Willow
New York, USA, Sept. 09, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The company is working with five boutique trusts and estates firms as it develops technology for digital estate-planning workflows
Willow has announced a pilot program with five boutique trusts and estates firms as the company develops a digital platform designed around the evolving requirements of electronic estate planning.
The platform is being developed to support estate-planning attorneys and their clients across workflows including client intake, document review, estate plan summaries, execution and long-term document management. Willow’s initial focus is New York, where legislation authorizing electronic wills is scheduled to take effect in December 2027.
The company is using the lead time before implementation to work directly with participating firms and develop features around the workflows estate-planning attorneys already use.
Electronic estate planning has gained legislative momentum in recent years. Beginning in 2020, a number of states adopted the Uniform Electronic Wills Act or similar laws allowing wills to be created and executed electronically under defined legal requirements.
Several states have also expanded electronic execution to other estate-planning documents through legislation based on the Uniform Electronic Estate Planning Documents Act. In Minnesota, Gov. Tim Walz approved the state’s version on April 14, 2026, following votes of 59 to 7 in the Senate and 134 to 0 in the House.
Despite these changes, electronic execution can present significant operational challenges for estate-planning practices. Requirements governing signatures, witnesses, notarization, document custody and filing vary by jurisdiction and by document type.
New York’s forthcoming electronic-wills framework, for example, requires an electronic will and its audit-trail data to be filed electronically with the New York State Unified Court System within 30 days of execution. Florida follows a different model. For an electronic will to be self-proved, it must designate a qualified custodian and remain in the custody of a qualified custodian before being offered for probate.
These differences can make implementation difficult for attorneys using software that was originally designed for general electronic signatures rather than estate-specific legal workflows.
Willow said it spoke with 14 estate-planning attorneys in South Florida while researching how firms were approaching electronic execution. According to the company, only half were aware that relevant electronic-execution legislation had passed, while one attorney had attempted to conduct an electronic execution.
That attorney used separate products for electronic signatures, video conferencing and document storage. Willow said the experience highlighted the need for a more integrated system built specifically around estate-planning procedures and jurisdiction-specific requirements.
The company is developing its platform with those workflow considerations in mind, including situations in which attorneys may want clients to sign electronically while physically present in the office using devices such as an iPad.
“It’s wrong to ask attorneys to change the way they run their practices just to adopt our technology, regardless of how much it might improve the client experience,” said Aaron Burlacoff, founder of Willow. “We needed to meet attorneys where they are and build around their existing processes, so the workflow stays fundamentally the same while technology makes it more streamlined and efficient.”
Willow is also designing the platform around the long-term nature of estate planning. Unlike many legal matters that conclude once a transaction or case is completed, estate-planning documents may need to remain accessible to clients, executors, beneficiaries, guardians and family members for decades.
The company therefore sees electronic signing as one part of a broader technology platform supporting the estate-planning relationship.
Willow’s planned development areas include client intake, drafting workflows, document reviews, estate plan summaries, electronic execution and storage. The company is also developing tools intended to help executors, guardians and other designated agents understand and prepare for their responsibilities.
Willow plans to use its New York pilot program to continue refining these workflows with participating trusts and estates firms before the state’s electronic-wills legislation takes effect.
The company is currently accepting a limited number of additional New York estate-planning firms into the pilot program.
About Willow
Willow is developing technology specifically for estate-planning attorneys and their clients. The company is building tools around the estate-planning process, including client intake, document review, estate plan summaries, execution and long-term document management, with an initial focus on New York.
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- Willow
CONTACT: Founder & CEO Aaron Burlacoff Willow [email protected]
