We are here to serve you and to guide you as we navigate this journey together. We have offices located across western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina. To avoid any missteps contact one of King Laws Estate Planning attorneys at 888-748-KING (5464) or by filling out our consultation form. Therefore, if you are considering handwriting your own will, make sure it is entirely in your own handwriting, you sign it, and you store it in a safe place. Doesnt require any official terminology or standardized documentation. Then, another person will have to testify before the court about where the will was found.Ī handwritten will in North Carolina can be valid but it is very easy for it to be disputed and thrown out by a court. Florida law wont consider a will if its created by someone who is not of sound mind or is under age 18 (unless theyre an emancipated minor). ![]() If you want your will witnesses to sign an optional 'self-proving affidavit,' then that will require a notary. But in some states, an optional notarized affidavit attached to your will may save time in the probate process. After meeting the three requirements, three witnesses are needed to testify before a court that the handwriting is indeed the handwriting of the person who made the will. A notary is not be needed to make your will legal. It is also worth noting that if all three requirements are met, the will may still be deemed invalid. For example, one North Carolina court found that a freezer was a safe place because the person stored other important documents there. A court reviewing such a matter will generally decide whether it was a safe place or not based on what it was stored with rather than the actual location. The final requirement is ambiguous, as it is unclear what exactly constitutes a safe place. Third, the will must be kept in a safe place. Second, the will must be signed by the person making the will. First, the will must only be in the person making the will’s handwriting. If any of the following three are not met, then the handwritten will could be considered invalid. During probate, the court-supervised process of distributing the property of a deceased person, a 'self-proving affidavit' could help prove your will is valid. Witnesses can be anyone over the age of 18 that is NOT named as a beneficiary. A will does not need to be notarized to be valid, but the topic is included here because taking this extra step of involving a notary public could be helpful later on. So, how do you go about getting one After completing your Last Will & Testament, contact your witnesses. That said, a handwritten will is still valid in North Carolina so long as it meets certain requirements. How Can I Obtain One Does it Have to Be Notarized Unlike your Last Will & Testament, a self-proving affidavit does require notarization. ![]() Having a self-proving will circumvents this process and saves time and money. When a will is not self-proving, a court must determine whether the signatures of the witnesses and the signature of the person making the will are legitimate. However, a will does not have to be self-proving to be valid. This means that the will must have been signed by two disinterested witnesses in front of a notary and the person making the will must be over 18 and of sound mind. A will in North Carolina generally must be self-proving.
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