Estate planning practitioners should take specific note that wills and codicils are specific exceptions and cannot be remotely notarized at this time. While this currently means that Wills must be executed in-person, our office has received communications from the Colorado Bar Association that has indicated that a draft of the Colorado Uniform Electronic Wills Act is planned to be introduced by the Colorado Commission on Uniform State Laws for passage in the State of Colorado in 2021. We will bring updates on this blog on that new law when available.
The Colorado Remote Notary must be located within the borders of Colorado at the time of signing; however, the signor can be located elsewhere. I have personally found this to be a wonderful service to our clients that may have trustees or beneficiaries residing out of state.
A Colorado Remote Notary must use an approved remote notary provider or vendor and both record and store the audio-visual transaction.
Going the extra mile
In one of the many responses necessary to continue crucial business and legal services at the onset of the current pandemic, Colorado notaries became authorized to perform remote notarizations under Governor Polis’s Executive Order D 2020 019 dated March 27, 2020. That authorization has now been made permanent by SB 20-096 which was signed into law on June 26, 2020. The bill will codify the current temporary rules for remote notarization until December 31, 2020. The bill took effect on December 31, 2020, along with permanent rules.
