Technology & Estate Planning

The Future is here – and it benefits our clients significantly!

We are pleased to be early adopters of reliable new technologies that Washington (and soon Idaho) are adopting to make remote execution of wills, trusts, real property deeds, powers of attorney, and other documents easier and fully valid. You can be anywhere in the world and we can “remote online notarize” any document for use in the United States, or even e-sign your Washington will and have it witnessed and self-proven no differently than a paper will signed with ink.

➤ We recently updated a couple’s trust remotely via electronic signature while they were in Arizona for the winter.

➤ We have since January 1, 2022, under Washington’s new electronic wills act, executed fully effective and “self proven” wills for Washington clients, including one who was snowed-in on the Palouse but had a computer with a camera, microphone, and speakers. A similar bill passed in Idaho is currently awaiting the governor’s signature, and

➤ We have recently notarized other clients’ real property deeds and powers of attorney via “remote online notarization” – which just requires you, the signer, to connect with us in a short videoconference on our e-signing platform (similar to a Zoom or Teams video call).

If you wish to be prepared for the new reality above – and, frankly, we suggest you be prepared – consider doing the following:

➤ To have the most robust capability – to e-sign and “remote online notarize” a document from anywhere in the world – ensure that you have a fairly up-to-date laptop or desktop computer with operational speaker, microphone, and camera (built-in or external, such as USB). Mac or PC is fine!

➤ Tablets and smartphones with speakers, microphone, and camera can be used to review and sign shorter documents. For longer documents, you will likely want to have a laptop or computer.

➤ Test your device’s capability with a videoconference platform like Zoom (join a “test” meeting) or Google Meet (click the gear icon ⚙ in the upper right of the website). If your device works, you are ready for the full range of electronic signing and notarizing available, wherever you may be!