How your information is stored
ProbateStudio creates hosted user accounts and stores probate matter information in a cloud database that ProbateStudio operates through its service providers. Matter information is held for your firm and is available when you sign in from any device.
The application also uses your browser's local storage while you work, so a page refresh or a brief interruption does not lose what you have entered. Browser storage supports the application; it is not the authoritative copy of a matter in a signed-in firm workspace. You may also download backup and document files, which then live wherever you save them.
Accounts and authentication
Using ProbateStudio as a professional requires an account. ProbateStudio stores your email address, a display name, and the professional details you choose to enter for the "Form completed by" block on court forms — your name as it should appear on forms, mailing address, telephone, and Wisconsin State Bar number. Passwords are handled by ProbateStudio's authentication provider and are not visible to ProbateStudio staff.
Accounts belong to a firm. Probate matters belong to the firm rather than to one person, so other members of your firm can see and work on them. The firm's member list shows each member's name and email address. What a member can do — for example creating matters or managing the firm's subscription — depends on their role in the firm.
Your professional details are stored on your own profile. Only you can change them, and the application does not display them to other people in your firm.
Information you may enter
- Names, mailing addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses.
- Decedent information, including dates, residence, domicile, and county information.
- Family-tree, heir, beneficiary, trustee, personal representative, and interested-person information.
- Asset, debt, inventory, claim, public-benefit, and estate-administration information.
- Form answers, case notes, generated packet information, downloaded files, and feedback.
- Client intake answers, where you invite a client to answer questions directly.
Information not needed
Do not enter Social Security numbers, full financial account numbers, passwords, medical records, tax IDs, or other private details unless a feature specifically asks for that information and explains why it is needed.
Attorney and client information
ProbateStudio is a tool you use in your practice. You decide what information to enter, which matters to create, and whom to invite. You remain responsible for your own professional and ethical obligations, including confidentiality duties you owe your clients and any duty to evaluate whether a cloud service is appropriate for particular information.
ProbateStudio is not your client's lawyer and does not assert any privilege on your behalf. Storing information in ProbateStudio does not by itself create, preserve, or waive any privilege or confidentiality protection. If information is too sensitive to place in a hosted system, do not enter it.
Service providers
ProbateStudio uses third-party providers to operate the service. Those providers process information on ProbateStudio's behalf in order to run the product:
- Hosted database and authentication — stores accounts, firm records, and probate matter data, and handles sign-in.
- Hosting and edge infrastructure — serves the application and may process basic technical information such as IP address, device and browser information, request logs, and security logs.
- Payment processing — Stripe processes subscription payments. See "Payment information" below.
- Email delivery — used to send client intake invitations and account emails such as sign-in confirmation and password reset.
Payment information
Subscription payments are processed by Stripe. Payment card details are entered on Stripe's own checkout and billing pages. ProbateStudio does not receive or store full payment card numbers. ProbateStudio stores the identifiers and subscription status it needs to know whether a firm's access is active — for example, the Stripe customer and subscription identifiers, the plan status, and renewal or cancellation dates.
How information is used
- To provide the service and authenticate users.
- To store, retrieve, and update probate matters for your firm.
- To assemble draft probate forms, checklists, and filing handoffs.
- To collect and review client intake answers you request.
- To administer subscriptions and determine whether a firm's access is active.
- To provide technical support and respond to feedback.
- To protect the service and investigate misuse, errors, or security issues.
- To meet legal, tax, and recordkeeping obligations.
ProbateStudio does not sell probate case information and does not use client matter information for advertising.
Sharing
ProbateStudio does not automatically send matter information to attorneys, sponsors, advertisers, referral partners, courts, or financial institutions.
Information may be shared with the service providers described above, with people in your own firm, with a client you invite to complete an intake, when you choose to send information to support or to someone else, when required by law, or in connection with a business transaction involving ProbateStudio Technologies, LLC.
Client intake invitations
If you invite a client to answer intake questions, ProbateStudio sends that person a secure link by email and stores the answers they submit so you can review them and decide what to accept into the matter. The client sees only their own questionnaire.
Support and feedback
If you email support or submit feedback, ProbateStudio may receive your name, email address, screenshots, downloaded files, case facts you choose to share, and your message. Feedback may be used to troubleshoot, improve the product, create test scenarios, and identify defects. Please avoid sending client-identifying details in feedback when a description would do.
Security
Probate information can be sensitive. ProbateStudio uses access controls so that matters are visible only to members of the firm that owns them, and relies on its hosting and database providers for infrastructure security. No internet, browser, email, or download system is perfectly secure, and ProbateStudio does not claim that any system is.
ProbateStudio does not claim compliance with HIPAA or any particular security certification.
Retention and deletion
Cancelling a subscription stops future billing. It does not automatically delete your account, your firm, or your firm's matters, and subject to ProbateStudio's data-retention practices that information may remain available for review or export after a subscription ends. Browser storage on your own device is controlled through your browser, and downloaded files are controlled by you.
ProbateStudio does not currently promise a fixed timetable for retaining or deleting firm data, and does not promise to retain it indefinitely. To request access, correction, export, or deletion of information, email support@probatestudio.com and ProbateStudio will respond and explain what can be done. Some requests may be limited by legal, security, fraud-prevention, or recordkeeping needs.
Children and minors
The service may ask about minors because probate forms sometimes require information about minor heirs or beneficiaries. The service is not intended for use by children under 13.
Changes to this policy
This Privacy Policy will be updated when the way ProbateStudio handles information changes. The effective date below shows when this version was published. Continued use after an updated policy is posted means the updated policy applies to later use.
Contact
Privacy and support contact: support@probatestudio.com. Operator: ProbateStudio Technologies, LLC, a Minnesota limited liability company. Public mailing address: 5883 Alameda St., Shoreview, MN 55126.