North Carolina Law Helps Protect Against Lost Wills

A North Carolina law that took effect on January 1, 2026, aims to address the common issue of missing wills, according to a statement from Wilmington attorney Shane T. Johnson. The law, Session Law 2025-33, does not legalize electronic wills, as some media reports suggested. Instead, it provides a mechanism for storing signed paper wills as electronic records, ensuring that if the original document is lost, the family is not left in a legal quandary.

Johnson, a Wilmington estate planning attorney and founder of Johnson Legal, PLLC, explained that the new Article 11 of Chapter 31 of the North Carolina statutes allows an attorney to store a client’s signed and witnessed will as an electronic record. This process must be initiated during the testator’s lifetime and requires the attorney to attach a sworn affidavit stating that the electronic record is a complete and accurate copy of the signed will, that the client authorized it, and that the client was advised of the costs involved.

Johnson highlighted that the trade-off for this convenience is significant. Once a will is stored as an electronic record, the presumption of revocation no longer applies. In other words, if the original will is lost, it stops being a crisis. However, the client gives up the ability to revoke the will by physically destroying it. Instead, revocation must be done in writing, as required by the statute.

The law does not make North Carolina an electronic will state. A will must still be signed in ink, witnessed, and notarized on paper. Handwritten holographic wills remain ineligible for electronic storage. However, the law does extend its reach backward, allowing wills signed in 2009 or 2018 to be stored as electronic records today, as long as it is done while the testator is living.

According to Johnson, the new law is less about encouraging people to create new wills than about checking on what is already in place. He advised clients to find out where the original signed will is kept, inform the person named as executor, and review the entire estate planning file, including financial and health care powers of attorney, advance care planning documents, and any trust that was set up years ago and never funded. He also noted that beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance should be confirmed to still name the people intended today.

The law is designed to provide a smoother transition for families dealing with the loss of a will, ensuring that the probate process can proceed without unnecessary complications.