As of December 1, 2021, COVID-19 has approximately killed 780,000 people in the United States. Approximately, 93% of those deaths were from those aged 50 or older. Like most viruses and bacteria, they are far more likely to kill those with vulnerable health conditions. A large portion of the population with vulnerable health conditions tend to come from the middle aged and elder populations. When these people die, they not only leave their loved ones with the sadness and grief of their passing, but with the money and property they left behind too. For those who had planned and prepared for their death, their family and friends likely only need to deal with the grief and sadness of the loss. For those to did not engage in estate planning, their loved ones are saddled with different kind of turmoil, the deceased leaving money and/or property with no directives as to what to do with it.

Around half of the people who die in the United States each year die intestate, meaning without a will or any other directive of how their estate should be distributed in the event of their death. With the COVID-19 Pandemic, this likely adds many more thousands of people who die without a will or estate plan than had been in previous years. The dramatic increase in deaths in the United States due to COVID-19 has seen caseloads shoot up in probate courts around the country. Without an estate plan in place, money and property of the deceased will not go to whom they wished it to go to but only go where the law of their state of primary residence, directs where it can go. What’s more, the loved ones will be left footing the bill not only for court costs but attorney fees. While a will or some other form of an estate plan can be costly upfront, it can be more costly for your loved ones when the deceased’s estate is probated with no documentation to show how their estate should be distributed.

Not all the news is bad though. In Florida, for example, there has been in increase in business for probate and elder law attorneys for advice and assistance with the creation of estate plans as a result of the pandemic. This increase is not just purely for estate planning reasons, more people are preparing for contingencies if they become unable to manage their health and financial affairs using something called advanced directives. These types of executable documents such as durable power of attorney, living will, health care surrogacy, and pre-need Guardian all can allowed a trusted person to handle an incapacitated person’s affairs in the event they become incapacitated. Executing all these documents has gotten much more convenient in Florida than it had been in the past. Now, a vulnerable adult can get a will or other estate planning document signed and witnessed electronically.

As of July 1, 2020, a Will in Florida can be signed remotely so long as all parties involved have the proper audio/visual technology at their disposal to see and hear everything that needs to get done to allow for an estate planning document to be executed to the letter of the law. While the pandemic has brought a lot of heartache and difficulties to many in the United States, there are encouraging signs that out of this tragedy people are taking estate planning more seriously. Finally, with acceptance of technology for remote estate planning, the practice of probate law has finally arrived in the twenty first century, allowing for even the most vulnerable among us to be able to have an estate plan in place without having to leave the home in times of a nationwide health care emergency.