A will is a legal document that states how a person’s assets should be distributed after their death. Witnesses are required to notarize the will, but laws regarding who can testify about a will vary by state. Most jurisdictions require witnesses to be of legal age and of sound mind, and beneficiaries are usually excluded from being witnesses to prevent conflicts of interest. The need for witnesses is becoming archaic with the advent of digital mechanisms to ensure the validity of wills.
A last will, commonly referred to as a will, is the legal document executed by someone that states how that person wishes their assets to be distributed when they die. The individual who creates and executes a will is known as the ‘testator’. Along with the testator, most jurisdictions require a to be witnessed by at least two people. The requirements regarding who can testify about a will, as well as other formalities necessary to make a will valid, vary according to the jurisdiction. In the United States, laws regarding who can testify about a will vary by state; however, in most cases, a witness must be of legal age, of sound mind, and in some cases, may not be a beneficiary under the will.
The requirement that a will be witnessed has been around for as long as wills have existed. The reason for requiring someone to be a witness to a will is to have a way to notarize the will in case there is a question as to whether the testator actually signed the will or the state of mind of the testator at the time of signing. In the digital age, with the advent of video wills and other mechanisms to ensure the validity of wills, the need for witnesses is becoming archaic; however, most jurisdictions maintain the written will requirement unless the will is holographic or handwritten.
In the United States, state law determines what constitutes a valid will. At a minimum, most states require that the testator of a will be over 18 and of sound mind, and that the will have at least one, and usually two, witnesses. A person legally authorized to testify in a will must be of legal age — 18 in most states — and also be of sound mind to understand what she is witnessing.
In addition to age and mental capacity requirements, most jurisdictions also preclude beneficiaries from being witnesses to a will. A beneficiary is someone who is specifically mentioned in the will as being the recipient of a bequest. An heir, on the other hand, is someone who will inherit under the laws of intestate succession, or in the absence of a will. A beneficiary can also be an heir, but he need not be.
The theory behind excluding beneficiaries from testimony in a will is to prevent any conflict of interest on the part of the witness. If there is a question about the validity of the will, or about the state of mind of the testator at the time of the execution of the will, courts prefer to have a disinterested party testify regarding the signing of the will. Clearly, beneficiaries cannot be considered disinterested parties, which is why most jurisdictions do not allow them to testify about a will.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
