Website Design for Estate & Probate Lawyers | Black Cat

For Estate Planning + Probate Law Firms

Estate and probate clients span three generations — the 70-year-old planning a revocable trust, the 55-year-old daughter navigating probate after a parent's death, the 30-year-old funding a special-needs trust for a sibling. We design firm-scale estate websites with senior-appropriate accessibility, document-secure intake, elder law + special-needs silos, and scheduling-first conversion flow tuned to how planning and probate prospects actually decide to retain.

Multi-Attorney, Multi-Office Architecture
Scalable Bio + Practice-Area CMS
ABA 7.1 + State-Bar Compliance Reviewed

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Why estate planning + probate law firms need a better website

The problems we fix

01
Senior prospects can't read the site — and you're losing them before the intake form
The largest estate-planning cohort is 65+. Default body type sizes, low-contrast color schemes, scrolling hero videos, and animation-heavy modern design actively filter this audience out. WCAG AA is a floor, not a ceiling — most estate firm sites don't even hit the floor, and the prospect bounces to a competitor whose site they can actually read.
02
Volume planning and high-net-worth practice share the same site and convert neither well
Your $1,200 revocable-trust intake and your $50,000 dynasty-trust intake look at the same homepage. Volume prospects feel intimidated; HNW prospects feel unserved. Without architecturally separate content tiers — and differentiated design language per tier — your site loses the top of the practice and underserves the bottom.
03
Probate prospects from deceased clients' families can't find the trust that was already drafted here
Multi-generation client relationships are the highest-LTV asset an estate firm has — and nothing on the site reinforces them. A bereaved adult child searching for the firm that drafted their parent's trust should land on a next-generation-probate page that recognizes that relationship. Instead they land on a generic 'probate services' page and call whoever came up first on Google.
04
Elder law and special-needs practices are buried inside the estate silo
Medicaid planning, long-term-care asset protection, VA benefits, guardianship alternatives, ABLE accounts, and special-needs trusts have distinct audiences searching in distinct ways. Buried inside an 'estate planning' page, they never convert the prospects who were specifically searching for them — and your CELA-certified elder-law partner effectively runs a practice nobody on the internet can find.

Watch: 37 seconds

A family is searching for help. Your website has to earn their trust.

Whether it's a will, a trust, or a loved one's estate, people want clear answers before they call. See why a generic site loses them, and what an estate and probate site built on trust does instead.

0:00 / 0:00

Read the transcript

Right now, a family is searching for help with a will, a trust, or a loved one's estate.

Firms with big budgets own page one. And a generic website doesn't earn their trust.

Meet Black Cat, built for estate planning and probate firms. Keough Law saw 680% more new callers in the last 90 days.

Pages that rank and get the call. Wills, trusts, probate, explained clearly, right where people search.

The right clients call you, and you'll know where every one came from.

Get your free website audit at blackcatwebsitedesign.com.

Why Estate Firms Build With Black Cat

Your prospect is 65+. Most sites filter them out by design.

The largest estate-planning cohort is 65+, deliberating for weeks and returning three to five times before booking. Default type sizes, low-contrast palettes, and animation-heavy design actively filter them out — while your $50,000 dynasty-trust prospect and your $1,200 will prospect stare at the same intimidating homepage.

We only build for law firms, and estate planning is deliberation-mode, not crisis-mode. You get a dedicated strategist and a direct line — no offshore build teams, no ticket queues — plus senior-first accessibility and tier-separated architecture built in.

Firm-scale specialists — volume/HNW/elder/special-needs silos, not one page
Senior-first accessibility tested with real 65+ users before launch
Scheduling-first conversion, because estate prospects deliberate, not panic

Estate planning attorney reviewing a senior-accessible firm website on a large-type display

What we build

Built for estate planning + probate law firms

01

Senior-First Accessibility Engineering

WCAG 2.1 AA is the floor; we target AAA on typography, color contrast, and interaction timeouts. Base body type sized for 65+ readers (18px floor, scalable to 150% without layout break). High-contrast color palette tested for common age-related vision conditions (cataract, macular-degeneration color-shift, reduced contrast sensitivity). No auto-playing motion, no time-limited interactions, no pinch-to-zoom traps on mobile.

