Paper copies of wills haven’t gone extinct yet, but online estate tools have brought will preparation into the 21st century.
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Online tools promise to democratize estate planning and will preparation, but users are responsible for complying with state laws.
New analysis suggests lawyers used sheepskin parchment to aid fraud detection.
Sean Doherty
We studied hundreds of British legal documents and found most were made from sheepskin, which is harder to tamper with than other animal skins.
More and more states are allowing people to use Zoom to finish their wills.
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Dying without a will can cause all sorts of problems for families.
In 1948, as Cecil George Harris lay dying after a tractor accident, he scratched a final message into the vehicle’s fender.
illustration supplied by: Impact Studios/Dinalie Dabarera.
Courts have had to consider whether an eggshell, a tractor fender, a petticoat hem, graffiti on a wall, and a poem might be valid wills. They’ve shown surprising flexibility in judgment.