People can achieve many of their estate planning goals with a will. Wills allow people to choose personal representatives to oversee estate administration and carry out their last wishes. Wills also provide parents with an opportunity to designate a guardian to care for their children. People can also make clear beneficiary designations in a will to ensure that specific people inherit their personal assets.
Wills are popular testamentary instruments, but they must meet statutory requirements to hold up in probate court after an individual dies. The person creating the will needs to be a legal adult with testamentary capacity. The document itself also needs to meet certain specific standards. For example, in addition to including the right language, a will also requires witness signatures.
Why are witnesses necessary?
Testamentary instruments affect the disposition of valuable property. As such, there are those who might have an incentive to engage in fraud and other forms of misconduct.
Witnesses help ensure that the testator is the person who drafted and signed the document. They can confirm that there was no one else threatening the testator and that they appeared to be of sound mind at the time of the document signing.
Witnesses can help settle disagreements about estate plans in scenarios where there are questions about the validity of the documents, the influence of outside parties or the state of mind of the testator at the time of signing.
What witnesses are necessary?
Contrary to what some people assume, valid wills do not require notarization. Instead, they require the signatures of two credible witnesses. Those witnesses need to be 14 years of age or older. Ideally, they should not have a direct interest in the estate, although state law does not prohibit beneficiaries from acting as witnesses.
The best witnesses are legal adults who do not stand to inherit from the estate and who therefore do not have any conflict of interest regarding the terms established in the estate plan. An attorney assisting a testator with the creation of a will can potentially help them with the selection of witnesses as well.
Learning about the rules that govern estate planning can help facilitate the creation of effective and legally-compliant documents. Witnesses are among the various requirements that testators need to meet to draft enforceable wills.