WCAG 2.1 AA baseline, AAA on type + contrast
18px floor body type, 150%-scalable without layout break
High-contrast palette tested for common age-related vision
No auto-play motion, no time-limited interactions

Senior-First Accessibility Engineering

65+the largest planning cohort most firm sites filter out

02

Tier-Separated Practice Architecture

Volume practice (wills, basic revocable trusts, POA, advance directives) lives in a plain-English, scheduling-first silo with transparent pricing and clear 'what to bring to your first meeting' content. High-net-worth practice (dynasty trusts, GST, SLAT, ILIT, business succession) lives in an advisor-toned silo with ACTEC fellowship surfacing, peer-referral content, and discrete consultation flow. Elder law, special needs, and probate litigation get their own silos with practice-specific UX.

Volume silo with transparent-pricing + scheduling-first UX
HNW silo with ACTEC fellowship + peer-referral architecture
Elder law silo (Medicaid, long-term care, VA benefits)
Special-needs silo (SNT, ABLE, guardianship alternatives)

Tier-Separated Practice Architecture

03

Multi-Generation Client Recognition UX

Dedicated 'your parent's trust was drafted here' landing pages for adult children entering the firm's ecosystem after a death in the family. Document-secure client portal showing existing relationships. Next-generation intake flow that preserves the family's history with the firm while onboarding the new-generation client as their own relationship. The highest-LTV asset the firm has finally gets reinforced by the website.

'Your parent's trust was drafted here' pages for bereaved adult children
Document-secure portal surfacing existing family relationships
Next-generation intake that preserves the family's firm history
The firm's highest-LTV asset finally reinforced by the site

Multi-Generation Client Recognition UX

04

Scheduling-First Conversion Architecture

Estate prospects don't need crisis-mode click-to-call; they need clear scheduling, clear preparation, and clear pricing expectations. Integrated calendar booking (Calendly, Acuity, or native CMS scheduling), clear 'what to bring' pre-consultation content, document-secure intake for estate inventories, and pricing transparency for volume services. Conversion is measured in booked consultations, not 2am callbacks.

Integrated calendar booking (Calendly, Acuity, native CMS scheduling)
Clear 'what to bring' pre-consultation preparation content
Document-secure intake for estate inventories and account lists
Pricing transparency for volume services, measured in booked consults

Scheduling-First Conversion Architecture

A clear, simple path

From intimidating to inviting, in three steps

1
Step 1
Practice-Tier + Accessibility Audit
We map your practice tiers (volume, HNW, elder law, special needs, probate), multi-state footprint, and where senior prospects bounce today — then hand you a prioritized plan, even if you never hire us.
2
Step 2
Build the Senior-First Site
WCAG AAA-targeted accessibility, tier-separated silos, multi-generation recognition pages, and scheduling-first conversion — wired into your estate software and calendar booking in the first phase.
3
Step 3
Scale Every Quarter
New attorneys get ACTEC-credentialed bios in 30 minutes, elder-law and special-needs silos compound their own search, and multi-generation clients re-enter through pages that recognize the relationship.

Get My Free Firm Website Audit

Picture next quarter

The 70-year-old reads it, and the HNW client trusts it

Imagine the senior prospect actually reading your site comfortably and booking a consultation — while the dynasty-trust prospect lands on an advisor-toned silo that reads like the sophisticated counsel they expected.

Senior prospects read and book instead of bouncing to a readable competitor.
Volume and HNW tiers each get design language tuned to their prospect.
Elder-law and special-needs practices finally rank for their own searches.
Bereaved adult children re-enter through pages that recognize the family.
Scheduling-first conversion fills the calendar with prepared consultations.
Every practice tier scales from one accessible firm-wide brand system.

Estate planning attorney meeting an older couple in a firm consultation room

Keough Law · last 90 days

680%

more new callers

When attorney Shaun Keough partnered with Black Cat, his firm was leaving cases on the table online. We rebuilt the site and SEO around intake, and the phones started ringing: more qualified callers, more form submissions, and a steady climb up Google for the searches that sign clients.

