Estate Planning Law Tracker 2025–26: What Changed in Every State

Disclaimer: General educational research only — not legal advice. A new law may not be in effect yet, and details matter. Check the official bill text or ask an estate planning attorney in your state.

Estate Planning Data & Research → Estate Planning Law Tracker 2025–26

Estate planning laws don’t change often, but they do change. In a given year a state might raise its small-estate limit, allow transfer-on-death deeds, rewrite its guardianship code or adjust its estate tax. Any of those can change which documents your family needs.

We tracked every bill in all 50 states, DC and Congress in 2025 and 2026 that touched wills, trusts, probate, transfer-on-death deeds, powers of attorney, guardianship, estate taxes, heirs’ property, deed theft or electronic wills. Then we checked enacted laws on the official legislature websites. This page will be updated as legislatures act.

If your state changed its rules, it may be a good time to look at your own documents. See whether you need a will, a living trust or both.

Key findings

• 45 states enacted at least one estate planning law in 2025–26. That’s 149 laws, or 160 bills: in 11 cases a state passed identical House and Senate versions, and we count those once. DC passed none. Congress’s only one is indirect: the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act (H.R. 6644, Public Law 119-101, per LegiScan) orders a federal study of heirs’ property.
• Guardianship led the way. 41 laws dealt with adult guardianship, conservatorship or supported decision-making. Next came small estates and probate procedure (24), trust and will code updates (23) and deed theft and title fraud (15).
• Virginia passed the most (12 laws), followed by Illinois (11), Oklahoma (10) and Texas (9). Six jurisdictions passed none in our topics: DC, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Mexico, South Dakota and Vermont.
• Transfer-on-death deeds keep spreading. Maryland created a TOD deed (HB 738/SB 651, Chapters 750–751, May 26, 2026). Pennsylvania’s House passed the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act 202–0 on Oct. 5, 2026 (HB 2124); it now goes to the Senate. Oklahoma’s governor vetoed a TOD deed bill (HB 3500) on May 12, 2026.
• New planning tools. Kansas became the latest state to allow community property trusts (HB 2590, April 9, 2026). Missouri (HB 754, effective Aug. 28, 2025) and Kentucky (SB 50, effective July 15, 2026) now allow electronic wills. New York signed an electronic wills law (Chapter 637 of 2025), but it doesn’t take effect until about December 2027. Oregon went the other way and barred electronic wills (SB 168, 2025). See Can you sign a will online?
• 123 bills are still alive in legislatures in session, mostly New Jersey (38), Massachusetts (26), Michigan (21) and Pennsylvania (19).
• We confirmed 100 of the 160 enacted bills (63%) on official state legislature websites. The rest are labeled with LegiScan’s last action date, usually because the state’s site blocks automated checks or needs JavaScript.

Notable changes by topic

• Guardianship and supported decision-making: Idaho adopted the Uniform Guardianship, Conservatorship, and Other Protective Arrangements Act (S 1240, effective Jan. 1, 2027). Kansas passed a supported decision-making agreements act (SB 84, 2026). Colorado rewrote its adult guardianship rules (HB 26-1100, signed May 29, 2026).
• Powers of attorney and directives: Oklahoma enacted the Uniform Health Care Decisions Act (HB 1687, May 11, 2026). California updated its statutory form power of attorney (AB 2199, 2026, per LegiScan), and Illinois changed when banks and others may refuse a power of attorney for property (HB 4462, 2026).
• Small estates: South Carolina raised its small-estate limit to $45,000 (H 3472, 2025). Illinois (SB 2704, Public Act 104-0624) and Iowa (HF 2660) also changed their small-estate rules, Oklahoma raised the value cap for summary administration (HB 2650, 2026), and Florida revised when summary administration can begin (HB 1337, 2026).
• Estate tax: Washington raised estate tax rates in 2025 (SB 5813) and rolled back some of the changes in 2026 (SB 6347). Oregon changed how natural-resource property is treated (HB 3630, 2025).
• Deed theft: Texas created the crimes of real property theft and fraud (SB 16, 2025). Oklahoma, Illinois, Rhode Island, Alabama, Utah and Virginia also acted. See our Deed Theft Watch.
• Heirs’ property: Rhode Island adopted the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (2026, per LegiScan), and South Carolina passed an Heirs’ Property Tax Relief Act (H 4477, 2026). See Heirs’ property and disaster aid.
• Digital assets and Medicaid recovery: Delaware updated fiduciary access to digital assets (SB 143, signed Sept. 19, 2025). Mississippi (SB 2396) and Nebraska (LB 641) changed their Medicaid estate recovery rules in 2025.

