Paper Burns, Pixels Don’t: Estate Planning In 2026

A quiet revolution just reshaped estate planning in North Carolina: a properly certified, attorney‑stored electronic copy of your will can now be probated like the original. We unpack what that means in real life—fewer frantic searches for paper, fewer hearings over missing originals, and a smoother path for families when they need clarity most. With all 100 counties live on e‑courts, the shift from pen and ink to secure digital storage isn’t a trend; it’s the new backbone of reliable probate.

We walk through the essential safeguards that make e‑wills work. A North Carolina attorney must certify that the digital file is a full and complete copy of your attested will, confirm that you authorized electronic storage, and advise you that tearing up paper no longer revokes a converted will. Revocation still belongs to you—but it now happens in writing, often via a new will that expressly revokes prior wills and codicils, or a written revocation filed alongside the stored record. This paper trail removes guesswork and helps courts honor intent without costly detours.

You’ll also hear how our secure “vault” system protects documents with bank‑level encryption and strict access controls, why this reduces the risk of “slip‑sheet” tampering, and how families benefit from a simple “click, click, file” experience when it’s time to open probate. Have an older will? You don’t need to start from scratch. Bring it to a North Carolina attorney to certify, convert, and store, so the court can rely on a secure digital copy if the original is lost or destroyed. We also touch on updating plans over time with new wills and codicils and keeping a clean history that’s easy for executors to follow.

Ready to future‑proof your estate plan with less stress and more certainty? Subscribe, share this episode with someone who handles family documents, and leave a review with your top question about going digital—what would give you the most peace of mind?

Transcript

From Paper Originals To E‑Wills

Greg McIntyre 0:10

Big changes in the law in North Carolina this year, huge changes. Electronic wills are now considered on the same level as a paper writing original will to be allowed into probate in North Carolina to distribute assets. Previous to this year, you had to submit an original pen and ink version of your signed copy, or your not even copy, signed original of the will to the court, or it would be rejected. Or else you had to overcome a huge burden that you hadn't destroyed the original, which was the presumption, to be able to probate a copy, like a printed version, a copy, some electronic version that was printed out subsequent. The reason behind that is so the law and the courts want to preserve and make sure that your will is your intentions and that that's safeguarded so no one else can put something else forth to the court once you've passed on. This year, and I'm accompanied by attorney Jane Deerwester to help me explain, who's done a lot of research and looking into this as well. But now, Jane, your will can be stored with an attorney electronically, and there's some criteria that the attorney has to supplement and provide along with the will, which is an affidavit. Let's talk about it. You and I have had some great conversations about this, and this is a service that we now provide. So we're excited about that. We will get with you, sign the will, sign the affidavit, and we can store an electronic version that even if your will was you know lost or burn up in a fire or otherwise disappeared, somebody took it. The electronic version is there for your protection. So let's talk about the nuances of that, Jane. Hey Jane, how are you doing today?

Why Courts Now Trust Digital Copies

Jane Dearwester 2:20

Hi, doing well, doing well. Yeah, this is interesting. This definitely uh interesting and just kind of shows how our laws evolve with the times. This is, you know, just allowing a more modern method, which is a digital version of a document to be probated instead of the old fashioned pen to paper version. So I think it makes a lot of sense, especially now that all 100 counties in North Carolina are live on e-courts for electronic filing. This makes a lot of sense.

Security, E‑Filing, And The Vault

Greg McIntyre 2:54

This is the way the world's going. So we might as well accept it and put in safeguards to protect and facilitate electronic documents being as reliable and some would argue more so than paper documents that could be modified or what's called slip sheeted, where somebody replaces a page in a will. We have security measures, which is this initial on each page, uh, you know, pen and ink initial, things like that, that prevents slip sheeting. But once we've scanned that electronic document in place, we have a bank level security system encrypted that we call the vault. And your document goes in the vault, it goes in the MEL vault. So it's there when it needs to be probated and for your executor and your family for time immemorium forever, right? Ever and ever at least until you pass on, okay? And it and and we go, you know, past the probate time period and things like that, you know. Um, we would have that and be able to produce that. Previously, we really may not have that. It would be at our election whether we produce that. And even if we did have a copy, it's not valid without overcoming the presumption in a hearing that the testator, the person who created the will, tore it up. So, you know, that affidavit, Jane, there's some specifics and technicalities we have to include in that affidavit. Can you give us a quick rundown of those?

What The Attorney Affidavit Requires

Jane Dearwester 4:31

Yeah, they're really honestly pretty straightforward. We just have to show in the affidavit, and only an attorney licensed in North Carolina can draft this affidavit. And also important to know that even if our firm didn't draft your will, we can certify it. So it doesn't have to be that we drafted your original will.

Greg McIntyre 4:53

But if you bring it to the client, you can come to us as the new client, whether we're, you know, we could do other estate planning around it, keep the will, but certify that will with an affidavit and then store that will for you so that that electronic version can be submitted to the courts, even if the original version is the paper copy is destroyed.

Jane Dearwester 5:18

Yeah. And so it so this law is effective as of January 1st, 2026, but you could have drafted your will 10 years ago, and then you could come in tomorrow and hire us to create an electronically stored will. Very straightforward. Number one, in the affidavit, we will certify as a certifying attorney that um this is a full and complete copy of your will. This is an accurate copy of your attested will that you authorized us. You as the testator, the person who made the will, you specifically asked the attorney certifying to convert this into an election.

Greg McIntyre 6:00

I'm not a potator.

Converting Old Wills And Effective Date

Jane Dearwester 6:01

Yeah, right. Use a table. The person who made the will, that you asked us to do this, that you came in, you asked us to do it. And then three is that we advise you as your attorney that once this is converted into an electronically stored will, you can no longer revoke the will by physical destruction of the document. That no longer revokes it. You can still revoke it, but it you can't revoke it by destruction of the original document. So that's it. That's it. It's very straightforward.

