Standard Legal suggests that all Will documents be notarized to legally validate the authenticity of the same. It is recommended that, in order to assure that the will is valid in all states, the Will is signed by two (2) witnesses and notarized.<\/p>\n
After the Will is prepared, the testator must sign the Will in the presence of two independent witnesses; these persons should not be named as beneficiaries in the Will.\u00a0 The Will should then also be notarized (the notary can serve as one of the witnesses).\u00a0 The testator must either sign in the presence of the notary or swear under oath that the signature appearing on the Will is the signature of the maker of the Will and that the maker is of sound mind and prepared the Will of his or her own free will.<\/p>\n
Note that while some state laws require that a will be notarized, attorneys in other states (most notably, California) believe that a Will should not be notarized and have urged notaries not to sign Wills.\u00a0 As such, Standard Legal’s Wills contain both a “self authenticating” witness provision (allowing the will to be submitted to probate even if not notarized) as well as a notary provision.<\/p>\n