State-by-state table

“Bills tracked” counts screened, non-resolution bills from 2025–26 sessions. “Laws enacted” counts identical companion bills once. “Still pending” counts bills in sessions LegiScan lists as open on Oct. 6, 2026; we treat Maryland and South Carolina as adjourned. Bill lists, statuses and sources are in the CSV download.

Why some states pass more estate planning laws than others

Session length. Some legislatures meet every year for months, and others meet briefly or only every other year. Texas, Montana, Nevada and North Dakota held regular sessions only in 2025. Full-time legislatures like New Jersey, Massachusetts, Michigan and Pennsylvania introduce many bills but pass relatively few in a given year.

Uniform laws. Many changes come from model acts written by the Uniform Law Commission: guardianship, electronic wills, TOD deeds, heirs’ property, health care decisions. Once a few states adopt one, others follow.

Local problems. States act on what’s in the news. Deed fraud bills spread after high-profile cases. Guardianship reform followed concerns about abuse and court oversight.

What this means for your family

If your state passed a law this year, it may change which documents you need or how easy probate will be. A new TOD deed law, for example, can let a house pass without probate for a few dollars in recording fees. A higher small-estate limit can mean your heirs skip probate entirely. Compare your options in will vs. trust and avoiding probate, and check our state-by-state guides (for example, California).

If your documents were signed years ago, it’s worth a look. A power of attorney written under an old statutory form is usually still valid, but newer forms may give your agent clearer authority.

Related: Probate costs by state · State estate tax · Essential estate documents

Related research: elective share by state lists each state’s surviving-spouse statute, including Kentucky’s 2026 change.

Related research: digital asset laws by state lists every state’s law on executor and agent access to online accounts, with citations and verification status.

Methodology

Search. We ran LegiScan API full-text searches for 14 topics across all 50 states, DC and Congress for 2025 and 2026. Each search hit was screened by title with include and exclude patterns. Child custody, minor guardianship, insurance fraud and similar bills were dropped. Titles alone missed some laws: Kentucky’s electronic wills act is in a bill titled “An Act relating to the disposition of property,” and Missouri’s is in one titled “Modifies standards for certain financial organizations.” So every enacted bill that failed the title screen gets a second look. We check its official description against the same patterns, and for the 10 narrower topics we read the matching passage of the bill text and record an include or exclude decision. Two related laws the searches can’t find because their text never uses the search phrases (Oregon SB 168 and North Carolina H 388) are added by hand. The second look and those two additions raised the count from 113 to 149 enacted state laws on Oct. 6, 2026. Carry-over duplicates of the same bill were merged.

Status. “Enacted” means LegiScan status 4 (signed, chaptered or became law without signature) with a status date in 2025 or 2026. We then fetched each enacted bill’s official state legislature page and looked for the bill number and an enactment phrase (“Signed by Governor,” “Chapter,” “Public Act,” “Act No.”). Bills we confirmed are marked “Verified on official site 2026-10-06.” The rest say “Per LegiScan last action, [date].” Official sites in AL, AZ, GA, IN, MT, NJ, WY and DC need JavaScript. CA, HI, the NY Senate and congress.gov blocked automated requests. OK and WV timed out. RI’s status page isn’t bill-specific.

Companion bills. When a state enacted House and Senate bills with nearly identical titles and descriptions in the same session, we count one law. There are 11 such pairs.

Limits. The second look covers enacted bills only, so a pending bill with an unrelated title can still be missed. Budget bills that only fund a program (for example, New York’s deed theft intervention money) are not counted as laws. Resolutions (9 enacted) are excluded from the counts. Pending counts depend on LegiScan’s session status.

Refresh. Our refresh script re-runs the searches weekly, fetches only new or changed bills, runs the second look on newly enacted bills, and writes a list of new, changed and needs-review bills against the previous snapshot.

A closer look at one 2026 topic: power-of-attorney abuse watch lists this year’s elder-exploitation and power-of-attorney laws next to FinCEN’s national figures.

