August 15, 2011. Bill Szydlowski
A lot of people prefer being prepared for what’s to come. For this reason, they arrange their wills or testaments so that when they die, their families will not be burdened by thinking about how to distribute their property or assets.
This way, contentions amongst family members are also averted as the explicit instructions of testators will already be made evident in their legal wills.
When writing a do it yourself will, or even when you’re composing one with the help of an attorney, one of the most crucial things that you need to do is choose a witness. A witness is very important as this person will attest that your will is truly your own. If your will ever gets challenged, your witness can be called to declare that the will is genuine. Hence, be careful when selecting your witnesses. Beneficiaries of a will or individuals who stand to gain from your will are not suitable witnesses. In many states, wills witnessed by beneficiaries are even deemed invalid or unenforceable. When this is the case, the state will distribute a testator’s possessions as it sees fit. In order to avoid such problems, make sure that you choose suitable witnesses. You can ask close and trusted friends to attest to the validity of your document, as long as they are not your beneficiaries or heirs. Avoid choosing loved ones or family members to be your witnesses too.
Once you have witnesses, it’s also very important that you ask them to physically witness the signing of your document. It’s not a good idea to ask your witnesses to sign your document beforehand, as well as to ask them to sign the document even if they didn’t see for themselves that you indeed signed it. These will open many problems later on, particularly if someone challenges the validity of your will. Therefore, apt witnesses will greatly help in establishing the legitimacy of legal wills.
Updated August 15, 2011. Published May 5, 2011. Bill Szydlowski
