Estate documents that execute correctly under state-specific rules

The problem

Anyone can generate a document from a template. The hard part is that a will is only a will if it was executed correctly, and correctly means something different in each state. Some require an electronic signature alone. Some require two unrelated witnesses who may attend virtually. Some require witnesses physically present. Some require printing and wet-signing. Some require a notary in person; some permit it electronically.

Encode that in application logic and a change in the law becomes a deploy. Encode each state’s regime and witness count as data, and a state changing its rules becomes an admin edit.

What we built

A document engine where the legal content, the questionnaire and the execution requirements are all editable configuration.

Each document has per-state variants, each with its own question tree, witness count and execution regime. Questions carry conditional logic, so the questionnaire branches on prior answers. The body is a template rendered against collected answers, with signature placeholders resolved per signatory. A copy tool seeds a new state’s variant from an existing one, which is how you cover another jurisdiction without authoring each document from scratch.

Rendering produces a legal-size PDF with the typeface embedded rather than referenced, so output doesn’t change when the server does. Drafts render watermarked with placeholders stripped.

The workflow

1. Document and state selected; resolves to that state’s variant
2. Guided questionnaire, branching on answers
3. Purchase, in-app on either mobile platform
4. Document assembled from template and answers, statutory boilerplate appended
5. PDF rendered, legal size, fonts embedded
6. Execution regime looked up; this determines everything that follows
7. Signature request created, one signer per signatory, in order
8. Each signatory photographed and located; witnesses attend in person or virtually per the regime
9. On completion the final document is stored and any prior version revoked, at the provider too

What was hard

Not the templating, the jurisdictions. Not just per-state form variants but per-state execution law, with each state’s regime held as data so that a state moving between regimes is a data edit. And multi-party ordered signing, where each signatory’s evidence trail has to hold up later, when it matters most and nobody involved is available to explain it.