The Uniform Electronic Wills Act is a model law drafted by the Uniform Law Commission in 2019 that lets a person create, sign, witness, and store a will entirely in electronic form. It keeps the traditional safeguards for wills in place and changes the format rather than the substance: the document still has to be signed by a competent testator and witnessed (or notarized), but it can live as a text file rather than a piece of paper. Because it’s a model act, it only governs in states that enact it, and each state can adjust the details.
Which States Have Enacted It
Adoption has been steady rather than quick. Colorado, North Dakota, Utah, and the District of Columbia have enacted versions of the UEWA. Nevada, Arizona, and Florida passed their own electronic wills statutes that share some features of the act but differ in meaningful ways. Probate courts and practitioners need time to build the infrastructure for handling electronic records, which is part of why the pace has been measured.
Before relying on an electronic will, confirm two things about your state: whether it has enacted the UEWA or a comparable statute, and which of the act’s optional provisions it kept. The optional pieces drive most of the state-by-state variation, including whether remote witnessing is allowed, whether the harmless error rule is available, and whether a qualified custodian is required.
What the Act Requires for a Valid Electronic Will
Section 5 sets three core requirements. The will must be a record readable as text at the time of signing, it must be signed by the testator, and it must be witnessed by two people or acknowledged before a notary.
Readable as Text
A video of someone describing their wishes is not a will under the act, and neither is an audio recording. The document itself has to exist as written words that can be displayed as text. An audio-video recording of the signing can still be useful later as evidence that the ceremony happened properly, but the recording is not the will.
Signed by the Testator
Section 2 defines “sign” as attaching an electronic symbol or process to the record with present intent to authenticate it. That can be a typed name, a digitized image of a handwritten signature, a cryptographic digital signature, or another electronic process. The testator signs personally, or another person may sign on the testator’s behalf if that person does so in the testator’s physical presence and at the testator’s direction.
Witnessed or Notarized
The default rule calls for at least two witnesses, each of whom signs in the testator’s physical or electronic presence within a reasonable time after watching the testator sign or hearing the testator acknowledge the signature. The act also includes a bracketed option that lets a state substitute acknowledgment before a notary public (or another officer authorized to notarize electronically) for the two-witness requirement. Which path is available in your state depends on which option the legislature adopted.
Physical Presence vs. Electronic Presence
The most forward-looking feature of the act is its optional “electronic presence” provision. Section 2 defines electronic presence as two or more people in different locations communicating in real time to the same extent as if they were together. In practice, that means a live video call where everyone can see and hear each other throughout the signing.
States that adopted the electronic presence option allow the testator, witnesses, and notary to be in separate locations during execution, as long as the live connection is clear enough to confirm identities without ambiguity. States that declined the option require everyone to be physically in the same room, just as with a traditional paper will. The act also contains optional bracketed language limiting witnesses to residents who are physically inside a state at the time of signing, which keeps witnesses from participating from outside the country.
Making an Electronic Will Self-Proving
A self-proving will can be admitted to probate without pulling witnesses into court to confirm it. Section 8 lets an electronic will be executed, attested, and made self-proving in one sitting through sworn statements from the testator and the witnesses. The testator acknowledges signing voluntarily and being of sound mind; the witnesses swear they observed the signing and believed the testator was competent and free from coercion.
The acknowledgments and affidavits are made before an officer authorized to administer oaths, and the officer’s certificate must be affixed to or logically associated with the electronic will under official seal. A signature on the affidavit that is attached to or logically associated with the will counts as a signature on the will itself for execution purposes.
Skipping the self-proving step does not invalidate the will. It just creates extra work during probate, because the court may need to locate witnesses and take testimony to confirm the will is genuine. For an electronic will, where a probate judge may be less familiar with the format, building in the self-proving affidavit removes a potential source of delay.
Harmless Error
Section 6 contains a safety valve for execution mistakes. Under the harmless error provision, a court may still treat a flawed document as a valid will if the proponent shows by clear and convincing evidence that the person who made it intended it to be their will, a revocation of a prior will, or a modification of an existing will.
Clear and convincing is a high bar, and vague evidence of intent won’t carry it. Audio-video recordings of the signing, emails about the will, and testimony from witnesses all become relevant when harmless error is raised. The provision is optional in the model act, and not every adopting state included it. In a state without it, strict compliance with every execution step matters more.
Qualified Custodians and Storage
The UEWA itself does not impose detailed custodian rules, but several states that enacted electronic wills legislation require storage with a “qualified custodian” for certain purposes, most often to make the will self-proving. A qualified custodian is generally an entity or individual unrelated to the testator and the beneficiaries that maintains electronic records in a system designed to prevent unauthorized access, detect alterations, and protect against destruction. The custodian cannot be a beneficiary under the will or related to one.
In states with custodian rules, the custodian typically has to store identifying records from the signing ceremony and make records available to probate courts on request. One practical gap: the act does not explain what happens if a qualified custodian goes out of business or the testator wants to switch custodians. If you store your electronic will with a third-party custodian, keep a record of who holds it and periodically confirm the custodian is still operating. The number of providers offering compliant storage is still limited, which is part of why electronic wills remain less common than their paper counterparts.
Revoking an Electronic Will
Section 7 recognizes two ways to revoke an electronic will: a later will or a physical act.
A later will can revoke an earlier one expressly, or it can revoke it only to the extent the two conflict. The new will has to meet the same execution requirements as the original, including signatures and witnesses or notarization.
A “physical act” performed on the electronic record also works. The official commentary gives examples such as deleting the file, using a custodian’s designated delete function, printing a copy and writing “revoked” on it, or typing “revoked” into an unlocked electronic copy. The act must be performed on the will itself. An email that says “I revoke my will” does not count, because the email is a separate document.
Revocation by physical act must be proven by a preponderance of the evidence showing the testator intended to revoke and actually performed the act (or directed someone to perform it in the testator’s physical presence). Intent is central. If a file is accidentally deleted, the will does not legally disappear. Backup copies and cloud storage can make proving intentional, complete destruction harder than tearing up a sheet of paper, which is part of why the evidentiary standard exists.
Moving to a Different State
Section 4 addresses what happens when the testator creates an electronic will in one jurisdiction and later moves or dies in another. An electronic will that does not comply with the new state’s version of the act may still be valid if it was executed in compliance with the law of the place where the testator was physically located when signing, or where the testator was domiciled or resided either at signing or at death.
This choice-of-law rule keeps a move from automatically wiping out an existing estate plan. It also reflects the reality that an electronic document does not sit in a particular physical location the way a paper will in a safe deposit box does. A state that has not adopted any form of electronic wills legislation could still raise problems at probate, so it’s worth revisiting your plan after a move rather than assuming the old document will slide through.
Traditional Will Rules Still Apply
Section 3 makes a point that is easy to miss: an electronic will is a will for all purposes under state law. Every existing rule governing wills also governs electronic wills, except where the act specifically changes something. The requirements for mental capacity, minimum age, and freedom from undue influence, duress, and fraud all remain in force. The act updates the format a will can take; it does not loosen the standards for who can make one or how a court evaluates it.