A will is a legal document created to distribute your estate after you die. The purpose of a will is to avoid messy court proceedings and to ensure that your assets, including real and personal property, are distributed according to your wishes. If you die without a will, you are said to have died “intestate,” and your property will be divided up by a court according to intestate law. This process is often costly, creates friction and conflict amongst family members, and there is no guarantee that property will be distributed the way you wanted it to be dispersed. It is therefore recommended to avoid intestate succession by creating a will. In order for a will to be honored, it must be properly prepared and executed.
- Any individual who is of sound mind and 18 years old or older may make a will. The individual creating the will is the “testator.” For a testator’s will to be valid, it has to be:
- in writing,
- signed by the testator, and
- signed by at least two other individuals.
If a testator cannot sign his own will, he can have another individual sign it for him. That other person has to be signing it at the testator’s direction and in the testator’s conscious presence.
The two other individuals who sign the will are witnesses. They have to sign the will in the presence of the testator and of each other. In other words all three, the testator, and the two witnesses have to be present and witness and acknowledge the execution of the will by each other.
If a will does not meet these requirements, it may still be honored if it can be considered a valid holographic will. To qualify as a holographic will, the terms of the will need to be written out in the testator’s handwriting and the document has to be dated and signed by him at the end of the document.
These are very technical requirements and if one of these requirements is not met, the deceased’s estate will be distributed through intestate succession.
The Astill Law Office has provided high quality legal services for over 30 years. We specialize in wills, trusts, estate planning, and asset protection. If you have any questions about creating a Trust, Will, or estate planning in general, contact The Astill Law Office at 801-438-8698.