“Black Cat is fantastic! Mike treats your website and marketing like it's his own. I noticed an increase in quality leads immediately.”

680%increase in new callers

210%more form submissions

71%more keyword rankings

142first-page keywords

Shaun Keough of Keough Law, a Black Cat client

Shaun Keough, Keough Law

The Black Cat Website Design team

Our promise to you

Partner with a team that believes in the Golden Rule

Switching to a new agency can feel overwhelming, and we understand the effort that comes with it. That's why we treat your marketing budget with the same care we'd want for our own. We're selective about our partnerships, but when you choose to work with us, we'll go above and beyond. Your trust means everything to us.

Mike Ferraro

Founder, Black Cat Website Design

Mike Ferraro's signature

Get my free website audit

The cost of a site seniors can't read

Every filtered-out prospect is a plan that gets drafted somewhere else.

A single HNW planning matter can outweigh a quarter of marketing — and an intimidating homepage sends that prospect to advisor-toned counsel elsewhere.
The 65+ cohort you most want to serve bounces before the intake form because the site is literally hard to read.
Bereaved adult children searching for the firm that drafted their parent's trust land on a generic 'probate services' page and call whoever ranked first.
Your CELA-certified elder-law partner runs a practice buried inside the estate silo that no one on the internet can find.

Common questions

Website Design for Estate & Probate Lawyers FAQs

Completely different emotional and UX mode. PI and defense are crisis-mode — prospects retaining in hours from a mobile phone in urgent circumstances. Estate planning is deliberation-mode — prospects researching for weeks before booking a consultation, often on desktop, often 65+, often returning 3–5 times before they convert. The website has to be senior-accessible, scheduling-first rather than call-first, transparent on pricing for volume services, and architecturally deep on the practice tiers (volume vs. HNW vs. elder law vs. special needs). Crisis-mode UX actively hurts estate firms — prospects want calm, competent, and considered.
More than almost any other legal vertical. WCAG 2.1 AA is the floor — we target AAA on typography and color contrast. Base body type at 18px minimum, scalable to 150% without layout break. High-contrast palette tested for common age-related vision conditions (cataracts, macular degeneration, reduced contrast sensitivity). No auto-playing motion, no time-limited interactions, no gestures that fail on arthritic hands. Every estate firm site we build is tested with real 65+ users before launch — not assumed from theoretical accessibility audits.
Yes — one site with architecturally separate silos. Volume-practice pages use plain-English language, transparent-pricing UX, and scheduling-first conversion flow. HNW pages use advisor-appropriate language, ACTEC fellowship surfacing, peer-referral content, and discrete consultation flow. Navigation, search, and internal-linking structure route prospects to the right tier based on entry query and on-page signals. One firm brand, two tiers served distinctly.
Separate silos with practice-specific UX and content. Elder law gets its own landing pages (Medicaid planning, long-term-care asset protection, VA benefits, conservatorship) with senior-and-family-appropriate design. Special-needs gets its own landing pages (SNT, ABLE, guardianship alternatives, disability-benefit preservation) with caregiver-appropriate UX and documentation on credentials (SNA membership, etc.). Both link back to the main estate-planning practice but maintain their own distinct conversion funnels.
Yes — intake forms POST directly into Clio / MyCase / PracticePanther for the case-management side, and we've built integrations with WealthCounsel client-intake flow, Interactive Legal document-questionnaire, and ElderCounsel Medicaid-intake workflows. Document-secure intake (for inventories, insurance policies, financial account lists) runs through encrypted upload with access controls appropriate for the sensitivity of the content.
Scales with practice breadth (volume-only vs. full-service HNW + elder + special-needs + probate litigation), multi-state footprint, and integration complexity. Single-state volume-focused firm: lower end. Multi-state full-service firm with HNW + elder + special-needs + probate litigation silos: higher end. Most estate firms recover the investment from one retained HNW planning matter (dynasty trust, SLAT, business succession) plus incremental volume-practice bookings within the first 90 days.

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