Every service that offers to notarize your New York will, trust or power of attorney over video is offering you something the state does not allow. It is worth knowing why, because the reason is not about notaries at all.
It is about signatures.
Related: setting up your estate plan online and online notary for real estate documents
New York bars these from electronic signature, so they are signed on paper, in person, with witnesses. We travel to you anywhere in the five boroughs, including hospitals and care facilities, evenings and weekends. Book a signing →
The statute
New York’s Electronic Signatures and Records Act gives electronic signatures the same legal effect as handwritten ones, with exceptions. State Technology Law § 307 sets them out.
The excluded category covers any document providing for the disposition of a person or their property upon death or incompetence, or appointing a fiduciary of a person or their property. The statute names examples: wills, trusts, decisions consenting to orders not to resuscitate, powers of attorney and health care proxies.
The exceptions to the exclusion are narrow, covering things like contractual beneficiary designations, registering an anatomical gift, and forms authorizing funeral, cemetery or cremation services.
Why that closes the online route
Remote online notarization works by having the signer sign electronically during a video session. That is the mechanism.
If a document cannot carry an electronic signature under New York law, signing it that way does not produce a valid instrument, no matter how properly the notarization itself was performed. The notarization is fine. The signature underneath it is the problem.
So this is not a limitation of our service or a cautious internal policy. There is no compliant way to do it.
What this covers in practice
A last will and testament. A revocable or irrevocable living trust, and any amendment or revocation of one. A power of attorney, including the New York statutory short form. A health care proxy. A do not resuscitate consent.
Which, inconveniently, is the entire core of an estate plan. See the full document checklist.
What you can still do online
Plenty, and the distinction is useful.
Affidavits of all kinds, including small estate affidavits, affidavits of domicile, and name affidavits. Deeds and most real property instruments. Consent letters. Business documents. Vehicle paperwork. Employment forms.
So an estate matter often splits: the will and the proxy are signed on paper in person, while the accompanying affidavits go online. We will tell you which is which before you book.
Why New York drew the line here
These are the documents most likely to be challenged after the person who signed them can no longer explain what happened.
They are also the documents most often signed by people who are elderly, unwell, or under pressure from somebody standing nearby. A video call makes it much harder to know who else is in the room, what is happening off camera, and whether the signer is being coached.
Requiring a physical signing with live witnesses is a blunt safeguard, and it is aimed squarely at undue influence. Once you see it that way, the inconvenience reads differently.
What a compliant signing looks like
Paper, wet ink, in person, with the witnesses each document requires.
A will needs two witnesses under New York’s execution rules, and a self proving affidavit is worth adding. A power of attorney needs two witnesses, one of whom may be the notary, plus acknowledgments from the principal and the agent. A health care proxy needs two adult witnesses and the agent cannot be one. A lifetime trust needs an acknowledgment or two witnesses, plus a trustee signature where the settlor is not the sole trustee.
Different documents, different rules, one appointment if it is planned properly.
How we handle it
We travel to you anywhere in the five boroughs, including hospitals, rehabilitation centers and nursing homes, and we work evenings and weekends because these situations rarely arrive on a schedule.
Prepare the documents online if you like. Sign them in person, because that is what New York requires. And if you are told otherwise by a service that will not have to answer for it later, treat that as a reason to walk away.
Documents prepared in another state
A question we get often, and the answer is nuanced enough to be worth stating.
Whether a document is validly executed generally depends on the law where it was signed and the law of the state that will apply to it. A will signed electronically in a state that permits electronic wills is a different question from a New York resident’s will being signed remotely because a website said it was fine.
If you live in New York, own property in New York, or expect a New York court to be involved, work to New York’s rules. If you have moved here from a state with different formalities, have an attorney look at what you already signed rather than assuming it carries over.
And if you are signing here for property or family in another state, tell us, because the receiving state’s requirements may add witnesses or a particular certificate.
Remote witnessing is not the same as remote notarization
Worth separating, because pandemic era rules confused everybody.
Temporary measures during the emergency period allowed certain remote witnessing and notarization arrangements that no longer apply. Guidance that circulated in 2020 and 2021 is not a description of current New York practice, and a great deal of it is still sitting on the internet unlabeled.
If a template, a service or a well meaning relative points you at a rule from that period, check whether it is still in force. On estate documents in particular, relying on an expired emergency provision produces exactly the defect that surfaces at probate.
The practical planning point
Because these documents require a physical signing, they require a person who is physically capable of signing and mentally capable of understanding.
That is the whole timing argument for estate planning. Capacity is a precondition, not a formality, and it is not recoverable once lost. Families who wait for the right moment usually find the right moment was two years earlier.
If somebody in your family is well today and has none of these documents, today is the correct time to handle it.
How to spot a service that is getting this wrong
Some warning signs, since the offers are everywhere.
A platform that lets you select New York and then routes a will or power of attorney into a video notarization without a word about the exclusion. A page that says all documents can be notarized online. A chat agent that answers yes to can I notarize my will online.
Ask one direct question: does New York State Technology Law section 307 apply to this document? A provider who does not know what you are talking about is not the provider you want handling the document your family will rely on.
And be wary of the reverse error too, which is a notary refusing to handle an ordinary affidavit online because they have vaguely heard that estate documents are excluded. The exclusion is specific, not general.
Related reading
- The New York estate planning document checklist
- Living trust in New York: how it must be executed
- Living trust vs will in New York
- Funding a living trust: the step everyone skips
- Health care proxy: New York witness rules
- Living will vs health care proxy
- The self proving affidavit and why your will needs one
- Estate document signing service
This is general information, not legal advice, and NotarEaseNYC is not a law firm. A New York notary cannot draft your estate documents, tell you which ones you need, or explain what they will do. Estate planning has tax, Medicaid and family consequences that depend on your circumstances, so speak with a licensed New York attorney before you sign.