As the number of coronavirus cases increase, more people in Arizona are writing wills and other estate planning documents.
In early April, Gov. Doug Ducey approved remote notaries to start months ahead of schedule. This will help keep attorneys and their clients safe from the virus.
Five days before Ducey’s order took effect, Anita Eaves and her husband, Clark, placed beach towels over the chairs at their attorneys office. They also wore protective masks, goggles and gloves. The two witnesses and the notary did the same. This was the first time the couple had left their home in a month.
Anita is a diabetic, and in early March, Anita’s doctor had told her that even going to the grocery store could be risky. But the couple decided to make an exception to finish their will. They had put it off for some time but the possibility of contracting COVID-19 made them feel uneasy.
“There were so many decisions that we had, you know, misgivings, 'Oh, do you want to do that? I don’t know.' You just get frozen or paralyzed with the decisions And then you get into a situation like this and says ‘Oh, OK, it’s time. We’ve got to make these decisions and get this done,'" Anita Eaves said.
The Eaves aren’t alone. The demand for wills and other estate planning documents has surged across Arizona and the rest of the U.S. Digital platform, Gentreo, offers service for writing wills online. It reports that the number of people scrambling to have estate planning documents made in Arizona more than tripled in March. Renee Fry, the CEO of Gentreo, said the number of Arizona residents submitting wills jumped from 39 people in February, to 123 in March.
The Eaves’ attorney, James Ryan, said COVID-19 is causing people to assess their mortality.
“This pandemic has put everyone squarely facing the reality that they could be gone in a couple of weeks if they contract this invisible enemy, this virus,” Ryan said.
"This pandemic has put everyone squarely facing the reality that they could be gone in a couple of weeks if they contract this invisible enemy, this virus." — James Ryan, attorney
Wills are not required to be notarized in Arizona, but it can speed up the legal process later. A notary helps prevent fraud by verifying the signatures of the will-maker and the two required witnesses. When it’s done online, the notary simply watches and listens to the signing ceremony through a computer software program instead of in-person. Ducey’s executive decision could help many Arizonans take this path from the safety of their home. Before this order, attorneys had to get creative with how to safely carry out signing ceremonies.
In Tucson, Robert Fleming, a partner at Fleming & Curti, started noticing an increase in business in the second week of March. For certain clients, he handed sanitized clipboards through their car windows and didn’t mail them the final documents for 72 hours. That’s the amount of time some studies show the virus can survive on surfaces.
“We are prepared to do signings through people’s living room windows, if that’s what it takes,” Fleming said.
With Ducey’s order, the demand for wills may soon increase even more.
Nino Abdaladze and Natalie Walters are investigative reporting graduate students at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.