Convenience Saves You Money and Time

Virtual Estate Planning

Virtual estate planning is genuinely convenient — but convenience isn’t the only thing that matters when you’re protecting your family. This post gives you the honest tradeoffs, including one rule that, if overlooked, can quietly undo the entire plan.

We’ve covered what Missouri’s law allows and how the signing works. Now the harder question: is an electronic will the right choice for you? A good answer requires looking squarely at both sides, so that’s what we’ll do here.

The Genuine Advantages

For many Missouri families, the benefits are real and substantial:

• Access without travel. Distance, weather, health, and scheduling stop being obstacles. The plan happens from your living room.
• Speed. What once took multiple appointments across weeks can often be completed in a single sitting.
• A stronger evidence trail. The recorded signing session and electronic notary journal create a more robust record than a traditional signing, where the only proof is the paper and people’s memories.
• The same legal weight. A properly executed electronic will is just as valid in Missouri probate court as a pen-and-ink one. The format changes; the legal standing does not.

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The Honest Cautions

Now the other side. None of these are reasons to avoid virtual planning — they’re reasons to do it carefully.

The storage trap. This is the big one. Under Missouri law, if you signed an electronic will and, after your death, neither the electronic original nor a certified paper copy can be found, the law presumes you revoked it — even if you never intended to and no document revoking it exists.

In plain terms: a will no one can locate is treated as a will you deliberately tore up. With a paper will in a drawer, a lost copy is an inconvenience. With an electronic will, a lost copy can erase the entire plan.

The good news is that the same law gives you the fix. You can create a certified paper copy by affirming under penalty of perjury that it’s a complete, true, and accurate copy of the electronic will, and Missouri courts must accept it. Doing virtual planning correctly means building that safeguard in from the start, and making sure the people who’ll need it know where it is.

The real-estate wrinkle. If your will passes on real estate, Missouri requires it to be recorded in the appropriate county within six months of probate. That requirement applies to electronic wills too, which makes accessible, retrievable storage not just wise but necessary.

Comfort with technology. The process leans on video calls, ID uploads, and digital signatures. For someone who finds those genuinely stressful, the convenience can turn into friction — and an anxious signing is not the goal.

Complex situations still need judgment. Blended families, business interests, special-needs planning, or significant assets aren’t well served by treating estate planning as a quick online task. The medium can be virtual; the thinking still has to be careful.

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So, Is It Right for You?

For a straightforward plan, with someone comfortable on a video call and a clear strategy for storage, virtual estate planning is an excellent fit, and the advantages are hard to beat. For more complex estates, the right answer is often a thoughtful plan executed with care — which may still be virtual, but shouldn’t be rushed.

The thread running through every caution above is the same: the tool is excellent, but it rewards doing it properly. That’s exactly where working with an attorney, rather than a fill-in-the-blanks website, makes the difference.

In the final post of this series, we’ll compare virtual and in-person planning directly, so you can see which fits your situation.

This post is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Laws change and individual circumstances vary; please consult an attorney about your specific situation.