Can a will be handwritten

Answer 1

Yes. It is even better than a typed or printed Will. Called a holograph Will. Much easier to prove in a court of law by the propounder if there is necessity for probate in that legal system. There are two types of Wills: Privileged and unprivileged. Priviliged Wills are of Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen - basically serving in professions dealing with security and outside; far away from their homes. Privileged Wills do not need to be proved by witnesses as required by most legal systems as concerns unprivileged Wills which I will come to next. There are privileged wills that have been written by dying soldiers on scraps of paper; on cigarette packet covers; matchboxes in just about legible hand, have all been upheld by any court before which they have been produced for probate by the propounder who was often the buddy/comrade of the dead soldier. The unprivileged Will is for the rest of the populace, and when holograph is even better, but the testatot definitely must have a legible hand, so that anyone who reads it would get to know what he really means. The unprivileged will must be signed by at least two witnesses who have seen the testator sign the Will and the testator should have seen the witnesses sign, of whom at least one witness would be required to present before the probate court to prove the Will if probate is necessary. Otherwise the Will needs to be proved by at least one witness in any civil proceedings. I saw the deceased affix this (point to the signature), his signature to the Will. The deceased saw me sign this (point to the signature), my signature on the Will. That is all. The Will is proved. Any caveator who wants to challenge the genuineness of Will will cross-examine the witness and shatter his testimony, any way. If the Will is genuine the old adage stands: "The truth is easy to explain; a lie is very hard to defend." ABOUT HOLOGRAPHIC WILLS from over ten years experience in the probate court in New Jersey: A holographic will is NOT better than a standard typewritten having two witnesses for several reasons. 1. Holographic will are more difficult to probate than standard wills; therefore they are more apt to be denied probate. Under the Uniform Probate Code adopted by 18 states and by many others in part, a will may be made "self-proved" at the time the will is executed or even at a later date by having the witnesses and the testator sign affidavits as to the due execution of the will. Following the self proving procedure means that the will can be probated without locating the witnesses at a later date. A holographic will cannot be made self-proved because it does not has no witnesses. This means that two things have to be proved for a holographic will that do not have to be proved on a standard will One is that someone familliar with the handwriting of the testator must testify that he/she is familiar with the testator's handwriting and that it matches the handwriting of the will. Even if the will is not self-proved, as long as there is a proper attestation clause over the witnesses's signatures, the witness does not even have to remember witnessing the will. The witness essentially relies on the attestation clause. Second, that same person or some other person must testify that he/she is familiar with the signature of the testator and that the signature on the will is the testator's signature. Without these two proofs, a holographic will will be denied probate thereby ruining the testator's intentions. 2. A holographic will is written by the testator who is most likely not a lawyer. As such the testator may be unfamiliar with technical laws of wording bequests, trusts and appointments of fiduciaries. There is a greater chance of the testator's true wishes going unfulfilled with a holographic will than with a standard will because the holographic will might use improper or ambiguous language. As an example, a testator might give money to another person to be used in trust for another person. But it happens sometimes that faulty language is used such as "I give this money to Person A and I would like him to use it for Person B." With this language Person A does not have to use it for Person B. The testator's language indicates a wish not a binding direction. 3. Most probate courts probate wills by a simple affidavit of one of the witnesses in an administrative manner. Some states require holographic will to be proved in court with live testimony before a judge. In addition, notice may have to be sent to everyone who who would be affected positively or negatively by the probate. A court trial, even if uncontested will add hundreds if not thousands of dollars to the cost of just getting the will admitted to probate, because of all the excess and unnecessary attorneys time and services that have to be put in. This also increases the time it takes to probate the will. Usually a standard will can be probated in several days, but a holographic will needs more time because of the notice requirements and trial time schedule. 4. It is easier to lose or misplace or just not even find a holographic will. Holographic will do not look like standard wills, since they are often written on plain stationery, which have been known to have been thrown out by mistake. Thus, holographic wills are more expensive to probate, more time consuming and more apt to defeat the testator's purpose in whole or in part than a standard two witness will. Are they better than standard wills? Not on your life.