The Missouri Bar recently created a subcommittee on electronic wills to consider just this issue. Restraint is justified to avoid fads, but the question remains whether it is time to reconsider the inviolate requirements of will preparation, execution, and probate. Technological advances are nothing new, and in many ways Missouri laws have stayed current. In the age of the smartphone, social media, and cloud storage, should these requirements evolve? Further, given the number of will substitutes available with less onerous execution requirements (including trusts and pre-death and on-death transfers), wills are of decreasing importance. These basic elements have remained largely unchanged for the past 450 years. Missouri draws its Statute of Wills from the English Statute of Frauds of 1677, and these requirements were also included in Missouri’s territorial laws prior to statehood. For the past 60 years, Missouri lawyers have learned the same statutory requirements for the creation of a valid last will and testament in Missouri: (1) it must be in writing (2) it must be signed by the testator or someone at her direction and in her presence and (3) it must be witnessed by two or more competent witnesses in the presence of the testator.īut in reality, the requirements for the valid creation of a will have been around much longer.
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