ARCHITECTURE TRANSPARENCY
How the decoder works
We treat decoder inputs (state of execution, year, format, witnesses, domicile state) as sensitive estate-planning details. The engine is entirely in your browser. The server never sees the inputs.
What you enter
- State where the will was signed (state of execution)
- Year of execution
- Will format (typed + witnessed / holographic / electronic / remote-witnessed COVID)
- Witness count
- Notarization status (on the self-proving affidavit)
- Self-proving affidavit attached (yes / no / unsure)
- State where probate will be filed (domicile at death)
What stays in your browser
Everything. The decoder is implemented as a React client component. The state-rule manifest, the UEWA adoption table, the holographic state list, and the 5-fixture corpus are bundled into the page's JavaScript at build time. The decoding engine evaluates your inputs against this static data entirely in-browser. No fetch / no XHR / no form POST is sent when you adjust inputs.
What the server sees
The server (Next.js running on our origin) sees the page-load HTTP request like any other website, and (when GA4 is enabled) aggregate analytics pings that capture page views and category-level events. Specifically, we DO NOT log:
- Specific year + state combinations (e.g., we do not record that "executor in 2018 in CA, domicile FL")
- Full input payloads from the form
- The verdict the engine returned to you
We DO record (when GA4 is enabled, with Consent Mode v2 default to user choice):
- Page views (URL path)
- Coarse format bucket — typed_witnessed / holographic / electronic / remote-witnessed (count only)
- Coarse pre-vs-post-UEWA year bucket (count only — not the specific year)
The conditional logic
Two evaluations run:
- Execution-state validity. Did the will satisfy the execution-state's statutory threshold for the chosen format? (Witness count for typed; handwriting + signature for holographic; electronic-presence for e-will; permanent post-COVID statute for remote-witnessed.)
- Domicile-state portability. If state-of-execution ≠ state-of-domicile, does the domicile-state's choice-of-law rule honor a will validly executed in the execution-state, given the format? The default rule (UPC §2-506 pattern) honors out-of-state wills validly executed where executed — but specific carve-outs apply for holographic and electronic wills.
The output
The decoder returns: a verdict (VALID / LIKELY INVALID / UNCERTAIN), a 1–2 sentence conformity rule explaining the reasoning, and one or more statute-pin chips linking to primary sources (Cornell LII / ULC / state legislature). When the cross-state path triggered (different execution and domicile states), the decoder adds a sensitivity note explaining how the verdict would change if the domicile state were different.
The statute pins
Every pin links to a primary source. We never use Nolo / FindLaw / LegalZoom blog / law-firm marketing pages as load-bearing citation. See sources for the full primary-source manifest.