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On December 12, 2025, New York enacted the Electronic Wills Act, representing one of the most consequential modernizations of the Estates, Powers and Trusts Law in decades. The statute authorizes the execution, attestation, and filing of wills in fully electronic form, departing from the historic requirement that testamentary instruments exist solely in paper format with wet signatures and in-person witnessing. For sophisticated estate plans—particularly those involving closely held business...

In 2026, New York’s estate tax exemption is approximately $7.35 million per individual. The structure of the statute, however, is what creates planning urgency. If a decedent’s taxable estate exceeds 105 percent of the exemption—approximately $7.72 million—the exemption is eliminated entirely. The result is not incremental taxation on the excess. Rather, the entire taxable estate becomes subject to New York estate tax, with rates reaching 16 percent. This so-called “cliff” creates a...