We sign mortgages electronically. We sign tax returns, medical consents, and car loans with a finger on a screen. So clients ask me a reasonable question: why do I still have to come into the office and sign my Will with a pen?
The short answer is that Pennsylvania law requires it. That may be about to change.
What the Bill Would Do
In January 2026, State Senator Lisa Baker introduced Senate Bill 1138, with co-sponsors from both parties. It would adopt two uniform laws developed by the Uniform Law Commission and already in place in a number of other states. The first would allow Wills to be created and signed electronically. The second would extend the same treatment to other estate planning documents, including powers of attorney and trusts.
The bill takes up the hard questions: what counts as a valid electronic signature, how an electronic Will may be revoked, and how one can be made self-proving so that witnesses need not be located years later.
As of September 23, 2026, the bill remains in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where it has sat since it was referred on January 9. There has been no committee vote. The current legislative session ends November 30, 2026. If the bill does not pass by then, it must be reintroduced and begin the process again next year.
The Current Rule, and a Cautionary Tale
Under Pennsylvania law as it stands, a Will must be in writing and signed by the person making it at the end of the document. For practical purposes, that means a physical signature on paper.
A 2023 decision of the Pennsylvania Superior Court, In re Estate of Kittler, 2023 PA Super 180, shows how strictly that requirement is applied. During the pandemic, a man signed his Will electronically during a video conference attended by his attorney, witnesses, and a notary. Everyone involved was trying to do it correctly. The court held the Will invalid all the same, because Pennsylvania law did not recognize an electronic signature on a Will.
That is the danger of getting ahead of the law. A document can look modern, professional, and thoroughly witnessed, and still be worthless at the only moment it matters — after the person who signed it can no longer fix the problem.
Why the Caution Makes Sense
A Will is unlike almost every other document you sign. By the time anyone reads it, the person who signed it has died. No one can ask whether he meant it, whether she understood it, or whether someone was standing just off camera applying pressure.
So any electronic Wills law has to answer questions a car loan never raises. How do we know the right person signed? How do we know that person had capacity and was free from undue influence? Where is the original, and how do we know it has not been altered? If three versions were saved, which one governs?
Senate Bill 1138 takes those questions seriously. But even if it becomes law, clicking “I agree” on a website will not produce a sound estate plan. The technology changes how a Will is signed. It does not change whether the Will says the right things, or whether the plan behind it makes sense for your family.
So Should You Wait?
No, and here is why.
A paper Will signed today under current law will remain valid if the law changes. Nothing in Senate Bill 1138 would render existing documents obsolete. Meanwhile, the risks of having no plan, or an outdated one, are real every day you wait. Incapacity and death do not adjourn for the legislature.
You can also already have most of the convenience you are hoping for. At our firm, much of the estate planning process is handled digitally: secure online questionnaires, document review through our client portal, and fewer trips to the office. You can read more about how we use technology in the practice on our Legal Technology page. The signing ceremony is the one step that still happens in person, and for most clients it is a single short visit.
Introduced: January 9, 2026, by Senator Lisa Baker, with bipartisan co-sponsors.
Would authorize: electronic Wills, along with electronic powers of attorney, trusts, and other estate planning documents.
Status: referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee; no committee action to date; not law.
Deadline: the session ends November 30, 2026, and the bill must be reintroduced if it does not pass.
Your existing paper Will: remains valid either way.
The Bottom Line
If Pennsylvania adopts electronic Wills, we will look closely at how to use them safely for the clients they suit. Until then, the soundest plan is the one that is signed, valid, and in place. As I have written in Legal and Elder Law Passages, the documents that protect a family are rarely the ones drafted in a hurry — they are the ones drafted in time.