Revocation Rules In A Digital World

Greg McIntyre 6:49

You have to take, which is you have to revoke it in writing. Right. And then, you know, if we're storing the will, we would want to have notice of that revocation so we could put that revocation on file with the will. And then if we were drafting a new will, so in the future, let's say we're storing an electronic will because this is a nuance here. We previously drafted a will for you and we revoke that will and draft a new will. That new will, I want to say the new statute states that if it has that language, the new will can indicate in the will that it revokes all prior wills and codicals, which we would do, which would stand, which would suffice as a revocation of not only the paper version of your previous will, but the electronically stored version as well. And we would keep both of those on file to show that progression, right? Um, and then I was trying to think you you just you've got my mind turning through all these things, like what about a codicil that modifies a will, right? And I think that the same thing would apply, in my opinion. And I've got to go back and read that statute as to how it applies to codicils. But my guess is, Jane, am I correct in saying that a codicil can also be stored electronically that modifies and supplements a previously drafted will that is also stored electronically, and for that codicil, it would have the same quality requirements to have that affidavit for the codicil, also.

Jane Dearwester 8:34

That is I think it would be. I'm gonna look at that more carefully.

Greg McIntyre 8:38

Yeah, that would make logical sense to me. Yeah, but you know what we want to do, guys, is we want to have whether we understand it or not as clients, or we agree with it, the world is going digital. There is a tidal wave of change that has already come in our world in the last 20 to 30 years that is going to continue for the next 20 to 30 years.

Jane Dearwester 9:13

Yeah, at an exponentially higher rate of change.

Codicils, Updates, And Recordkeeping

Riding The Wave Of Legal Tech

Greg McIntyre 9:17

Yeah, at a quicker pace. So what I am building for my our clients and our firm with systems, software, and the nimbleness and reliability, and stability to be able to grow with that change and ride the wave of that change is what I call a surfboard. And we're gonna climb on top of this surfboard and we're gonna surf the tip of that wave as it wipes out others. We're gonna have fun riding that wave and be standing on the shore looking out over the sunset at the end of you know when that wave is done. Okay. And this is part of that, it's just accepting the change, embracing it, and making sure we understand it and we can provide a great service to clients to be on that surfboard with us to get to the necessary place that you want to go safely and effectively. So I this is just part of that. Um, and Jane, um, I appreciate you being on top of this. Um, I have all always impressed you're always doing the research about upcoming changes in the law, and I think you enjoy that. I can't get you participating today with me and talking about that with our clients. Um, you know, it's good stuff. Uh you'll hear more about this in the future from us guys. You know, we're we're gonna start talking about this in our consultations, talking about this in our social media, and adding it. It is an added service to our firm, the certification and affidavit and storage of wills, which we will provide that service in a very affordable and cost-effective manner for our clients in a safe, uh, reliable way. Okay. Um, so Jane, do you have anything else? Any other thoughts about that?

Less Litigation, More Peace Of Mind

Jane Dearwester 11:19

No, I I like that, you know, a lot of the research I've been doing says part of the reason the General Assembly enacted this new law was to try to dispel a lot of litigation surrounding wills. And and sometimes we have clients who can't find the will. Somebody passes away and they didn't tell anybody where they're keeping their documents, and so there's frustration or you know, stress around trying to find it. That just takes all of this away. So I think it's a great idea. I don't think it'll completely eliminate litigation because we're good creative lawyers. We're gonna come up with ways and uh to argue about it, but I just like the way it's streamlining the process and adding this extra layer of attorney certification to the document and hopefully adding some peace of mind to the process. And again, when families are dealing with a loss and they're grieving, the last thing they want to do is go digging through all the paperwork and the the filing cabinets. They'll just give us a call and say, Hey, you know, mom, dad, grandma, grandpa passed away. Uh, y'all did that digital, the electronically stored will. We're like, yep, we've got you. Click, click, it's filed. So I think that's really going to be helpful to clients that are already going through a hard time and grieving the loss of a loved one, where the attorney can really take charge and offer some great assistance to our clients when we have this in place.

Attorney Storage And Safeguards

How To Connect And Next Steps

Greg McIntyre 12:51

I agree. And just to clarify, and and you know, one of the yeah, so the attorney has to draft the affidavit that has to be signed as a sworn affidavit. The attorney has to store, so our firm has to store those documents for you. You can't just have it on a thumb drive or keep it yourself. That has to come from the attorney to be filed with the court system under those rules. Okay, so there's some safeguards there. Anyway, thank you, Jane. This has been an Elder Law report with I'm attorney Greg McIntyre with attorney Jane Deerwester. And we bring you and are happy to bring you relevant, cutting edge, and informative information for you and your family regarding estate planning in Elder Law. Um, and tune in regularly to our social media feeds, YouTube channel. Um, and please interact with us in our comments. I always comment back, message me, I always message back. And I enjoy being a part of that conversation with everybody out there. Hit me up with new topics, things that you'd like to hear about. And I promise you, we'll consider those and we'll talk about them and we'll address them. Um, so you know, if you want to schedule a consult with us or a time to talk about any information regarding your family, protection of assets, estate planning, elder law issues, including but not limited to the affidavit and certification of your will and storage electronically of your will to ensure its authenticity and that it gets where it's supposed to go, which is in the courts if you pass away. You can take advantage of that by calling 1-888-999-6600 or by scheduling scheduling directly on our calendars. We try to make it easy as easy as possible. Go to our website at mcelderlaw.com slash scheduling, and you can schedule right on our attorney's calendars. Thank you so much, guys, for tuning in. Shane, thank you. And we'll see you next time on the Elder Law Report. That's right.