HB 176 Missouri House · 2025 Regular Session

Establishes provisions relating to electronic estate planning

HB 176 creates the "Missouri Electronic Wills and Electronic Estate Planning Documents Act," establishing legal rules for electronic wills in Missouri. It defines key terms like "electronic will" (a will executed digitally in compliance with the law) and "electronic presence" (real-time video communication for witnessing). The bill requires electronic wills to be readable text at signing, signed by the testator (or someone acting under their direction in their presence), and witnessed by two people either physically present or via live video. It makes electronic wills legally equivalent to paper wills for all purposes in Missouri and allows remote online notarization to create self-proved wills. This directly affects Missouri residents creating wills, as well as witnesses, executors, and beneficiaries relying on electronic estate documents.

Issues: ✓ Technology

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Dec 2024

Committee Review

May 2025

House Passage

Apr 2025

Senate Passage

Governor

Introduced Dec 2, 2024 Last action May 13, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 3 comparisons

What changed between versions

Perfected → Senate Committee Substitute · 4 edits

MODERATE

The bill was updated from the House Committee Substitute to the Senate Committee Substitute version, incorporating additional repealed statutes and changing the count of new sections from one hundred fifteen to one hundred sixteen. The Senate version also added a new repealed section (536.140) and modified the explanatory text to clarify that bracketed matter is not enacted.

Scope change

The bill's scope was expanded to include one additional repealed statute (536.140) and the total count of new sections was increased from one hundred fifteen to one hundred sixteen.

SCOPE

Added repeal of section 536.140 to the list of statutes being repealed

TECHNICAL

Changed the count of new sections from one hundred fifteen to one hundred sixteen

Updated the bill title from House Committee Substitute to Senate Committee Substitute

Changed the Chief Clerk name from Joseph Engler to Kristina Martin

Floor votes

How they voted

This bill passed the House by voice vote (no roll call recorded).

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

May 13, 2025

Committee

Referred: Fiscal Oversight(S)

upper

May 7, 2025

Upper · Passed

SCS Reported Do Pass (S)

upper

Apr 23, 2025

Upper · Passed

SCS Voted Do Pass (S)

upper

Apr 10, 2025

Committee

Second read and referred: Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence(S)

upper

Apr 2, 2025

Lower · Passed

Third Read and Passed (H) - AYES: 142 NOES: 9 PRESENT: 0

lower

Apr 1, 2025

Lower · Passed

Reported Do Pass (H) - AYES: 7 NOES: 0 PRESENT: 0

lower

Apr 1, 2025

Lower · Passed

Voted Do Pass (H)

lower

Mar 27, 2025

Committee

Referred: Fiscal Review(H)

lower

Mar 26, 2025

Lower · Passed

Perfected with Amendments (H) - HA 1, HA 1 to HA 2, HA 2 as amended adopted

lower

Mar 26, 2025

Lower · Passed

HCS Adopted (H)

lower

Mar 5, 2025

Lower · Passed

Reported Do Pass (H) - AYES: 10 NOES: 0 PRESENT: 0

lower

Mar 4, 2025

Lower · Passed

Voted Do Pass (H)

lower

Feb 26, 2025

Committee

Referred: Rules - Administrative(H)

lower

Feb 19, 2025

Lower · Passed

HCS Reported Do Pass (H) - AYES: 11 NOES: 0 PRESENT: 0

lower

Feb 18, 2025

Lower · Passed

HCS Voted Do Pass (H)

lower

Jan 30, 2025

Committee

Referred: General Laws(H)

lower

Dec 2, 2024

Introduced

Prefiled (H)

lower

1 primary · 2 co-sponsors