Uniform Law Commission Approves Electronic Estate Planning Documents Act

On July 13, 2022 at the annual meeting of the Uniform Law Commission in Philadelphia, the Commissioners voted to approve and recommend for enactment in all the states the Uniform Electronic Estate Planning Documents Act.

Here is the current draft of the Prefatory Note explaining the Act:

Times are changing. Reliance on traditional paper documents is waning. Many areas of the law have already embraced the transition from written to electronic documents which are electronically signed. For example, virtually all states have enacted the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) and the electronic filing of pleadings and appellate briefs is widely accepted.

Left out of this transition were non-transactional documents relating to estate planning which hung on to the requirement of paper documents with actual pen-to-paper (wet) signatures. Recently, however, this trend has reversed with at least ten states embracing electronic wills either through the adoption of the Uniform Electronic Wills Act or through their own unique statutes. Regrettably, other estate planning documents have been left behind in this transition. Why is this?

A primary reason is the failure of state laws to expressly authorize these documents to be in electronic form and electronically signed. For example, UETA provides that when both parties to a transaction agree, a record or signature cannot be “denied legal effect or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form.” UETA § 7(a). However, UETA does not expressly authorize the electronic signing of estate planning documents. UETA § 3(a) limits UETA’s application to “transaction[s],” defined in UETA § 2(16) as “actions occurring between two or more persons relating to the conduct of business, commercial, or governmental affairs.” (emphasis added). Accordingly, unilateral documents such as trusts and powers of attorney are not directly within UETA’s scope. This conclusion is bolstered by Comment 1 to UETA § 3 which states:

The scope of this Act is inherently limited by the fact that it only applies to transactions related to business, commercial (including consumer) and governmental matters. Consequently, transactions with no relation to business, commercial or governmental transactions would not be subject to this Act. Unilaterally generated electronic records and signatures which are not part of a transaction also are not covered by this Act.

UETA does not “prohibit” the electronic signing of estate planning documents. However, its failure to include them within its scope leaves such electronically signed documents vulnerable to attack. As a result, the underlying state laws governing estate planning documents must be amended. Absent such amendment, parties to unilateral estate planning documents could not be certain that electronically signed originals would be valid.

The Uniform Electronic Wills Act (2019) (UEWA) solves this problem with respect to testamentary documents such as wills, codicils, and testamentary trusts. The Uniform Electronic Estate Planning Documents Act (UEEPDA), solves this problem for all other estate planning documents such as powers of attorney and trusts. For states that have yet to adopt the UEWA or their own electronic will statute, Article 3 of the UEEPDA provides the state with the opportunity to adopt the UEWA.

UEEPDA is designed to authorize estate planning documents to be in electronic form and electronically signed. There is no intent to change the requirements for the validity of these documents imposed by state law in any other manner. UEEPDA is modeled after UETA so that it will cleanly interface with existing laws.