Can you legally sign your will on-line? 

YES! But historically this has not been the case, and it still isn’t in every state. However, there are a handful of states that have implemented laws since Covid to allow for electronic signing of your will. 

To really get into the nitty gritty of this topic, you need to understand that most wills are both witnessed and notarized. Meaning that you have some people that are just watching you sign, and one person who is notarizing that signature which are two different functions. 

Witnesses to a Will

In the state of Utah, two witnesses are required for a Will to be legal if the will is not in your hand writing. A hand-written will is called a holographic will.

In the absence of a hand-written will, you need two witnesses to a will. There is a lot made out of who and who cannot be a witness to your will, and there are certainly best practices when it comes to who we’d recommend be a witness (i.e. someone not self-interested), but alas, the only thing that Utah’s statute requires is “An individual generally competent to be a witness may act as a witness to a will.”

Notarization of a Will

So why does a will need to be notarized then? Well, consider the notarization to be the cherry on top when it comes to will signings. You have a valid will with just the two witnesses, but if you want your will to be self-proved then you need it notarized. And just what is self-proved? It boils down to the fact that a will only “works” once you’ve died, and as such you aren’t there to tell us that it is valid, so we instead count on the witnesses to tell us that, but when the notarization is added, it’s the extra layer of protection that we need to not even have to have witnesses tell us that the will is valid, we just know it is because of the notarization. 

One aside here, in Utah there is informal and formal probate, and generally speaking even if a will isn’t self-proved, no witnesses are going to have to be contacted unless the will is in formal probate, which is often unnecessary. 

Nevertheless, having a self-proved will is the gold standard when it comes to will execution. It is the very best. 

Why knowledge of self-proved wills matters for the legality of signing your will on-line?

So what does this have to do with whether you can legally sign your will on-line? Great question! Around 2018 Utah instituted a law called the remote notarization act, several other states did as well, in fact, earlier this year, a federal remote notarization act went into effect. And the essence of the remote notarization act is that notaries can notarizes online, remotely. Something which hadn’t prior existed. 

When the Covid pandemic began, the legal field in particular realized just how dependent we are on meeting with people in person, particularly for estate planning as it wasn’t previously allowed to sign wills electronically because the statute required that witnesses be in the physical presence of the person signing their will. 

However, because of remote notarization, all other aspects of your estate planning could be signed electronically. So a few states, Utah among them, took the plunge to allow for electronic signing, witnessing, and notarization of wills.