If you’re using an online service like LegalZoom or FreeWill to create your will, don’t assume you can sign and store your will online as well. Print it out, have a notary present at the signing ceremony, and store a hard copy in a safe, secure place.
As financial columnist Paul Sullivan explains in The New York Times, many people don’t realize that online wills have an offline component:
But in all of these examples, at the end of the online experience, however easy and clean it may be, the user still has to print out the will and have it signed by a notary and witnessed by two people. Otherwise, the will is not worth the computer paper it was printed on.
After a will is signed and notarized, it has to be stored in a safe place, because uploading it back to the website invalidates it.
Sullivan notes that although some states are working to create legislation that gives equal validity to both printed and online wills—and that Nevada and Indiana have already passed laws that validate wills with e-signatures—it’s still a good idea to print out your will (and a very, very good idea to get it notarized).
I’ve written about the hazards of online wills before. If you use online legal software to create a will that includes incomplete or contradictory information, you could be leaving your heirs more trouble than the document is worth. Plus, these online services don’t always ensure your will matches up with state probate laws.
That said, I haven’t made a will—yes, I know I should—so I don’t know how well an online will software program emphasizes the offline steps you need to take to ensure your will is valid. When you check the LegalZoom Last Will FAQ, for example, it doesn’t mention anything about printing out your will:
After you sign your last will, you should keep it in a safe, easily accessible place. Be sure that the person whom you have appointed as your executor knows exactly where you stored your last will. You do not have to file it with the court or place it in the public record. However, some courts may permit you to deposit your last will with them, depending on how busy or crowded they are.
A lot of people could easily interpret “safe, easily accessible place” as, like, Dropbox or Google Drive. Create the will online, sign it online, skip the notary part because you’ve read you don’t technically have to do it, and stash your will safely in the cloud.
FreeWill’s FAQ, on the other hand, is a little more specific:
As soon as you print out your will, and sign it in front of two witnesses, it is a valid legal document. If you live in Louisiana, you will need to sign your will with two witnesses in the presence of a notary public.
On the subject of the notary: it’s a good idea to use a notary no matter what state you live in. In many cases, if you don’t have a notary public present when your will is signed and witnessed, your two witnesses will need to testify in probate court on your behalf and verify that your signature was actually yours. As Nolo explains:
It’s worth it to go to the extra trouble of getting a notarized self-proving affidavit, because it will simplify the process of getting your will admitted to probate after your death. When your witnesses sign the affidavit, they swear that they watched you sign the will and that you appeared to have the mental capacity necessary to make a valid will. After your death, the witnesses won’t have to submit further statements or come to court to testify; the affidavit will do the job.
I am not a lawyer, and my best advice to you is the same as it was in my last article about writing wills: find a lawyer to help you through the process. Yes, that’ll cost a little extra, but it should save your loved ones a lot of time and effort during a period of grief and stress.
But if you decide to use an online will service instead of a lawyer, make sure you get that will printed and notarized—or, at least, check your state’s laws before you complete the will creation process.