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Florida Governor Vetoes Electronic Wills ActFlorida Governor Vetoes Electronic Wills Act

Believes Act unsettles safeguards against fraud and overly burdens Florida courts.

Craig R. Hersch

June 28, 2017

2 Min Read
Rick Scott
Florida Gov. Rick ScottCopyright Joe Raedle, Getty Images

On June 26, 2017, Florida Gov. Rick Scott vetoed the state’s Electronic Wills Act (the Act) before it was to go into effect on July 1. The Act would have allowed remote technology to assist in the witnessing and notarization of wills. The Act also specified that electronic wills of residents and nonresidents may be probated in Florida.

Scott noted that the bill failed to strike the proper balance between the competing concerns of providing safeguards to protect the will-making process from exploitation and fraud while making wills more financially accessible to citizens through technological innovation.

Scott wrote, “As governor, I oversee the appointment of notaries public in the state of Florida and have a responsibility to ensure that notaries safeguard the most vulnerable Floridians against fraud and exploitation. While the concept of remote notarization is meant to provide increased access to legal services like estate planning, the remote-notarization provisions in the bill do not adequately ensure authentication of the identity of the parties to the transaction and are not cohesive with the notary provisions set forth in Chapter 117, Florida Statutes.”

Scott also noted that by making Florida a venue for nonresidents’ probates, based only on the qualified custodian’s location in the state, could burden Florida’s court system with the probate of estates that may have no Florida nexus other than that the wills were created and stored in Florida. Moreover, if the decedent’s domiciliary state doesn’t recognize electronic wills, the individual could have been left intestate.

The bill’s own language delaying implementation of its remote witnessing, remote notarization and nonresident provisions until April 1, 2018, raised the governor’s concerns.  “Rather than sign an imperfect bill into law,” Scott writes, “I encourage the Legislature to continue to work on answering these outstanding questions and address the issues comprehensively during the next legislative session.”

About the Author

Craig R. Hersch

https://estateprograms.com/

Craig R. Hersch is the creator of The Freedom Practice™, The Family Estate & Legacy Program™ estate planning practice system and The Estate Settlement Program™ probate and trust administration practice system. He developed these practice systems in response to the quickly changing and challenging legal marketplace. He authored four books, Common Cents Estate Planning, Legal Matters When a Loved One Dies, The Florida Residency & Estate Planning Guide and Selecting Your Successor Trustee. These books are all used in his practice systems.

Craig is a Florida Bar Board Certified Wills, Trusts & Estates Attorney, practicing since 1989. He is also licensed as a Florida CPA, and is a founding shareholder and director of a private state-chartered trust company. His varied background in law, accounting, tax and finance along with his participation in Dan Sullivan’s Strategic Coach program since 2005 provides him unique insights and capabilities necessary to multiply his practice.

To that end, Trusts & Estates magazine tapped Craig a “Practice Development Xpert” where he writes a column under its wealthmanagement.com website. He hosts three podcast series geared to estate planning professionals, clients and trust administrators. Craig writes a weekly estate-planning column for a local newspaper, and presents as a featured lecturer at continuing education programs sponsored by The Florida Bar, the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the National Business Institute.

Craig is married to wife Patti and they have raised three daughters. In his spare time Craig enjoys adventure travel, training for and competing in triathlons, including Ironman distance races, boating the southwest Florida waterways and spending quality time with his family.