wanted to help, simply because there weren’t enough hours in the day,” said Alesia Pinney, Co-Founder and CEO of Legata. “Our goal isn’t to replace the lawyer’s role in estate planning. It’s to give attorneys a way to serve more clients efficiently, and to make sure that when a matter needs a lawyer’s judgment, there’s a clear, well-supervised path to get one involved.”

A Supervised Model, Not an Unregulated One

The Pilot Project was established in 2024 by the Washington Supreme Court to test alternative legal service models under close regulatory supervision, not to open the practice of law to unsupervised commercial actors. As a condition of its authorization, Legata operates under strict requirements designed to mirror the accountability lawyers already expect of their own practices, including:

  • A Washington State Bar Association-vetted compliance officer who supervises all legal services delivered on the platform
  • Quarterly compliance reviews and regular reporting to the WSBA
  • A transparent, auditable client complaint process
  • SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, and CCPA-compliant data handling for the sensitive personal, financial, and health information inherent in estate planning matters

A Referral Opportunity for Attorneys

Legata is actively building a referral network of licensed Washington estate planning attorneys to receive matters that fall outside the platform’s scope, including complex trusts, contested matters, high-net-worth planning, and clients who prefer direct representation from the start. Attorneys interested in the referral program, or in learning more about how the pilot framework works, please contact mike.fratesi@legata.com or call Mike at 415-515-3480.

About Legata, Inc.

Legata is a modern estate planning platform that combines AI-powered efficiency with the judgment and expertise of a highly experienced legal team, delivering accurate, thoughtful, and affordable estate planning services at scale. It is now licensed to practice law in Washington, so it has the professional obligations of a law firm and its clients have the corresponding protections. No other self-guided estate planning platforms can offer this level of accountability.