Frequently asked questions

Does a new law change my existing will or trust?

Usually not. Most changes apply to documents signed after the effective date, or to estates of people who die after it. But a new law can open up options, like a TOD deed or higher small-estate limit, that make a simpler plan possible.

When do these laws take effect?

It varies. Many take effect July 1 or January 1 after passage, and some are delayed longer. Idaho’s guardianship act starts Jan. 1, 2027, and New York’s e-wills law around December 2027. Check the effective date on the official bill page linked in the CSV download.

Why isn’t my state’s law listed?

Either it didn’t pass a bill in our topics, or our search missed it. We recheck enacted bills by their description and text, but a law can still slip through. Let us know and we’ll check it.

How often is this updated?

We plan to refresh the tracker weekly while legislatures are in session.

Did Congress pass anything?

Not directly. We tracked 10 federal bills. The only one enacted is the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act (H.R. 6644, Public Law 119-101, July 2026, per LegiScan), a housing law that includes a federal study of residential heirs’ property. The HEIRS Act (H.R. 1640) was placed on the House Union Calendar Sept. 1, 2026, and has not become law.

Sources

Bill data

• LegiScan API (getSearch, getBill, getBillText), pulled 2026-10-06; data licensed CC BY 4.0, attribution “LegiScan”: https://legiscan.com/legiscan
• Second look for enacted bills that fail the title screen (added Oct. 6, 2026, after Kentucky SB 50 and Missouri HB 754 were missed): each such bill’s LegiScan description is rechecked against the topic’s terms; for narrow topics the matching passage of the bill text (LegiScan getBillText) is reviewed by hand and an include or exclude decision recorded
• Kentucky SB 50 (2026 Ky. Acts ch. 134; electronic wills, KRS 394.700–394.715): https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/26rs/sb50.html
• Missouri HB 754 (2025; electronic wills, RSMo 474.540–474.564; Approved by Governor 7/10/2025): https://house.mo.gov/BillActions.aspx?bill=HB754&year=2025&code=R
• Bill-level file with verification source per bill: the CSV download on this page (column verification_source)

Official verification (2026-10-06)

Each enacted bill’s official state legislature page was fetched and checked for the bill number and an enactment phrase. 100 of 160 enacted state bills were confirmed this way or by hand. Examples:

• Maryland HB 738 (TOD deed): https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Legislation/Details/HB0738?ys=2026RS
• Kansas HB 2590 (community property trusts): https://kslegislature.gov/li/b2025_26/measures/hb2590/
• New York S 7416 (Ch. 637 of 2025) and S 8887 (Ch. 89 of 2026): https://nyassembly.gov/leg/?bn=S07416&term=2025
• Idaho S 1240: https://legislature.idaho.gov/sessioninfo/2026/legislation/S1240/
• Texas SB 16: https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=892&Bill=SB16
• Oklahoma HB 3500 (vetoed 5/12/2026): https://www.oklegislature.gov/BillInfo.aspx?Bill=hb3500&Session=2600
• Pennsylvania HB 2124 (passed House 202–0 on 10/5/2026; checked on palegis.us 2026-10-06): https://www.palegis.us/legislation/bills/2025/hb2124
• Colorado HB26-1100: https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/HB26-1100
• South Carolina H 3472 and H 4477: https://www.scstatehouse.gov/

Couldn’t verify automatically (labeled “Per LegiScan last action, date”)

• JavaScript-only sites: AL, AZ, GA, IN, MT, NJ, WY, DC LIMS; new Virginia LIS
• Blocked automated access (HTTP 403): California leginfo, Hawaii capitol, NY Senate, congress.gov
• Timeouts: Oklahoma (intermittent), West Virginia
• Rhode Island status site isn’t bill-specific; the Nevada overview page has no status phrase

Caveats

• LegiScan session flags show MD and SC as still open; both adjourned in spring 2026, so their bills aren’t counted as pending.

Cite this data

You’re welcome to reuse the table with a link back to this page. Bill data comes from state legislatures via LegiScan (CC BY 4.0).

Published October 6, 2026 by Family Estate Guide. Data vintage: LegiScan pulls of Oct. 6, 2026; official-site checks the same day. Editorial standards.